An Honest Review: ‘The Bet’ by Anton Chekhov - A Choice Between the Possibility of Life and the Certainty of Death

 

 

Picture Credit- Audible.com

“We shall find peace. We shall hear the angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.”

-Anton Chekhov

One of Chekhov’s many remarkable literary pieces, ‘The Bet’ is the story of a banker and a lawyer who enter a bet in order to prove their own belief about death penalty and life in prison. 

The banker believes that the death penalty is better because it doesn’t drag on the pain of the gruesome punishment and is over in a splash but the lawyer thinks the opposite.

Introduction 

Name of the Story - The Bet

Name of the Author - Anton Chekhov

Genre - Fiction

Language - English

Synopsis - Spoiler Alert!

Following a heated argument at a dinner party about which mode of punishment is better; life imprisonment or death penalty, a young lawyer and a banker enter a bet wherein the lawyer would have to stay in solitary confinement on the banker’s property for fifteen years, at the completion of which he would get two million dollars. 

Years pass by and the banker goes bankrupt. Just as the lawyer’s time of imprisonment is about to end, the banker decides to kill his prisoner but when he goes sin to do so, something changes his decision.

About the Author

 

Picture Credit- India Today 

Born on 29th January, 1860 Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian playwright and short story writer, considered to be one of the greatest writers of short-fiction. He is also counted among the likes of Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg to have introduced early modernism in theatre. 

Some of Chekhov’s famous works include; ‘Ward no. 6’, ‘The Wife and Other Stories’, ‘Gooseberries’, ‘The Complete Short Novels’, ‘About Love’ and ‘The Plays of Anton Chekhov’. He died on 15th July, 1904. 

About the Story 

The story begins with the banker recalling the incidents of the past and how after a heated argument at a party he had thrown, he had entered this bet with the lawyer. The argument was about the better way of punishment.

While the banker believed that capital punishment was better, the lawyer thought that life imprisonment was the better choice. 

Thus, they entered into a bet wherein the lawyer had to live in a small guest room at the banker’s property in solitary confinement for a period of fifteen years, at the completion of which the banker would have to pay him two million rubles. 

The banker is confident in his bet and believes that the lawyer won’t last for long and promises the lawyer that all the things he desired would be provided to him.

At the beginning of his confinement, the lawyer becomes severely depressed but he soon recovers from his depression and begins to read all kinds of books about anything and everything. 

As time passes, the lawyer loses a lot of money due to his gambling habits and becomes more and more anxious about the money he would have to pay the lawyer. In the early hours of the day of the completion of the bet, having realized that paying the lawyer would make him bankrupt, the banker decides to kill the lawyer. 

But when he enters the room, he sees the lawyer emaciated and weak, sleeping at the table with a note addressed to his captor. 

In the note the lawyer tells the banker about the enlightenment he has had and how he chooses to abandon the bet. The banker, relieved and sad at the condition of the lawyer, kisses him on the forehead and leaves. 

The next morning, the guard comes and tells the banker that the lawyer had fled thus forfeiting the bet. The banker locks the note in a safe to prevent the spread of any rumours. 

Themes Involved

The most important and prominent theme in the story is that of the meaning of life. The banker believes that capital punishment is a more humane way to die, while the lawyer believes that life imprisonment is like a new chance at life, although confined. 

The lawyer enters the bet in the hope of the money he would get, as any twenty-five year old would think  but at the end of the bet, he grows up and realises the real meaning of life. 

The lawyer learns what life is really about while he is in solitary confinement through reading and silent introspection. He realises that material things are transitory and therefore the only real wealth in the world is your life and the knowledge you gather. 

And by forfeiting the bet, he although unknowingly, also saves the banker who would have gone bankrupt otherwise. 

Famous Quotes

1. “Which executioner is the more humane, he who kills you in a few minutes or he who drags the life out of you in the course of many years.”

2. “The geniuses of all ages and all lands speak different languages but the same flame burns in them all. Oh, if you knew what unearthly happiness my soul feels now from being able to understand them.”

3. “Capital punishment and life-imprisonment are equally immoral; but if I were offered the choice between them, I would certainly choose the second. It’s better to live somehow than not live at all.”

The Bottom Line

‘The Bet’ is a story that asks a very important question and starts this debate within our minds about that question, which obviously pertains to which kind of punishment is better. 

But it also gives this new perspective about what really is important in life and I think, it is for this realization that the story provides its readers with, Chekhov must really be thanked. 

My ratings for the story - 5 on 5 

Read the Story at - The Bet

Written By - Sakshi Singh