The Bet is astonishing in its ability to fit so many philosophical questions into a single tale. The first is obvious, the stated question of the morality of capital punishment. Others become more complicated, such as the question of man's ignorance and the danger of too much knowledge. What is even more amazing is Chekhov's ability to present all these topics in such a detached way, without seeming biased at all. Even in his description of the characters and the setting, Chekhov remains very vague and favors neither one side nor the other. It seems to provide the facts of the story and not much else; it lets you decide who is right and who is wrong. The effect of this story is that Chekhov gets away with making the story not very descriptive and detached and this makes this story very ambiguous. There is no good guy or bad guy, just people and conflict. The story begins on a dark autumn night, an eerie setting that appears in many stories. A banker walks back and forth in his office remembering a night 15 years ago, which is obviously important. The story turns into a flashback to that night. The banker threw a party where the hot topic was capital punishment. In the end the banker and a lawyer present at the party made a bet that the lawyer could not remain alone for 15 years and, if he did, the banker would give him 2 million. The rest of the first half of the story goes over what the banker sees the lawyer do during his imprisonment, and the second half brings you to the present just before the lawyer's time runs out. There is something strange about Chekhov's writing throughout the story, his description is almost non-existent. It doesn't seem likely that two people would describe a much more personal story, forcing readers to decide for themselves who is right and who is wrong. The fact that a short story was the medium through which to tell this story is amazing, as it doesn't make it seem lower quality because the details are missing, it seems to fit. Chekhov also remains very neutral in his description of events, allowing the reader to create an even more personal story. Not only does the reader create settings and environments for himself, but his personal beliefs can influence such things as the appearance of characters and their mannerisms. While other writers focus on providing an overabundance of detail, Chekhov remains very cold, not describing or providing prejudice. With this style of writing Chekhov accomplished a great feat in allowing the reader to create their own story, and the short story is perfect for this..