If you are a human being, then you’ve probably disagreed with someone before. Disagreements are an important part of life. It helps us share our opinions and understand how others feel. Because disagreement is such a vital part of life, it can be an interesting topic for literature. “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov shows us that nobody wins when excessively stubborn people cross paths because of the irony that the author used, the plot of the story, symbolism used by the author, and the title.

The first thing that leads us to the disagreement theme is the situational irony. The author used situational irony to introduce the theme in a surprising way. The lawyer decides to renounce the money “I renounce the two million” and the banker is unhappy even though he gets the money “At no other time time, even when he had lost heavily on the stock exchange, had he felt so a great contempt for himself”. The author used irony to make both of the main characters look foolish for continuing the argument past the point of reason.

We can also see how the author feels about stubbornness in the plot. The conflict of the story arises when both of the main characters get into an argument. And in the conclusion of the story, neither of them care about the original disagreement at all. On page 2, it states “A lively discussion arose.” This is when the conflict begins. The fact that the conflict of the story does not matter to main characters in the resolution of the story implies that stubbornness can make people care more about the argument itself than what the disagreement was about.

In the story we sometimes see symbolism that makes us think about excessive argument. “The Bet” uses symbolism to convey the theme by having one of the main characters be a lawyer. We know that the young man in the story is a lawyer because on page 2 it says, “Among the guests was a young lawyer.” Since lawyers argue for a living, having one of the main characters be a lawyer in symbolic of arguing in general. So through symbolism, we are directed to the idea of arguing.

It’s easy to tell that stubbornness is an important theme of the story by simply looking at the title. The title of the story refers to the bet made by the banker and the lawyer. The title is “The Bet.” Since there is only one bet made in the story, we know which one it is talking about. Here, the title is referring to a bet that was made to settle an disagreement. The bet was made because both main characters would not accept defeat, and as we see later, the bet turned out to be an awful experience for everyone involved.

In conclusion, “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov shows us that nobody wins when excessively stubborn people cross paths. First, situational irony is used to make both of the main characters look foolish. Second, the conflict and resolution to the story make it seem like making the bet was a bad idea. Third, the author used one of the main character’s profession as a symbol for argument. And last, the title of the story refers to the bet that the characters make because they are both stubborn. What we can learn from “The Bet” is this: when having a disagreement with someone, it’s most important to try to understand their perspective, rather than focusing on “winning” the argument. When both parties focus only on “winning,” everybody loses.