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Exploring Irony in Anton Chekhov's "The Bet"

Summary:

In Anton Chekhov's "The Bet," irony is evident as both characters' initial beliefs are upended by the story's end. The lawyer, who initially seeks wealth from the bet, ultimately renounces material possessions after fifteen years of solitary confinement. Conversely, the banker, who once valued his fortune, contemplates murder to avoid paying the bet, only to find the lawyer's letter renouncing the money.

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What is the irony in "The Bet" by Anton Chekhov?

The biggest irony in "The Bet" involves with the fact that the lawyer makes a bet whereby he could win a fortune if he can remain in solitary confinement for fifteen years, and then when the fifteen years is almost up he renounces the money because of what he has learned during his confinement. He was enduring his imprisonment for money, and then forfeits the money with only five hours left to go. It would appear that he has gotten something more valuable out of fifteen years of solitude, meditation, writing, and study than two million rubles. He leaves a note for the banker explaining why he is forfeiting the bet at the last moment.

"You have lost your reason and taken the wrong path. You have taken lies for truth, and hideousness for beauty....To prove to you in action how I despise all that you live by,...

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I renounce the two million of which I once dreamed as paradise and which I now despise. To deprive myself of the right to the money I shall go out from here five hours before the time fixed, and so break the compact..."

For many years he studied the works of the world's greatest thinkers, including the teachings of the New Testament. He must have become convinced that money and material things can be a hindrance to spiritual and intellectual growth. In this respect he resembles other famous men besides Jesus. These include Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi, Socrates, and Thoreau, to name only a few.

Another irony is that while the lawyer has been progressing intellectually over the fifteen years, the banker has been deteriorating financially and morally. He is an unhappy man. At one time the two million rubles he was wagering meant little to him. He tells the lawyer:

"To me two million is a trifle, but you are losing three or four of the best years of your life. I say three or four, because you won't stay longer."

Now that fifteen years have passed, however, the two million the banker stands to lose by noon the next day mean everything. If he has to pay the money he will be bankrupt, and in the meantime he has grown old.

"Cursed bet!" muttered the old man, clutching his head in despair.

Not only has he lost the rest of his millions by "wild speculation," but he has deteriorated morally to such an extent that he is actually planning to commit murder to get out of having to pay the money the prisoner has rightfully won. Moreover, the banker has sunk so low that he is planning to have someone else blamed for the crime and probably sent to Siberia for life.

"If I had the pluck to carry out my intention," thought the old man, "suspicion would fall first upon the watchman."

It might be considered ironic that the man the banker has been keeping imprisoned for fifteen years is described as "a lawyer." If the banker simply refused to pay the money, he would not only be disgraced in the eyes of all the important men who saw him make the bet, but he could be subject to a lawsuit for two million rubles by a man who had legal training and who has been doing nothing but studying books for fifteen years.

When the banker has read the prisoner's note renouncing the money,

...he laid the page on the table, kissed the strange man on the head, and went out of the lodge, weeping. At no other time, even when he had lost heavily on the Stock Exchange, had he felt so great a contempt for himself.

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What types of irony are found in "The Bet" by Anton Chekhov?

Chekhov certainly relies on dramatic irony in "The Bet" because the story is told mostly in flashback.  As it opens, the banker remembers back to the discussion he participated in with the young lawyer 15 years earlier when he made the bet with the lawyer.  The banker knows and the reader eventually discovers that the banker does not have the funds to cover his bet should he lose.  Chekhov, however, uses dramatic irony by providing that information to his readers but not to the lawyer.

Situational irony plays a more significant role in the story.  For example, the lawyer quickly argues that life in prison would be much better than a criminal receiving the death penalty, but in the end after completing his 15-year experiment with "imprisonment," he comes to hate life and solitude and has nothing to live for.  If the lawyer were able to have the same conversation with the banker after his imprisonment, he would have argued that the death penalty would be a more humane punishment.

Another example of situational irony occurs when the lawyer leaves just 15 minutes shy of his 15-year "sentence." One would think that he would just complete his bet and take the money he earned, but he intentionally escapes before the bet is fulfilled. Not only is that aspect ironic, but Chekhov also employs irony when the banker just happens to show up when the lawyer is sleeping and is able to read the lawyer's letter. The letter which describes the lawyer's disdain for his life and essentially his wish to die is actually what prevents the banker from making the lawyer's wish come true (he was plotting to kill the lawyer so that he would not have to pay his debt to him). So, in the end, the lawyer who wants to die unknowingly convinces the man who was planning to kill him not to take his life! 

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What examples of irony are in "The Bet" by Anton Chekhov?

Clearly one central piece of situational irony is the fact that the lawyer decides to lose the bet and forsake his wealth, even though he is literally moments away from winning and he has lived almost the entire time in solitude, according to the bet. This is the premise that this short story is based around - the lawyer through his time of solitude has obviously learned far more about the world and life than the other characters in the novel. Consider what he writes in his letter:

"You may be proud, wise, and fine, but death will wipe you off the face of the earth as though you were no more than mice burrowing under the floor, and your posterity, your history, your immortal geniuses will burn or freeze together with the earthly globe...

To prove to you in action how I despise all that you live by, I renounce the two million of which I once dreamed as of paradise and which now I despise."

The lawyer has learnt the truth of the illusions that we try to project to protect ourselves from the reality of our own fragility, and above all he has learnt the false promise of wealth and paradise that money gives.

How ironic therefore that the banker has obviously not learned this lesson. Note how he responds to reading the letter:

At no other time, even when he had lost heavily on the Stock Exchange, had he felt so great a contempt for himself. When he got home, he lay on his bed, but his tears and emotion kept him for hours from sleeping.

Clearly the words of the lawyer and his resolution to forsake the bet impact the banker deeply at an emotional and fundamental level. Yet note how in the last paragraph, we are told that the banker took the letter which recorded the renunciation of the bet and stored it safely away, in case the lawyer should change his mind. The author ironically shows us that, whilst the lawyer has definitely developed and moved on in his humanity, the banker is just as greedy and doubtful as he ever was, showing, ironically, that whilst the lawyer has overtly lost the bet, it is the banker who is the real loser, because he has not been able to learn from the lawyer and develop in his character.

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How is Chekhov's writing style in "The Bet" considered ironic?

"The Bet" is written in the form of a flashback, which allows for dramatic irony at the expense of the lawyer. Dramatic irony most commonly occurs in instances wherein the audience or a reader is privy to a detail within the narrative that the characters themselves are unaware of.

In the case of "The Bet," the action begins with the banker recalling the bet that he made with the lawyer fifteen years prior. Arguing on the subject of capital punishment, the banker had argued that it was preferable to life imprisonment and had wagered a huge sum of money if the lawyer could submit himself to solitary confinement for fifteen years.

The audience becomes ironically aware at this point that not only is the lawyer an inconsequential amount of time away from winning the bet, but the banker's wealth has diminished over the course of the fifteen years, and he is no longer able to securely make good on the bet should he lose.

None of this information, however, is available to the lawyer, who, after having a spiritual epiphany, becomes rueful of the human experience. Intending to kill the lawyer, the banker finds a note wherein the lawyer announces his intention to forfeit the bet. Relieved and a bit guilty, the banker locks the note in his safe.

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Why is Chekhov's "The Bet" a story of situational irony?

Situational irony is said to occur when there is an incongruity between what is expected to happen and what actually happens instead. In Anton Chekhov's story "The Bet," we see there are striking incongruities between what both the banker and the lawyer expect to happen and what actually happens to them and to each other by the end. The banker felt sure when he made the bet that the lawyer would not be able to tolerate more than a few years of solitary confinement. He tried to talk the other man out of going through with the bet.

"Think better of it, young man, while there is still time. To me two million is a trifle, but you are losing three or four of the best years of your life. I say three or four, because you won't stay longer. Don't forget either, you unhappy man, that voluntary confinement is a great deal harder to bear than compulsory. The thought that you have the right to step out in liberty at any moment will poison your whole existence in prison. I am sorry for you."

However, when the story opens, the entire fifteen years specified in the bet are nearly over and the lawyer is still in solitary confinement in the lodge on the banker's estate. Not only that, but two million rubles are no longer a "trifle" to the banker. He would probably have to give his prisoner all his money and liquidate all his assets, including selling his estate, in order to put together that amount of money. He can't bear the thought of being left destitute at his age. He is even seriously considering murdering his prisoner to get out of paying the debt.

For his part, the lawyer was confident when he made the bet that he would be able to stick it out for fifteen years, and he has done so. In order to pass the time without going crazy, he buried himself in reading. What he didn't anticipate was that fifteen years of solitary study and meditation have changed him into a different man. His sole motivation when he made the bet was to collect a lot of money and live in luxury for the remainder of his life. Instead, he has come to despise money, and he intends to forfeit the bet and the two million rubles just to show that material things are worthless.

The final situational irony in the story is that when the banker goes into the lodge to murder the prisoner, he finds it is completely unnecessary to do so. He can keep his two million rubles and continue to live his life of vanity. The lawyer has even left him documentary evidence that he is forfeiting the bet:

Next morning the watchmen ran in with pale faces, and told him they had seen the man who lived in the lodge climb out of the window into the garden, go to the gate, and disappear. The banker went at once with the servants to the lodge and made sure of the flight of his prisoner. To avoid arousing unnecessary talk, he took from the table the writing in which the millions were renounced, and when he got home locked it up in the fireproof safe.

The story is told entirely from the banker's point of view. The dramatic conflict is his. He has been tormented for fifteen years because the lawyer astonished him by remaining imprisoned. The banker knows he is morally and legally obligated to pay the two million rubles, but he can't bring himself to part with everything he owns. His conflict is resolved when he finds the lawyer doesn't care a bit about the money. The banker can keep his estate and his servants, but he will have to live with the realization that he was willing to become a murderer to preserve his wealth.

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