The Resolution of Conflicts

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. 

With the stranger dead, the people of the community help themselves to his cheques. Money begins to exchange hands as goods are bought and deals are made. The progress of economic development comes to the village. No one is afraid to dig up the money that they have saved because as soon as the cheques are cashed there will be no worries, and the town can continue to "prosper." But as every man meditates on their "two of these excellent billets," they begin to feel that "they were too rich to speak to each other" (71, 72). Conflict grows between one-time friends as they argue over what is to be bought and sold. Greed has come to town with the artist and his witch's money.

Though Anton Chekhov's "The Bet" was written in a different country at a different time, it portrays a timeless theme; greed is a crippling trait of mankind. This message can be seen through the author's use of characterization of both the lawyer and the banker. The banker was a static character; he was greedy from start to finish. The lawyer was a dynamic character and he saw the wrong in his ways and changed them in the end.

Next, In The Pardoner’s Tale Greed is shown with money as three rioters find money and plan to kill one another. The three rioters get told by a man that he left death under a tree and they well find him waiting there they run off to the tree and find a pile of golden florins which is money. As the third rioter left the other two rioters planned to kill him when he gets back to get more money each. The author writes, “Now look; when he comes back, get up in fun to have a wrestle; then as you attack I’ll up and put a dagger through his back” (Chaucer lines 225-227). As the third rioter runs back to down he is planning to kill them both. He knows that he can buy poison and put it in two out of the three drinks so he good have all the money to

Tom has no mercy when it comes to interest rates. In their time of need he saps the last droplets of money out of desperate customers for his own selfish desires. In Tom’s final moments he refuses to pardon even his “greatest friend”(7) with a “few months indulgence”(8). Tom not allowing his closest friend any leniency shows how self absorbed and habitual his greed is; so wrapped up in his own agenda that he cannot see past it. And when he loses his patience with his friend, he yells, “the devil take me”(8) and, moments after, is taken by the devil and his “black horse”(8).

In the short story, “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov, a banker and a young man make a bet with each other based on capital punishment and whether the death penalty is better or worse than life in prison. The terms of the wager state that if the lawyer can live in solitary confinement for fifteen years, he will be given two million dollars. When examining the story, the Marxist lens would offer an insight to the ability of symbols and its forms, styles and, meanings. Chekhov connects these themes by utilizing the literary elements of Power. More specifically the power of money, knowledge, language, and competition.

This interplay between sufferer and spectators culminates when Dostoevsky uses the narrator to highlight the entertainment value of a tragedy and to elaborate on the satisfaction that the audience receives from the spectacle. As Marmeladov’s death scene approaches its end Katerina pleads with the spectators to leave: “‘You might as well let him die in peace! ' she shouted at the whole crowd ‘A fine show you 've found for yourselves!’” (179). Katerina laments about the show that Marmeladov 's death has become. She is frustrated that a room full of spectators that she has

Through his literary and word choices, author Fyodor Dostoyevsky paints a portrait of an elderly man, who, imprisoned for life for his belief, still refuses to betray his God. Dostoyevsky chooses words that are easily understood to all mankind, to better illustrate this gentleman. While these chosen words are not elaborate, fanciful words, they more accurately depict this man than any other words would be able to. These words, words such as calm, kind, brave, and merry, which could appear trite and meaningless, rather begin to live and breathe on their own. Dostoyevsky knew that with the right diction, these quite simple words could begin to live on their own, and live they do. However, Dostoyevsky uses more than just his diction to draw these words to life. He also, quite sneakily, uses alliteration to add depth and meaning to his words and diction. Through phrases such as “peculiar pleasure” and “coarse cynical laugh of the other convicts”, Dostoyevsky is able to deepen the reader’s compassion and view of the

“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” (Chekhov 1). In Anton Chekhov’s short story “The Bet” a lawyer and a banker make a bet about which penalty is more humane. The lawyer says that life imprisonment is more humane. In saying this, the lawyer bets he can stayed locked up in a cell for 15 years without any human contact and it will show it’s more humane. In the short story “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov; the lawyer encounters many types of conflicts including man vs. man, man vs. self, and man vs. nature.

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

He struggles with moralizing over this but knows a change in his fortunes can be had from successful gambling, "I had long ago made up my mind, that never should I depart from Roulettenberg until some radical change had taken place in my fortunes...why is gambling a whit worse than any other method of acquiring money?  How, for instance, is it worse than trade?  True, out of a hundred persons, only once can win; yet what business is that of yours or mine?" (Dostoyevsky 8).

As the final days of his sentence came to a close, the banker decided to check in on the young lawyer. The banker had slight intentions of killing the lawyer while visiting him due to a loss of money from a fluctuation in the stock market (The Bet 3). When he entered the lodge house, the banker found the lawyer, who looked much like a skeleton, sitting unnervingly still even after the old door had been pried opened (The Bet 4). It is during this moment the reader begins to make a prediction as to how the story is going to end. When Chekov begins describing the physical attributes of the now time withered man, the reader begins to believe the lawyer is in fact dead and has not completed the

Anton Chekhov made these stories to represent how Russia was at the time, showing the class structures that they had, and what the different classes did. In the story “The Bet”, it shows how the higher class was. The higher class would do silly things and things that weren’t important with their money. Since they were rich they didn’t care what they would spend their money on. In this story, the banker makes a bet with a lawyer, to see if he can resist in prison for fifteen years, and the banker wouldn’t win anything out of it, so he didn’t care what he wasted his money on. In the story “Oh! The Public”, it shows how the different classes would treat each other. If you were in the lower class you could do nothing about what the middle and higher class did to you. The higher class treated the lower class with no respect and to the middle class with a little respect. The middle class treated the lower class worse than how the upper class treated the working poor. As you see in this story, the invalid, who was a middle class person, treated Podtyagin, who was the ticket collector, with no respect. All Podtyagin wanted to do was his job, which was collect the passenger’s tickets. The invalid made his job hard, because he would just complain and not give Podtyagin his ticket. “The

Though he is best known for his other novels, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Possessed and The Brothers Karamazov, this text offers a take on characters of his fascinating short novel The Gambler which was written in 1866. Two topics are woven within the zealously intricated storyline. The one is desperate longing for a distant woman and the another one is a passion for gambling that Dostoyevsky himself at the time was struggling with. At the same time, the novel was inspired by the topic

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.”