Full Answer
I think that the lawyer won the bet, he remained in the prison, as he said he would. He accomplished his end of the bargain, while the banker, was left for 15 years to prepare to pay the money, and ends up in financial trouble, trying to find a way out of the bet.
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. Like this answer? eNotes educators offer personalized private tutoring.
The lawyer who was shut away for fifteen years won the bet in the moral sense. In his letter to the banker, he states that though it was difficult at first to endure the solitary confinement, after a few years, he began to read in earnest. His reading opened his mind and gave him wisdom.
Because of that wisdom and his hatred of people's general faults, material possessions, and what he considered the false quality of the world, he purposely lost the bet by leaving five hours before the end of the agreed upon time, thus renouncing the money he was supposed to win.
1 Expert Answer 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.
When the banker opens the door into the cell, he discovers the lawyer now looking like a skeleton. He discovers a letter and reads it, but soon realizes the lawyer plans to lose. Five hours before the lawyer's time is complete, he runs away and terminates his eligibility to win the bet.
At the end of Anton Chekhov's "The Bet", the lawyer survives the 15 years in prison but refuses to take the money.
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 final outcome of the story "The Bet" by Anton Chekhov is that the lawyer intentionally leaves moments before the time limit for his confinement expires, denouncing society's "worldly" desires. The banker hides the lawyer's letter, preserving his own public image.
The correct answer is option D. The lawyer provoked the banker's decision to place the bet by proposing that he will remain in solitary confinement even longer than the banker suggests. The Banker places the bet on the confidence that capital punishment kills a person but lifetime imprisonment is worse than death.
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 banker does not kill the lawyer, because he reads a letter where the lawyer outlines his plan to leave confinement minutes before the fifteen-year time limit expires. In doing so, he will willingly forfeit the millions which the banker would otherwise have to pay him.
So, while the lawyer tries to prove that living an isolated life is not a hardship and win the bet of two million, he can have any of the books he wants, he is given a piano and music, he is allowed to write letters, and he may drink wine and smoke.
The banker certainly wins the bet in terms of the money that he put up. Because the lawyer left the house before the 15 years were up, he loses and the banker keeps his money.
The main moral of the “The Bet” concerns the shallowness of material wealth, as one who is internally rich is not wishing for anything. A secondary theme is about the death penalty. Life imprisonment is portrayed as the better option to death, as the person has the time to develop character.