Gambling Theme Analysis

In The Passion, gambling is a fundamental dimension of human experience, not simply a pastime or a vice. Because people do not know the future and have limited control over their own lives, every action they take in the present is a gamble. As narrators Henri and Villanelle remark repeatedly throughout the novel, “You play, you win. You play, you lose. You play.” This maxim suggests that because people have to take action for as long as they are alive—and because even inaction is a form of action—they are condemned to keep “gambling” on the future, whether they win or lose. Yet through the story of Villanelle, the novel further suggests that most people secretly enjoy rather than resent the risky, “gambling” nature of their lives. After Villanelle falls in passionate love with a married woman, the woman with gray-green eyes, she gambles away her literal, physical heart to the woman. Villanelle spends much of the novel trying to steal her heart back—yet when she finally retrieves it, she acknowledges that she will likely gamble it again: the excited impulse to risk what is most valuable to herself is simply too great. Thus, The Passion suggests that gambling is part of human nature not only out of necessity—because we have limited control over and knowledge of the future—but also because, deep down, we love risk.