Renouncing the two million is proof because the lawyer is proving that he is a better person than the banker by not taking the money and ruining the bankers life. “To prove to you in action how I despise all that you live by, I renounce the two million of which I once dream as of paradise and that now I despise.” (p 115) 10.)
Full Answer
After arguing against the banker that life imprisonment is not less humane than capital punishment--"to live anyhow is better than not at all"--the banker wages two million rubles that the lawyer cannot stay in solitary confinement for five years.
The lawyer has spent the last fifteen years searching for meaning in life and not found it. Moreover, he feels life is beyond comprehension. So, he writes that he will prove how he despises all that people live by in renouncing "the two million of which I once dreamed as of paradise and which now I despise."
After the tenth year, the lawyer abandons all reading, but the Gospels. Theology and philosophy are his next readings. In the last two years of his confinement, the lawyer reads indiscriminately, choosing Shakespeare, then a medical manual, then philosophy or theology.
The impulsive lawyer is sequestered in the banker's lodge where he can have virtually anything he desires except human companionship. After arguing against the banker that life imprisonment is not less humane than capital punishment--"to live anyhow is better than not at all"--the banker wages two million rubles that the...
Because he had lost a lot of money in the past 15 years through gambling and the Stock Exchange, so giving the lawyer $2 million would ruin him. What kind of writing technique does Chekhov use at the ends of the story when the lawyer leaves the prison early?
How does the lawyer's 15-year imprisonment affect the banker? The banker wishes that he had required the lawyer to stay imprisoned for longer. The banker comes to realize that he was wrong about his stance on life imprisonment. The banker mourns the life and experiences that he has deprived the lawyer of.
- The reason the lawyer says that in his letter is because, according to the lawyer, he realizes through the wisdom he has gained through the books he has read that the blessings of the world are “worthless,” and “illusory,” and that the banker prefers to follow those earthly blessings rather than heaven, “so I marvel ...
In the end of the story, "The Bet," the lawyer despairs of life, and he reneges on the wager with banker. In their bet about which is crueler, live-long imprisonment or capital punishment, the banker and the lawyer wager their futures. The young lawyer argues that life on any terms is better than death.
He had to stay there exactly fifteen years, beginning from 12 o'clock of November 14, 1870, and ending at 12 o'clock of November, 1885. The slightest attempt on his part to break the conditions, if only two minutes before the end, released the banker from the obligation to pay him two millions.
The lawyer told with the arrogance of youth that he can live for 15 years in solitary confinement. The lawyer was allowed to have anything in his confinement except The Human Companionship. He was given books and piano. He was allowed to write letters.
Why does the banker fear being pitied by the lawyer? Because the banker was sure he wasn't going to be able to do it and he is prideful.
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.
The banker certainly wins the bet in terms of the money that he put up. Because the lawyer left the house before the 15 years were up, he loses and the banker keeps his money.
At the end of Anton Chekhov's "The Bet", the lawyer survives the 15 years in prison but refuses to take the money.
The lawyer would win the bet and the banker would have to pay him two million. Fifteen years ago two million meant nothing to the banker. However, years of bad investment and gambling had made the banker poor. If the banker gave two million to the lawyer, he would go bankrupt and this would ruin him.
How does the lawyer decide to conclude the bet, and why? At the end of the fifteen years, five hours before he would have gotten the 2 million rubles, the lawyer chooses to run away and revoke his right to the money, leaving a letter explaining himself.
In their bet about which is crueler, live-long imprisonment or capital punishment, the banker and the lawyer wager their futures. The young lawyer argues that life on any terms is better than death. In his hubris, the lawyer raises the bet that he can stay in isolation from five years to fifteen.
From all his readings, the lawyer has learned the vanity of human desires; certainly, the desire for material gain corrupts the soul. The lawyer has spent the last fifteen years searching for meaning in life and not found it. Moreover, he feels life is beyond comprehension.
He also reads the works of many of the great minds of the world, only to find that "the same flame burns in all of them.". Some years he reads , then others he does not. Then, in the last two years, he reads books of all kinds indiscriminately .
After the tenth year, the lawyer abandons all reading, but the Gospels. Theology and philosophy are his next readings. In the last two years of his confinement, the lawyer reads indiscriminately, choosing Shakespeare, then a medical manual, then philosophy or theology.
During the first year, the prisoner is extremely lonely; he spends a great deal of time at the piano. Because he is lonely, he refuses the wine and tobacco; in explanation, he writes that wine stimulates the senses, only exacerbating his lonely condition. Tobacco ruins the air of his little room.
After arguing against the banker that life imprisonment is not less humane than capital punishment--"to live anyhow is better than not at all"--the banker wages two million rubles that the lawyer cannot stay in solitary confinement for five years.
In the second year, the prisoner stops playing the piano, and he exchanges the light reading of his first year for the classics. Then, in his fifth year, the prisoner requests wine, and he again plays the piano. During this year, the lawyer mostly eats and drink and lies on his bed.