The Gambler

Chapters 7 through 12 further the thematic element of The Genesis and Consequences of Gambling Addiction. In particular, Dostoyevsky dissects social norms and beliefs surrounding for whom gambling can become a problem. Part of the ideology of gambling, as Alexey observes when first at the tables, is that gambling is only a problem when people do it out of need. Namely, gambling is only a problem for the poor, who gamble to alter their material circumstances or with money that they cannot lose. In contrast, for the wealthy, gambling is nothing more than a harmless diversion. When one can afford to lose what they stake, so the idea goes, gambling is mere entertainment and is neither particularly addictive nor destructive, as it can be for the lower classes. Such a notion is, of course, false. While “gambling as entertainment” legitimizes the industry, suggesting negative consequences result not from the activity itself but from the wrong people doing it in the wrong way, events in The Gambler suggest otherwise.

Mlle Blanche stands as a case in point. Attached to an Italian prince who “was all rings and diamonds” (176), she “drove around in a marvelous carriage” (176) and was part of high society. However, she “lost a considerable sum one evening” (176), a year prior to events in the novel, and her prince abandoned her. Worse, this process repeated itself the next day with a Polish count, who left her after she lost yet more money. Finally, after two days’ time, when “she had lost absolutely everything” (177), Blanche tried to solicit money from Baron Wumerhelm, leading to her expulsion from the Roulettenburg casino altogether.

Blanche’s situation shows that wealth and status do not immunize one against the dangers of gambling. Blanche was addicted to roulette and to the thrill of risking money. This addiction led to her losing vast amounts of her own money and to her jeopardizing her social status, seen first in her abandonment by the prince and the count, then in her ejection from the casino and the town. Indeed, the incident with the baron serves as a metaphor for the depths to which gambling addiction can push someone. The previously proud Blanche humiliates herself in front of others by asking the baron for money, simply so that she can make another bet. In this case, her erstwhile social status or wealth provide no protection once the latter had been exhausted. Further, if Blanche survives without total ruin, it is only by going on to exploit others’ gambling habits. As Astley tells Alexey, “she has capital that she lends at interest to the gamblers here” (178). Her initial addiction leads her into a corrupt, morally questionable business and to a concomitant moral and spiritual decrepitude.

Still, Blanche’s fall from grace pales in comparison to that of Grandmother. Antonida Tarasevich arrives in Roulettenburg almost as a force of nature. Alexey describes her as “formidable and rich […] landowner and grand lady of Moscow […] who was dying and did not die, and who suddenly, in person, appeared […] out of the clear blue sky” (180). The fact that she is 75 and supposedly at death’s door makes her sudden appearance both more forceful and more infused with vitality. This sense of a character so strong that she has cheated death itself is confirmed by her initial behavior on arriving. As Alexey says, “upon meeting any new face she at once took their measure with a curious glance and questioned me loudly about them all” (182). While eccentric and even rude, Grandmother is also independent, forceful, and inquisitive. She questions everything and everyone and has a sharp interest in her surroundings. As she says, “I want to have a look at everything here […] I must have a look, and then we’ll go round all those places” (189), referring to sites around town. At the same time, because of these traits, she commands “universal reverence.”

All this changes once Grandmother starts to gamble. Lured in by the rush of her initial and dramatic success, chasing that high rapidly replaces all other interests. As Alexey notes when she returns to the gaming tables, “she had become obsessed with roulette. To everything else she paid little attention, and in general was extremely absent-minded” (211). In stark contrast to her arrival, she stops asking questions altogether and is indifferent when Alexey points out the baron and baroness. She is no longer inquisitive, and her broad interest in the world is narrowed to a singular one: the roulette wheel, and especially betting on the number zero. The simplicity and apparent ease of the joy that gambling offers at first hijacks and corrupts her character, leading to her alienation from the world. She loses all her money. As with Blanche, her initial wealth provides no defense against the addictive quality of gambling, or the desire to keep staking until it is all gone. As Grandmother herself says, “life’s not worth living if I don’t win it back. Stake!” (213). After returning to life from apparent death, gambling now symbolically brings about a sort of death that illness and age could not. Grandmother’s situation thus highlights even more dramatically than Blanche’s how seductive and ruinous gambling can be. It also shows, against the claims of the gambling industry, how little difference class, status, or strength of character make in the face of this human vice.