Analysis Of The Bet By Anton Chekhov

In Anton Chekhov’s “The Bet” two men, one a banker and the other a lawyer, begin the story arguing about whether or not capital punishment is fair.  The banker is in favor of capital punishment while the lawyer contends that if offered the chance he’d take life in prison.  The banker bets the lawyer two million rubles that he couldn’t survive in prison for fifteen years.  The lawyer agrees to remain in the banker’s “prison” for fifteen years, and if the lawyer lasts those fifteen years he is to receive the two million rubles.  Thus, the stage is set for this short, but powerful commentary on society. 

“The Bet” by Anton Chekhov is a short story that focuses on the value of human life with the character’s different viewpoints on the death penalty and imprisonment for life. The author uses elements of literature to show that the definition of prison society accepted may be wrong. The first element of literature the author uses is characterization. In the story, there are two main characters: the banker and the lawyer. The story begins showing how wealthy the banker is, as shown by the way he threw his money away when he made the bet. In paragraph 5 it says “The banker, who was younger and more nervous in those days, was suddenly carried away by excitement; he struck the table with his fist and shouted at the young man: ‘It 's not true! I 'll bet you two million you wouldn 't stay in solitary confinement for five years.’” This shows that the banker is careless with his money. As for the prisoner, it can be said that he is smart and opinionated as the author shows in paragraph three and four: “Among the guests was a young lawyer, a young man of five-and-twenty. When he was asked his opinion, he said: ‘The death sentence and the life sentence are equally immoral, but if I had to choose between the death penalty and imprisonment for life, I would certainly choose the second. To live anyhow is better than not at all.’” With that being said, this quote shows that the lawyer was smart enough to give his opinion on the topic at hand. Comparing the characterization of both men, it

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s magnum opus, Crime and Punishment sucks the readers into the consciousness of the protagonist, RodionRomanovichRaskolnikov where a battle, the eternal struggle between the good and evil and reason and sentiment is going on. Considered one of the wonders of European literature, the novel portrays a young man, expelled from the university due to financial deprivation, becoming ensnared in the intricacies of certain abstract theories. To break the impasse, he resolves to murder a lousy, old pawnbroker. After the heinous crime, the protagonist, in order to rejoin the stream of humanity, embraces suffering as an act of expiation.

Through distinct symbolism and pernicious conflict against one’s self, “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov depicts how manipulative greed can be a crippling trait towards impulsive young adults, sparking irrational actions.

In Anton Checov's story, "The Bet", the reader is introduced to two young men who are arguing about which sentence is worse for an inmate, capital punishment or solitary confinement. The young lawyer—the man involved in an argument with the other young man who was a banker— passionetely defended his belief that said that life under any condition is better than death. The banker then challenges the young lawyer to a bet to stay imprisoned for 15 years and ifsucessful, be rewarded 2 million. The young lawyer —To my surprise— agreed without a second thought. The rest of the story is the gradual digression in the lawyers health as he suffers through imprisonment. When the reader gets to the end, the lawyer has already given up on wordly desires in order to embrace things like solitude, sickness, and death. —This itself is enough to deduce that this man has gone mad—

Isolation is at the forefront of the work and a driving force towards the ultimate message. The young lawyer simulates a social death during his confinement and is completely cut off from human contact, however, he is allowed several items. These items, which are “books, music, wine” represent items associated with the best of man and society, such as the fine arts, cuisine, and great literature, and during the voluntary isolation the young lawyer excruciatingly consumes these symbolic items to absorb the lessons and virtues within them, and by extension, those of society as well (Chekhov 2). This isolation allows for an outside look at the social and cultural world and gives the rare opportunity for a character to act as a bystander, and ultimately a critic, to the world around them. However, the lawyer ultimately rejects these materials as he strongly proclaims “I despise wisdom and the blessings of this world. It is all worthless, fleeting, illusory, and deceptive, like a mirage” and touches on how pride and wisdom falter after death as it

Within his life, Fyodor Dostoyevsky sought to develop an understanding on socialism and the implications of this political system. Up until his mid-twenties, Dostoyevsky was a supporter of the socialist cause, and was even sent to jail for his involvement in the socialist movement. It was only then, when he was sent to jail, that he started to question the reality rooted behind the socialist ideals. His commentary on the application of socialism to society is presented through his works of literature. In Dostoyevsky’s novel, Crime and Punishment, he explores the preexisting political systems in 17th century Russia, as well as the effectiveness of the systems to serve the common man. There are many moments in the novel where characters have

He ends his short story, the Bet, with the protagonist refusing the $2,000,000 that was due to him after 15 years of house arrest. This was all because of a bet that was made against a young lawyer that argues that the death sentence is worse than spending life imprisonment. Once the 15 years went by, the young lawyer refused to take the $2 million that was due to him. He had learned that $2 million would never replace the 15 years he did not waste, the 15 years that he missed out on. The young lawyer’s greed is self-taught greed, the young man taught himself that you should not be greedy for what you do not need. Chekhov also exploits his opinions on greed on another short story, A Problem. Throughout the story, Chekhov’s character Sasha has made a colossal mistake that affects the family name. The family argues about the fault, also looking for a muckrake. They conclude to forgive Sasha and pay the fine due for keeping the mistake a secret. After the chaos, Sasha forces his uncle to give him money, thoroughly changing the reader's perspective on Sasha. Sasha’s greed is selfish, getting out of a situation that could’ve gotten him in a lot of trouble, later, right after the conclusion was made, he forced money out of his uncle’s

Realism is not reality it is a artistic style. Realism is the one that tries to be transparent and to not call attention to itself. Modernism is more about society. Making social problems bigger than independent problems. Modernism is more focused on social issues and the concept of standards and practices.

When an individual embraces the money world, one tends to get caught up in luxuries and materialistic items that surround us. This leads them to become apart of the corrupted society that follows the “Money God.” However, in contrast, George Orwell, in Keep the Aspidistra Flying, displays the mirrored opposite with his protagonist, Gordon Comstock, who tries to completely reject the money world. Orwell writes about a internally conflicted individual named Gordon Comstock, who isolates himself from society, but in fact is still stuck in it. Set in London during the 1930’s, Gordon is a middle class man who leaves his well-paying job because he refuses to be apart of the distorted money world that he witnesses is corrupt. He barely makes enough

“The old banker was walking up and down his study and remembering how, fifteen years before, he had given a party one autumn evening” (Chekhov 210) is the opening for the short story, “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov. This short story is a suspenseful writing about a banker and a lawyer, who makes a bet with each other. The lawyer bets the banker that he can stay in confinement for fifteen years for two million dollars. At the end of the short story, irony comes into play when the lawyer decides to leave confinement five minutes before his time is up and the banker wins the bet. One theme that is carried out through the story is that if you stay in prison for a lifelong sentence, it will kill you slowly.

“The Bet”, by Anton Chekhov, is an original story that is about a Banker and a Lawyer. Chekhov uses many elements of literature to show that society’s opinion on prison has different viewpoints. Through this story Chekhov writes about two modern sides of prison, capital punishment and life imprisonment. He writes about a Banker and a Lawyer that set a foolish bet of two million dollars for fifteen years in solitary confinement. Anton Chekhov, shows this story through characterization and imagery.

Defining materialistic needs and recognition as success is a form of imprisonment. In ‘The Bet’, the lawyer accepted to be imprisoned for an exchange of two million bucks, costing his human contact. By utilizing objectivity, the characters are painted in a vivid picture, where readers are able to understand the thoughts and actions of the old banker. Furthermore, the story included third-person omniscient, where the lawyer’s thoughts confused the readers while piquing their

Throughout the journey of one’s lifetime, one learns the recurring idea that with poor actions, worse consequences often follow; some due to the lack of knowledge on what their actions lead to, others based off of misperception, which lead to even less desirable situations. In the short stories “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov and “He-y, Come On Ou-t!” by Shinichi Hoshi, a theme of consequences instantly finds itself in the reader’s mind and persists to stay there like a tattoo, something always reminded of and non-disappearing. In “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov, an impetuous Banker and rash Lawyer get into an intense argument at a party, resulting in a peculiar and senseless bet. The foolhardy men conclude to severe and irrational terms, resulting

I picked the tale “The Bet” to read and I found this short story of Anton Chekhov to be engaging. At first, since there are two stories to choose from, I just intended to scan the materials but as I go on scanning, I could not help but engage in the full reading of Chekhov’s story. It was about a banker and a young lawyer who took a bet for their respective moral positions about capital punishment, i.e. “death sentence” or “life imprisonment.”