General Zaroff Character Analysis Essay

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General Zaroff lives on his very own island in the Caribbean. He is very distinguished by a "cultivated voice", fine clothes, the "singularly handsome"? features of an aristocrat, and the obsession of hunting (Wilson 157). Zaroff allows himself anything and everything form the fine china he uses at his 2 score men table to the silk pajamas he wears to sleep in. When Rainsford first sets foot on Zaroff's private island he sees the island as his only hope to get back to New York, but he was wrong. Zaroff being a hunter has hunted virtually everywhere and has grown tired of the game he has overcome. He believes that in order to have a great hunt his enemy has to have courage and cunning but most importantly the ability to reason (Wilson 158). There is only one animal that Zaroff knows off that can reason and it the very reason he has his own island. Ivan is Zaroffs trusted servant and lives on the island with his master. Ivan being mute and dumb is ironic in the fact that Zaroff is still living in the old times where those born into power are the only one who gain it and those born in to service are to serve. Ivan being a goliath who seems to love to…show more content…
In the end Rainsford is the winner of the game but by winning the game he has become just like that dead general. Rainsford refused the hunting offer from Zaroff because they where hunting helpless humans who happen to make it to the island and Rainsford was not going to hunt a human being but when Rainsford killed the general, he killed him after the game was over, and Rainsford became what he had set out not to be, general Zaroff. In the end one will see that ironic reversal was used all throughout the story with the characters as well as the plot. To be successful, the hunter must become the hunted (Magill 1537). In the final battle between Rainsford and Zaroff it is easy to see the irony in Rainsford conquering murderer by killing him (Magill
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