Of course, strictly speaking, the lawyer has lost the bet, as he chooses deliberately to break the terms five minutes before he would actually win the bet, as the note tells the banker. This means that based on the conditions that they agreed upon, the banker actually wins the bet.
Full Answer
I think that the lawyer won the bet, he remained in the prison, as he said he would. He accomplished his end of the bargain, while the banker, was left for 15 years to prepare to pay the money, and ends up in financial trouble, trying to find a way out of the bet.
While morally, the young lawyer won the bet as he could have easily stayed another 5 hours, he lost the bet because he proved the banker right in that it was inhumane to be in solitary confinement for 15 years. Like this answer? eNotes educators offer personalized private tutoring.
The banker notes that the lawyer is so emaciated by the end of his sentence that he is hard to look at, prematurely aged, and appears ill. This outward appearance contrasts with the lawyer’s own belief that he has bettered himself. He ultimately renounces the bet by escaping his cell just five hours before he would be awarded his winnings.
The lawyer who was shut away for fifteen years won the bet in the moral sense. In his letter to the banker, he states that though it was difficult at first to endure the solitary confinement, after a few years, he began to read in earnest. His reading opened his mind and gave him wisdom.
The banker wins the bet. The attorney escapes the night before he is to win the bet. He writes a letter to the banker in which he explains his...
Taking this idea as the bet, it was shown at the end of the story that the lawyer lost the bet. The rule was clearly stated, “The slightest attempt on his part to break the conditions, if only two minuets before the end, released the banker from the obligation to pay him two millions” (2).
At the end of Anton Chekhov's "The Bet", the lawyer survives the 15 years in prison but refuses to take the money.
They agreed to a bet: if the lawyer could spend fifteen years in total isolation, the banker would pay him two million rubles. The lawyer would have no direct contact with any other person, but could write notes to communicate with the outside world and receive whatever comforts he desired.
What is the outcome/result of "the bet"? the lawyer states that despises mankind and everything about the material world and mankind. He leaves right before his time is up and does not win the $2 million.
To deprive myself of the right to the money I shall go out from here five hours before the time fixed, and so break the compact ..." The banker is saved from ruin when the guard tells him that the man did leave five hours early. Taking the letter, the banker places it in the safe. The bet is over.
Moved by the lawyer's letter, the banker kisses the prisoner and leaves to go home, feel bad about himself, and have a good cry. Meanwhile, the lawyer sneaks out of the room early. Finally, the banker takes the letter that rejects that money and hides it away in his safe as evidence.
The resolution resolution to "The Bet" is when the banker goes to the lodge the morning after finding the note, and he learns that the lawyer had escaped, and that he got to keep his two million dollars.
How does the lawyer provoke the banker's decision to place the bet? The lawyer questions whether or not the banker has the money to make a worthwhile bet with him. The lawyer suggests that the banker doesn't have the courage to place such a risky bet against him.
25 years oldJust 25 years old when he attends the banker's party at the beginning of the story, the lawyer initially asserts that life-imprisonment is far preferable to capital punishment.
two million dollarsThe banker puts on the line two million dollars compared to the lawyer's life worth of fifteen years. For the next fifteen years the lawyer was placed in the banker's backyard without the knowledge of the outside world.
The banker wants to prove his point that the death penalty is more humane than life imprisonment. What is the banker's motivation for suggesting the bet? The lawyer wants to prove that life imprisonment is more human than the death penalty and collect $2,000,000.
The banker notes that the lawyer is so emaciated by the end of his sentence that he is hard to look at, prematurely aged, and appears ill. This outward appearance contrasts with the lawyer’s own belief that he has bettered himself.
(full context) In the tenth year, the lawyer reads only the New Testament. In the next two years, he reads haphazardly and randomly,... (full context)
All the wisdom from the books, writes the lawyer, is condensed into a little lump in his skull. He has become cleverer than almost... (full context) The lawyer has come to hold people who appreciate earthly things in contempt, and as such he... (full context) The banker has begun to cry.
The Lawyer Character Analysis. The Lawyer. Just 25 years old when he attends the banker’s party at the beginning of the story, the lawyer initially asserts that life-imprisonment is far preferable to capital punishment.
Part 2. It is fifteen years later and the eve of the lawyer ’s release. The banker is distraught because he cannot afford to pay the two million rubles. ... (full context) The old banker fears that the lawyer will, having won the bet, become wealthy, marry, and enjoy life the same way he... (full context)