What does Rainsford learn from his experience on Ship-Trap Island in "The Most Dangerous Game"?

The surprise ending of "The Most Dangerous Game" leaves
many questions unanswered about Sanger Rainsford. Surviving the dive from the cliff and
emerging in Zaroff's bedroom, the stunned general honors his pledge and announces
Rainsford the winner of the game. However, it is Rainsford who decides to continue the
hunt, apparently providing Zaroff as "a repast for the hounds." The story ends with
Rainsford stating that "He had never slept in a better
bed."

Having decried Zaroff's human hunt as murder earlier,
was Rainsford himself now a murderer? It was certainly not self-defense, since Zaroff
had already declared Rainsford the winner; and, though a killer, the general's honorable
nature would have precluded him from denying Rainsford the hospitality of his home. It
was Rainsford who demanded that the hunt continue. 

Had
Rainsford become enamored with the idea of Zaroff's game? Had he himself found the game
fulfilling? Has he lowered himself to Zaroff's level of inhumanity and cruelty? Although
fleeing for his life earlier, Rainsford had seemed to take delight in setting his traps
and waiting for the result. Now, as tired as he must have been, he was ready to enact
revenge upon the man who had tried to kill him. The satisfaction that he felt as
he prepared for sleep must have been more than just the softness of the "comfortable
bed."

These questions aside, Rainsford had learned that the
hunted can indeed feel the fear of pain and the fear of death--something that he had
denied when his friend, Whitney, suggested it at the beginning of the
story.