General Zaroff

General Zaroff is the chief antagonist in The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell.

When Sanger Rainsford falls off his boat while searching for the legendary jaguar in Rio, he ends up at Ship-Trap Island. There he meets an old man named Zaroff. Zaroff was a Cossack who served in a war under Czar Nicholas II of Russia until his downfall. As a young boy, his father gave him a little gun which was especially made to hunt sparrows. His father complimented his marksmanship on turkeys, however. He later killed his first bear in Caucasus. However, he later grew bored with hunting, due to the animals that he was hunting, weren't as cunning. So eventually, he started to hunt human beings. He fed them well, and made sure that they had lots of exercise. He also had a training room in his cellar. He offered to have Rainsford accompany him on the hunt, but Rainsford refused. Zaroff then declared that he would be the next to be hunted. If he refused, he would be knouted to death by the hands of Ivan.