The essential idea in Chekhov's ironic and thought-provoking story "The Bet" is that the fifteen years the lawyer spent in solitude changed his character so drastically that he came to despise money and all worldly things.
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Anton Chekhov "The Bet" It was a dark autumn night. The old banker was walking up and down his study and remembering how, fifteen years before, he had given a party one autumn evening. There had been many clever men there, and there had been interesting conversations.
Fifteen years previously, the lawyer is put under strict observation in a garden wing of the banker’s house. He is... (full context) At first, the lawyer struggles to adjust to the loneliness and boredom of his captivity.
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.
The bet was described as wild and senseless because the banker staked his money and the young man his freedom. The bet couldn't prove that the death penalty is better or worse than imprisonment for life.
The lawyer wants to prove that life imprisonment is more human than the death penalty and collect $2,000,000. What is the lawyer's motivation for accepting the bet? The lawyer decides not to take the money. During his confinement, he learns that money and possessions aren't the most important things in life.
The lawyer renounced the bet because during his time in is prison he realized that the money would not afford him true freedom....the money wouldjust become another kind of prison. He didn'twant the money, and he had no desire to become a prisoner of society. Knowldge had made him indifferent.
"Gentlemen, I stake two million!" "Agreed! You stake your millions and I stake my freedom!" said the young man.
At the end of Anton Chekhov's "The Bet", the lawyer survives the 15 years in prison but refuses to take the money.
the bankerFive hours before the lawyer's time is complete, he runs away and terminates his eligibility to win the bet. From these events in the story, I have concluded that it was the banker who won the bet and the argument of whether life imprisonment is better than death. The bet has been argued to be many different aspects.
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.
Why does the prisoner deliberately forfeit the money? He forfeits the money to show his contempt for life itself.
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 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.
Answer. Answer: According to the bet, the lawyer would have to spend the fifteen years of his imprisonment “under the strictest supervision” 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.
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.
The essential idea in Chekhov's ironic and thought-provoking story " The Bet " is that the fifteen years the lawyer spent in solitude changed his character so drastically that he came to despise money and all worldly things. He had grown so used to solitude and solitary meditation that he no longer needed human companionship, ...
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The banker further goads the lawyer over dinner, telling him to back out before it is too late. He points out... (full context)
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.
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)
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.
In the second year, the lawyer stops playing piano and starts reading classic books. By the fifth year, he is playing... (full context)
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.
Now he would apply himself to the natural sciences, then he would read Byron or Shakespeare … He read as though he were swimming in the sea among broken pieces of wreckage, and in his desire to save his life was eagerly grasping one piece after another.