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Critical analysis of the bet by anton chekhov
Critical analysis of the bet by anton chekhov
Critical analysis of the bet by anton chekhov
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Though Anton Chekhov's "The Bet" was written in a different country at a different time, it portrays a timeless theme; greed is a crippling trait of mankind. This message can be seen through the author's use of characterization of both the lawyer and the banker. The banker was a static character; he was greedy from start to finish. The lawyer was a dynamic character and he saw the wrong in his ways and changed them in the end. The author portrayed the banker as a foolish and greedy man, and since Chekhov characterized him as static, he never changed. His inability to alter his ways resulted in him making an extraordinarily rash bet and later on him wanting to kill a man in cold blood. “That is not true! I bet you two million that you wouldn’t even last five years in a cell on your own” (Chekhov 960). In this quote the banker bet two million ruble on a wager made in less than two minutes; he never stopped to think about things in the long term. As a result, he let a young, naïve man, the lawyer, spend fifteen years in solitary confinement. The banker was so sure that he would win that he was willing to bet a fortune on it and when it came time to lose his money, he couldn’t. The author conveyed the banker as a person who couldn’t change via his use of characterization through dialogue. Through Chekhov’s use of the banker’s words the reader could infer the he was frozen in his avarice. It was only the beginning of his life when the banker made the bet but the author portrayed his character in such a way that the reader could deduce that he would never change. “To put paid to any unnecessary disputes later on he picked up the sheet with the renunciation from the table, turned to the house and locked it in his fireproof safe” (964). ... ... middle of paper ... ...and he ultimately realized that mankind is foolish. After fifteen years of reading, the lawyer became so wise that he rose above greed and foolishness and lived the lives of a thousand men. He saw that mankind is truly on the wrong path and did not wish to be part of it. Though the lawyer did not speak in the end, the author’s use of the characterization through thoughts let the reader see how dynamic the lawyer was as he was able to change his ways in the end. Chekhov used characterization to put forward the message that greed is a truly crippling trait of mankind. Through both the actions and dialogue of the banker the reader saw how greed causes man to behave. Via the dialogue and thoughts of the dynamic character, the lawyer, the reader realized the awful results of avarice. Greed is a timeless theme that, throughout history, has had a perpetually poor outcome.
This novel depicts greed on several occasions through out the novel. One example of this is when Gatsby is left twenty five thousand dollars by Dan Cody as a legacy, but from what one is led to believe Ella Kaye refused to let
He abandons omniscience, the story’s main narration style, and writes in the first-person: “The hero of my story, whom I love with all my heart and soul, whom I have attempted to portray in all his beauty and who has always been, is now and always will be supremely magnificent, is truth” (Tolstoy 109 [1986]). Unlike many literary works, there is no analysis needed in order to uncover Tolstoy’s primary message — he directly expresses to readers that truth is the center of the text. Essentially, the story’s characters, settings, and plot are merely vehicles Tolstoy manipulates to bring him to this final sentence where the central theme is revealed; everything in the piece ties back to the concept and central theme of truth. Some might say this ending degrades the story’s literary appeal because it does not allow for a clean resolution, but in many ways, this proclamation serves as the story’s climax. In this moment, the veil of fiction is lifted away from the reader’s eyes and only then can they see the story clearly.
Money can cause people to act selfish and arrogant, especially when they have so much money they do noteven know what to spend it on. In the novel,
While Herman Melville’s lawyer in "Bartleby, the Scrivener" appears to have undergone a significant change in character by the story’s completion, the fact remains that the story is told through (the lawyer’s) first-person point-of-view. This choice of narration allows the lawyer not only to mislead the reader, but also to color himself as lawful and just. In the lawyer’s estimate, the reader is to view him as having not only made an effort to "save" Bartleby, but as a man who has himself changed for the good, ethically speaking. What the lawyer fails to acknowledge in his retelling of events is his inability to communicate with Bartleby not because of Bartleby’s shortcomings, but because of his own. The lawyer’s perception of "man" is tainted, for he does not view people as individuals, but as tools -- as possessing a usefulness and/or function. He is not attempting to reach the soul of a man; rather, he is attempting to exploit the use of a machine.
In Chapter 4 of a book titled Escape from Freedom, the famous American psychologist Erich Fromm wrote that "Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction" (Fromm 98). Fromm realized that avarice is one of the most powerful emotions that a person can feel, but, by its very nature, is an emotion or driving force that can never be satisfied. For, once someone obtains a certain goal, that person is not satisfied and continues to strive for more and more until that quest leads to their ultimate destruction. For this reason, authors have embraced the idea of greed in the creation of hundreds of characters in thousands of novels. Almost every author has written a work centered around a character full of avarice. Ian Fleming's Mr. Goldfinger, Charles Dickens' Scrooge, and Thomas Hardy's John D'Urberville are only a few examples of this attraction. But, perhaps one of the best examples of this is found in William Shakespeare's King Lear. Edmund, through his speech, actions, and relationships with other characters, becomes a character consumed with greed to the point that nothing else matters except for the never-ending quest for status and material possessions.
The lawyer, although an active member of society, alienates himself by forming walls from his own egotistical and materialistic character. The lawyer asserts, "All who know me consider me an eminently safe man" (Melville 131). The narrator is a very methodical and prudent man and has learned patience by working with others, such as Turkey, Ginger Nut, and Nippers. However, the lawyer's constant concern with his own self-approval cheapens his benevolence toward Bartleby. In fact, the lawyer is not able to see the desperate plight of Bartleby due to his unwavering concern of what the scrivener can do for the lawyer's self-approval instead of what he can do for Bartleby. In this sense, the lawyer's "wall" is a sort of safety net for his own ego. He does not allow Bartleby's irrationality to affect him because he does not believe that such a thing exists or matters. His materialistic sense does not acknowledge Bartleby's mental p...
Melville intends something less black and white with more gray shading. Melville uses dramatic irony and grim humor in “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street. This is to show the reader how the Lawyer assumes he is a safe, successful and powerful man with extensive control in his polite society until he hires a man named Bartleby. This relationship is slowly revealed to be quite a conundrum for the Lawyer and the reader. Melville shows how the Lawyer never had any power or control over Bartleby but quite the opposite; Bartleby held all the power and control in this relationship. I will explore the important of the power struggle and the fight to maintain control between the Lawyer and Bartleby.
In reading the short story The Lady With The Pet Dog by Anton Chekhov and A Respectable Woman by Kate Chopin one can see key similarities of the two works. The short story by Anton Checkov deals with a man and a woman who are both married but regardless of this fact they fall in love with each other and have a secret affair. The short story by Kate Chopin deals with a married woman who is tempted to have an affair with one of her husbands friends, but she resist unlike the characters in The Lady With The Pet Dog. Both of the works deal with the fact that each of the characters are involved in committed relationships, but they are tempted to cheat in their relationships.
Anton Chekhov denied that any of his stories were autobiographical fiction, yet much of his work clearly grew out of his own experiences. From “An Attack of Nerves” to “Three Years,” different aspects of his life were incorporated throughout his stories. Each stage of Chekhov’s life made an impact in the tales he told.
The lawyer and Pahom are the main characters in two different stories. They share the common goal of becoming wealthy men and through reading we learn that they will do anything to reach their objectives. “The Bet” gives little information on the lawyer in the story, so it is difficult to analyze who he really was. Money is no doubt his greatest motivator, but his eagerness to take on this bet also raises some questions. Anyone who agrees to a bet that will completely limit your life for the next fifteen years in exchange for two million rubles, which is probably a lot but no one who has a life knows what a ruble is, must be an irrational thinker....
In addition, Chekhov also utilizes allegory, imagery and symbolism. The Geisha, for example, serves as an a...
...to figure out who Bartleby is. Pinsker also mentions that the lawyer fear of having to confront the isolation and loneliness is the reason behind him wanting to reach out to Bartleby. In some manner I think that the lawyer and Bartleby are alike. In the text its talks about how the lawyer went to Wall Street and found Bartleby in the office. Suggesting that both the lawyer and Bartleby are lonely individuals.
(Chekhov 1889) He contrasted sharply with his lawyer, In order to show the great change after reading books. As for the old banker, this character has been chosen perfectly. The bank is represented the money and benefits. Also the banker can entirely represent or suggest the people who are value fame and money. Although he was moved by the letter written by lawyer, and felt embarrassed, he still chose to hide the letter in order to prevent others from talking about his gossip, or avoiding the imprisoned person came back to ask him for money. The result of the story is rational. Compared with the young lawyer, the old bankers cannot lose fame and money at the end. Because these two things have been deeply rooted in his mind, through almost all his life. Actually we can feel that the end of the story expresses the irony to the
In “The Bet”, the Banker explains that "the death penalty is more moral and more humane than imprisonment for life. Capital punishment kills a man at once, but lifelong imprisonment kills him slowly. Which executioner is the more humane, he who kills you in a few minutes or he who drags the life out of you through the course of many years?" "The death penalty and the lifelong imprisonment are equally immoral, but if I had to choose between the death penalty and imprisonment for life, I would certainly choose the second. To live anyhow is better than not at all." (Anton Chekhov, 1-2,5). In this quote, the Banker and the Lawyer are having a discussion to prove that the death penalty is better or worse than imprisonment for life and the Lawyer is very positive with life imprisonment but the Banker is very negative about the subject. When the Lawyer chooses the second option, everyone thought that it is not a happy life he will be living. For the Banker, he is worried, as he is pessimistic about the idea. The Banker thinks that the Lawyer will never be able to win the bet. The bet entails that he must be in prison for fifteen years without having any contact with world but is able to use anything from the world as he likes wine, smoking, and reading books. The reason why he is giving the Lawyer whatever he wants is that the Lawyer would not be able to blame him if he loses the bet, but the Banker
Dostoyevsky portrays Luzhin as his most disliked character and makes him a symbol of everything Dostoyevsky hates in human kind – self-importance and extreme insincerity. Luzhin’s ideas are disliked by all, but especially Raskolnikov. Luzhin speaks in a businesslike t...