The Bet Summary. Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Plot Summary of “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics.
Feb 17, 2015 · The summary of “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov. During a dinner-party two main characters, the young Lawyer and the millionaire Banker, got into an argument. Being nothing more than a whim, the argument somehow resulted in a bet. According to its terms, the Lawyer should have spent the following fifteen years in a solitary confinement.
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. He proves as reckless as the banker in agreeing to the bet and foolish in lengthening his sentence for the sake of some misplaced pride.
Mar 06, 2021 · “The Bet” is a short story by Anton Chekhov, originally published in Novoye Vremya in 1889 as “Fairytale.” It was later republished as “The Bet,” with the third section omitted by ...
At the end of Anton Chekhov's "The Bet", the lawyer survives the 15 years in prison but refuses to take the money.
Consequently, the lawyer will leave five hours early because he does not want the money. He determines that he is now wiser than the banker. The lawyer will deprive himself of what he thought he once wanted more than anything in the world.
Anton Chekhov's The Bet The banker was a static character; he was greedy from start to finish. The lawyer was a dynamic character and he saw the wrong in his ways and changed them in the end. The author portrayed the banker as a foolish and greedy man, and since Chekhov characterized him as static, he never changed.
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).
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. He has come to hate people and rejects the money on principle.Dec 16, 2021
The banker, on the other hand, has misused his money; and now if he pays off the bet, the banker will lose everything. 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.Sep 9, 2020
In The Bet by Anton Chekhov, the lawyer voluntarily accepts to stay in prison for 15 years, instead of the original agreed upon 5 years.Jan 18, 2017
It calls for speculation. For plot purposes, the lawyer had to be in poor physical condition because he was considerably younger than the banker. The banker plans to kill him in order to get out of paying him two million roubles.
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.Nov 23, 2018
The banker wins the bet. The attorney escapes the night before he is to win the bet.
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 banker won, he keeps the $2,000,000, but hates himself for the bet. The lawyer doesn't win any money, but has learned the value of life.
Anton Chekhov was writing this short story for the magazine “Novoe Vremya”. Initially, it had been entitled “The Fairy Tale”, since a described situation was clearly fictional. Its characters and their actions had little in common with a real life.
By writing this story, Anton Chekhov tried to make people think about the point of their life and the meaning of money. His story points a certain moral and therefore resembles Russian fairy tales. However later, the title “The Fairy Tale” was replaced by “The Bet”. The first edition of this satirical story had another ending.
Yet, Leo Tolstoy gave a good review of “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov. He wrote, “… his story is full of life.”. The story also reveals Chekhov’s attitude towards death penalty as something utterly immoral. At the end of the 19 th century, there was a heated dispute on the abolition of capital punishment in Russia.
The The Bet quotes below are all either spoken by The Lawyer or refer to The Lawyer. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one: ).
The timeline below shows where the character The Lawyer appears in The Bet. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.