How Does Connell Create Suspense In The Most Dangerous Game

In one of his most famous short stories, “The Most Dangerous Game”, Richard Connell uses many devices to develop suspense.The devices that are most successful for creating suspense are the devices of foreshadowing through dialogue and imagery along with his cryptic cliffhangers in the forms of narrative description and unanswered questions.
Connell foreshadows the events Rainsford has to go through using dialogue and narrative description that is open to interpretation. Connell uses dialogue to foreshadow the events that will happen when Whitney notices that “‘There was no breeze’” but instead felt a “...mental chill; a sort of sudden dread’"(Connell, 2). Whitney describes having a mental chill as a foreboding thought of the seemingly normal

Connell uses the narrative description to create a cryptic cliffhanger within the story when "Rainsford hesitated. He heard the hounds. Then he leaped far out into the sea” (Connell, 14). The descriptions implies that Rainsford reluctantly decides to commit suicide by jumping into the sea. The description is cryptic and because Rainsford is hesitating to jump to his apparent ‘doom’. Rainsford has shown a strong want to live but his actions of jumping into the sea contrast against his desire further adding to the suspense as Rainsford seemingly acts against his instincts. Connell has also inserted unanswered questions in his cliffhangers. When Rainsford decided that “He had never slept in a better bed” (Connell, 15), it depicts the unsurety of Rainsford’s victory. In addition, if Rainsford did win, the reader do not know why Rainsford slept in Zaroff’s bed when Zaroff has clearly told Rainsford he could leave the island if he won. These unanswered questions are cryptic because there are two possibilities.There is the possibility that Zaroff actually won and Rainsford is about to die. There is also the possibility of when Rainsford won, Zaroff has passed on his skewed mindset to Rainsford in his demise, as implied when Rainsford did not leave Ship Trap Island and sleeps in Zaroff’s