The Bet Literary Analysis

In The Bet by Anton Chekhov, a banker and lawyer argue over whether life imprisonment or the death penalty is better. The lawyer ends up making a two million dollar bet with the banker trying to prove that life imprisonment is better by staying confined for fifteen years. During these fifteen years, the lawyer read countless books and I believe that he became wiser than most human beings. For example, he learned many languages The geniuses of all ages and countries speak in different languages; but in them all burns the same flame. Oh, if you knew my heavenly happiness now that I can understand them! (p134). I also think the lawyer has become more enlightened. He loathes the world along with everything and everyone in it because of their foolishness and desire to be wealthy and powerful among other things. To prove how much he detests how people act for these things, the lawyer decides to give up the two millions that confined him for so many years, much to the bankers delight. I waive the two millions of which I once dreamed of as paradise, and which I now despise (p139). By giving up the two millions, the lawyer has unknowingly saved his own life because the banker, who was very close to becoming bankrupt, had planned to murder him before the fifteen years were up. Through his actions, the lawyer proves that mankind has traded the glories of heaven for earthly pursuits. We have spent too much time trying to get things like money, power, and fame and ignored the finer things of life. For example, the banker (who was once very rich) was wasteful and ungrateful to what he had and almost had to resort to murder in order to keep what little pride and money he had left. So do I marvel at you, who have bartered heaven for earth. I do not want to understand you (p139).