Material Existence And Ignorance In The Bet By Anton Chekhov

Some people want to lose all of their human characteristics. Whether it is replacing a body part with a robotic one to become a cyborg, or enhancing their senses with external supplements, the possibilities are endless as mankind strives to phase out of its natural form. But maybe there’s another way to lose humanity. In “The Bet”, Anton Chekhov decides to go a different route to change somebody human into a cold, calculating being. By making a bet and putting a lawyer into fifteen years of solitary confinement, the banker, without a clue, strips the lawyer of his humanity. As the lawyer is in prison, different changes happen to him and several themes arise. In “The Bet”, Anton Chekhov discusses the theme of material existence and ignorance through the passage of

the prisoner’s solitary confinement and his final letter to the banker.
The subject of material existence and ignorance is discussed in the story, but the reader must know what they are. Materialism is the belief that what someone has in the world right now is the thing that matters. A materialist believes in what someone has, not their virtues or goals. Materialism clashes with spiritualism, the philosophy that the important life comes from within, seeking a better life, and the two ideas become present in the view of the prisoner. According to Bowdoin College’s analysis of Karl Marx’s opinions on materialism, “Material activity that a person engages in, day in and day out, determines his or her very existence”(Murthy 1). That being said, a materialistic perspective of the world results in different results than a spiritualistic view. What’s more, the prisoner’s rejection of the materialistic world shows the ignorance of the banker.

Ignorance is the term used to describe someone who doesn’t know about something. Ignorance may sound familiar as it is used in the proverb, “Ignorance is Bliss”. According to the dictionary, “Not knowing something is often more comfortable than knowing it” (Dictionary 1). The banker lacks the knowledge of the prisoner, and he lacks the prisoner’s time and ability to think over materialism, but the banker has what the prisoner doesn’t, which is emotion. The two characters are both ignorant in their own ways. The prisoner lacks emotional depth while the banker lacks intelligence. Whoever is right is up to the reader and their own views on life.

Through the prisoner’s passage of fifteen years in solitary confinement, the author had begun to reveal the themes that would become so important in the rest of the story. When the prisoner first comes into imprisonment, the books that he read are described as “principally of a light character; novels with a complicated love plot, sensational and fantastic stories”(Chekhov 2). As time goes on, the books that he read become different, changing shape as his personality changes. The banker compares his final book choices to “a man swimming in the sea among the

wreckage of his ship, and trying to save his life by greedily clutching first at one spar and then at another” (Chekhov 7). This is quite important as it leads us to the predominant theme in the story: material existence. What happens is as the lawyer lives his life out with tangible presence of himself and with no other intelligent “thing” except for his books, he begins to lose the essence of human life. What’s more important is not the surface meaning but the author’s message that you can derive from the clues. The prisoner’s choice of subject matter changes from “light hearted” novels to not reading, then to language, then science, then the gospel, then to random books. The prisoner is trying to find meaning, sometimes with a maniac like attitude observed by the banker, “the prisoner sat immovably at the table and read nothing but the Gospel. It seemed strange to the banker that a man who in four years had mastered six hundred learned volumes should waste nearly a year over one thin book easy of comprehension”. (Chekhov 4). Without a human next to him, he lacks compassion and feeling, turning to “materialistic” books for the answer. When he stops playing piano, it shows that he has left the realm of humanity. He has materialistic tendencies because the importance of emotion and feelings are gone. Ignorance comes into play as seen from the bankers observations and from the sudden change in the prisoner’s reading. The banker is unaware as when the lawyer reads the gospel, the banker does not even begin to comprehend his reasons. The banker is also oblivious of the lawyer and his thoughts by giving unemotional observation and feeding the prisoner all the information possible while not knowing the purpose. The prisoner’s mind begins to take off the “burden” of emotions as he seeks the meaning of life. As he loses his ignorance book by book for knowledge, he becomes ignorant for human emotions and the ideals that man has for life such as love, friendship, or even competition. This lack of understanding puts the banker’s emotional state at odds with the prisoner’s cold calculating personality. This steady progression of differences creates an impassable chasm. What the author feels, the reader will never know, but what’s certain is he is trying to represent two opposites. One of intelligence and indifference and one of greed and depression.
These traits never become so evident until the banker reads the prisoner’s letter to him. In the letter, the prisoner details his “wonderful adventures” to the banker. But even as he describes the events, the reader can begin to feel the sarcastic tone of the prisoner. After the descriptions which include, “[singing] songs,…[climbing] to the peaks of Elburz and Mont Blanc”, the prisoner, in one deft movement rejects everything (Chekhov 8). “I despise freedom and life and health” , he says (Chekhov 8). But the key observation to keep note of here is the fact that all that he has experienced is confined to the land of books, the land of where written words become the reality, the gateway, or the portal to another dimension. But even the grandest thoughts someone can muster will never match even the weakest, dullest sensory perception. Thus, through life in prison, the prisoner becomes hateful to the materialistic world that he had experienced. His physical appearance, “hair streaked with silver, and seeing his emaciated, aged-looking face, no one would have believed that he was forty” supports the theme (Chekhov 7). He rejects the materialistic, and his transformation shows his scrawniness, his lack of feeling. It’s as if he’s gone. The person there before is now no more. Even though the prisoner “learns” that materialism is “bad” and that money and love is useless, he becomes ignorant of the aspects that makes human: emotion and reason. He says “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” (Chekhov 7). But what he has missed is the fact that people aren’t just there to die or make an impact. Humans love each other, they care, they like to succeed; the impact doesn’t matter. Through his imprisonment, the inmate forgets these essential attributes to mankind and the lives of everyone. He calls everyone ignorant, but the person who is ignorant is the prisoner.
Through the lawyer’s time in solitary confinement and his final letter detailing his experiences, Anton Chekhov explores the themes of material existence and ignorance. These two themes are challenged by the prisoner and the banker’s different ideals. While the banker looks for money, the prisoner looks for meaning. Who is right? “The Bet” is a terrifying take on the transformation of a greedy lawyer. Chilling, the book will make you shiver and question your ethics.