Kenneth Nacion November 24, 2010

IB-B Mr. Nicolay

Setting of The Bet

Authors often use the setting of their stories to convey the mood and elicit

a certain emotion from the reader. Sometimes, the setting not only provides a

background to the story, but it also drives the whole plot forward, with the events

directly correlating to the time, place and historical period of the story. An

example of this is “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov.

From the first sentence of the story, “It was a dark autumn night.” (1),

Chekhov gives the story a gloomy mood. He also sets the whole story as a

prelude to something worse that will happen in the future by having it in autumn,

since autumn comes before winter, which most often gives a depressing tone to

the story. In the 2nd sentence, “The old banker was pacing from corner to corner

of his study recalling to his mind the party he gave in the autumn fifteen years

before.”(1), the time of the story suddenly shifts fifteen years back in time, in the

memory of the old banker. The 6th sentence gives a clue on the country where

the story is taking place when it said, “They found it obsolete as a means of

punishment unfitted to a Christian State, and immoral.” (1) From here, it is easy

to see that the story is taking place in a religious country, having people and a

government that adheres to the beliefs of Christianity. Just from the first

paragraph, the author was already able to set the whole flow of the story. The

gloomy and somewhat hopeless tone was given; the trend of the story to shift

back and forth from the present to the past was set, and the place and also the

societal values of the people were given. The world of the story was created.
Kenneth Nacion November 24, 2010
IB-B Mr. Nicolay
In the 13th to the 15th paragraph, the story shifted its time again from the

past to the present, when the old banker regretted his past action, and back to

the past again, when he remembered the stipulations of the bet. The exact time

of the story is then given in paragraph 15 when it said, “The agreement provided

for all the minutest details, which made the confinement strictly solitary, and

obliged the lawyer to remain exactly fifteen years, beginning from 12 o’clock of

November 14, 1870, and ending at 12 o’clock of November 14, 1885.” (15) Since

the banker is restless, it can be inferred that it is now nearing 12 o’clock of

November 14, 1885, the time when the lawyer completes his side of the bet and

the banker has to pay him the millions he had staked.

Paragraphs 16-20 outline the time of confinement of the lawyer. As the

years of his confinement dwindled down, the changes in the lawyer became

more evident. It presented a character that evolved as he grew older and

possibly more insane in solitary confinement.

In paragraphs 25-26, the exact time of the story and how close it is to the

end of the bet is shown, and the dark, cold, and rainy atmosphere suggests that

the time of ruin for the banker is coming. Finally, after the banker discovers that

the lawyer is not completing his side of the bet, the story ends in the morning,

which signifies hope, since the banker does not end up in the financial ruin he

imagined himself in.

In the story, the time jumps from one part of the fifteen-year period to
Kenneth Nacion November 24, 2010
IB-B Mr. Nicolay
another, and the place dictated the hopeless mood conveyed. This is similar to

Mother Courage, where the events jumped from one point to another in the

future, and the backdrop of constant war and suffering produced an alienating

effect on the reader.