In the end of the story, "The Bet," the lawyer despairs of life, and he reneges on the wager with banker. In their bet about which is crueler, live-long imprisonment or capital punishment, the banker and the lawyer wager their futures. The young lawyer argues that life on any terms is better than death. Why does the banker call the bet cursed?
Full Answer
In the end of the story, "The Bet," the lawyer despairs of life, and he reneges on the wager with banker. In their bet about which is crueler, live-long imprisonment or capital punishment, the banker and the lawyer wager their futures.
In their bet about which is crueler, live-long imprisonment or capital punishment, the banker and the lawyer wager their futures. The young lawyer argues that life on any terms is better than death. In his hubris, the lawyer raises the bet that he can stay in isolation from five years to fifteen.
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. He ultimately renounces the bet by escaping his cell just five hours before he would be awarded his winnings.
So, in the end the lawyer departs as he has written that he will, breaking the contract. On the following morning, watchmen run to the banker, telling him that they have witnessed the lawyer climbing out of a window, going to the gate, and disappearing.
In the end of the story, " The Bet ," the lawyer despairs of life, and he reneges on the wager with banker.
From all his readings, the lawyer has learned the vanity of human desires; certainly, the desire for material gain corrupts the soul. The lawyer has spent the last fifteen years searching for meaning in life and not found it. Moreover, he feels life is beyond comprehension.
By the sixth year, the lawyer begins to study languages. He also reads the works of many of the great minds of the world, only to find that "the same flame burns in all of them.". Some years he reads, then others he does not. Then, in the last two years, he reads books of all kinds indiscriminately.
The young lawyer argues that life on any terms is better than death. In his hubris, the lawyer raises the bet that he can stay in isolation from five years to fifteen. And, so, the banker, who reminds his young foe that "voluntary confinement is a great deal harder to bear than compulsory," arranges for the lawyer to dwell in a small lodging in ...
Presumably, the banker comes to despise himself because he is so greedy and materialistic, an attitude which contrasts sharply with that of the lawyer. Whatever the reason, the banker cannot control his outpouring of emotion and cries himself to sleep.
Presumably, the banker comes to despise himself because he is so greedy and materialistic, an attitude which contrasts sharply with that of the lawyer. Whatever the reason, the banker cannot control his outpouring of emotion and cries himself to sleep. ...
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While morally, the young lawyer won the bet as he could have easily stayed another 5 hours, he lost the bet because he proved the banker right in that it was inhumane to be in solitary confinement for 15 years.
Answer and Explanation: The banker wins the bet. The attorney escapes the night before he is to win the bet. He writes a letter to the banker in which he explains his
The first year was tough on the lawyer, he refused to drink wine as wine would lead to desire and according to him desire is a man’s worst enemy. Also he didn’t want to smoke as he’d be polluting the little space he was trapped inside. He mainly read light books and played the piano though he was depressed. By the second year he left music and turned toward literature. For the next four years he studied languages, philosophy, history and theology.
The irony of the story was that the lawyer had reached victory but now his desire for it no longer existed so he purposely lost the bet. His behaviour in the end was unpredictable.
Anton Chekhov’s ‘The Bet’ is a short story that starts out as a conversation between a few people at a dinner, which then turns to an argument between two young and enthusiastic people. The banker and lawyer disagree on the form of punishments, capital and life imprisonment. The banker says capital punishment is more humane than life imprisonment, the lawyer disagrees. Their argument takes a turn when the banker bets two million that the lawyer cannot go through with imprisonment. The lawyer agrees to the bet.
The lawyer was imprisoned in the banker’s garden house in complete solitude. The rules were that no visitors, letters or newspapers were allowed. However, he could write letters, and he was permitted to read books, allowed a musical instrument, wine, and cigarettes. The only communication with the outside world for him would be through a small window through which he could write notes and ask for things.
After all, when the banker proposes his crazy bet, the lawyer jumps on that thing like it's the last rowboat off the Titanic: "'If you mean that in earnest,' said the young man, 'I'll take the bet, but I would stay not five but fifteen years'" ( 1.8). What? Who in a million years would take that bet? And who on earth would take it and then increase the difficulty for himself?
Interpretation number one takes this mystery and confusion and runs with it. In this version of what's up with the lawyer, he is basically a modern-day Biblical cave hermit. You know that generic cartoon wise old man that sits up on a secluded mountain and you have to climb and climb and climb to ask him some deep question, to which he says, you tell me? That's what we're talking about here—a guy who voluntarily takes himself out of the world to really get some time to think about things.