Situational irony is said to occur when there is an incongruity between what is expected to happen and what actually happens instead. In Anton Chekhov's story "The Bet," we see there are striking incongruities between what both the banker and the lawyer expect to happen and what actually happens to them and to each other by the end. The banker felt sure when he made the bet that the lawyer would not be able to tolerate more than a few years of solitary confinement. He tried to talk the other man out of going through with the bet.
"Think better of it, young man, while there is still time. To me two million is a trifle, but you are losing three or four of the best years of your life. I say three or four, because you won't stay longer. Don't forget either, you unhappy man, that voluntary confinement is a great deal harder to bear than compulsory. The thought that you have the right to step out in liberty at any moment will poison your whole existence in prison. I am sorry for you."
However, when the story opens, the entire fifteen years specified in the bet are nearly over and the lawyer is still in solitary confinement in the lodge on the banker's estate. Not only that, but two million rubles are no longer a "trifle" to the banker. He would probably have to give his prisoner all his money and liquidate all his assets, including selling his estate, in order to put together that amount of money. He can't bear the thought of being left destitute at his age. He is even seriously considering murdering his prisoner to get out of paying the debt.
For his part, the lawyer was confident when he made the bet that he would be able to stick it out for fifteen years, and he has done so. In order to pass the time without going crazy, he buried himself in reading. What he didn't anticipate was that fifteen years of solitary study and meditation have changed him into a different man. His sole motivation when he made the bet was to collect a lot of money and live in luxury for the remainder of his life. Instead, he has come to despise money, and he intends to forfeit the bet and the two million rubles just to show that material things are worthless.
The final situational irony in the story is that when the banker goes into the lodge to murder the prisoner, he finds it is completely unnecessary to do so. He can keep his two million rubles and continue to live his life of vanity. The lawyer has even left him documentary evidence that he is forfeiting the bet:
Next morning the watchmen ran in with pale faces, and told him they had seen the man who lived in the lodge climb out of the window into the garden, go to the gate, and disappear. The banker went at once with the servants to the lodge and made sure of the flight of his prisoner. To avoid arousing unnecessary talk, he took from the table the writing in which the millions were renounced, and when he got home locked it up in the fireproof safe.
The story is told entirely from the banker's point of view. The dramatic conflict is his. He has been tormented for fifteen years because the lawyer astonished him by remaining imprisoned. The banker knows he is morally and legally obligated to pay the two million rubles, but he can't bring himself to part with everything he owns. His conflict is resolved when he finds the lawyer doesn't care a bit about the money. The banker can keep his estate and his servants, but he will have to live with the realization that he was willing to become a murderer to preserve his wealth.
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