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Sandra Giap

Mr. King

English I

11 January 2019

General Zaroff’s Mental Diagnosis

The human brain is a complication function of the body and with mental disorders, a

condition that plagues the mind and it can affect the way a person feels, thinks, their actions, and

personality. These disorders can affect anybody regardless of age, race, and gender but, one

disorder which can afflict criminals or even the worst serial killers is an antisocial personality

disorder. An antisocial personality disorder is someone who has a reckless disregard for others

and themselves often with symptoms including insufficient empathy, hostility, manipulativeness,

including rash and dangerous behavior to say a few. General Zaroff condones murder in an

unethical hunting game; While in society, it is considered a major and illegal crime implying he

has complications with his mental state. Taking into account of General Zaroff’s reckless and

unorthodox actions as well as reasoning, he would likely be diagnosed with Antisocial

personality disorder or commonly known as sociopathy.

General Zaroff has the pleasure of murdering people to suffice his needs of feeling the

thrill of hunting. As said in the passage, “They were no match at all for a hunter with his wits

about him, and a high-powered rifle. I was bitterly disappointed.” and “Hunting was beginning

to bore me!” (Connell). The General told Rainsford that he’s been hunting for many years and he

was experienced enough that he was talented in hunting it’s no longer a challenge. Since he felt
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bored, he decided to create a new “game” which was basically him hunting others only for them

to get captured and murdered. Although, at the objection of the victims. "I had to invent a new

animal to hunt," he said.” (Connell). As boredom plagued Zaroff’s mind, his need for a challenge

resorted to him murdering people including the attempt of murder with Rainsford. Therefore, he

created a new hunting game condoning an illegal crime as it was referred to in the quote.

Throughout the game, the general did admit having killing others before Rainsford and traps he

had placed on the island. General Zaroff was bored with hunting with nothing new so he

invented a torturous game where he hunts humans showing his insufficient empathy and

disregard of the safety of others as well as dangerous behavior.

General Zaroff is suffering from a mental illness believed to be antisocial personality

disorder as shown in his hostility and violence. Maritime sailors seemed to always have been

afraid of the island which General Zaroff inhabited; Since the island is known for its bad

reputation possibly implying danger as all the crew members on the boat were afraid when they

passing the island as told by Whitney, "The place has a reputation--a bad one." (Connell). At the

beginning of the story, this is where his hostility begins to show as when the boat carrying

Rainsford is shot by an unknown assailant while they were passing the island, “Somewhere, off

in the blackness, someone had fired a gun” (Connell). We would soon learn afterward that

General Zaroff was the unknown assailant that shot the boat and possibly others before them.

When Rainsford somewhat confronted him about it saying that he was not civilized for his

actions which irritated General Zaroff for a short time as in the quote, it said you could see a

trace of anger in his eyes (Connell). This shows General Zaroff’s criminal behavior as he appears

hostile and irritable. As he did it for the joy of inducing pain to others. General Zaroff’s father
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introduced him to guns and hunting at the age of 5 as he had gifted Zaroff a little gun. “When I

shot some of his prize turkeys with it, he did not punish me; he complimented me on my

marksmanship” (Connell). It would show that his love for hunting began at a young age and his

father encouraged it as well as his consignment to the army as expected of a man of a noble

family. A person who is diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder was most likely to begin

in early childhood or adolescence (Black). This would mean that the general was afflicted with

this disorder ever since he was a minor as a study shows that approximately 80% of people with

an antisocial personality disorder would develop at the age of 11 and it affects men 6 times more

than women announced by researchers (Smith).

Despite the evidence, people still fail to see General Zaroff is a sociopath instead they

think it was alright since his father introduced him to guns and hunting at a young age. For those

people who believe General Zaroff is alright, he is just a bit crazy and peculiar. However, ever

since at the age of 5, his father introduced him to guns and hunting since he gave him a gun of

his own allowing him to shoot animals and his father encouraged it. He was expected to join the

army from others as he is a part of a noble family allowing him to kill more people and animals.

I understand he loves to hunt animals as a hobby including many people in the world however, it

was illogical of his father to give him a gun at such a young age and it was not alright for

General Zaroff to kill humans as a new hunting animal to play with as it is more immoral of him.

It was foolish of the father to give him a gun because he could have thought of the possibility

that he was gonna use it on others and even him.

As we see throughout the story, we can tell from his actions he is violent and dangerous,

making him a hazard to others as he murders people in cold blood. He is intentionally going
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against the law and he enjoys it with no remorse showing he is suffering from antisocial

personality disorder. Although at first, you would see General Zaroff as a normal man with a

successful life, his mental state is not in the right as he condones murder without any empathy or

guilt from hurting humans thinking that they’re nothing than just animals. The antisocial

personality disorder is definitely affecting General Zaroff making him a dangerous individual to

others as well as himself.

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Works Cited

Black, Donald. “Antisocial Personality Disorder - What Does It Feel like to Have ASPD?” ​Psych

Central​, 30 Oct. 2018, psychcentral.com/disorders/antisocial-personality-disorder/.

Connell, Richard Edward. ​The Most Dangerous Game​. CreateSpace, 2018.

Smith, Kathleen. “Antisocial Personality Disorder (Sociopathy): Causes and Symptoms.”

PsyCom.net - Mental Health Treatment Resource Since 1986​, 5 Dec. 2018,

www.psycom.net/antisocial-personality-disorder/.