The mood of the “The Bet” shifts from lighthearted to dark and fraught, ultimately ending in a more settled—yet still uncomfortable—place. At the beginning of the story, the banker and the lawyer are at a party with friends, having a “lively discussion” and ultimately making a “wild, ridiculous bet.” Though this is an enormous decision, both men are excited to see who will win—is the lawyer right that any life is better than no life, or is the banker correct in believing that slowly dying is worse than death?
The story’s first big shift in mood occurs 15 years (and just a couple pages) later, when the banker realizes he either has to kill the lawyer or lose all of his remaining fortune. As he creeps into the lawyer’s secluded wing and opens the door, “the rusty lock [gives] a hoarse groan and the door creak[s]”—language that enhances the eerie, tense mood.
When the banker finds the lawyer’s letter to him and reads its harsh, condemning message (in which he states that he has realized the meaninglessness of life and wealth and will therefore leave five minutes before he officially wins the bet), the mood becomes even more fraught. Not only is the lawyer is angry and embittered, but the banker, too, is suddenly overwhelmed with new feelings. Here is how the narrator captures it:
Never at any other time, not even after his terrible losses on the Exchange, had he felt such contempt for himself as now. Coming home, he lay down on his bed, but agitation and tears kept him long from sleep.
Clearly the banker is feeling something intense in this moment, but what is it? Gratitude that he won’t lose two million rubles? Despair at what the lawyer said about the human condition? Shame about the fact that he was so greedy he was willing to kill a man? Chekhov leaves it ambiguous for a moment before one final mood shift—when the banker wakes up and finds the lawyer gone, his emotions also disappear. He hides the letter “to avoid unnecessary rumors,” and that's that. This abrupt return to “normalcy” leaves readers feeling unsettled, wondering if the banker’s greed has overcome him again and if he will live his life acting like none of this ever occurred.
