"Gentlemen, I stake two million!" "Agreed! You stake your millions and I stake my freedom!" said the young man.
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 the end of Anton Chekhov's "The Bet", the lawyer survives the 15 years in prison but refuses to take the money.
The lawyer states that the life sentence would be preferable, but the banker calls his bluff, saying that he couldn't stand five years in prison. The decision by the lawyer to raise the stakes is meant to prove his point that a life sentence would be preferable to a death sentence.
The prisoner, a young lawyer, spent the final two years of confinement reading. He read books on topics such as philosophy, religion, science, literature, and medicine. The banker recounts that the young lawyer read avidly and voraciously, incessantly moving from text to text.
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.
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.
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.
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.
two million dollarsThe banker will pay the lawyer two million dollars if he cannot complete five years of solitary confinement. The banker will pay the lawyer two million dollars if he cannot complete 15 years of solitary confinement. The banker will pay the lawyer two million dollars if he completes five years of solitary confinement.
What do you think this says about his life? The lawyer takes the bet so he won't be proven wrong. This says he is daring. At the beginning of the story they want the fortunes and by the end they don't.
The terms of the bet are that the lawyer must live in isolation for fifteen years. At the end of that time, if he fulfills his bet of having no human contact for this period, the banker will pay him two million rubles. The bet arises out of an argument on which is crueler, the death penalty or life imprisonment.