The Bet
(Anton Chekhov)
Setting
Russia, 1870-1885
The lawyer 's house.
The lodges (prisoner's room)
The garden
Characters:
Who are the protagonist and antagonist of this short story?
The young lawyer is the protagonist in the story, as he is the one who’s trying to fulfill 15 years in confinement, which is basically the main plot. While the banker becomes the antagonist when he is making plans to sabotage the bet.
Describe them according to next requirements regarding traits
The lawyer
Positive: Resilient, Determined.
Negative: At beginning, he can be considered foolish for taking 15 years instead of five and being greedy.
Motivation: 2 million and to prove his point.
The banker
Positive: Reflective, after almost committing his plans he becomes regretful.
Negative: Almost a cheater, arrogant and immature.
Motivation: To prove a point and back then he was very wealthy, so he was delighted by the bet.
Who began the wager?
The banker.
Why and how did the lawyer’s reading habits change over the years?
His reading choices suggest how he decided to deal with his loneliness, how sometimes he felt motivated, while in others he was just trying to maintain himself as sane as he could be, they basically show the stages he was going through and his mental health.
How does the lawyer help depict the theme?
With the conclusion he wrote the night after completing the bet.
Does the banker’s perspective ever change throughout the story?
When they initially made the bet, he appeared to be reckless and arrogant, determined to prove his point, but with the years he realized how immature and unnecessary the bet really was.
What is the banker’s reason for thinking that the death penalty is better than life imprisonment?
He thinks that capital punishment kills a man at once, whereas lifelong imprisonment kills him slowly.
How does the banker’s financial status change through the years?
When they first make the bet he states the 2 million for him was a trifle. 15 years later, he worries 2 million might leave him in bankruptcy.
Theme
Wealth: He suggests that wealth can help you, but is not everything, it is subjective. There is importance in knowledge and concepts you can learn, basically the art of living your life.
Freedom: The young lawyer deprives his freedom, and later learns that money without freedom is wealth acquired in vain.
Greed: Both men are guided by greed, they make a foolish decision that later on had severe repercussions in their life and more specifically, mental health.
Irony:
Situational: After successfully fulfilling his imprisonment, one may assume the lawyer would be rejoice of rejoining society and acquiring his money, but the opposite happened. The lawyer resigns to earthly matters as he knew them before.
Dramatic: "Fifteen years before, his millions had been beyond his reckoning; now he was afraid to ask himself which were greater, his debts or his assets"
Verbal: “I’ll bet you 2 million you wouldn't stay in solitary confinement for five years”
Symbols given in the story
Books: They become the lawyer's company.
The Gospel: The lawyer’s tries to strengthen his faith.
Piano: The lawyer’s mindset and feeling of loneliness.
2 million: Greed and the price for 15 years of solitude.
Theme
Chekhov discusses the true meaning of life and what makes it worthy of living.
Voice
The author, Anton Chekhov finds writing to be his passion, this story is written in a narrative, omniscient point of view. The advantage to the reader this style provides is knowing the thoughts, feelings and actions of all characters
Mood
The reader can encounter foreshadowing of what the outcome of the bet will be, but the author highlights how things changed for the characters and how their initial motivations altered.
Tone
Narrative, detailed and reflective.
Conflict
Man VS Man: The banker and the lawyer
Man VS Society: After experiencing 15 years of confinement, the lawyer comes to despise society.
Man VS Nature: As much as the lawyer tried to keep himself going, naturally his body had weakened and he suffered many mental challenges when adapting himself to the new lifestyle.
Man VS Superpower: When the lawyer already knew almost about everything he could possibly read, he searched for theology, he wanted to know God and to establish his faith.
Inner Conflict
The lawyer goes through many thoughts and feelings, his mental health shifts throughout the years and he fights hard against his desires and loneliness.
Climax
When the banker enters the prisoner's lodge with the intent to murder the lawyer
Resolution
Just in time, the banker discovers a letter in which the lawyer announces his decision to renounce the world of material wealth and forfeit the bet.
New End:
When the banker discovered the letter, he ran out of the lodge. His crystal eyes blenden with the rain, he looked up to the sky asking for enlightenment.
The next morning he woke up pretty early and waited for the lawyer to open his door just five minutes before the time established in the bet. They exchanged glances and without second thought the banker embraced the lawyer in a hug. They both cried and wished things could’ve been different. The banker apologized and told him the truth, he offered the money, and even though the lawyer declined it, he still helped him.
They became best friends.
