Answer:
One of the central theme is "Reputation".
Explanation:
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is story about John Proctor who confesses to all his crimes in the court. He accepts his affair with Abigail and even for doing witchcraft. But, at the end he says "I have given you my soul; leave me my name!”. By this he meant that a person takes his whole life to build a reputation in the society. So, he did not want to tarnish his good name and reputation by signing the confession. He said that he has confessed all but will not sign the document.
Several characters including Abigial, Parris, Rebecca protect their reputations in the story.
In 1840, the transcendentalist periodical <em>The Dial </em>was founded, and in that same year it published "Orphic Sayings" by Amos Bronson Alcott.
<em>The Dial </em>was a journal that supported the transcendentalists' philosophy, influenced by Immanuel Kant. Transcendentalism believes in the inherent goodness of people and nature and reinforces the idea that society is capable of corrupting the soul of an individual. Furthermore,<u> "Orphic Sayings" was one of Alcott's contribution to </u><u><em>The Dial. </em></u><em> </em>Alcott's work got favorable reviews and was considered highly valuable for its philosophy. In that way,<u> "Orphic Sayings" was famous for expressing the mystical idealism of the author</u>. The last "Orphic Sayings" was published in 1842.
A foil is the near complete opposite of the main character (whichever character they want you to find a foil for).
Rainsford and Whitney were good hunting friends with numerous similar interests. They could not be foils because of how close in similarity they were. Even when they disagreed on how animals felt about being hunted, Whitney seemed open to and intrigued by Rainsford's points and way of thinking.
Ivan is a near irrelevant character, being a mere Cossack who follows whatever General Zaroff says. He is mindless and has almost zero traits to even compare to Rainsford, let alone any traits aside from a mindless follower to begin with.
The answer would be General Zaroff. This is almost like the cliche protagonist vs antagonist foil. Both of them are hunters, but different kinds. Zaroff got bored with animals and wanted to hunt human people instead, whereas Rainsford had enjoyed the thrill of an animal hunt and thinks that the hunting of people is murder. Zaroff is more heartless and cold, a killer, if you will. Rainsford seems to think highly of actual people, and had no interest in playing Zaroff's game.
