Themes in “The Bet”
In Anton Chekhov’s short story “The Bet”, there are many ideas that are presented throughout that form a much larger message. These same ideas that seem to keep resurfacing throughout the story are called a theme, or the main message of the story (Writing about Literature). The story can be interpreted in many different ways and therefore there are many different interpretations of the themes. Knowing Anton Chekhov’s style, this should be expected because his style consists of a lot of showing, and not a lot of telling. This style leads to many different possibilities because the author’s intentions are not completely known. Throughout the story, many ideas surface that relate to a larger theme 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. It is essentially a man vs. man story which escalates into a man vs. himself story in which spiritual happiness overcomes all possessions.
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 (Chekhov)” the lawyer said in his closing letter. 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. (Chekhov).” However, over the years the man in the prison seemed...