Workbook Solutions of The Bet by - Anton Chekov
I.
(i) The old banker hosted the party. The people who attended the
party included journalists, intellectuals, a lawyer and a banker.
The host was in a depressing and reminiscent mood.
(ii) Capital punishment was the topic of discussion at the party. Life
imprisonment was the alternative suggested in place of capital
punishment.
(iii) The majority of guests at the party were against giving death
penalty as they considered it out of date, immoral and unsuitable
for Christian states.
(iv) The host’s view was that capital punishment was more moral than
life imprisonment. He justified his view by stating that capital
punishment kills a man at once, whereas life imprisonment kills
a man slowly.
(v) According to the young lawyer, both capital punishment and life
sentence were immoral. But given a choice, he would go for life
imprisonment because to live is better than not living at all.
I am in/not in favor of capital punishment:
For:
(a) Capital punishment achieves nothing but revenge.
(b) A criminal is a mentally sick person who must
be cured of his ailment rather than be destroyed
completely.
(c) Capital punishment does not reform the criminal
but just eliminates him.
(d) Capital punishment does not act as a deterrent
against crime. The claim that capital punishment
reduces violent crime is inconclusive and certainly
not proven.
Against:
(a) All humans have the right to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness. When someone willfully commits
crimes against his fellow humans, he should be
given capital punishment.
(b) Lesser sentence or life imprisonment will remove the
fear and deterrence instilled by capital punishment.
(c) When the criminals will be out, they will be free
to resume their nefarious activities and even take
revenge against the law enforcing agencies or the
relatives of the victims.
II.
(i) The bet stipulated that if the lawyer would remain in solitary
confinement for a period of fifteen years, the banker would pay
him two million rubles. It was wild and senseless because by
accepting it, the lawyer would lose his freedom and the best
years of his life in confinement, just for the sake of getting two
million rubles.
(ii) It tells us that the banker was a mean and heartless fellow, who
sought to ruin the youth and the life of the lawyer by setting
inhuman and unreasonable conditions for the bet.
(iii) The lawyer accepted the bet as a challenge and for the sake of
getting two million rubles. The lawyer’s act of accepting such
a bet shows him to be a daring but greedy fellow.
(iv) The banker warned the lawyer to think again about it because
by undertaking such a bet, he would lose the best years of his
life in prison. He also told him that voluntary confinement is
much more harder than being in compulsory confinement. He
felt sorry for the lawyer because the latter would ruin his life
by undertaking the bet.
(v) The banker questioned himself about the object of the bet, the
good involved in lawyers’ losing fifteen years of his life and his
throwing away two million rubles and whether the bet can prove
that the death penalty is better or worse than life imprisonment.
The banker’s desire to prove his point that capital punishment is
better than life imprisonment prompted him to risk two million
rubles on a bet.
(vi) The banker cursed the bet he undertook fifteen years ago
because his fortune had declined and he was himself in debt.
By paying the lawyer, two million rubles, he would be ruined.
The lawyer, on the other hand, decided to forfeit the bet he had
undertaken fifteen years ago, to prove the futility and fleeting
nature of worldly possessions.
(vii) The bet between the lawyer and the banker was unreasonable
and inhuman because it put at stake the freedom and youth
of a man for fifteen long years, just to prove which of the two
options — capital punishment or life imprisonment is better.
The lawyer staked more because he staked his freedom and
his youth by being in confinement for fifteen years, whereas
the banker staked only money, which can be recovered, unlike
youth and time lost, which can never be regained.