Suspense in Richard Connell's "the Most Dangerous Game"

Suspense in Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game"

If you were to ask an avid reader what it is that they want most from a story, the answer you would get more often than not would be, suspense. Suspense is the unmistakable feeling that keeps a person constantly wondering "what could happen next". That sense of anxiety that makes them feel as though they can't read quickly enough to discover what happens next. In Richard Connell's short story "The Most Dangerous Game" there is an ever-present sense of suspense that keeps the reader constantly on edge. Connell uses his many skills, as a great writer, to form a story that has since become one of America's most famous short stories. In this paper I promise to explain how the author, Richard Connell, is able to build a sense of suspense through the utilization of details, using dialogue, and also the development of the characters in his story.

The story begins with Sanger Rainsford, and his hunting companion Whitney, on a yacht steaming across the ocean to the Amazon where they will hunt the cunning jaguar. As the two men stare off into the darkness of the night, they discuss the notoriously sinister island known as, Ship-Trap Island, which lies somewhere in the blackness. Shortly after Whitney retires to his cabin for the night Rainsford hears the sound of three gun-shots ring out from somewhere off in the darkness. As he attempts to get a better look to determine where the sounds came from, Rainsford tries standing on the railing but drops his pipe, reaches too far, and falls into the water. After collecting his nerves, he begins to swim in the direction of the shots he heard. On the island, Rainsford finds a place where a struggle is evident; he finds a pool of blood, three spent casings, and a set of footprints trailing away. He tracks the footprints until he discovers a massive house where he is invited in by General Zaroff, a Russian aristocrat who owns the island. Zaroff tells his new guest that he too is an avid hunter and has recently discovered a new game animal to hunt that is tougher than any other he has hunted before; this game animal is a human. He gives Rainsford the choice to either join him in a hunt for this new game or to be the hunted. The element of suspense begins to grow at this point of the story.

Through his utilization of details, Connell not only builds the suspense, but he also makes it easy for the audience to follow along. He goes into very vivid detail in certain points of the story. For example, when he describes the scene of Rainsford stumbling out of the thick jungle to find the mansion, Connell states: "His eyes made out the shadowy outlines of a palatial chateau; it was set on a high bluff, and on three sides of it cliffs dived down to where the sea licked greedy lips in the shadows" (2). That threatening description of the mansion paints a picture in the audience's minds of an ominous, threatening place that should be avoided at all costs by Rainsford. The house seems to come to life and play a role in the story just as a sinister character would. Thus a sense of suspense is created; Connell's method of using in depth details to build the suspense in this work is a popular way, used by many writers, to increase the suspense in works of their own.

Suspense in the story is not only developed through utilizing vivid detail; dialogue is also used effectively by Connell to build suspense. In the very beginning, Rainsford and Whitney have a conversation about hunting jaguars; Rainsford starts ""Don't talk rot, Whitney . . . , you're a big-game hunter, not a philosopher. Who cares how a jaguar feels?""Perhaps the jaguar does,"