The Bet Essay

“The Bet” Themes In the story “The Bet,” a bet that will change two men’s lives was made. An argument with the topic of capital punishment leads to the bet and the outcome of “The Bet” portrays various themes. “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov emphasizes the idea that human life is far more valuable than money, the idea of finding yourself, and lastly, the idea that worldly goods blind you from what is truly important in life. In the beginning, two people talk as if money is the most valuable thing in the world, but only to find out they were wrong. “And this wild, senseless bet was carried out! The banker, spoilt and frivolous, with millions beyond his reckoning, was delighted at the bet.” (Chekhov, 3) During the story, a little bit towards the ending, it portrays the prisoner’s sudden understanding of himself and who he is. The idea that worldly goods blind you from what is truly important in life exists within the most spiritual and religious traditions, and so this can be identified as a world theme, connected to the story. “The Bet” emphasizes the idea that human life is far more valuable than money or wealth. “To prove to you in action how I despise all that you live by, I renounce the two millions of which I once dreamed as of paradise and which now I despise.” (Chekhov, 5) The story starts out where a young lawyer and a better or a life sentence is more moral. They end up making a bet with two million dollars to the lawyer if he can last five years in solitary confinement. However, the lawyer extends those five years into fifteen years, hoping to make a point. As the fifteen years pass by, the lawyer discovers the significance of life. Finding yourself was also an important theme in this short story. “Your books have given me wisdom. All the unresting thought of man has created in the ages is compressed into a small compass in my brain. I know that I am wiser than all of you.” (Chekhov, 5) In the beginning of the story, the young lawyer knew himself as a 25-year-old lawyer. He made the bet with the banker and went in solitary confinement for fifteen years. During those fifteen years, he studied many things, and he found out the things he could do. The lawyer found himself as a wiser man after all the studying for those fifteen years as a “prisoner”. He had truly found out what he thinks and who he could be. He also found the meaning of life. The last theme that can be found in the text is that worldly things can blind you from what is truly important. “…that I despise freedom and life and health and all that your books call the good things of the world.” (Chekhov, 4) The lawyer was struck with the realization that he’d been blinded by the money and didn’t see what was more valuable, knowing that time cannot be bought with money. Also, this can relate to a world theme because the idea that those worldly goods can blind you can also be seen in religions and other media. In conclusion, the main ideas or themes suggested in “The Bet” is the value of life which is realized by the lawyer while he is in solitary confinement for fifteen years, finding yourself which is seen by how the lawyer realizes what he can do, and the idea that money can blind you from the most important things in life which is seen by how the lawyer was blinded by the two million dollars that was made at the start of the bet.