What are the main events in 'The Most Dangerous Game'?

Answer 1

The main events of the short story are set in the late 1920's (see reading link below). They are:

1. Rainsford, a big-game hunter, falls from a yacht in the Caribbean.

2. He swims to an island and discovers a palatial chateau.

3. He meets a Cossack expatriate, General Zaroff, who lives alone on the island with his deaf-mute servant Ivan.

4. Zaroff explains to Rainsford that he lives life for the hunt, and finding no thrill in hunting animals, is now hunting men.

5. Rainsford becomes the prey and manages to survive for two nights.

6. On the third day, hunted by hounds, he manages to kill Ivan but plunges from a cliff into the sea, apparently to his death.

7. Zaroff assumes Rainsford dead, continues his evening routines, only to find Rainsford in his bedroom (he had swum back to the castle).

8. Zaroff admits defeat, but Rainsford has decided that only one of them will survive the hunt, and the Russian hunter (at last) becomes the prey.

(The sudden ending does not dwell on what effect this might have on the philosophy of Rainsford, or if being the hunted has brought an end to his own fascination with hunting. The writer evidently felt that an epilogue should be left to the reader's imagination.)

(see link below to read story)

Answer 2

Rainsford, having killed Ivan with a knife trap, runs from Zaroff and his dogs and leaps from a cliff into the sea. The general takes a long time to return to the chateau. He has dinner and retires to his bedroom -- only to find Rainsford waiting for him there.