The Bet

Theme
"The Bet" is a short story that explores a moral theme regarding the value of
human life. However, the story is constructed with an important ironic twist that
brings the reader back to the original context of the bet (if the lawyer could
endure solitary confinement for fifteen years), and presents an unexpected
result. One can ultimately see that Anton Chekhov presents the readers with two
different paths in the story. One of them is the banker, who refuses to face his
own morality and the other is the lawyer (prisoner) who actually faces his own
morality, but falls into despair because he is so disconnected from the outside
world, even after gaining so much knowledge. These two characters may thrive
on change, but they both alter their own human values in great ways.
The question of Who really won the bet? is important in this story because it
delves deep into the theme of the story. In theory, the lawyer lost the bet, but in
reality, he actually won because he got more out of life in those fifteen years than
the banker did. I know that I am wiser than all of you the lawyer said in his
closing letter.
The theme regarding life also has a parallel with death and capital punishment.
The theme on capital punishment is a little more explicit but the ultimate
decision as to whether the death penalty is more just than imprisonment is up for
interpretation. It is important, when reading literature, to distinguish between
ideas, actions, and situations .In the end, the lawyer leaves early in order to
disqualify himself from the bet after fifteen years, not winning the money as a
result. It seems at times that the story is anti-death penalty because of all the
things that the man in the cell learned and the amount of change he went
through. However, this could simply be the idea of time and how it changes us
regardless of situations. Also, the man in the cell had more freedoms than
someone in prison. The man became wise throughout the years and realized that
money doesnt buy happiness, nor do you need it to be happy. It changed him for
the better but it also made him wiser and more aware of the evils of the world.



Critical appreciation
The bet itself is ludicrous and an extreme overstatement in that you would have
to be extremely desperate and have a very low self-esteem in order to give away
fifteen years of your life for two million dollars. The banker even mentions the
idiocy of the bet. Can it prove that the death penalty is better or worse than
imprisonment for life? No, no. It was all nonsensical and meaningless.
Ideas are not explicit within the story. Ideas are instead very subtle, but the
reader needs to consider the meaning of what was just read and then read
between lines, and read beyond the line. Considering this, it is reasonable to
consider the entire prison sentence that the lawyer experiences during the
fifteen years is a metaphor for life and how some people live it. Like many people
in their lives, he would sit in confinement with access to books, music, wine, etc.
Early on in his sentence, he reads only romance and light hearted novels,
probably as a way of refusing the face the realities of life and instead resorting to
fiction that resembled that of pastoral writing. Originally, he refused wine
because he knew it would only make it worse, but eventually he gave in and
drank it in excess in order to further alleviate the pain. Then he learns to make
the best of the worst situations. He changes. He learns languages and studies
literature, which brings up another theme, the magic of literature. The lawyer
mentions that he hunted wild boars in forests, loved women, have seen green
forests, rivers, lakes and towns without ever having left his cell. This shows the
beauty of literature and its ability to transfer someone to a world outside of their
own.
Throughout the story, many ideas surface regarding the importance of living a
fulfilling life regardless of situations, what is necessary to make life worth living,
the magic of literature, the effectiveness of imprisonment, and ignorance toward
harsh realities? The whole imprisonment itself seemed to be a large metaphor for
the different stages of life. These ideas form a larger theme that deals with life
and death and what truly matters throughout it. The fact that the absurdities of
life are not realized by the lawyer until after fifteen years of confinement shows
the importance of living a fulfilling life because before you know it, it could all be
gone.