Rainsford Character Analysis in The Most Dangerous Game Essay Sample

"Character is what you are in the dark" stated Dwight Lyman Moody. This also means people act more like themselves when they are alone. This quote is not true because you are often acting the same way with people versus when you are alone. "The Most Dangerous Game" a short story written by Richard Connell displays that Rainsford, a huntsman, and protagonist in the story is running away from the general, during this time Rainsford displays that he is experienced, daring, and does not change his mind while alone. 

Rainsford shows the viewers that is a very experienced huntsman. When Rainsford fell out of the boat he is searching for somewhere to stay and shelter in. He stumbles upon an animal that has been hunted. “ “A twenty-two," he remarked. To illustrate,  "That's odd. It must have been a fairly large animal too. The hunter had his nerve with him to tackle it with a light gun. It's clear that the brute put up a fight. I suppose the first three shots I heard were when the hunter flushed his quarry and wounded it. The last shot was when he trailed it here and finished it" " (Connell, 3). This quote shows how skilled of a huntsman Rainsford is even when no one is watching him. Rainsford shows he is an experienced huntsman to the people around him and lives up to it even when he is alone.

To continue, Rainsford has books written about how strong and daring he is of a huntsman. When trying to escape Zaroff, he gets put in the situation where he either stays where he is and gets caught or he jumps 20 feet into the sea to swim away. For instance,  "Across a cove, he could see the gloomy gray stone of the chateau. Twenty feet below him the sea rumbled and hissed. Rainsford hesitated. He heard the hounds. Then he leaped far out into the sea"(Connell, 15). This citation illustrates how Rainsford is daring and would go to such lengths to escape. Rainsford is not only willing to take risks when people watch or read about him, but he also does so when no one was watching him run away from Zaroff.

Finally, when Zaroff tells Rainsford the type of game he is hunting Rainsford gets shocked and does not agree with his ideas of hunting. He tells Zaroff that hunting humans are crazy and he does not agree with murderer. When he goes to his room, this fact is floating around his head keeping him from falling asleep. For example,  "But nevertheless Rainsford could not quiet his brain with the opiate of sleep. He lay, eyes wide open"(Connell, 9). This quote demonstrates how Rainsford was not just lying in front of Zaroff but the fact that he is hunting humans bothers him when he is trying to fall asleep. From this, we can see how Rainsford does not act differently when he was alone.

To conclude, "Character is what you are in the dark" stated Dwight Lyman Moody means that you are most like yourself when you are alone. “The Most Dangerous Game’ by Richard Connell proves this quote wrong. It is shown that Rainsford was a really experienced huntsman as he could tell how Zaroff fought the animal and how it went. We also got to see that Rainsford was a strong, daring, well-known hunter but proved himself as he tried to escape from Zaroff. Lastly, Rainsford did not like the game that Zaroff was hunting and when he went to bed this fact kept him awake. Throughout the story, Rainsford does not change his mind about this and wants to end Zaroff from doing this. Rainsford proves the quote "Character is what you are in the dark"- Dwight Lyman Moody wrong as he displays the traits of being experienced, daring, and doesn’t change his mind when he is alone in the story.