Tension and Suspense in The Most Dangerous Game Essay Sample

“The Most Dangerous Game” is a classic short story that utilizes many different literary devices to show tension and suspense. Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” is a short story that uses puns and irony to foreshadow the future conflicts of the story creating suspense. 

Richard Connell uses many different literary devices in “The Most Dangerous Game”, one of them being puns. You can tell a lot from the story based on its title, such as the plot, a character’s name, and so on, even if you notice it after you’ve read the story. “The Most Dangerous Game” itself is a play on words, the word “game” in the title could be deciphered two distinct ways. Firstly, the word game could be used as the term for a competitive sport such as football, basketball, etc. However, for this situation, they talked about hunting. It is usually referring to the person playing the game, this is a reference to General Zarroff and Rainsford being hunters. Another meaning to the word ¨game¨ is what a wild animal hunted for sport is called. In the case of this short story the game would be humans. Humans would be considered the most dangerous game since, in contrast to other animals, humans can use reason, logic and will actually have the brain power to be an (almost) equal fight to the hunter. This pun reminds the reader that Rainsford is in a tough situation but so is General Zarroff since they would be considered an equivalent fight to one another. Thus, the title itself foreshadows the future events of the story.

There are numerous instances of foreshadowing in this short story. One example is when Rainsford and Zarroff have a conversation when they were having dinner when Rainsford says that the Cape Buffalo is the most dangerous game, to which Zaroff replies “I hunt more dangerous game”(Connell, 6) and then he says he stocks the island with said “most dangerous game”. With that information, one can only assume that whatever Zaroff is up to is nothing but bad. This foreshadows the revelation that he hunts humans. Right off the bat in the story, Rainsford talks to Whitney about how hunting is the best sport in the world to which Whitney replies, “For the hunter...not for the jaguar” which Rainsford follows up by saying “You’re a big-game hunter, not a philosopher. Who cares about how a jaguar feels?”(Connell, 1) This dialogue gives the reader a sense of what Rainsford thinks about hunting morally. This could show that Rainsford is going to learn a life lesson later in the story. And he does, as he, the hunter, becomes the hunted once he arrives at Ship Trap Island. This is incredibly ironic in the light of the fact that the hunter becomes the prey when, before then, could not understand the prey’s point of view when being hunted. 

Irony is used in many parts of the story. First of all, situational irony occurs in the story when the roles are reversed and Rainsford, who is usually the hunter, becomes the prey, especially since his views on hunting were different at the beginning of the story as shown beforehand. Which is shown when he tells Whitney “The world is made up of two classes--the hunters and the huntees. Luckily, you and I are hunters.” However, once he does become the hunted, obviously his views change. An example of dramatic irony is when Rainsford sets multiple traps for General Zaroff because at that moment, Zaroff does not know about the traps which can also create suspense since, up to that moment, one does not know whether Zaroff is going to fall for the traps or not. Another similar example of this is when Rainsford is hiding in the tree and he hears Zaroff talking to him even though Zaroff does not know whether or not Rainsford is actually there as we find out when Connell states, “If you are within my sound of voice, as I suppose you are…” (13) Dramatic irony is a good way to create suspense in a story. 

Suspense is a crucial part to the events of this story. The most obvious example is the whole hunt itself. The reader does not know what is going to happen next, or who is going to survive until the end. Another big suspenseful part of the story is the ending, Rainsford shows that he is not done going against Zaroff to which the general responds with, “One of us is to furnish a repast for the hounds. The other will sleep in this very excellent bed. On guard, Rainsford.” (Connell, 15). This indicates that they are about to fight each other. The reader is expecting to be able to know what happens after Zaroff’s line. But, all that Connell decided to show the reader is, “He had never slept in a better bed, Rainsford decided” (Connell, 15) This line does show that Rainsford beat General Zaroff since, as stated before, the winner would sleep in “this very excellent bed,”(Connell, 15) although one does not know how this happened. 

As previously expressed, Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” is a short story that uses puns and irony to foreshadow the future conflicts of the story creating suspense. There are many different examples of those literary devices throughout the story such as the title, ironic situations and foreshadowing.