The Gambler

Events and relationships in The Gambler are dominated by questions of wealth and social status. Strict norms surrounding social hierarchy frame many interactions and conflicts in the narrative, including the way the aristocratic general speaks to Alexey (a tutor), decisions about whom Polina and Blanche will marry, and the importance of Grandmother’s illness and the money she will leave behind.

When Alexey insults a baroness at Polina’s behest, the scandal that ensues is directly related to the asymmetry in their social positions. It is not only that what he says to a stranger, “I have the honor to be your slave” (159), is a violation of social etiquette. Rather, it is also that an impoverished tutor speaks these words to a wealthy and important aristocrat. Indeed, it would have been a scandal for Alexey to approach and say anything to the baroness. This is why the baron will not deign to talk directly to Alexey afterward and why the general is afraid of Alexey approaching the baron himself. Who is allowed to talk or apologize to whom, let alone who can marry or befriend another, is strictly regulated by ideas of status and hierarchy.

In this regard, The Gambler reflects, and comments on, European society of the time. In the mid-19th century, especially for the middle and upper classes, Europe was a place of elaborate social convention and performance. How one was supposed to behave and what one could say depended on one’s status and the perceived status of one’s interlocutor. Further, this was a world where “name” and “reputation” were of paramount import, distinctions that recur throughout the narrative. Conformity to these norms, and the hierarchies embedded in them, was policed by the ever-present threat of “scandal” and the fear of social ostracization.

However, as The Gambler also highlights, the foundations of these norms were becoming increasingly unstable. Much of the hierarchy, as seen with the reverence given to barons, counts, and princes, was still rooted in aristocratic names and titles, and to the ownership of land. However, an emergent class of capitalists and factory owners increasingly challenged this feudal order. The latter, as represented by figures like Mr. Astley, were becoming wealthier than their aristocratic peers, like the general. This threatened traditional ideas of social hierarchy, which had been based upon the simple identification of wealth with rank. In practice, as seen in The Gambler, progressive integration and intermarrying of capitalist and feudal orders in Europe resolved these tensions. For example, the almost bankrupted aristocrat, Polina, ends up with the factory-owning Astley. Roulette embodies the fear of this change on the part of the old feudal order. Namely, roulette encapsulates the worry that anyone might be able to become rich, thereby upsetting the long-established social order and the hierarchies on which it is based.