Degree first year first Semester The Bet summary

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  • Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
  • ‪@Danduvenkatramulu‬
    THE BET-ANTON CHEKHOV (Short story)
    Anton Chekov’s “The Bet” is a powerful short story published in 1889 about a banker and a
    lawyer who make a bet with each other about the death penalty versus life in prison.
    In the story, each wrestles with the idea of which is better or worse, and the culmination is a
    twist ending. The story opens with the banker remembering a bet he made nearly fifteen years
    earlier with a lawyer. During a party he was hosting, the two fell into a discussion and began to
    debate whether life in prison or death would be more humane. For the banker, capital
    punishment would be the preferable choice. The lawyer swore he would choose life in prison.
    They agreed on a bet of two million rubles to see if the lawyer could spend fifteen years in
    solitary confinement; the lawyer put himself into isolation. From here, we begin to see the
    transformation of the lawyer. At first, he suffers. He is depressed and severely lonely. This state,
    however, gives way to a period of great learning and self-reflection. Overall, the young man
    reads more than 600 volumes in four years. After that, he spends his time studying the Gospels
    and other histories of religion. In the last two years of isolation, he returns to the sciences and
    philosophy.
    While this is happening, the banker's fortune declines. He realizes towards the end of the
    lawyer's confinement that he will be unable to pay the bet if the lawyer triumphs, and this debt
    will completely ruin him. He makes a desperate plan to kill the lawyer so he will not have to pay
    the debt. However, on his way to carrying out his plan, he finds a note written by the lawyer. In
    the note, the lawyer explains that his time in isolation has changed him, and he believes that it is
    best to renounce his wealth and live. Material goods are fleeting, and he now despises them in
    favor of knowledge. Because of his newfound belief, he wishes to renounce the bet.
    The banker is moved and leaves the lodge weeping. He is relieved that he does not have to carry
    out his plan. Although the lawyer technically won the bet by proving he could survive fifteen
    years of solitary confinement, he also loses the bet by renouncing it. This story touches on the idea that confinement can fundamentally change who a person is. In death, there is no chance for
    this significant change, but confinement might give a person a chance to have a transformation of
    character. The lawyer begins his journey to win a great deal of money, but in the end, his
    experience leads him to a completely different way of viewing life. One interesting theme is the
    idea of experience. The lawyer claims that through his confinement, he could read about all
    manner of human experiences, and he concludes that this is the same as having the experience
    itself. He has decided to renounce most of these experiences without ever having them directly.
    The fundamental theme of the story is that of life and death. In the original argument, the guests
    are unsure which would be more humane or, more implicitly, a worse punishment. Is life worth
    the price of death if that life is lived in confinement? What makes life good enough to live, and is
    death preferable to life without freedom? Chekov does not definitively answer those questions,
    and again, it is up to the reader to decide if the lawyer's transformation is preferable to death. The
    lawyer seems to think so, but Chekov's intention is ultimately unclear. An implicit theme of the
    story is that of humanity. In the beginning, both the banker and the lawyer make a critical bet
    based on money. At the end of fifteen years, the thought of that money has driven the banker to
    the point of murder. He only changes course when he realizes that he will not owe the money
    and disavowed all human experiences in his isolation. While material goods no longer hold sway
    over him, likely, the extreme isolation has still robbed him of his humanity
    Overall, the story is an exciting insight into what desires drive humanity and what sorts of things
    we are willing to do for material gain. It also questions our relationships with those around us,
    insinuating that extreme isolation, while possibly a better alternative than death, will cause us to
    lose our humanity

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