With Reference to the story ‘The Bet’ by Anton Chekhov, trace in detail, the imprisonment of the lawyer, the beginning of the first year right down to the fifteenth year. Justify the changes that the lawyer underwent at various stages of his imprisonment. What changes did you see in the banker during this period?
The Bet is a short story written by Anton Chekhov, who writes based on realistic characters and situations. A wealthy banker and a young lawyer make a bet with each other based on capital punishment and whether the death penalty is better or worse than life in prison. This bet carried out at a party held in autumn. The host – the banker, did not agree with the views against capital punishment and said that although he had not tried …show more content…
The servants who watched him said that all year he spent doing nothing but eating, drinking and lying on his bed, frequently yawning and sometimes even talking angrily to himself. This shows how his mind was wavering about the decisions he had made and maybe even regretted that he extended it to fifteen years what he could have in five. He may have been pondering over the fact that he lost out on ten years of his life in this decision he made – all for money. He did not read books in the fifth year and sometimes would sit himself down to write and spend hours writing, maybe a letter to leave or a document for his family or even of regret. In the morning he would tear up all that he had written probably remembering why he agreed to the best in the first place. He could be heard crying more than once – this too probably out of regret and remorse. He had still not got acclimatized to his …show more content…
He threw himself so eagerly into these studies – so much so that banker had enough to do to procure the six hundred different volumes of books requested by the lawyer. It was during this time that he received a letter from the lawyer. He stated that he had written some line in six different languages. He requested the banker to show them to people who knew the languages and if there was no mistake the to fire a shot in the garden indicating his efforts had not been in vain. He also expressed his thoughts about the books he had read – that the geniuses of all lands and ages spoke different languages but the same ‘flame’ of desires and inspirations burnt in all of them. He said that he had the heavenly pleasure of understanding them. The banker fired two shots instead of one to indicate what he had learnt was impeccable. It was now evident that the lawyer had accepted his fate and settled down. He had also found some new goal in life. Tenth year: The lawyer now turned to religion. In the course of one year he only read one book – The New Testament (‘Gospels’). The banker was confused so as to why he only read one book as compared to the six hundred volumes he had devoured previously. The lawyer seemed more calm and saint - like in the tenth
The Bet is a short story written by Anton Chekhov, who writes based on realistic characters and situations. A wealthy banker and a young lawyer make a bet with each other based on capital punishment and whether the death penalty is better or worse than life in prison. This bet carried out at a party held in autumn. The host – the banker, did not agree with the views against capital punishment and said that although he had not tried …show more content…
The servants who watched him said that all year he spent doing nothing but eating, drinking and lying on his bed, frequently yawning and sometimes even talking angrily to himself. This shows how his mind was wavering about the decisions he had made and maybe even regretted that he extended it to fifteen years what he could have in five. He may have been pondering over the fact that he lost out on ten years of his life in this decision he made – all for money. He did not read books in the fifth year and sometimes would sit himself down to write and spend hours writing, maybe a letter to leave or a document for his family or even of regret. In the morning he would tear up all that he had written probably remembering why he agreed to the best in the first place. He could be heard crying more than once – this too probably out of regret and remorse. He had still not got acclimatized to his …show more content…
He threw himself so eagerly into these studies – so much so that banker had enough to do to procure the six hundred different volumes of books requested by the lawyer. It was during this time that he received a letter from the lawyer. He stated that he had written some line in six different languages. He requested the banker to show them to people who knew the languages and if there was no mistake the to fire a shot in the garden indicating his efforts had not been in vain. He also expressed his thoughts about the books he had read – that the geniuses of all lands and ages spoke different languages but the same ‘flame’ of desires and inspirations burnt in all of them. He said that he had the heavenly pleasure of understanding them. The banker fired two shots instead of one to indicate what he had learnt was impeccable. It was now evident that the lawyer had accepted his fate and settled down. He had also found some new goal in life. Tenth year: The lawyer now turned to religion. In the course of one year he only read one book – The New Testament (‘Gospels’). The banker was confused so as to why he only read one book as compared to the six hundred volumes he had devoured previously. The lawyer seemed more calm and saint - like in the tenth