Josh Farrar
Mr. Rogers
Honors English 9
10/25/12

Evil of Mankind Joseph Conrad had once said “The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.” The quote means to me that people don’t need to be looking at demons and ghosts for evil but at themselves and all of mankind for having fertile evil. I agree with Joseph Conrad. Have you ever looked on the news and see all the evil mishaps? You realize all of the evils mankind are capable of and think that it is impossible. In the stories The Most Dangerous Game and The Cask of Amontillado you can see how vicious mankind can be. The main characters of the two stories, Zaroff and Montresor put their brains to the test torturing the other characters. Zaroff, in The Most Dangerous Game, had been introduced to the book when Rainsford fell off his boat and swam to an island. Rainsford had no idea who lived in the mansion on the island but Zaroff sure knew him. At first, Zaroff seemed like a big hunter to Rainsford by all the stories of his huntings ( Connel 26-29). As he finishes his stories and starts to tell Rainsford of the most thrilling hunt, Rainsford starts to realize the maniac that Zaroff is. The way Zaroff explains his plan you can tell how clever and wise he is. How he plans out each step of his chaotic game. The crashing of the ships, the tricky lights, capturing sailors, and the worst part was the game. As soon as he mentioned his head collection you knew something was not right with the man. His setting helped with his madness. If he was out in plain sight he could not continue with his game or even have started it. The mood of his character shows how mad he is. He is very calm about “hunting” humans, like it is no big deal at all. He heals them, trains them, then gives them food and a knife and sends them out to play the game. He uses dogs to help track them down and if they don’t want to play they are handed over to Zaroff’s torturer, Ivan. In, The Cask of Amontillado, Montresor, the evil mind in this story, was also very wise and clever. He wanted revenge of a man named Fortunato. He waited for him at a party on the street that he was drinking at. He waited till he was intoxicated and brought him down to his wine cellar. Montresor was smart by saying that a red wine would help with Fortunato’s bad cough, but in reality he was keeping him wasted (Edgar Allan Poe 222). Montresor’s goal was to keep him wasted for he wouldn’t have to hassle with him