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.
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.
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.
He is resentful of others and sees himself as above those who have “bartered heaven for earth”—that is, who are living in sin. 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.
the banker's propertyConfined to a lodge on the banker's property, the lawyer suffers from loneliness and depression at first but eventually begins to read and study in a wide range of subjects.
In Anton Chekhov's short story “The Bet” a lawyer and a banker make a bet about which penalty is more humane. The lawyer says that life imprisonment is more humane. In saying this, the lawyer bets he can stayed locked up in a cell for 15 years without any human contact and it will show it's more humane.
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. What happened in the morning?
In contrast to the banker, the lawyer is an intelligent young man whose tenacity drives him to pursue the bet. At the start of the story, the lawyer is 25 years old. He is heedless and impatient and wants to prove to the banker that living under any circumstance is better than dying.
In Chekhov's "The Bet," the banker and the lawyer both learn the futility of their wager, as they have found that life and its conditions differ greatly from their more youthful perceptions. The lawyer learns that his sweeping statement that life on any terms is better than death is not true.
The banker values personal pride, power, material possessions, and money. In all things, the banker is a powerful man. He would choose the death penalty as being the most humane simply because it would be better than dying by degrees.
In Chekhov's short story "The Bet," the terms of the bet are that the lawyer will stay in prison for fifteen years and the banker will "wager two million" (92). While the lawyer is in prison, he can have no human contact, but he can have "anything necessary--books, music, wine--" and anything else he requests (92).
Answer: The banker placed a bet of two million which he would give the lawyer if he stayed in solitary confinement for five years. The lawyer claimed that he would stay alone for not five but fifteen years and still win those two million.
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.
Well, for one thing, he stands for money—he's described as having "millions beyond his reckoning", so much money that to him "two millions are a trifle" (2.11-12). For another, the banker is also on the side of pleasure, hedonism, and material goods.
The banker decides to end the BR by killing the lawyer. As he goes to see the lawyer he finds and reads a letter written by him. The banker doesn't kill the lawyer because the lawyer leaves early and ends the bet. Summarize the story in 5 sentences.
Later on the narrator refers to the banker as "spoilt and frivolous, with millions beyond reckoning." Such details are clearly matched by the impulsive way he bets so much money.
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.
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)
(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)
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.