like to be a hunted animal. He has no choice in the matter; he simply has to do this if he's to survive being hunted byGeneral Zaroff.

Rainsford, then, is riven by conflict. It's not easy for an ace hunter like himself to have to try and act like a hunted animal for the first time in his life. Even so, one could reasonably argue that Rainsford eventually manages to resolve this conflict by drawing upon his vast experience of being a hunter to put himself in the position of a hunted animal. In doing so, Rainsford is effectively forced to acknowledge that there's a fine line between the hunter and the hunted.

Rainsford may be more hunted than hunter as he engages in his life-and-death struggle with Zaroff, but his experience with hunting animals has given him a fighting chance of survival. In turn, this will allow him to prevail in the most important conflict in the whole story, that between Rainsford and Zaroff.

The main conflict in "The Most Dangerous Game" centers on Rainsford being forced to take part in a deadly hunt against Zaroff and Ivan.  Zaroff has been looking for a human who was worthy of his skill and prowress, so you can imagine his delight at finding someone as good as Rainsford to hunt.  According to the rules of the game, Rainsford is given a head start, and his goal is to basically survive and not let Zaroff kill him.

The conflict continues as the two face off in what ends up being a very interesting battle of wits and skill.  The first night, Zaroff catches Rainsford by spotting him in a tree.  However, he decides not to kill him, as he wants a better game.  This is a deadly mistake, as it turns out, as Rainsford kills him in the end.  So yes, the conflict involves Rainsford having to stay alive.

Man vs. man, man vs. self, man vs. nature, and man vs. animal are also examples of the types of conflict present in the story.

The first, man vs. man, is the most apparent and obvious conflict in that it presents the primary conflict for the protagonist, that being Rainsford finding himself pitted against his host, General Zaroff, in a fight for his life.

Man vs. self is the personal and internal struggle that Rainsford is experiencing.  At the opening of the story, we learn that he finds hunting to be the greatest sport and shows no care for the feelings of his prey as evidenced in his conversations on the ship before he falls off and arrives at Shiptrap Island.

Man vs. nature occurs as he is running through the jungle away from Zaroff.  He must use his surroundings to his advantage to save himself from Zaroff's gun.

Finally, man vs. animal is quite specific in that it occurs when he running from Zaroff's dogs. He must use one of his hunting traps to save himself from their menacing jaws.

In "The Most Dangerous Game " there are many conflicts.

1.  Human vs. Nature - Rainsford first encounters his struggle with the sea after falling overboard.  He also has to survive on an island that he knows nothing about like an animal using only his instincts.

2.  Human vs. Human - Rainsford has to survive in the hunt against Zaroff and his cohort in crime, Ivan.  He has to use his wit and knowledge to outsmart Zaroff who has been plasying the "Game" alot longer than he has.

3.  Human vs. Self - Rainsford has to struggle with himself to not join in the hunt and risk being killed by Ivan or to join in the hunt going against all his values and morals as a human being. 

The conflicts encountered during the story are definitely a struggle for "Survival of the Fittest."

Human vs. Nature: Rainsford must survive in the jungle, at night. This in itself presents special challenges and conflicts. Before that, he had to survive the ocean, after he fell off the yacht and swam to shore (don't forget the jagged rocks.)

Human vs. Human: Rainsford vs. Zaroff (the hunt!)

Human vs. Self: Internal conflicts range from Rainsford struggling to make the best decisions he can in order to survive, to Rainsford grappling with the feeling of being hunted - and being on the other side of the scope for the first time in his life (remember the conversation with Whitey onboard the yacht, where Rainsford dismissed Whitey's comment about animal feeling fear...now he knows another perspective.)

All stories have conflicts or problems. "The Most Dangerous Game" also has many including all of the conflicts you mentioned in your question.

Human vs. Nature--Rainsford is first placed against the sea when the ship wrecks; then he faces the jungle along with all the elements within it.

Human vs. Human--Easy--Rainsford vs. Zaroff and his sidekick.

Human vs. self--I feel pretty sure that Rainsford had to face some pretty strong emotions, namely fear, in his fight against Zaroff.

I'm also sure that the dogs come in at some point, maybe nature?, but I'm not quite sure where I would place them.

Hope this helps. Brenda

There are two types of conflicts: internal and external. External conflicts are the events that happen outside of us, and internal conflicts are the emotional responses and or choices we have to make internally. But these conflicts are not separate from each other. They work together.

Think about it this way: humans have emotions, emotions create conflict, and conflict drives a story. Humans don't experience random emotions; emotions are always tied to an external experience. Therefore, any conflict must have both types that directly connect, however, this could be interpreted in many ways depending on the emotion/choice you wish to argue.

Here are the main conflicts in the story.

• Internal: Rainsford vs. hubris—Rainsford's excessive pride foreshadows what is to come because he does not care about the animals he hunts. He believes he has the right to kill anything he pleases so long as he can outwit it. He quickly becomes humbled when Zaroff proposes they play his game.
• External: Rainsford vs. Zaroff—Rainsford is faced with a person vs. person conflict where the two will have to fight to the literal death.

These conflicts lead to the moral and or philosophical conundrum that Rainsford must internally battle. He starts off by acting like a cocky hunter, not caring for any other living creature, but through his experience as the "huntee," he shifts his belief system now that he understands what it feels like to be a hunted animal.

• Internal: Rainsford vs. fear—While Rainsford is being hunted by Zaroff, he must work diligently to keep his fear in check. If he makes one mistake, he's dead.
• External: Rainsford vs. the island—Rainsford faces a man vs. nature conflict as he makes his way into the jungle and eventually uses the ocean to throw Zaroff off his trail. Between the thick brush, the quicksand, and the jagged shoreline, the environmental odds are stacked against him.

These conflicts make Rainsford work. He must keep himself together emotionally while attempting to use an unknown environment to his advantage. This external conflict tests his ability to stay calm and apply prior knowledge to stay alive.

Man vs. man, man vs. nature, and man vs. self are the three conflicts that occur throughout Connell's short story "The Most Dangerous Game." The first conflict, man vs. man, is illustrated in Rainsford's attempt to outrun and outwit the skilled General Zaroff. General Zaroff presents the three-day survival challenge, and Rainsford is forced to rely on his skills to successfully hide throughout the island to save his life. Man vs. nature occurs in Rainsford's struggle against the natural elements of Ship-Trap Island. Rainsford must traverse the dangerous terrain of the island to avoid Zaroff, which includes dense forests, the Death Swamp, and rocky cliffs near the exterior of the island. The final conflict presented throughout the story is man vs. self. Rainsford struggles with the fear and shock of being hunted by General Zaroff on a dangerous island. Rainsford must challenge himself both intellectually and physically to avoid General Zaroff and win the "most dangerous game."   

The two most important conflicts in "The Most Dangerous Game" are Man vs. Man and Man vs. Nature.

Man vs. Man is a clear conflict. Rainsford and General Zaroff are fighting for different goals, Zaroff for fun and amusement and Rainsford for survival and escape. Throughout the story, they clash on philosophy and morality, and in physical dispute. Rainsford is victorious at the end because he has nothing to lose; he is willing to risk his life to win over Zaroff.

Man vs. Nature is somewhat more subtle. As Rainsford flees into the jungle, he uses his knowledge of hunting to lay false trails and traps. However, the jungle is also his enemy, having natural obstacles of its own:

The ground grew softer under his moccasins; the vegetation grew ranker, denser; insects bit him savagely.

Then, as he stepped forward, his foot sank into the ooze.(Connel, "The Most Dangerous Game, fiction.eserver.org)

With high rocky cliffs and water all around, there are only a few places where Rainsford can flee. He manages to use some of the island's landscape to his advantage, digging a pit in the soft earth and setting a deadfall, but it is only his willingness to fully accept the danger of the crashing waves that gives him an edge over Zaroff.

There are both  external and internal conflicts in "The Most Dangerous Game."  .

The external conflicts are:

Man against Nature: Rainsford struggles against the sea after he falls from the yacht until he reaches the island.

Man against Man:  Rainsfor struggles against Count Zaroff as he plays the most dangerous game.

The internal conflict:

Man against himself: Rainsford struggles with his will to continue through the game.  He encourages and motivates himself until he ultimately wins the game.

This is a good question. In “The Most Dangerous Game,” there are several types of struggles. The most obvious struggle is the one between Rainsford and general Zaroff. Rainsford is a big game hunter and Zaroff is a maniacal general who seeks the thrill of hunting humans. The second type of struggle is the one between man and nature. Rainsford, first of all, falls off a ship, so there is a battle with nature. Second, when he is on the island, he has to survive the island itself. This part is especially difficult because this island is new to him. Zaroff, on the other hand, knows the island well.

The final and perhaps the most important challenge is that he has to face himself, his own doubts, and his own fears. In some ways, we can argue that this last challenge is the most difficult. Without conquering his own fears, Rainsford would not be able to do anything. Here is quote that shows that Rainsford has to battle himself and his fears.

He stood there, rubbing his injured shoulder, and Rainsford, with fear again gripping his heart, heard the general's mocking laugh ring through the jungle.

Here is another quote that shows that Rainsford’s fears are deepening.

At daybreak Rainsford, lying near the swamp, was awakened by a sound that made him know that he had new things to learn about fear.

In the end, Rainsford manages to conquer his own fears and because of this feat, he defeats Zaroff.

There obviously is no conflict within General Zaroff: He has already practiced his new human hunt, and he has no qualms about killing men instead of animals. The conflict comes with Rainsford. He is given the choice of being killed by Ivan, Zaroff's assistant, or attempting to elude Zaroff as the prey of his hunt. Rainsford chooses to survive, at least for the time being. Although Rainsford, unlike Zaroff, has no thirst for human blood, he does what he must in order to survive: He kills Ivan and several of the dogs as he attempts to elude Zaroff. Perhaps his greatest inner conflict comes at the end of the story, when he returns to Zaroff's mansion and decides to begin a new hunt himself. The urge for revenge must be overwhelming, and we can assume that he feels little guilt when he turns the tables on Zaroff, because afterward, he sleeps soundly and happily in Zaroff's bed.

There are several types of conflict in the story "The Most Dangerous Game," but man vs society is not one of the conflicts.  There is a man vs. man conflict, and the best evidence for that is the cat and mouse game that Rainsford and Zaroff are involved in.   

There is man vs. nature in the story.  That conflict applies to both Rainsford and Zaroff.  The island is a dangerous place.  It's more dangerous to Rainsford because he doesn't know the island that well, but he is able to turn the island against Zaroff as well.  

The story also has a man vs. self conflict.  Rainsford has to wrestle with his own morals and ideals about the concept of hunting and killing another human being.  

Conflict refers to the struggle a character has either with himself (internal conflict) or with someone or something else (external conflict). The conflict is resolved once the character finds a solution to his or her problem. In an external conflict, the struggle can be between characters (man versus man) or between the character and a natural force (man versus nature).

In "The Most Dangerous Game," the kind of conflict that dominates is external. At the beginning of the story, the protagonist, Sanger Rainsford, first struggles against nature. He has to battle the ocean after he falls from the yacht:

For a seemingly endless time he fought the sea. He began to count his strokes; he could do possibly a hundred more and then—

He struggles to overcome the difficult environment he finds himself in once he reaches the shore:

Jagged crags appeared to jut up into the opaqueness; he forced himself upward, hand over hand.

He saw no sign of a trail through the closely knit web of weeds and trees; it was easier to go along the shore, and Rainsford floundered along by the water.

Rainsford's external conflict is later continued when he attempts to evade General Zaroff. The general releases him and then starts hunting him like an animal. It becomes a struggle for survival. The gist of the story from this point onward involves Rainsford fighting the difficult terrain he finds himself in and also features his struggle to evade General Zaroff; Zaroff's manservant, Ivan; and the dogs they use to sniff him out.

Rainsford eventually outwits General Zaroff and, in the final scene of the story, confronts him. Their encounter represents Rainsford's final external conflict, as the following excerpt indicates:

Rainsford did not smile. "I am still a beast at bay," he said, in a low, hoarse voice. "Get ready, General Zaroff."

The general made one of his deepest bows. "I see," he said. "Splendid! One of us is to furnish a repast for the hounds. The other will sleep in this very excellent bed. On guard, Rainsford." . . .

He had never slept in a better bed, Rainsford decided.

Rainsford's biggest conflict is resolved when he kills the general and then sleeps in his (the general's) very comfortable bed.

There are instances of nearly every main type of conflict in "The Most Dangerous Game." Man vs. nature is definitely a big one, as both Zaroff and Rainsford need to survive and thrive in the wilderness for the hunt. Zaroff and his strange hunting appetites could demonstrate a man vs. society conflict. Rainsford faces some man vs. self decisions as he chooses what to do during the hunt. 

The most prominent conflict in the story, however, is man vs. man. Since the story centers around Zaroff's hunt of Rainsford through the island wilderness, Zaroff, with his guns and hunting dogs, is clearly the greater danger and stronger foe. The pair struggles using both strength and mental intellect and it seems at first that Zaroff will win, as he is armed and knows the island better. Rainsford needs to use clever tricks to survive and eventually win the hunt. 

An example of an internal conflict is Rainsford’s decision about whether to play the game or go to Ivan.

An internal conflict is a conflict a person has with his or her self.  It is a decision or a fear.  In this story, Rainsford finds himself on a remote island that happens to be inhabited by a madman who insists on hunting human beings for sport.  When Rainsford realizes his host does this, he accuses him of murder and refuses to participate in the game.  He is surprised by Zaroff’s reaction.

The general shrugged his shoulders and delicately ate a hothouse grape. "As you wish, my friend," he said. "The choice rests entirely with you. But may I not venture to suggest that you will find my idea of sport more diverting than Ivan's?"

Rainsford has to make a choice to be whipped by Ivan or hunted by Zaroff.  Since Ivan will most likely kill him, he doesn’t stand much of a chance.  Rainsford decides his best bet is to play the game and try to win it.

I feel that there are three main conflicts going on in this story. All three of them surround Rainsford. Two of them are internal conflicts, and one of them is an external conflict.

The external conflict is fairly straightforward. Rainsford is in conflict with Zaroff. Zaroff is hunting Rainsford.  ainsford must battle with his wits and skills in order to survive.

One of the two internal conflicts deals with Rainsford's will to live. He's in what appears to be a fairly hopeless situation. Zaroff has never lost before, which means that he's a good hunter. Second, Zaroff knows the island quite well, so he has a home field advantage. Third, Zaroff has better tools. He has hunting dogs and an assortment of weapons. Rainsford has next to nothing. Rainsford must internally battle with himself to avoid despair, crippling fear, and thoughts about giving up.

The second internal conflict that Rainsford struggles with is the morality of killing another human being. Rainsford is appalled at what Zaroff does. He disagrees on a moral level with hunting humans; however, that is exactly what he has to do to survive. He can either hunt another human, or he can wind up dead like the rest of Zaroff's victims.

In my opinion, there is one major internal and one major external conflict.  Both of them involve Sanger Rainsford.

To me, the external conflict is between Rainsford and General Zaroff.  This conflict is most clear when Zaroff is hunting Rainsford.  Rainsford, in order to live, must outwit Zaroff.  This is obviously a conflict.  There was also a lesser conflict as Rainsford resisted Zaroff's efforts to get him to be a hunter.

The internal conflict is within Rainsford as he is being hunted.  He is having to fight with himself to keep himself from despairing and giving up.  His situation seems hopeless and so it is hard for him to keep fighting for his life.

Rainsford faces many tough decisions throughout his adventure on Ship Trap Island.  First, it was his original opinion that hunters are all important and have no need to consider the feelings of their prey.  This is put to the test, however, when he becomes the prey and realizes that fear rushes through the body throughout the chase.  Though it's not revealed, the reader assumes Rainsford will reconsider his position on hunting in the future. 

Rainsford is also confronted with the dilemma of playing "the game" with the General or having to fight off Ivan.  Though Rainsford is disgusted with the whole concept of "the game", he realizes he stands no chance in hand to hand combat with Ivan, but he can use his hunting skills and knowledge to beat the General at his own game. 

Finally, upon returning to the General's chateau after jumping off the cliff to avoid being captured, the General congratulates Rainsford for beating him at the game.  He says he will arrange for Rainsford to be sent home.  Rainsford must choose whether to trust that the General will follow through with his promise or fight him to determine a real winner.  Of course, Rainsford chooses to fight and comes out the winner.

The central conflict seems at the surface level to be Rainsford versus Zaroff. The majority of the story is their struggle with each other, Zaroff desiring to kill Rainsford and Rainsford trying to survive. Looking a little deeper though, the real central conflict is raging internally in Rainsford. He struggles with knowing the boundaries of humanity and violence, balancing his desire for violence and hunting with the laws of society and value of life. In the end, he is little better than Zaroff. The ending implies that he has not only killed Zaroff, but has no remorse about taking a human life.

"The Most Dangerous Game," by Richard Connell, is full of conflict. In literary terms, conflict can be both internal and external, and there are subdivisions within each kind of conflict.

External conflict is perhaps the most obvious tension in this story. External conflict includes man vs. man, man vs. nature, and man vs. society. Obviously General Zaroff and Sanger Rainsford are in direct, man vs. man conflict when they hunt one another. Zaroff and Ivan are also in direct conflict with all the sailors who have "accidentally" shipwrecked on the island. Ivan and Rainsford also have a direct conflict.

A second form of external conflict is man vs. nature. Though we do not ever see it directly in this story, both Zaroff and Rainsford hunt big game animals, and Rainsford has to fight against Zaroff's dogs. As Rainsford tries to escape Zaroff, the island works against him (such as the quicksand), causing another man vs. nature conflict. Shiptrap Island is in a constant conflict with the ships and men who are lured onto the rocks, as well. When Rainsford falls off the boat, he has to fight for his life against the current and the rocks; and when he jumps off a cliff near the end of the story, Rainsford is against forced to battle for his life against the rocks below him.

Finally, Zaroff and Ivan are in an obvious conflict with society. There are many reasons why they live on an isolated, out-of-the-way island, but one of the primary ones is that they are hunting and killing humans for sport. Society does not condone such behaviour, obviously, so there is a conflict. Though Rainsford is forced to defend himself, killing another human being is against society's moral code; therefore, Rainsford is also in conflict with society.

The internal conflict in this story is limited to one character: Rainsford. He is the only one who experiences any self-doubt or has a conflict with his own conscience, and of course this conflict centers around his aversion to hunting and killing Zaroff. In the beginning of the story, Rainsford believes that the hunted deserve to be killed:

He does change his mind after he becomes the hunted and he does decide to kill, but it is only to save his life. We would like to think that anyone who hunts humans for sport has some sense of internal conflict about it, but clearly Zaroff is unmoved by his own hardened conscience. In fact, when Rainsford realizes what Zaroff intends to do, he says,

Every effective story has conflict; however, this story is replete with example of both internal and external conflicts. 

There are two main conflicts in The Most Dangerous Game. The first is Man Vs. Man and the second is Man Vs. Nature.

The conflict of Man Vs. Man is obvious; protagonist Rainsford is forced to fight for his life against the sociopathic Zaroff. Both men are expert hunters, with mastery of their skills, and as Rainsford sets traps and uses his knowledge to evade pursuit, Zaroff negates the advantage by predicting Rainsford's decisions and path. Ultimately, Rainsford is willing to risk a possible death to avoid a certain one, and is victorious over Zaroff.

Two slight annoyances kept [Zaroff] from perfect enjoyment. One was the thought that it would be difficult to replace Ivan; the other was that his quarry had escaped him; of course, the American hadn't played the game -- so thought the general as he tasted his after-dinner liqueur.

The conflict of Man Vs. Nature is more subtle. Rainsford hears pistol shots and falls overboard; the salt sea keeps him from crying out, and the ship leaves him behind. After swimming in the direction of the shots, Rainsford finds himself on an island, shored by jagged rocks and filled with a dense jungle. When he sets out as prey for the hunt, he realizes that the island is too small to simply run, and he uses his knowledge of woodcraft to set false trails. However, Zaroff is equally skilled. After wounding Zaroff with a trap, Rainsford finds himself blocked by a quicksand swamp; instead of giving up, he digs a pit in the soft dirt and plants another trap. This fails as well, and as a last ditch effort, Rainsford ties his knife to one of the many saplings that had been slowing his pace. The springy tree fails to kill Zaroff, and in final desperation Rainsford gives himself to the very ocean that brought him to the island.

"Nerve, nerve, nerve!" he panted, as he dashed along. A blue gap showed between the trees dead ahead. Ever nearer drew the hounds. Rainsford forced himself on toward that gap. He reached it. It was the shore of the sea. Across a cove he could see the gloomy gray stone of the chateau. Twenty feet below him the sea rumbled and hissed. Rainsford hesitated. He heard the hounds. Then he leaped far out into the sea....

Ultimately, by using the harsh environment of the island to his advantage, Rainsford is triumphant.

Generally speaking, the four standard types of conflict within fiction are man vs. man, man vs. self, man vs. nature, and man vs. society. "The Most Dangerous Game" most strongly contains elements of man vs. man, man vs. self, and man vs. nature.

Man vs. man involves the conflict between two opposed personalities, usually the protagonist and antagonist. Such is the case in this story, in which Rainsford, a big-game hunter, is selected by the villainous General Zaroff as the target for his next hunt. What results is a lethal battle of wits, with Rainsford's life hanging in the balance.

Meanwhile, with man vs. self, conflict becomes internalized. Here you can see a psychological component to the story as well, with Rainsford having to emotionally manage this harrowing experience he has found himself in. Furthermore, there is the question and thematic context that hangs over the entire hunt with Zaroff: Can Rainsford survive this contest with his morality intact, or will he become a murderer, following the path of Zaroff himself? This is especially important, given the degree to which Zaroff and Rainsford serve as foils to one another.

Finally, there is man vs. nature. In "The Most Dangerous Game," while Rainsford must survive his struggle with Zaroff, he must wrestle the challenges of nature as well. This component is actually present long before Zaroff even enters the picture. In the story's beginning, Rainsford falls into the Caribbean, an experience that is depicted as desperate and dangerous in its own right. Later, during the hunt with General Zaroff, he must also navigate the conditions of Ship-Trap Island itself, which will serve as a critical component to the hunt.

The major conflict of "The Most Dangerous Game" is man against man. A corollary of this theme in the story is man against nature, in which the definition of nature takes a peculiar twist and other humans are viewed as a literal extension, not a theoretic extension, of nature. General Zaroff and his assistant hunt humans who are in one way or another at Zaroff's mercy--which begins with hospitality and what he considers rational conversation--on an island somewhere in the climes of South American jungles.

The hero of the story is Rainsford through whom Connell unfolds the related themes of revenge and of violence and cruelty. While Zaroff is conversing and presenting his modernist rationalist ideology, he recognizes his visitors, such as Rainsford, as humans in the man against man conflict, for soon he will hunt these human guests. While he is hunting, the peculiar twist to the confilct occurs and the humans become a literal extension of nature and are equated in Zaroff's mind with hunting elephants or any other big game.

As with all good stories, we cannot simplify answers into neat categories. Therefore, in "The Most Dangerous Game," we can say that there are many conflicts. For example, when Rainsford had to extricate himself from quicksand, he was fighting against nature. When Rainsford had to overcome feelings of disgust in playing the "game," he had conflict within.  That said, the main conflict is man versus man. 

When Rainsford finds himself on the island and meets general Zaroff, Zaroff has only one thought. Zaroff wants a challenge, and he sees this challenge in Rainsford. As Rainsford is on the run in the woods, he is playing against Zaroff. The stakes are high, as it is a game of life and death. At the end, Rainsford embraces what must be done and goes on the offensive. Rainsford wins and defeats Zaroff.

Having told his friend Whitney that he did not care how the prey felt in the midst of being pursued by the hunter, Sanger Rainsford surprisingly finds himself in the very position of the one who is hunted. He then begins to rethink his previously held beliefs about prey, as well as his beliefs about killing.

After he swims ashore on Ship-Trap Island and discovers the chateau of General Zaroff, Rainsford's ideas about hunting are challenged by the jaded hunter who has lost his enthusiasm for hunting animals. He informs Rainsford,

Life is for the strong, to be lived by the strong, and, if need be, taken by the strong. The weak of the world were put here to give the strong pleasure. I am strong.

These words, which are not too different from the earlier thoughts that Rainsford has expressed to Whitney about hunting, soon frighten Rainsford as he learns that he is to be the prey to give Zaroff his "pleasure." It is at this point that Sanger Rainsford's internal conflicts begin. 

Internal conflict: Rainsford starts to have a new perspective about the prey of a hunt.

As he becomes the one pursued, Rainsford does not feel the excitement of the sport anymore. He begins to realize the fear that the hunted animal feels. On the first day, after the general somehow succeeds in following Rainsford's intricate and divergent trail through the jungle, Rainsford is surprised to see his enemy's smoke rings waft upward toward where he thinks he is hidden in a tree. He feels a shudder of horror when he sees that the general smiles and then turns back. 

Internal conflict: Rainsford strives to prevent fear and panic from overcoming him.

After he realizes that General Zaroff has successfully trailed him, Rainsford concludes in horror that the general is not in the least worried about capturing his prey since he leaves him for another day's adventure. This realization by Rainsford causes "cold horror" to run through his entire being. In a forced effort to regain control of his faculties, Rainsford repeats to himself, "I will not lose my nerve. I will not." Later, he draws on his knowledge and experience to create a Malay man-catcher. When the general approaches it, the experienced hunter recognizes the trap in enough time to jump back, receiving only a glancing blow on his shoulder. Nursing his injured shoulder, Zaroff returns to his chateau.

Next, Rainsford digs a pit and plants spikes in the bottom of it; he then camouflages the opening with a rough carpet of tree limbs, weeds, and small branches. When he hears his pursuer approaching at night, Rainsford hides. "He lived a year in a minute" as he waits. Someone falls into the pit, but it is only one of Zaroff's dogs. The general compliments Rainsford on his Burmese tiger pit and then thanks his prey for an amusing evening.

Internal conflict: Rainsford wrestles with his feelings about killing another man.

Sanger Rainsford is convinced from what Zaroff has told him, as well as from the gunshots and screams that he heard when he first swam ashore, that the "game" will only end with either his or Zaroff's death. 

During the days that Rainsford is hunted, he is forced to question his ethical beliefs. He struggles with his desire to survive and his feelings about killing another human being. Knowing that Zaroff will kill him unless he can first kill the general, Rainsford has a crisis of conscience. In order to save himself, Rainsford creates deadly traps, knowing that Zaroff can die if he falls a certain way. Further, this crisis seems to be resolved at the story's end with Rainsford's thoughts of never having slept in a better bed, even though the reader is not explicitly informed of the result of the duel between Zaroff and Rainsford.