The banker and the lawyer decide to enter into a bet, with the banker wagering that the lawyer could not withstand 5 years of imprisonment. The lawyer, young and idealistic, decides to up the ante and makes the bet longer: 15 years. If he could last to the end of his sentence, the lawyer would receive two million rubles for wining the bet.
Full Answer
So the bet also demonstrates the selfishness of man and youth. With nothing to lose, and two million to gain, the lawyer cannot think of a reason to reject the bet. It is very interesting that Chekov does not show the readers the thoughts of the lawyer as he makes this bet.
âThe Betâ by Anton Chekhov is a fictional story, which is filled with profound meaning. In this article, you will learn some unknown facts about the famous work of the Russian classical author. Anton Chekhov. 1903.
With a new title, "The Bet", revised and cut (part 3 of the original text now has gone) it was included in Volume 4 of Chekhov's Collected Works, published in 1899â1901 by Adolf Marks. "As I was reading the proofs, I came to dislike the end, it occurred to me that it was too cold and cruel," he explained the reason for the omission in 1903.
Strangely, some people criticized Anton Chekhovâs story for âglorifying moneyâ. âThe Betâ by Anton Chekhov was greatly inspired by Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoyâs ideas. Speaking through the mouth of his character, the Lawyer, Anton Chekhov showed that he did not accept and even despised the existing state of things.
The night before the bet is to end, the lawyer paces in his study remembering the terms of the agreement and looking for a solution to end his problem. Chekov's fictional short story uses flashback to inform the reader of the terms of the bet and the events of the last fifteen years since the bet was originally made.
After a discussion on the death penalty and life in jail, the banker bets that the lawyer couldn't stay in solitary confinement for 15 years. The reward: two million rubles. The lawyer agrees and remains confined to the banker's spare house where he has zero contact with the outside world, except the company of books.
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.
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.
Throughout his solitary confinement the lawyer plays music, reads books on subjects across all realms of human knowledge, drinks wine, smokes cigarettes, and so on.
Answer. Answer: According to the bet, the lawyer would have to spend the fifteen years of his imprisonment âunder the strictest supervisionâ in a lodge situated in the banker's garden. During this period, he couldn't step beyond the doorstep of the lodge nor meet or see any human beings.
During the first year, he spent a lot of time with piano. In the second year, he left the piano and spent his time with books.
"Gentlemen, I stake two million!" "Agreed! You stake your millions and I stake my freedom!" said the young man.
The banker went at once with the servants to the lodge and made sure of the flight of his prisoner. To avoid arousing unnecessary talk, he took from the table the writing in which the millions were renounced, and when he got home, locked it upon the fireproof safe.
Answer: The lawyer renounced the two million because in prison, he read a lot and reading of philosophical and religious books gave him wisdom. He realised the futility of money.
At the end of Anton Chekhov's "The Bet", the lawyer survives the 15 years in prison but refuses to take the money. In a literary twist, the... See full answer below.
"The Bet" takes place in nineteenth century Tsarist Russia. (As this story was originally published in 1889, this makes the story's setting contemporaneous to the era in which it was written.)...
âThe Betâ by Anton Chekov begins at a party where the death penalty is being discussed. The party has been given by a rich banker with an excited temperament. At this party are many intellectuals, journalists, lawyers, and their like. Intellectual topics are being discussed and there is no sign of frivolity in the atmosphere.
Just 25 years old when he attends the bankerâs party at the beginning of the story, the lawyer initially asserts that life-imprisonment is far preferable to capital punishment.
Summary. Fifteen years ago, a party was thrown at a banker's home, where many intellectuals such a journalists and lawyers attended. During that party, the group in attendance had many lively discussions, ultimately turning to the topic of capital punishment.
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 lawyerâs own belief that he has bettered himself.
The Lawyer Character Analysis. The Lawyer. Just 25 years old when he attends the bankerâs party at the beginning of the story, the lawyer initially asserts that life-imprisonment is far preferable to capital punishment.
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.
(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)
Part 2. It is fifteen years later and the eve of the lawyer âs 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)
A note written by the lawyer reveals that he has chosen to abandon the bet, having learned that material goods are fleeting and that divine salvation is worth more than money. Shocked and moved after reading the note, the banker kisses the lawyer on the head and returns to bed.
The banker realizes that if he loses, paying off the bet will lead to bankruptcy. In the early hours of the day when the fifteen-year period is to expire, the banker resolves to kill the lawyer, but finds him greatly emaciated and sleeping at a table.
14 January 1889. The Bet (short story) " The Bet " ( Russian: "ĐĐ°Ńи", romanized : Pari) is an 1889 short story by Anton Chekhov about a banker and a young lawyer who make a bet with each other following a conversation about whether the death penalty is better or worse than life in prison.
This also signifies the weak character of the banker. He is very attached to the materialistic luxuries of life and values human life less than his luxuries as he plans on killing the lawyer. He plans on killing the lawyer for money and nothing but money changes his mind.
Suvorin, the Novoye Vremya ' s editor, took it almost as an insult, so Chekhov promised to produce a similar kind of fable for this newspaper before the New Year Eve. He started writing it on 22 December, and on the 30th sent the story by post.
Characters. There are two major characters featured in "The Bet": the lawyer and the banker, neither of which have official names in Chekhov's short story.
On 17 December 1888 Nikolai Khudekov asked Chekhov to write a story for Peterburgskaya Gazeta which he was an editor of. Chekhov came up with "The Cobbler and the Devil" (published on 25 December) and informed Alexey Suvorin of that. Suvorin, the Novoye Vremya ' s editor, took it almost as an insult, so Chekhov promised to produce a similar kind of fable for this newspaper before the New Year Eve. He started writing it on 22 December, and on the 30th sent the story by post.
Anton Chekhov was writing this short story for the magazine âNovoe Vremyaâ. Initially, it had been entitled âThe Fairy Taleâ, 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 âThe Fairy Taleâ was replaced by âThe Betâ. The first edition of this satirical story had another ending.
He wrote, â⌠his story is full of life.â. The story also reveals Chekhovâs 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. It seems both the Banker and the Lawyer lost the bet.
The first edition of this satirical story had another ending. According to Chekhovâs original idea, the Lawyer should have turned himself in to the Banker. Later, the author got disappointed with such a final and excluded it. The existing version ends with the scene of the Lawyerâs escape.
Strangely, some people criticized Anton Chekhovâs story for âglorifying moneyâ. âThe Betâ by Anton Chekhov was greatly inspired by Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoyâs ideas . Speaking through the mouth of his character, the Lawyer, Anton Chekhov showed that he did not accept and even despised the existing state of things.
The summary of âThe Betâ 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.
The Lawyer put himself into a self-made prison. As the years went by, he became a completely different person.
The lawyer has written that he will receive his freedom the next day, and with it the âright to mix with people.â. But before he leaves, he wants to say a few words to the banker. First of all, he hates freedom, life, health, and all the blessings of the world that he discovered in the books he read.
While he may be touched by the lawyerâs spiritual change, it is just as likely that he decides not to kill the lawyer because he believes that the lawyer will indeed renounce the money, and as such there is no point to his murder. Active Themes. Related Quotes with Explanations.
The banker thinks to himself that the watchman will be the first one suspected of the crime, if he can bring himself to do it.
Though the lawyerâs disdain for earthly things is supposed to connote a connection to heaven, he despises everything in a way that a true religious ascetic âone who rejects earthly pleasures in the pursuit of spiritual enlightenmentâlikely would not.
The world outside the lawyerâs cell is thus suggested to be full of temptation and greed. Freedom, Chekhov suggests, is no guarantee of a more moralâor perhaps meaningfulâlife. The banker enters the hall and sees that the watchman is indeed missing. He taps on the lawyerâs window but the prisoner does not stir.
The banker is distraught because he cannot afford to pay the two million rubles. At the time he made the bet, he was exceedingly wealthy, but in the intervening years, gambling on the stock exchange, risky speculation, and recklessness destroyed his business.
The banker concludes that the only solution is to kill the lawyer.
The story also shows the toll that separation from human society can take on a person. Whereas at first the lawyer was full of virtue, eschewing wine and tobacco, he later gives himself in to his vices, drinking and smoking constantly.
The lawyer believes that any life is better than none, and that life cannot be taken away by the government, since life cannot be given back if the government realizes that it made a mistake. The banker and the lawyer decide to enter into a bet, with the banker wagering that the lawyer could not withstand 5 years of imprisonment.
The banker, by this time, has gone broke due to his own recklessness and gambling. He begins to worry that the lawyer's bet with him will ruin him financially. The banker begins to hope against all hope that the lawyer will break his vow and lose the bet.
The banker acquiesces and confirms the lawyer's suspicion that he has mastered languages. As the years go by, the lawyer reads virtually every genre under the sun. He makes his way from the lighter reading of the early years, to the dense text of the Gospels and Shakespeare.
Nevertheless, the lawyer decides to stick to his word and the bet is carried out. For fifteen years, the lawyer lives on the banker's property, in a small lodge, and has no human contact. He can have any item that he desires. At first, the lawyer does not comfort himself with any liquor or tobacco, confining himself to playing the piano.
Fifteen years ago, a party was thrown at a banker's home, where many intellectuals such a journalists and lawyers attended. During that party, the group in attendance had many lively discussions, ultimately turning to the topic of capital punishment.
With nothing to lose, and two million to gain, the lawyer cannot think of a reason to reject the bet. It is very interesting that Chekov does not show the readers the thoughts of the lawyer as he makes this bet. The only time that we see the thoughts of the lawyer clearly is later in the story, through a letter.
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.
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.
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.