Is money all that matters in our lives? Well that is what most of us think. In our lives people think that money matters a lot. People often think that if we would have all of this money that we could dream of, then we would be different and could be something that we would want to be, accomplishing our dreams. But the truth is no. We have gotten to realize that money shouldn't affect what we are and if we enjoy our lives or not. In the story “The Bet” by. Anton Chekhov teaches the reader that money doesn't change who you are and what you would do through the character, symbol, setting,and irony.

To begin with “The Bet,” talks about how money doesn't change you  through character. The main character is the lawyer he teaches the reader that money isn't what matters in our lives by what he writes in his letter. He described how while sitting in prison, he went places he did things but it was through writing and books. “ I have sung songs, I have hunted stags and wild boars in the forests, I have loved women ….beauties as ethereal as clouds created by the magic of your poets and geniuses.”(215) He has done all of this without money and he was in prison he was trying to figure out who he was. That is how the author shows that money doesn't matter through the character.

Next, “The Bet” shows that money doesn’t matter through the symbols that are shown in the story. The lawyer he has learned so much throughout the fifteen years of sitting in prison that he has realized what a small part of life money plays and that we have gotten to stop making money define us. To prove that money doesn’t define him he renounces of it and says that he won’t take it. “ I renounce of the two million of which I once dreamed of as paradise and which now I despise.”(216) He thought that money could make his life a paradise and then he realizes that he doesn’t need money for that. That’s how “The bet,” by. Anton Chekhov teaches the reader that money doesn't define you through the symbol.

Then the author shows that money doesn’t matter through setting. The lawyer’s setting was in a old lodge. He didn’t get to see the outside or be outside all he could do was sit in one room for fifteen years and he said that he is wiser than all of them and that while being in this small room he has been doing useful things that he didn’t need money for. Explain supporting point in your own words. “It was decided that the young man should spend the years of his captivity under the strictest supervision in one of the lodges in the banker garden.”(212).
He stayed here yet he has been through lots and learned that nothing in this life matters and just what you are and can make of yourself without money. That's how the author proves that money doesn't matter through setting.

Lastly the author shows how money doesn't matter is through the plot of the story. In the plot of the story the lawyer and banker both valued money. The lawyer even agreed fifteen years of his life for two million. “ It’s not true! I’ll bet you two million you wouldn't stay in a solitary confinement for five years.”(212) “ I’ll take the bet, but I would stay not five, but fifteen years.”(212) This shows the reader how much money matters to people before they realize that it really isn't what should matter in our lives. The lawyer adored money so much that he took fifteen years of his freedom away from himself. The author shows tells by “The bet,” by. Anton Chekhov teaches the reader that money doesn't matter through plot.

That is how “The bet,” by. Anton Chekhov describes that money shouldn't define us and does not matter through character, symbol, setting and plot. First the character, lawyer shows that money doesn't matter when after fifteen years in prison he decided to lose the bet and not take the two million. Then symbol of the story is that money should not define us and who we are when the lawyer renounces of the two million. The setting proves that money doesn't matter when the lawyer had to stay in prison he didn't need money to have to enjoy his life in a prison, he enjoyed it through books. Music and singing. Lastly, the plot of the story proves that money doesn't matter when the lawyer decided to sit in prison for fifteen years but after all of that he doesn't take the two million. Money it is not what should define us. It shouldn't stop us from doing things that we dream of and enjoying our lives. Enjoy your life and don't allow money be the definition of you.