The Bets Summary

This short story portrays a situation in which the banker and lawyer wages a bet based on the
idea of the death penalty and life imprisonment. The banker puts on the line two million dollars
compared to the lawyers life worth of fifteen years. For the next fifteen years the lawyer was
placed in the bankers backyard without the knowledge of the outside world. It was clear that any
attempt on the lawyers part to break the conditions will result in the lawyers loss of the bet.
Fifteen years later, the banker is near bankruptcy from gambling on the stock market. If he pays
the lawyer for winning the bet, he will be ruined. is only escape from his tragedy would be to
kill the lawyer. !hen the banker opens the door into the cell, he disco"ers the lawyer now
looking like a skeleton. e disco"ers a letter and reads it, but soon reali#es the lawyer plans to
lose. Fi"e hours before the lawyers time is complete, he runs away and terminates his eligibility
to win the bet. From these e"ents in the story, I ha"e concluded that it was the banker who won
the bet and the argument of whether life imprisonment is better than death.
The bet has been argued to be many different aspects. It was stated in the story, $Ill bet you two
millions you wouldnt stay in solitary confinement for fi"e years% &'(. Taking this idea as the bet,
it was shown at the end of the story that the lawyer lost the bet. The rule was clearly stated, $The
slightest attempt on his part to break the conditions, if only two minutes before the end, released
the banker from the obligation to pay him two millions% &)(. It was apparent that the rules were
established, but "iolated. The lawyer stated, $I shall go out from here fire minutes before the
time fixed, and so break the compact*+ext morning*they had seen the man who li"ed in the
lodge climb out of the window into the garden, go to the gate, and disappear% &,(. It is clear that
the lawyers action was to forfeit the bet by lea"ing and therefore the banker winning the bet.
There has also been another argument of the idea of the bet. It has been argued that bet was not if
the lawyer could stay in confinement for fifteen years- rather it was the original argument in
which the bet had arose from. This argument was stated as, $.apital punishment kills a man at
once, but lifelong imprisonment kills him slowly. !hich executioner is the more humane, he
who kills you in a few minutes or he who drags the life out of you in the course of many years/%
&'(. The lawyer had chose life imprisonment to be better by saying, $To li"e anyhow is better
than not at all% &'(. The lawyer howe"er stated in his letter to the banker, $*I despise wisdom
and the blessings of this world. It is all worthless, fleeting, illusory, and decepti"e, like a mirage%
&,( showing he has changed his opinion about the matter. By the end of the story, he admitted
that he despised e"erything in life including life itself due to his suffering of fifteen years. e
would ha"e rather died than to ha"e slowly suffered for those fifteen years and therefore, gi"ing
up his argument that life imprisonment is better than death.