Why does the banker fear being pitied by the lawyer? Because the banker was sure he wasn't going to be able to do it and he is prideful. It relates by how inhumane this bet was.
The Banker Timeline and Summary The banker decides to murder the lawyer. He sneaks into the guesthouse prison and finds the lawyer asleep. Just as he's about to kill him, he finds a note that says that the lawyer rejects the money and will lose the bet on purpose.
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.
The banker wants to prove his point that the death penalty is more humane than life imprisonment.
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.Nov 22, 2018
Ans. The lawyer was confined for long period of fifteen years. The bankers was very rich but his economic condition had become weak by the fourteenth-fifteenth year of lawyers confinement. So, he was being afraid of honouring the bet.
The banker thought that the lawyer was asleep, dreaming about the 2 million dollars, and he only has to throw him on the bed, suffocate him a little with the pillow, and the most conscientious expert would find no sign of a violent death, but he should first read the letter on the table.
The lawyer questions whether or not the banker has the money to make a worthwhile bet with him. The lawyer suggests that the banker doesn't have the courage to place such a risky bet against him. The lawyer offers to give the banker two million if he cannot stay in solitary confinement for the agreed upon years.
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).
The Banker: The banker is a greedy businessman who uses his power and wealth to manipulate others. Initially, he freely risks two million rubles in the bet with the lawyer. However, as the story progresses, the banker falls into destitution and considers murdering the lawyer so as not to pay him back.
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.
Succumbing to the power of greed, the banker resolves to kill the lawyer to avoid losing his fortune, but changes his mind after finding a letter written by the lawyer where he renounces “the stuff of the earth” and declares he will break the terms of the bet.