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Using relevant incidents in "The Bet" by Chekhov, how would you prove that "true happiness lies neither in material possessions nor in knowledge...

In "The Bet," the moral of the story is that neither material possessions nor knowledge and learning creates true happiness, and this idea is reinforced through the experiences of both the lawyer and the banker. In the case of the lawyer, he dedicates his time in solitary confinement to studying and improving his mind, but his mood suggests that it does not make him happy. In the first year of confinement, for example, he suffers from "loneliness and depression," and in his second year, he often cried. Even towards the end of his confinement, he is not happy, as we can see through his haggard and aged appearance:



"His hair was already streaked with silver, and seeing his emaciated, aged-looking face, no one would have believed that he was only forty."



Similarly, being rich is indeed "futile" and "fleeting" for the banker. While he is rich at the beginning of the story, his wealth has decreased considerably by the end as a result of gambling on the Stock Exchange. As such, he does not want the lawyer to win the bet because it will plunge him into a situation of financial ruin.


Even when the lawyer gives up the money, the banker's happiness is marred by his own self-loathing, demonstrating, above all, that material wealth does not bring happiness:



At no other time, even when he had lost heavily on the Stock Exchange, had he felt so great a contempt for himself. 


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