Question

Write 300-350 words composition to prove that "True happiness lies neither in material possessions nor in knowledge or learning" , in light of the story "the bet".

Answer 1

“The Bet” by Anton Chekhov is a story that gives rise to more questions than it solves, they say and rightly so. This is a truly complex story that keeps the readers wondering throughout the story about what might be the themes or the messages that the writer wants to convey.
Even at the later half of the story people would continue to think that this has something to say about the capital punishment and the imprisonment for life. But the picture starts to change once we are introduced to the lawyer’s letter, or rather, note for the banker where he talks about the knowledge and wisdom he has gathered from all those books in the last fifteen years. Now it looks like the story is shaping up to deliver a message of the superiority of knowledge and wisdom over money or a materialistic life.
But when we advance with that note we find that he is not happy with all his knowledge and wisdom he has achieved through his learnings. Though he feels, he is wiser than all people around him, it does not make him happy. Rather, all his knowledge has brought him is the skepticism towards just about anything and everything. Because of his wisdom he now sees everything as a part of the higher order of this universe and it makes everything look useless, temporary, illusory for him. It is because he knows everything we think, know and do in this life would end with death. That is the greater reality that he has realized with his learnings. This has made him restless and unhappy about everything