Analysis of The Bet

While reading the short story “The Bet” written by Anton Chekov, I could vividly relate myself to the young lawyer who spent fifteen long years in imprisonment as the criterion for an arbitrary deal with a reach Bank Worker. The Young lawyer who accepted the challenge of the Bank worker to serve lifelong (15 years) imprisonment and in return he was supposed to receive two millions from the Bank worker was the only cornerstone of their deal. Although the lawyer accepted the challenge for money initial but later it turned out to be a life changing factor for him. 

As per the agreement between them, the imprisoner was entitled to write letters, read as many books as he wants, Alcohol, Tobacco and other music instruments during the period of fifteen years. However, He was not allowed to see any human being or contact with the outer world for that period and breaking any of the given conditions means to lose out of his sacrifices till any period of time that he has spent in the room and that will eventually, wiped off the responsibility of the Bank worker to pay him any money.

The first five years of his imprisonment was just spent by doing nothing productive but regretting by the young lawyer. In fact he had some terrible time during the first five years which could easily be understood from the sound of his cry and anger that the servant had often heard from the outside. But there was a drastic change in his activity from the middle of sixth year and it was the time when he began to read many books on different component. As result, he learnt six different languages just within a year and following that he lost all his apathies towards reading and read around six hundred copies of different aspects in a very short span.

With time things have changed in the outside world as well and the Bank worker to whom two million was just a usual factor back then had become a great concern during the final period of the release of the lawyer. Therefore, the thought of giving away his last penny to the young man haunted the Banker all the time and eventually he came to the conclusion to kill the young lawyer to evade all his obligation to pay him the money.

Finally, the day before of the completion of the deal between the young man and the Banker arrived; and the Bank worker reached the prison on the wintry night to finish the young man. But reading the last note of the young man where he narrated all his experiences during the fifteen years in the room, the Bank worker stood speechless. The note of the imprisoner contained with his unearthly experiences which he achieved through the knowledge imparted by several books that he read for so many years. That precious knowledge definitely made him wiser than any other human and also made him realize the true magnitude of life. The prisoner had also clarified in the note that to him “money is now very irrelevant amity compared to the knowledge which he had gained over time and thus, he had lost all his interest to receive the amount from the Bank worker as per their agreement. The Banker, who came with the intention to kill the young money, reading the note left with a heart full of gloominess and cried throughout the night for his heinous intention to kill the young man.

As I have mentioned above that while reading the story I found a bit of similarity between the young lawyer, who initial had no such interest to study but his helpless situation in the prison grew his interest for study, to some extent similar to my physical condition which also forced me to choose the path of education to keep my gloomy mind distracted from all the unproductive tensions of life. Even though the comparison may sound a bit non-realistic as compared to that young man I have been able to engross all my mind into study yet, but partially it justify the comparison which ultimately have a similar goal that is obtaining knowledge.