The Bet Summary

7/18/2019 The Bet Summary

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The Bet Summary

How It All Goes Down

Fifteen years ago, a banker threw a shindig in which he bet a younglawyer two million rubles that

the lawyer couldn't stay in solitary confinement for five years. The lawyer raised the stakes to fifteenyears, and holed up in a guesthouse on the banker's estate. He's had no contact with any humans

during this time, but has been able to read all the books he could want. The lawyer's reading has

ranged from novels to philosophy and languages to religious texts to a confusing mishmash. What

can we say The dude has had some time on his hands.

!ow, the fifteen years is almost up and the banker is worried that if he has to pay the two million

large, he'll be bankrupt. "olution He opts to ice the lawyer. "o he sneaks up on the lawyer, who's

fast asleep. #ust as he is about to kill the dude, the banker finds a note that explains that through his

reading the lawyer has come to totally re$ect the material world. %t turns out he's planning on throwing

the bet on purpose by leaving five hours early. The banker kisses the lawyer's head, cries, and

leaves. The next day, the guards report that the lawyer bailed early. The banker takes the letter andputs it into his safe

The Bet Summary

• & rich banker is remembering a party he hosted fifteen years ago where a debate broke out

about whether capital punishment or life imprisonment is the more moral punishment.

• The banker argued that life in prison is $ust a very slow death, so it would be better to get the

death penalty and get it over with.

• & young lawyer argued the oppositethat any life is better than death, even if it meansrotting in prison for decades.

• (h oh. %t's a stalemate. "o the two made a betif the lawyer can stand to be in voluntary

solitary confinement for fifteen years, the banker will pay him two million smackers. !owthat's a lot of dough.

• The banker set him up in a guesthousethe lawyer could get food, books, music, whatever

he wanted except human communication of any sort.

• &t first, the lawyer seemed depressed, but soon began studying vigorously, because you

know, no !etflix in )*th+century ussia.

• First, he tackles languages and a bunch of things written in them. Then, the -ible. Then, a

cray mix of science, literature, and other seemingly random things. "oon, the fifteen yearsis almost up, because there's no better way to pass the time than reading a bunch ofobscure books, right, /h0s



• %n the present, the banker realies that if the lawyer wins, he won't be able to pay up the two

million. He's lost his banking fortune, and if he has to shell out, he'll be totally bankruptforever. The only thing to do 1ill the lawyer before the fifteen years ends.

• 2n the last night of the prison term, the banker sneaks into the guesthouse. The guards

aren't there so he has no trouble slipping in.

• The lawyer is sleeping, and $ust as the banker is about to finish him off, he sees that there is

a note on the desk.

• The note says that the lawyer has spent his fifteen years experiencing all that life has to offer

through books.

• His conclusion The material world is stupid and worthless because we're all bound to croak

in the end anyways.

• To prove how much he re$ects it, he puts his money where his mouth is. -y which we mean

the lawyer rejects the money altogether. He promises to leave the cell five hours early toforfeit any claim to the coin.

• The banker kisses the lawyer's head and leaves. /hew, he doesn't have to murder the guy.

• The next day, the guesthouse guard reports that the lawyersneaked out five hours early.

• The banker takes the note forfeiting the money and locks it in a safe.

The -et Theme of Wisdom and 1nowledge

The final twist in 3The -et3 hinges on the idea that the lawyer took all the knowledge he could getfrom the many, many books he read in the prison, and turned it into wisdom. %n other words, he

claims that the second+hand info he gets from reading is pretty much the same thing as lived

experience, so he's been there, done all of that. -ut he's not done. He also relies on this version of

experience to decide that4 experience kind of sucks. What hangs in the balance of this weird

transformation is whether the reader buys itwhich means we've $ust met a modern+day asceticor

doesn'twhich means that solitary confinement has robbed this sad man of his humanity. %t's up to

you, "hmoopers.

Questions About Wisdom and Knowledge

). 0o you think the lawyer actually understands the books he's reading %s it possible to fullyget what someone else is describing if you don't have any life experience to connect it to %n the lasttwo years thelawyer reads a little bit of everything. Why is this %s he double+checking that hisreligious conclusions are correct 2r is he $ust trying to get as much experience as possible

5. The only way anyone knows anything about what the lawyer is going through is by trying tointerpret his movements through the little prison cell window. How much can we trust these



interpretations 0o we know anything about the lawyer's mindset before reading his letter Whydoes the story make him such a mystery

6. 2ne of the lawyer's arguments for how other people have lost sight of what's important is tosay that they 3would marvel if, owing to strange events of some sorts, frogs and liards suddenlygrew on apple and orange trees instead of fruit3 75.)89. -ut isn't it totally legit to find a sudden

random change like that fascinating What does the lawyer mean

Chew on This

Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.

The mad scramble for random books in the last years of his confinement shows that the lawyer is

trying to find a way to hang on to some part of the material world before totally giving himself over to

his newfound belief system.

The main point of the story is that knowledge cannot be separated from experience, and that the

world cannot be understood by someone not actually living in it.

The -et Theme of :ife, ;onsciousness, and <xistence

3The -et3 tests the convictions of a lawyer who claims that any kind of life is better than no life at all

by sub$ecting him to fifteen years of subhuman existence, trapped in a house with nothing but books

for company. &lthough physically comfortable, the lawyer is deprived of one of the standard markers

of being humanbeing part of a community of other humans. &s time goes by, the lawyer is slowly

driven to re$ect the rest of his human existence as well. When he forfeits victory in the bet for a life of

spirituality or perhaps even suicide, the story seems to point to the idea that without interaction with

others, our humanity cannot survive.

Questions About Life, Consciousness, and Existence

). What's going to happen to the lawyer after the story ends %s he going to kill himself, or $ustgo all -oo adley on us How do you know

5. What do you think about the banker's =uestionwhich is better, to be killed all at once by theexecutioner or to slowly rot away in $ail 0o different answers to this =uestion say something aboutthe personality or character of the person answering

6. 0oes the experiment of the bet prove anything about the death penalty vs. life imprisonment

argument from the party Why or why not

Chew on This


The story ends up showing that the =uest for knowledge has a damaging effect on living life.

http://www.shmoop.com/to-kill-a-mockingbird/boo-radley.html





The story ends up showing that the only way to get to the true essence of life is to toss out every

other aspect of existence. The tragedy is that this is obviously a totally unworkable route for most.

The -et Theme of "acrifice

&s soon as one of the party people argues that a government that can'trestore human life shouldn'thave the right to take it away, well, we know that the theme of sacrifice is going to be important in

3The -et.3"acrifice turns out to be the most plausible way for the banker to view the actions of the

lawyerand for the lawyer himself to describe his own reaction to his voluntary imprisonment. He

agrees to throw a part of his life away, to sacrifice his connection to the rest of humanity in order to

find some other level of existence. -ut the story refuses to answer the obvious =uestiondoes he

succeed

Questions About Sacrice

). Why do you think the lawyer takes the bet What do you think this says about this life Whydoes he raise the term from five years to fifteen without asking for more money from the banker

5. 0oes it make sense that the government should only be able to take away what it can giveback Would this apply to putting people in prisonafter all, the government wouldn't be able to givesomeone that lost time back 7as those who are exonerated after wrongful convictions know all toowell9

6. The lawyer claims to re$ect the world and everything it has to offer. -ut in order for it to bea sacrifice, doesn't he have to have those things first before giving them up %s he really givinganything up 2r has he $ust gotten so used to his imprisonment that he wants to hang on to what heknows

>. Why does the banker feel contempt for himself after reading the letter %s he moved by theidea of a big sacrifice or $ust relieved that thesacrifice won't have to be his

Chew on This


The only person who is truly facing a great sacrifice in the story is the banker, for whom the two

million large has come to mean the difference between being successful and being a complete

failure.

The lawyer's final re$ection of the world is totally of a piece with his adding an extra ten years to hissentence, and both sacrifices mark him as a new kind of spiritual hermit

The -et Theme of %solation

3The -et3 might not actually have anything to say about the death penalty, but it can certainly be

read as an experiment in solitary confinement. "ure, most prisoners are fairly deprived, but how can



you figure out the effects of total isolation, rather than plain old confinement Here, a prisoner has all

the physical and intellectual comforts that he could want, but he's cut off from any and all human

contact. What follows is the psychological transformation of an already slightly unbalanced man into

a being that loses all touch with his own humanity. ?ikes.

Questions About solation

). What does the lawyer mean when he says 3desires are the worst foes of the prisoner37).)@9 What's wrong with having desires, hopes, and dreams in confinement

5. The banker spies on the prisoner through the little window. The lawyer asks for the guns tobe fired if his multilingual note is correct. 0o either of these things break the rules ofthe isolation bet Why or why not

6. 0oes the lawyer feel like he is isolated, or do the books seem to give him some sort ofcompanionship Whom is he arguing with when he is seen to be arguing with himself in his littleroom

>. What effect does the isolation have on the lawyer 2n the banker <ach man is driven toextremes 7the banker to murder, the lawyer to re$ecting the world9. %s it because of loneliness

Chew on This


The story shows that isolation is the one surefire way to get someone to shed most of their humanity.

True isolationno bookswould have actually been better for the lawyer in the long run. He would

have missed and sought out human companionship instead of $ust re$ecting the world outright. "ee-ooks are bad news.

The -et Theme of ;ompetition

-y setting the action up as a bet, this story necessarily ends up being a contest between the two

men involved. The one+upmanship is the reason for the bet, the reason for the raised confinement

length ante, the reason for the banker almost committing murder, and maybe even the reason for the

lawyer's final twist of an escape. %n the end, though, 3The -et3 refuses to in any way rule on the

wager at its center, leaving the reader to decide whether anyone won or lost, and whether the

competition between the banker and the lawyer was the strongest motivator for the actions of each.

Questions About Com!etition

). Why does the banker fear being pitied by the lawyer 0o the bankerand the lawyer respecteach other How do you know

5. 0oes anyone win this bet 0oes anyone lose What would a win constitute %s there adifference between winning the money and winning the bet



6. Wouldn't it have been better for the lawyer to stick around and take the money &fter all, hedidn't know the banker wanted to kill him. Why not take it and give it to charity, for example, even ifhe doesn't want to keep it himself

Chew on This


The story's ending is an elegant solution in which both men emerge from the bet victorious.

The entire competitive aspect of the story is purely in the banker's mindthe lawyer couldn't care

less about the banker and has no interest in any of the $ockeying for position that the banker seems

to be obsessed with

The -anker

Character Analysis

The host of the party where the death penalty vs. life imprisonment debate happens, the banker bets

the lawyer two million dollars to stay in solitary confinement for fifteen years.

Aaybe it's $ust us, but it seems pretty clear that any story about two people making some kind of

complicated and cray bet would be at least somewhat about a power struggle between them.

Haven't we all seen She's All That How else could you get a nice bit of dramatic action going if not

for some competition, right 2nly in this case, it's all about a moral debate, rather than achael

:eigh ;ook. Hey, close enough.

"ure enough, as soon as the banker and the lawyer are introduced they seem ready to claw eachother's faces off. 0oesn't it kind of make you wonder why on earth the banker would have invited

someone over that he hates so much %t might well be spite that makes the lawyer up the bet to

fifteen years 7against himself, no less9. &nd it's probably also spite that makes the banker not $ust get

3delighted3 at the 3senseless bet3 but also 3make fun of the young man3 as the party goes on 7).))9.

"o if the whole thing is a power struggle between the two of them, what can we make of what the

banker represents

That "u#

First, let's take a look at his personality. We don't have a ton of insight into it, but there are a few

pretty giant honking clues that he's not the nicest guy in town. !o, he's the kind of guy who would letthe person he is betting against raise his own stakes 7from five years to fifteen years9 without anteing

up any extra dough. He is also the kind of guy who would mock someone that he plans on locking up

$ust to prove a pointand the kind of guy who would take a hypothetical argument and immediately

turn it into a demand for physical proof. -asically, he likes to be in a position of authority and likes to

wield power over others, especially those who happen to disagree with him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np05owrbzNg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np05owrbzNg



The $an

"econd, let's check out his more symbolic appearance in the story. We'll shift from thinking about the

banker as a person, and instead try to see him as a category.

<ven though ;hekhov doesn't give us too many clues 7hey, it's a short, short story9, if we try to $ustpick out what we can from the sparse description, we get the sense that the banker is basically The

Aan. Why do we say that Well, for one thing, he stands for moneyhe's described as having

3millions beyond his reckoning3, so much money that to him 3two millions are a trifle3 75.))+)59. For

another, the bankeris also on the side of pleasure, hedonism, and material goods. &fter all, he's the

one giving the party, and he clearly has some kind of super fancy estate with a guesthouse he can

use as a prison for fifteen years. &h, the good life.

&lso, in the teeny tiny world of the story, he is the agent of governmental or authoritarian control.

He's a walking, talking representation of the idea that humans can impose rules and power on other

humans. !ot only is he the lawyer's $ailer, not only does he hire a guard to keep watch outside

the guest house prison, not only does he constantly keep tabs on everything the lawyer is doing by

watching him -ig -rother+style 7not the TB show, but the bookcheck out2rwell's 198 to learn

about the ori!inal -ig -rother 9but also he is the only one shown arguing against the one random

guest who says that 3the "tate is not Cod3 and shouldn't have the right to execute people 7).69.

0on't forget that when we get to the part where the bankerahemdecides to execute the lawyer.

He doesn't feel any moral =ualms about it, almost as if he $ust feels like he has the authority to do

that kind of thing. Which brings us back to the idea that the banker functions like 3the "tate.3

The :awyer

Character Analysis

A yo"n! !"est at the party, the lawyer bets that he can spend fifteen years in vol"ntary solitary

confinement to prove that any kind of life is better than death.

%f the banker is on the side of government, surveillance, and generally has The Aan+like

characteristics, then what do we make of the lawyer

There's basically two ways to go with this one. &nd honestly "hmoop's not a psychologist, and we

don't even play one on ?ouTube, but how you feel about the lawyer probably says more about you

than about him.

Why, you ask Well, it's actually intentionally woven into the story itself. &fter all, we have virtually

ero access to the lawyer's thoughts, feelings, or ideas, so everything we can figure out about him

has to come from $ust imposing our own interpretations on his somewhat mysterious and confusing

actions.

2kay, maybe we do play shrinks on ?ouTube.

http://www.cbs.com/shows/big_brother/

http://www.shmoop.com/george-orwell/


http://www.shmoop.com/1984/

http://www.shmoop.com/1984/big-brother-symbol.html


http://www.cbs.com/shows/big_brother/


http://www.shmoop.com/1984/




%!tion &'( Wise "u# )ermit

%nterpretation number one takes this mystery and confusion and runs with it. %n this version of what's

up with the lawyer, he is basically a modern+day -iblical cave hermit. ?ou know that generic cartoon

wise old man that sits up on a secluded mountain and you have to climb and climb and climb to ask

him some deep =uestion, to which he says, yo" tell me That's what we're talking about herea guywho voluntarily takes himself out of the world to really get some time to think about things.

&fter all, when the banker proposes his cray bet, the lawyer $umps on that thing like it's the last

rowboat off the TitanicD 3'%f you mean that in earnest,' said the young man, '%'ll take the bet, but %

would stay not five but fifteen years'3 7).E9. What Who in a million years would take that bet &nd

who on earth would take it and then increase the difficulty for himself

2nly someone who already has monastic or ascetic tendencies, we say. &nd of course, a craed,

deeply spiritual hermit is exactly what the lawyer turns into. ;heck out his conclusions about life at

the end of his letter to the bankerD

#$ despise wisdom and the blessin!s of this world. $t is all worthless, fleetin!, ill"sory, and deceptive,

like a mira!e. %& $ marvel at yo" who e(chan!e heaven for earth. $ don't want to "nderstand

yo".# 75.)+)89

He doesn't $ust re$ect the moneyhe re$ects all of human life. 0ude's got people problems4

%!tion &*( )e+s "one +ound the -end

4 Which takes us straight into interpretation number twodude's straight up cray. %f we examine

the evidence again, we get a totally different sense of what the lawyer's driving motivation might

actually be. What kind of person would sign up for a fifteen+year term of total isolation Aaybe not

the most mentally balanced kind.

-ut the kicker for this second theory is the lawyer's assertion that by reading a lot of books he's

experienced everything that a man ever couldD

#)or fifteen years $ have been intently st"dyin! earthly life. $t is tr"e $ have not seen the earth nor

men, b"t in yo"r books $ have dr"nk fra!rant wine, $ have s"n! son!s, $ have h"nted sta!s and wild

boars in the forests, have loved women. . . . *ea"ties as ethereal as clo"ds, created by the ma!ic of

yo"r poets and !eni"ses, have visited me at ni!ht, and have whispered in my ears wonderf"l tales

that have set my brain in a whirl. %& $n yo"r books $ have fl"n! myself into the bottomless pit, performed miracles, slain, b"rned towns, preached new reli!ions, con+"ered whole kin!doms. . . .

# 75.)>9

We hate to break to you, dude, but you have done no such thing. ?ou havemaybegotten a

vicarious glimpse of what those things mi!ht be like. -ut this conviction that reading about

something e=uals living it ?eah, get this man to a doctor, stat.



The -et Tone

Take a story's temperatre by stdyin! its tone. Is it hope"l# Cynical# $narky# %lay"l#

$atter of .act, %b/ecti0e, 1r#, 2nemotional

"ay you're writing a piece of fiction in which a guy decides to seal himself up in solitary confinement

for fifteen years. What's the first thing you imagine you'll need to do

%f you're like "hmoop, you immediately start wracking your brains to try to figure out how on earth

you'll be able to describe what this sad, cray man must be going through. His feelings, his thoughts,

his expectations, what this decision will mean for his familyyou know, the general stuff of human

life.

-ut this story skips all of that in favor of a $ust+the+facts+ma'am approach, even when it does want to

register some level of emotions.For example, check out how the prisoner's life is describedD

)or the first year of his confinement, as far as one co"ld j"d!e from his brief notes, the prisoner

s"ffered severely from loneliness and depression. The so"nds of the piano co"ld be heard

contin"ally day and ni!ht from his lod!e. %& $n the second year the piano was silent in the lod!e,

and the prisoner asked only for the classics. $n the fifth year m"sic was a"dible a!ain, and the

prisoner asked for wine. Those who watched him thro"!h the window said that all that year he spent

doin! nothin! b"t eatin! and drinkin! and lyin! on his bed, fre+"ently yawnin! and an!rily talkin! to

himself. %& ore than once he co"ld be heard cryin!. 7).)@+)9

The stuff of feelings is all therethe guy 3suffers from loneliness and depression3, he is 3heard

crying3 and 3angrily talking to himself.3 -ut the calm tone $ust sucks all the adrenaline and

excitement from what could be a very moving bit of narrative.

!ot only that, but we are clearly expected not to care about this one way or another, except $ust to

note it as a plot pointcheck out how the description $ust skips from year two to year five without so

much as a blink. That's three years alone in a room that we $ust gloss over with a 3eh, whatever.3

?ou don't get much more matter+of+fact than that.

Why so dry -ecause it's not the feelings that matter here. %t's the ideas that are front and center.

WhatGs (p With the <nding

<ven back in his own time everyone pretty much agreed that ;hekhov was a super awesome writer.

-ut you know what a lot of his critics got on his case about The fact that he refused to spell out

some kind of moral lessons in his stories, which is something that pretty much every other writer was

doing at the time.

-ut ;hekhov $ust one hundred percent, flat out re$ected the idea thatan author has to put some kind

of $udgment into his work, or to teach the reader how to act or how not to act, or to point fingers at



his characters and identify the good guys and the bad guys. &nd since that's the traditional function

of the endinglollipops for the good, dunce caps for the bad, and a high and mighty feeling for the

readerin ;hekhov's stories, the ending often has an uncomfortable feeling to it.

%n the case of this story, for example, it's hard to know how to react to what happens in the last few

paragraphs. The action itself is perfectly clear. Aoved by the lawyer's letter, the banker kisses theprisoner and leaves to go home, feel bad about himself, and have a good cry. Aeanwhile, the lawyer

sneaks out of the room early. Finally, the bankertakes the letter that re$ects that money and hides it

away in his safe as evidence.

"o what's it all mean Here are some possibilitiesD

The After School S!ecial Ending

The first possibility is that the banker has learned a valuable lesson about not being a huge $erk.

There he was all set to kill the guy, when all along the lawyer had no interest in his money at all. "o

the reason he feels bad and cries is that he suddenly sees that he's been way too obsessed with

money. Which is fine, except for this tiny catchD has he really changed all that much if he still wants

to protect the letter 7and with it, his two million rubles9

The E0il3Will3Alwa#s3Trium!h3%0er3"ood Ending

/ossibility number two is that the banker cries from plain old relief. He's $ust so psyched he doesn't

have to kill anyone and still gets to keep his money and everything is hunky+dory again. ?ay. This

version fits with that last detail about the letter and the safe4

4 -ut what about the part where the banker feels so terrible about himself Why would that be

The 4)e#, %0er )ere54 Ending

Aaybe the banker isn't really who we should be thinking about anyway. /ossibility three involves the

other guy. How come we don't find out exactly what is going to happen to the lawyer 0oes he leave

the room and go to a life of asceticism in some monastery somewhere 2r is he going to kill himself

as =uickly as possible The whole %+re$ect+the+world business certainly could go either way, no

"o, what do you thinkwhich is the most plausible explanation of the ending Why

The -et /lot &nalysis

&ost !ood stories start with a "ndamental list o" in!redients the initial sitation,

con(ict, complication, clima), sspense, denoement, and conclsion. Great writers

sometimes shake p the recipe and add some spice.



Ex!osition 6nitial Situation7

1eath or solation8

The setup is pretty much $ust the argument at the partywhat's better, the death penalty or life

imprisonment There are many ways to think about this, of course, and the guests offer up some the

possible =uestions. For example, which one's more moral for a government to do 2r, say, whatwould a person be more apt to tolerate 2r, which is less painful

-ut instead of going with any of these, the banker host and the lawyer guest really get personal,

which brings us to4

ising Action 6Con9ict, Com!lication7

See :our .i0e And aise :ou .ifteen

The lawyer agrees to be locked up for fifteen years 7even though the banker's initial ante was only

five years9, and the banker puts up two million rubles. Who will win the bet For a while, looks like it'll

be the banker since the lawyer is all miserable in his little guest house, asking for happy books and

playing sad music to himself. &ce of -ase, anyone

Climax 6Crisis, Turning ;oint7

At the .inish Line

The longer the lawyer stays, the more it looks like he'll be the winner. He turns to really serious study

languages, religion, scienceand seems pretty okay in his makeshift prison. %t's not like he's ever

gonnarun out of books.

Aeanwhile, the banker loses his fortune and starts to freak out about coughing up the two million."oon enough he decides to murder the lawyer 7hello, bad idea9. -ut $ust as he is about to do it, he

finds a letter in which the lawyer says that he re$ects the moneyalong with the rest of the material

world. He's really not a material girl, you see.

!ow that's a twist.

.alling Action

;hew< =o $urder =ecessar#<

The banker is relieved not to have to kill anyone. The prison warden later reports that the lawyer

sneaked out of the guest house five hours before the fifteen years was up to forfeit the money, whichgears us up for the =uiet finale.

esolution 61enouement7

The $oral8 Alwa#s "et t n Writing

The banker takes the lawyer's letter, which proves that he re$ected the money, and stashes it away in

his safe. %n case anyone comes asking =uestions later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OB28fTKSds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gWqc7pTNn0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OB28fTKSds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gWqc7pTNn0

The Bet Summary

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