The correct answer is B. The lawyer and the banker were discussing whether capital punishment would be more humane than sentencing people to a life in prision. The lawyer, motivated to prove that any life is better than death, decides to participate in the bet.
The banker felt that death penalty was better than life imprisonment. However, the lawyer said that if he had to choose, he would choose life imprisonment as he felt that it is better to live anyhow than to not live at all. This led to an argument, which transformed into a bet.Nov 16, 2017
It's because he has realised that money or any such material possession is just an illusion and transitory in nature in respect to the larger order of things. So, the money won't make him happy either. Again, when we look at the banker, he has lost his money in gambling and is now almost a loser.
He is resentful of others and sees himself as above those who have “bartered heaven for earth”—that is, who are living in sin. 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.
At the end of Anton Chekhov's "The Bet", the lawyer survives the 15 years in prison but refuses to take the money.
After much inner turmoil, the banker decides to kill the lawyer before the end of the bet to keep from having to pay the loan. He sneaks into the guest house. Just before killing him, the banker discovers a note that the lawyer has written.Sep 9, 2020
During this year, the lawyer mostly eats and drink and lies on his bed. But, at times he writes all night; afterwards, however, he tears up what he has written, crying. Then, in the sixth year, he begins to study languages, history, and philosophy.
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. He was allowed to smoke and drink.Nov 23, 2018
The bet stemmed from a discussion of capital punishment, or punishment by death. The banker argued that death was a better alternative to life spent behind bars. The attorney took the opposite side, that life in prison would be better than a death sentence. The debate raged on, and from it, a wager was born.