The Bet

The Bet

Summative Assessment

The story starts out as a rich banker recalling what happened at the party he hosted fifteen years ago where there was an argument whether capital punishment or life imprisonment is worse. The banker and lawyer argue the opposite. So the two make a bet, if the lawyer can stay in a jail cell, the banker will pay him two million dollars. The banker sets the lawyer up in the guesthouse where he can get whatever he wants except any human interactions. The lawyer felt sad, lonely, and depressed at first but soon began studying a lot. He first starts studying languages, the Bible, science, and literature. Over time, the banker realizes that if the lawyer wins, he will be bankrupt forever so he plans to kill him. So on the last night of the bet, the banker sneaks into the jail cell since there are no guards around. The banker finds the lawyer sleeping and as he is about to kill him, he finds a note on the desk. On the note, its says that the lawyer has spent his fifteen years experiencing life through books. He thinks the world is worthless because it’s going to end anyway. The banker kisses the lawyer’s head realizing he doesn’t have to kill him. The next day, the guards report that the lawyer sneaked out. Secretly, the banker takes the note and locks it in a safe.

The story is short and so abrupt that there’s little description in the story. The story starts off in a flashback on a dark autumn night where a party that happened 15 years ago and is narrated by the banker. The party was at the banker’s house. When the lawyer and banker make the bet, the lawyer stays in a jail cell. The lawyer is isolated from humans, but can get whatever he wants. This setting influences the plot and character because he is very lonely and passes time by studying and reading which helps develop his character. While the banker is staying at the comfort of his home. This setting influences the plot and character because he has no friends or family that informs the reader about. He can also do whatever he wants, especially in trying to figure out how to beat the lawyer. Both their surroundings and lives are very different.

The young Lawyer, the antagonist of the story thought that it was better to have life imprisonment than execution, because he thought some way of living was better than no way living. In the short story, he is a dynamic and round character. The lawyer was very impulsive in the beginning, especially when he made the bet because he wasn't thinking. He thinks he's better than everyone and is so proud, that he thinks he can stay longer in imprisonment for fifteen years. He started out in the story full of pride and arrogance, but towards the end he realizes that life has meaning. He matures over the course of the bet. Although he won the bet by staying all the fifteen years, he leaves a couple hours early before the bet ended. He admits that he would rather die than stay in imprisonment. The old Banker the protagonist of the story disagreed with his statement, thus making a bet in which if the Lawyer lived fifteen years in confinement, the Banker would pay him two million dollars. In the story, the banker is a flat and dynamic character. The banker kept the lawyer in prison for fifteen years and realizes he will lose all his money and knows that he will be bankrupt. At the beginning of the story, he was wealthy and honest but his lack of wealth led him to dishonesty and murder.

The point of view is in third person omniscient and the narrator being the banker because in the text it is said that “By our agreement I ought to pay him two millions. “ The story is heard from the bankers memory retelling the story of the time at the party, struggling to pay the bet, and planning to murder the lawyer. The authors choice of viewpoint is important because if we were in the head of the lawyer we would be going through his 15 years of imprisonment which would led to be a longer story. It also leads the reader to think behind why he had left the prison cell minutes before the bet would have been done. This is an unreliable story because he is remembering the story from a party which can be inaccurately remembered.

There is dramatic irony in the story because the story is mostly told in a flashback. As the story starts, the banker is remembering the bet he made with a lawyer. The banker and reader eventually discover that the banker does not have the money to cover his bet so he should lose. The author uses dramatic irony by showing that information to the readers and not to the lawyer. There is situational irony in the story because the lawyer says that life in prison would be much better than a criminal receiving a death penalty. But in the end, after the lawyer stays fifteen years in a prison, he hates life and sees that there’s nothing to live for. Another situational irony is when the lawyer leaves early before the bet ends. The reader would think that he would finish the bet and take the money he deserves, but escapes before the bet is finished. The author also writes another irony when the banker goes to the lawyer while he’s sleeping and reads the lawyer’s number. The letter says that the lawyer hates life and would rather die which prevents the banker from killing him. In the end, the lawyer who wanted to die unknowingly convinces the banker not to kill him.

The story starts out as the banker recalling what happened fifteen years ago which takes the readers back in time. The opening starts out saying, “It was a dark autumn night. The old banker was walking up and down his study and remembering how, fifteen years before, he had given a party one autumn evening.” The banker wants to kill the lawyer so he does not have to pay the two million dollars. So the author returns to the present again with the banker writing, “And now the banker, walking to and from, remembered all this, and asked himself: ‘What was the object of that bet? What is the good of that man’s losing fifteen years of his life and my throwing away two million?”

-" 'Agreed. You stake two millions, I my freedom,' said the lawyer."

-"Gambling on the Stock-Exchange, risky speculation, and the recklessness of which he could not rid himself even in old age, had gradually brought his business to decay; and the fearless, self-confident, proud man of business had become an ordinary banker, trembling at every rise and fall in the market."

-" 'That cursed bet," murmured the old man clutching his head in despair… "Why didn't the man die? He's only forty years old. He will take away my last farthing, marry, enjoy life, gamble on the Exchange, and I will look on like an envious beggar and hear the same words from him every day: 'I'm obliged to you for the happiness of my life. Let me help you.' No, it's too much! The only escape from bankruptcy and disgrace—is that the man should die.'

-" 'That I may show you indeed my contempt for that by which you live, I waive the two millions of which I once dreamed as of paradise, and which I now despise. That I may deprive myself of my right to them, I shall come out from here five minutes before the stipulated term, and thus shall violate the agreement.'

-In “The Bet”, Anton P. Chekhov conveys the story of how people’s thoughts and feelings can change over knowledge and righteousness.

-Freedom is priceless and precious.

-Being alone can destroy human life.

-Execution kills instantly, life imprisonment kills by degrees.

Foreshadowing

Significant Passages

Irony

Themes

Setting

Characters

Prison Cell

Story Web

Discussion:

-Do you like the story? Why or why not?

-Would you take the drastic bet yourself?

-Why do you think the lawyer took the bet?

-Is execution and the life sentence equally as morally wrong? Why or why not?

-Do you agree with the lawyer when he says, "To live anyhow is better than not at all?"

-The lawyer writes that he has experienced all kinds of things in books: love,

hunting, mountain climbing, storms, miracles, religions, wars, etc. Is reading

about something the same as experiencing it? Which is better and why?

-Could the bet have led to a possible outcome?

Symbolism

Point of View

The 2 million dollars symbolizes their confidence/trust in themselves because they put money on stake thinking they are right.