The Most Dangerous Game Literary Analysis

Is it possible for the reader to ever be so close to a story, so close that they could almost be in it? So close, yet so far, from the future, that undeterminable, unpredictable future? The answer is yes, and it happens when the author of any story uses valuable literary terms to add a twist or anything that might keep the reader interested and on the edge of their seat. In “The Most Dangerous Game” Sanger Rainsford, a highly skilled hunter, learns even he can fall prey to something, or someone, else when he is challenged by General Zaroff to beat him in the most dangerous game known to man. In “The Cask of Amontillado” Montresor, a man who is desperate for revenge, chains and leaves his friend, Fortunato, alive to seek redemption. In the …show more content…
To start with, Connell explains to the reader the outside of General Zaroff’s house when Rainsford first sees it. After trudging through the jungle, Rainsford finally arrives at a house, “... He[Rainsford] found, when he opened the tall spiked iron gate. The stone steps were real enough; the massive door with a leering gargoyle for a knocker was real enough; yet above it all hung an air of unreality. He lifted the knocker, and it creaked up stiffly, as if it had never before been used” (Connell 115). With regards to this quote, it is now clear that Connell wanted the reader to realize this house comes across intimidating with its “tall spiked iron gate” and the “leering gargoyle for a knocker”. With that in mind, the reader must now be wondering who lives at this giant house on a remote island, that wonder is called suspense. The reader feels this suspense because the author purposefully wrote about how frightening the house is. In the story, we later find out that the house belongs to General Zaroff, a hunter of the most dangerous game, humanity. Secondly, Connell describes the jungle in which Rainsford is fighting to survive in, avoiding all of the natural hidden dangers. On the second day Rainsford is still on the move, “Dusk came, then darkness, and still he pressed on. The ground grew softer under his moccasins; the vegetation grew ranker, denser; insects bit him savagely. Then, …show more content…
To begin with, Poe describes that the catacombs in which Fortunato and Montresor are walking are covered with bones and skeletons. As Fortunato and Montresor walk through the catacombs, “We[Fortunato and Montresor] had passed through walls of piled bones, with casks and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost recesses of catacombs. I paused again, and this time I made bold to seize Fortunato by an arm above the elbow...The drops of moisture trickle among the bones” (Poe 9). This quote can give the reader chills with its creepy mood. The author describes all of the bones and even drips of water “trickling” down the bones. With this intense imagery the reader can practically hear the water in the barren corridor. Poe also used imagery to describe another area in the catacombs. Fortunato are now at a deep crypt located in of the catacombs, “Its walls had been lined with human remains... Three sides of this interior crypt were still ornamented in this manner. From the fourth side the bones had been thrown down, and lay promiscuously upon the earth, forming at one point a mound of some size... ” (Poe 10). The imagery in this quote gives the reader no end of anxiety as to what the future holds. First, the quote takes place in a crypt, a place of burials, which starts this off with a chilling essence. Next, Poe writes that the walls were covered in dead bodies, and there was a mound of dead bodies.