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. Approved by eNotes Editorial Team Edith Sykes | Certified Educator Share Cite
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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.
Taking this idea as the bet, it was shown at the end of the story that the lawyer lost the bet. The rule was clearly stated, “The slightest attempt on his part to break the conditions, if only two minuets before the end, released the banker from the obligation to pay him two millions” (2).
The banker wins the bet. The attorney escapes the night before he is to win the bet.
"Gentlemen, I stake two million!" "Agreed! You stake your millions and I stake my freedom!" said the young man.
At the end of Anton Chekhov's "The Bet", the lawyer survives the 15 years in prison but refuses to take the money.
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 fact, if he is forced to pay out the two million rubles, he will be "ruined." This would cause him great public embarrassment, so he instead decides to kill the lawyer to save himself from public "disgrace." The banker quietly enters the lawyer's chamber of confinement on the night before the bet will end.
The climax of "The Bet " is reached when the banker reads the letter in which the lawyer renounces the two million roubles he was entitled to receive for spending fifteen years in solitary confinement.
The moral of Anton Chekhov's "The Bet" is that materialism and material wealth ultimately means nothing.
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 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 lawyer told with the arrogance of youth that he can live for 15 years in solitary confinement. 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.
The banker further goads the lawyer over dinner, telling him to back out before it is too late. He points out... (full context)
In the second year, the lawyer stops playing piano and starts reading classic books. By the fifth year, he is playing... (full context)
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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. He was able to appreciate much of the world without actually experiencing it because he read. As his wisdom increased he began to see the weaknesses of mankind as a whole and he came to despise those weaknesses and all of mankind. 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. The banker won only in the sense that he did not lose money, but he lost so much more of himself. He nearly killed the lawyer in his desire to avoid losing his money. After the lawyer escaped, the banker did not even have the moral nature to let others know why the lawyer escaped. He took the letter the lawyer wrote explaining why he did what he did and locked it away before anyone could see it.
Instead of confinement stealing a man's life, the lawyer proved that confinement enriched a life, his own.
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