How does the tone affect the setting in the short story?Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game"

In "The Most Dangerous Game," the skeptical tone of Rainsford makes for irony of situation and the suspenseful atmosphere of the macabre setting. For, in the exposition of Connell's story, Rainsford tells his friend, "Don't' talk rot" when Whitney puports that the jaguar feels fear.  "Who cares how a jaguar feels?" Rainsford counters when Whitney pursues the topic, saying that the jaguars even feel the fear of death.  Similarly, Rainsford discounts the superstitions of the old Swede with the cynical remark, "Pure imagination."

As the sequence of events unfold, of course, the irony of Rainsford's words create a horror that is added to the suspense of the action.  Now, Rainsford begins to understand how the jaguar does, indeed, feel: 

Then it was that Rainsford knew the full meaning of terror.....Rainsford knew now how an animal at bay feels.

There is also irony in Rainsford's supercilious remark at the dinner with General Zaroff when he says that his experiences in the war "Did not make me condone cold-blooded murder."  For, in the denouement, Rainsford absolutely delights in what Zaroff has referred to as the "attributes of an ideal quarry":  after defeating Zaroff, Rainsford, satisfied, considers that he "had never slept in a better bed."

The ironic transformation of Rainsford from the incipience of the narrative to its end certainly contributes to the suspense and macabre tone of the setting of Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game."