What are the traps in "The Most Dangerous Game"?

There are multiple traps set by Rainsford and Zaroff in Connell's short story "The Most Dangerous Game."

1. Rainsford gives Zaroff a false trail to follow so as to lead him away from him. He hopes that Zaroff cannot follow an intricate path in the dark. Only the best hunters can do this.

"I'll give him a trail to follow," muttered Rainsford, and he struck off from the rude path he had been following into the trackless wilderness. He executed a series of intricate loops; he doubled on his trail again and again, recalling all the lore of the fox hunt, and all the dodges of the fox.

Even so zealous a hunter as General Zaroff could not trace him there, he told himself; only the devil himself could follow that complicated trail through the jungle after dark. But perhaps the general was a devil--

2. Zaroff, wanting to prove to Rainsford that he was the more astute hunter, forms a "trap" (mental trap) by forcing Rainsford to recognize his stealth.

But the sharp eyes of the hunter stopped before they reached the limb where Rainsford lay; a smile spread over his brown face. Very deliberately he blew a smoke ring into the air; then he turned his back on the tree and walked carelessly away, back along the trail he had come. The swish of the underbrush against his hunting boots grew fainter and fainter.

The general was playing with him! The general was saving him for another day's sport! The Cossack was the cat; he was the mouse. Then it was that Rainsford knew the full meaning of terror.

3. Rainford makes a Malay mancatcher to trap Zaroff. Unfortunately for Rainsford, Zaroff is not killed by the trap. Instead, Zaroff calls out to Rainsford noting his skill.

His foot touched the protruding bough that was the trigger. Even as he touched it, the general sensed his danger and leaped back with the agility of an ape. But he was not quite quick enough; the dead tree, delicately adjusted to rest on the cut living one, crashed down and struck the general a glancing blow on the shoulder as it fell; but for his alertness, he must have been smashed beneath it.

"Rainsford," called the general, "if you are within sound of my voice, as I suppose you are, let me congratulate you. Not many men know how to make a Malay mancatcher. Luckily for me I, too, have hunted in Malacca. You are proving interesting, Mr. Rainsford. I am going now to have my wound dressed; it's only a slight one. But I shall be back. I shall be back."

4. Death Swamp--While not a trap as created by Rainsford or Zaroff, Death Swamp boasts quicksand which will suck a man in and end his life.

5. Burmese Tiger Pit--Rainsford creates a pit which kills only one of Zaroff's best hunting dogs. The pit fails to take Zaroff's life. Zaroff again congratulates Rainsford on his skills.

"You've done well, Rainsford," the voice of the general called. "Your Burmese tiger pit has claimed one of my best dogs. Again you score. I think, Mr. Rainsford, Ill see what you can do against my whole pack. I'm going home for a rest now. Thank you for a most amusing evening."

6. Rainsford made a trap out of sapling and his knife. The trap has a trip "wire" which would sned the knife into the person who trips the wire.

7. The last trap is Rainsford hiding out in Zaroff's house and taking his life there.

What four traps did Rainsford use in "The Most Dangerous Game"?

The fact that the story closes with Rainsford crawling into General Zaroff's luxurious for a good night's sleep suggests that this type of story was often used by people for what used to be called "bedtime reading." The story was written in the days long before television, and many millions of people bought magazines full of escapist reading to take home with them. Such magazines have virtually disappeared because the same kinds of readers now watch television or DVDs for escapist entertainment after dinner and before going too sleep. Many people became so habituated to bedtime reading that they were hooked on it. They couldn't get to sleep without reading a story or a chapter in a novel. People with limited educations and limited reading ability would buy the pulp magazines, while people who were better educated and somewhat more discriminating would buy the "slicks," so called because they were printed on better-quality glossy paper and cost a little more. The editors of the "slicks" were more demanding. They wouldn't accept purely escapist manuscripts from their freelance contributors but wanted more realistic characterization and some degree of what they probably considered "social significance." (The social significance in "The Most Dangerous Game" has to do with the immorality of big-game hunting.) The editors also looked for better use of the English language. "The Most Dangerous Game" is obviously a slick adventure story designed for middle-class readers. The characters are sophisticated and financially secure, as compared to the cops, private detectives, and cowboys featured in the pulps. It is amusing that while the market for bedtime reading among adults has been drying up, the market for bedtime reading for children is still strong. Many children's books end with the viewpoint character going to sleep--and that is the intention. The mother or father reads the child a story and hopefully the little one is sound asleep by the last page. The story, in effect, gives the listener something to dream about. Nowadays many people have television sets in their bedrooms as well as in their living rooms, and they can fall asleep while watching some kind of fantasy on the video screen. As Shakespeare says in The Tempest: "We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep."

Rainsford uses his know-how from years of hunting to foil Zaroff. First he sets up a trap that when sprung will make a dead tree fall. Zaroff is hit on the shoulder, but is only grazed, so he continues to track Rainsford.  Rainsford then flees into a swamp, where he digs a pit with sharp stakes, then dissimulates it with a grassy cover. This time it is Zaroff's favourite hunting dog which falls therein, but Rainsford misses his real target. Then he makes another trap by attaching a knife to a sapling, which springs back and kills Ivan, Zaroff's butler and henchman. Finally, Rainsford doubles back to the castle, and this time it is Zaroff himself who is taken by surprise in his own bedroom. It is this ambush that gives Rainsford the final advantage, and he finishes Zaroff off then and there, then crawls into Zaroff's own bed for a good night's sleep.