Over the centuries there have been various phenomenal writers who have displayed their pieces of literature and have influenced the world immensely. Two well known writers who have introduced realism to their stories is Anton Chekhov, the writer of “The Bet”, and Rod Sterling, the writer of the popular 50’s show “The Twilight Zone”. Many audiences who have read “The Bet” and the episode “The Silence” have speculated that Sterling had plagiarized the plot and theme of Chekhov’s short story. I believe that if this debate was sent to court that the case would go in favor of Rod Sterling as the differences between outweigh the similarities.
Anton Chekhov and Rod Sterling’s story both started off with two men having an argument over something and their egos blind them causing them to place a ridiculous wager with a large sum of money on the line. As the two stories develop however they begin to show significant differences such as how long the wager was going to last. In “The Bet” the two gentlemen place a wager based on the death sentence and life in prison, so one of them would stay incarcerated in room for 15 year while on the other hand in the episode the bet is 1 year. This is important as 1 year in a room with transparent walls compared to 15 years in a room with a small window only to tease the lawyer can leave the victim more insane than the club member in “The Silence.” Another big difference was how much interaction with people did the two men have and which retained hope as they were visited. In “The Bet” the lawyer receives very limited interaction with people as the person who gives the lawyer what he wants is not allowed to speak him. While in “The Silence” the club member can see the daily life of the workers in the house which can help him retain sanity. The last major difference between the two stories is the outcome and the how the lawyer or young club member won the wager. In “The Bet” the lawyer wins as during the 15 years he engaged...