The Bet

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 11th grade February 2008

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"The Bet" By Anton Chekhov The debate among about life imprisonment virus's capital punishment has been fought long and hard. This argument takes place here in this story where two men are having a lively discussion about which is more humane, life imprisonment or capital punishment. The one who chooses life imprisonment is the lawyer. The banker is against this and chooses death. The banker is so sure that no one would lose their life to imprisonment rather then end it all quickly. The banker, so confident, makes the bet with the lawyer staking two million rubles that he couldn't sacrifice his freedom for his belief and stay confined by himself for fifteen years.

The banker being so confident thinks no one would lose fifteen years of his or her life for so much money. In the beginning the banker disagrees with the people who say that the death penalty is out of date.

He tells them "capital punishment kills a man at once, but life long imprisonment kills him slowly." The banker feels that a quick death will relieve of the pain and he wouldn't have to live with what he has done for the rest of his life. The banker believes that losing ones life to imprisonment is frivolous and stupid. Money is nothing to him "two million's a trifle, but you are losing three or fours of the best years of your life." The banker is too rapped up in money to see that it isn't always the answer. The banker would rather be dead then be imprisoned and sees it as humane as possible. "Which is 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 banker is...