This is a very interesting question! I'm not sure that I
have the answer you're looking for, but I think that one aspect of the plot of Puccini's
Madame Butterfly might be
significant.
Though the opera's story is somewhat
complicated (and much of it isn't relevant for your purposes), in a nutshell, it's about
a Japanese woman (Butterfly) and an American soldier (Pinkerton) who get married and who
live atop a hill--or cliff--overlooking the city and the bay. The cliff is significant,
as the journey to the top of it is difficult, yet Butterfly insists that more difficult
is the anticipation of seeing her husband. At the beginning of the opera, the cliff is
significant, because it represents Butterfly's
happiness.
However, Pinkerton returns to America, leaving
Butterfly in Japan for a few years, and refusing to acknowledge that Pinkerton might not
want to come back for her, Butterfly fantasizes that she is on the top of a cliff and
sees her husband's ship coming toward her. She says she won't go down the cliff to meet
him, but that he will come to her.
Pinkerton does return,
eventually, but it is with his new American wife, Kate. Butterfly becomes so distraught
that she commits suicide so that the child she bore years earlier with Pinkerton may go
to America with him and his new wife and have a better life. Thus, the cliff, which was
once a place of joy and hope, becomes one of tragedy. (Just as, perhaps, Zaroff hopes
the cliff on Ship-Trap Island will become
for Rainsford.)
In "The Most Dangerous Game," it's
probable that Connell's knowledge of Puccini's opera--and its setting--gave him the idea
for what is certainly a subtle yet complex allusion to Madame
Butterfly.
As I said before, I'm not sure if
this is the information that you're looking for. But I hope it
helps!
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