Analysis
Characters
Who are the protagonist and antagonist of this short story?
I would say that both, the Banker and the Lawyer, are the protagonist of this story, but both in an anti-hero kind of way.
Because of the Banker horrible actions throughout the story he would be the antagonist, for instance he is capable of even murdering to stick with some money, that kind of behavior shows that he should be labelled as the antagonist
A. Positive:
The Banker: I would say that he is a complex character, because he reveals both undesirable truths and redeemable realities of the human condition, for example as a good trait we have is that he is indeed a rational character, but a very selfish one too because he values more to stay with his honor than to end a bet that does not benefit him.
The Lawyer: This character is a persistent, intelligent and self-motivating man, but I would also add “trustworthy” because he did stay 15 years in complete isolation. Also at the end of the short story we can see how his character changes from a young, impatient, and irrational human to being a person with no interest in materialistic luxury, which is shown when he renounces the 2 million and settles with just having proved his point.
B. Negative
The Banker: A pretty dishonest man with weak character and attached to the materialistic luxuries of life. Also we can see how stubborn he is by hiding the letter and avoiding the rest to know what really happened to the bet. With this he shows that he lives from appearances. .
The Lawyer: At the beginning of the story we can see how irrational and impulsive he is, for instance, he did not only bet his freedom but he also raised the amount of years of isolation from 5 to 15.
C. Motivations
The motivation from both characters was to prove a point, which is why they continue with the bet.
Who began the wager?
The Banker
Why and how did the lawyer’s reading habits change over the years?
He began to read a lot in order to educate himself. He passed from only reading novels with a complicated love interest, stories of crime and fantasy, comedies, and so on, to study languages, philosophy, and history.
How does the lawyer help depict the theme?
The theme of the short story is the meaning of life, and the Lawyer depicts this by ending the bet and claiming that everything that humankind lives for on Earth (pleasure, love, knowledge, wisdom, everything) is worthless, and that only heaven holds value.
Does the banker’s perspective ever change throughout the story?
His perspective regarding the death penalty does not change, he is sure that death penalty is better than life imprisonment, but his perspective concerning other things does change and just for showing an example, in the begining of the story he was willing to lose 2 million just for proving a point but at the end we can see how he was willing to end the life of the lawyer just to stay with the money.
What is the banker’s reason for thinking that the death penalty is better than life imprisonment?
He said that capital punishment is more humane than life impresionment, because “Execution kills instantly, life-imprisonment kills by degrees.”, which means that killing a person in the moment saves him from a slow death in prison.
How does the banker’s financial status change through the years?
The banker's financial situation has changed drastically in the fifteen years since he first made the extravagant bet with the lawyer, because at first he was secure that it doesn't matter if he loses or wins, but then when time passed, he realized that he stands to become bankrupt if he pays the two million.
Why do you think that Chekhov chose to leave his characters and the setting unnamed?
I think that's a strategy that some writers use just to make the story and the characters themselves more universal and common, like that banker and that lawyers could really be anyone and everyone could feel represented on those two.
Theme:
What do you think Chekhov is saying about wealth, freedom and greed?
The author wants to show us 3 characteristics that are part of the human being.
The story is clearly focused on the vanity of human wishes. Two proud men who take their opinions to the extreme for money, one man without fear of wasting time which is invaluable, and another without fear of committing a crime.
The human is a free being, so much so that this fight for freedom continues today. Losing this freedom is not only being locked up somewhere, but also being unable to do what you like, not seeing the people you love, or doing those little actions that we consider insignificant, a fact that we only value when we lose it.
Greed is something we can see from the two characters, for the money we do whatever, they apply the law of “the end justifies the means”. The lawyer prefers to lose years of his life for money, and as a banker he was willing to kill because he did not have to pay the bet.
Irony:
Situational irony: is when the opposite of what we expect to happen, happens.
This can be seen when the lawyer said that capital punishment was more cruel than imprisonment for life, until he experienced it and realized that by being locked up for so many years he had lost the reason to live and preferred to die.
Another irony would be that the banker had intentions to kill the lawyer but after reading the letter he wrote, and discovering that the lawyer had lost the will to live for being locked up for so long, the banker decided not to kill him. The lawyer who wants to die unknowingly convinces the man who was planning to kill him not to take his life.
Dramatic Irony: In when only the reader knows the truth of the situation, the audience is aware of the situation but not the character.
We see this when they tell us that the banker does not have the funds to pay his bet, information that is only given to us since the lawyer has no idea of this even though it is something that concerns him.
Also that only the banker and we as readers know of the intentions that he had when he went to where the lawyer was.
Verbal Irony: is when the writer says one thing and means something quite different.
When the banker was thinking about how he would find the lawyer (happy, excited, waiting to enjoy life and gamble his money on the exchange) but when he arrived at the place he found the opposite. He found a man much more skinner and dreadful.
Theme: The story explores different themes throughout the story such as punishment, freedom, death, loneliness, greed, but all of this is to reflect on something bigger, like life in general, and how we perceive life throughout the ages.
Voice: The voice of this story is something that we found highly interesting, due to the fact that the author tells what should be a story full of emotions from a calm, serious voice, which helps construct the tone of the story.
Tone: It is dry, unemotional and factual. It manages to tell something challenging for the human being as 15 years of isolation as if he were telling the weather. Which contributes in giving the story a unique tone that plays with the w¿emotions of the reader.
Mood: The mood of the story is built by boh the voice and the tone, and it continues with this same line of narration, it maintains a factual, impersonal mood.
Plot Diagram:
Internal Conflict: Throughout the story we can observe how two completely different inner conflicts are developed.
The lawyer faces a path of solitude and emptiness, which leads to an emotional change that breaks his soul and spirit. Meanwhile the banker realizes that the lawyer's will was stronger than he thought, and now he was considering killing a man to maintain what little he had of money.
External Conflict:
Man Vs Man: The whole story revolves around this main conflict between the lawyer and the banker. It all starts with something as diplomatic as a bet. But it becomes personal and physical, to a level in which the banker considers killing the lawyer.
Man Vs Society: We can identify that the bet revolves around a moral conflict faced by society, life imprisonmnt or death penalty, they both state their opinions about it and decide to sacrifice their life for a foolish and senseless bet.
Man Vs Nature: This type of conflict is mainly shown during the years of solitude that the lawyer faces, due to the fact that he is going against the human nature of being social and depending on interaction and human contact.
Man Vs Superpower: The story is highly unrealistic, no one, no matter how young, is willing to do a sacrifice as crazy as that one just to prove a pint. But in our opinion, one of the most unrealistic things is the fact that even though the banker is facing financial problems, he is still able to maintain the lawyer and his crazy demands.
Climax: It occurs when the banker is informed that the lawyer has escaped.
Resolution: The banker takes the note written by the lawyers and saves it, to ensure that no matter what happened in the future, he would get to keep his two millions.
New Ending:
20 years later, they meet again. Destiny works in the most strange way, the banker was completely broken and decided to go on a walk by the park. The lawyer no longer found any satisfaction in life, and was just laying there, seeing the sky.
When they saw each other, they realized clearer than ever that they threw away the lives they could have had, if only they hadn’t been so foolish, so idealistic, and so idiotic to risk it all on an stupid bet.
