The Most Dangerous Game General Zaroff Quotes

Okay, let’s take a look at this. How could the animal compete against someone with wits and a high-powered rifle? Zaroff never pauses to consider that the hunt is a terribly uneven playing field.

To Zaroff, hunting is no longer a sport when the animal becomes too easy to kill. Hey—here’s an idea: try fighting without the gun and see how far human reason will get you in the face of animal instinct.

Clearly Zaroff has an issue with being bored. He believes that humans are equal competitors, but he’s lying to himself if he doesn’t factor in that he knows every inch of the island and that those poor suckers don’t even know where Death Swamp is located.

Let’s break this down: Zaroff sees reason as a crucial ingredient of competition and the ultimate way of creating danger. He may enjoy the psychological warfare more than the actually physical harming bit. Should this change how we feel about him? Does it make him a darker figure? A less bloodthirsty one?

Here’s a good place to put two and two together: If Ivan is a savage and a Cossack and Zaroff is a Cossack, does that mean he’s a savage, too?

Hey, it’s all fun and games until a Cape buffalo busts your skull. Well, clearly it didn't knock any sense into Zaroff because this is the pivotal moment at which he decides he needs a more skilled (and reasonable) opponent.

Imagine this sentence being Zaroff’s Match.com description for the perfect opponent. Now, why did we put this one under the theme of “Violence”? Because it is so unviolent. It’s not like he says, “It must have a vicious appetite for blood, lack of human compassion, and the ability to tear a human limb from limb with his bare hands.” That’s what Ivan is there for.

In case you hadn’t noticed, Zaroff finds the hunt amusing. He doesn’t bat an eyelash when he gets hurt. Consider this: to General Zaroff, hunting has very little to do with violence. If he liked violence that much, why bother having Ivan do the dirty work?

This idea dominates the story, so keep it at the forefront of your mind as you read—and maybe as you live your daily life. Can you always think your way out of a situation?

Ask yourself this one: Why doesn’t Zaroff just play chess? Because he likes the physical challenge, too?

One scored for Rainsford. But if Zaroff is such a superior hunter, why does he need a pack of bloodhounds to help him?

What does Zaroff mean by “mathematical certainty” in this context?

Now we get a little insight into Ivan. He is precious to Rainsford because of his simplicity. According to Zaroff’s characterization, Ivan is no brain trust. In a way, he fits into the category of Zaroff’s “scum of the earth.” Wonder if Zaroff ever thought of hunting him.

Zaroff may be a bookworm, but reading is not his passion. He does his research, but the real learning takes place outside the classroom.

Here’s some real soul-baring on Zaroff’s part. We see his desire to hunt as pathology, an obsession. His short bio tells us that hunting has been in him since he was a child shooting an innocent sparrow.

Let’s slow down here for a sec. How many animals could be a match for a hunter with a high-powered rifle—wits or no? We’d like to see a little discussion of technology and weaponry here.

Well Zaroff just picks and chooses his savages. What’s a little confusing here is that they are both Cossacks, so if Ivan is a savage doesn’t that make Zaroff one, too? Or is that the whole point of the remark?

Forget for a minute that Americans can’t retire in this economy—why is Zaroff so preoccupied with Americans? It seems a strange analogy for a Crimean aristocrat.

Does Zaroff make Rainsford condone cold-blooded murder—or does Rainsford get there on his own?

Picture this room like a yearbook but with stuffed heads. Why would Rainsford want to miss such a rare delight?