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Captivity and Freedom
“The Bet” examines the nature of freedom and captivity, demonstrating that a free body and a free mind are not necessarily the same. Despite losing all contact with the outside world, the lawyer views his time in captivity as liberating. He describes himself as living many lives vicariously through books. Ultimately, the lawyer declares that he despises freedom, implicitly because he believes that what the rest of the world views as freedom is actually captivity to illusions about what matters. The lawyer believes that in his deep study and renunciation of human society, his mind has become freer than it was when he had his freedom. Nevertheless, the tone of the story doesn’t appear to completely endorse the lawyer’s epiphany because he seems miserable. Instead of finding peace and freedom in his newfound understanding, he appears furious and contemptuous, ready for death.
Meanwhile, the banker spends the fifteen-year duration of the bet with his freedom, but his greed in growing his wealth leaves him indebted, trapped in a prison of his own making. He describes himself as “gambling” on stocks, using the language of addiction to emphasize how he is trapped in his inability to stop. He is furthermore imprisoned in his belief that the loss of two million rubles would be so ruinous to his life that only killing the lawyer would free him. Whereas he has spent the last fifteen years playing the role of jailer, he now has placed himself in the role of executioner. As he observes, captivity kills the spirit, and his fear over his debts has killed his empathy.
Life and Existence
The central issue of the titular bet is less about criminal justice and more about the value of life and existence itself. The banker’s assertion that the death penalty is more humane because captivity “kills by degrees,” demonstrates a world view that life must be enjoyable to be worth living. The lawyer, on the other hand, believes that life itself has value, even if it is miserable. Over the course of his time in captivity, the lawyer appears to change his mind completely. His letter declares a belief that humanity wastes their time on the material and ephemeral when everything ultimately dies, and only heaven is eternal. He expresses a complete disdain for life itself. However, his expression of this position is different from the banker’s, which focuses on quality of life. Instead, the lawyer’s philosophy has become almost akin to that of Medieval Christianity, asserting that life has no value because only heaven is eternal. Any pleasure in life, according to the lawyer, is a worldly mirage. Meanwhile, the banker’s pursual of quality of life—aiming for higher and higher market returns—has not only left him destitute but murderous. By the end, neither man has found existential value in their lives from this bet, only isolation and loss.
Greed
Money has a profound effect on the banker and lawyer’s behavior throughout the story, always for the worse. As the banker later reflects, the bet proves nothing about the underlying question of life imprisonment versus capital punishment. Rather, the entire wager is driven by his own caprice and the lawyer’s greed. The lawyer agrees to take the bet in the first place because of the promise of two million rubles. The prospect of that much money causes him to renounce the outside world entirely on a whim, sacrificing fifteen years of his life. The casual overconfidence with which he approaches the bet suggests that money has made him reckless. Meanwhile, the banker’s actions in the story are influenced by his materialistic view of the world. He loses his fortune because of “gambling on the Stock-Exchange” and “risky speculation,” implying he invested thoughtlessly, only considering the prospect of large financial wins. He is even willing to kill the lawyer over the two million rubles. Greed ultimately costs both characters spiritually, changing their lives for the worse.
