25 pages • 50 minutes read
Anton ChekhovThe Bet
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1889A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Books
The motif of books supports the theme of theoretical knowledge versus experience, exemplifying the first of the terms in the dichotomy. The lawyer thinks that books have taught him everything there is to know about life, helping him achieve self-realization and a (false) sense of enlightenment. This motif also supports the theme of confinement, as books are the lawyer’s only companions during his imprisonment. The lawyer’s choice of books signals his evolution, from an avid reader of books “of light content” such as “novels with complex love plots, crime or fantastic stories” and “comedies,” to a reader of more complex content such as the Bible, theology, and sciences (338-39). He jumps from self-indulgence to discipline, erratically searching for meaning. Ultimately, the constant input of knowledge through books, paired with his lack of human contact, leads the lawyer to conclude that he has lived through the pages of those books, a conclusion that reinforces his sense of superiority.
Wine
Wine symbolizes life’s enjoyment and contributes to the recurring theme of theoretical knowledge versus experience, exemplifying the latter. Wine and tobacco are among the few indulgences permitted to the lawyer during his confinement. In his first year as a prisoner, he renounces both substances. In one of his letters, he writes that wine “awakens desires, and desires are a prisoner’s worst enemies” (338). In rejecting wine, the lawyer attempts to dispel the fear of missing the things he’s deprived of. In the fifth year, the lawyer drinks wine and doesn’t read any books. Wine makes him express his emotions—he talks angrily, writes, and weeps. After that, there is no more mention of wine, and the lawyer focuses exclusively on studying serious topics, having made a definitive choice of theoretical knowledge over life experience.
The Safe
The safe is the place where the banker stores the key to the cottage and where he puts the lawyer’s renunciation letter. On the one hand, it represents the banker’s shame lest his acquaintances find out the real reason the lawyer didn’t win the bet (342). On the other hand, the safe could serve as a symbol of the banker’s heart. After reading the renunciation letter, the banker kisses the lawyer on the head and leaves the cottage. As the narrator says, “Never before, not even after losing heavily on the stock market, had he felt such scorn for himself as he did now” (342). Although the letter offers the first-person perspective of the lawyer, the banker is the character whose interiority readers follow. The banker uses the safe to store not the millions he lost due to reckless speculation but the letter in which the lawyer renounces his wealth and declares his scorn for humanity. The banker is, in a sense, storing away a lesson more valuable than money. He has replaced the key to the lawyer’s prison with a key to understanding life.
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By Anton Chekhov
