The Bet
Readers reading "The Bet" ultimately see that Chekhov presents us with two failed paths in "The Bet": the banker who refuses to face his own mortality and the prisoner who faces it, but falls into despair because he is so disconnected. Both are failures, but in different ways. We will begin by considering why facing crisis might by easy. Human beings thrive on change. While they may feel fear and uncertainty when presented with a crisis, they're also likely to feel exhilaration at the prospect of novelty that crises offer, most importantly though, crisis forces one to live in the moment, responding to immediate threats only with no concern for the long-term future and no regrets for the past. In a very real way, crises free people, at least momentarily, from the shackles of past guilt and future fear.Chekhov draws heavily on these ideas in his construction of the banker's character. The banker, a pampered man, spoilt and frivolous, is habitually nervous and lets himself get carried away by excitement. Chekhov assures us that this is not the impulsiveness of youth since he describes it as excitability, which he could not get over even in advancing years. Chekhov paints the portrait of a cowardly man who lacks the courage to endur
Let us now turn our attention to the erosion brought about by day-to-day living. At first glance, it appears that the prisoner is shielded from the travails of day-to-day living since all his material needs are met and he is free to spend his time indulging in wine, music and books. On closer examination however, we can see that the prisoner must still continue the task of living from one day to the next, without the distractions posed by external crisis. Despite his material comforts, he is forced to endure far more than the banker, simply because he cannot retreat into the endless distractions of the market, pressing social concerns of the day, or the weather. That is not to say that he does not try. Chekhov writes that in the first year, his books were principally of a light character; novels with a complicated love plot, sensational and fantastic stories, and so on. He also played the piano continually day and night using music as a talisman to ward of a bitter awareness, but there was nowhere for him to run, no place in which he could hide from himself. This awareness also explains why the prisoner grew so hopeful on reading the Gospel. The narrator reports "the prisoner sat immovably at the table and read nothing but the Gospel". Christianity offered him a way out by holding open the prospect of eternal life in paradise. If the Gospel were correct, then the prisoner's wasted days were irrelevant since he would be spending eternity in incomparable joy. In the end, though, the promise of Christianity could not sustain him. Chekhov writes that "in the last two years of his confinement, the prisoner read an immense quantity of books indiscriminately" thereby suggesting that, at last, his hunger for spiritual and theological books was sated.
Some common words found in the essay are:
, Gospel Christianity, own mortality, day-to-day living, life health, life matter, travails day-to-day living, eternal life, mortality prisoner, chekhov writes, travails day-to-day, attempts distraction, little left,
Approximate Word count = 1341
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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