ANTON CHEKHOV
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Born in Taganrog, Russia on January 29th, 1860.
Graduated Moscow University on 1879.
Wrote daily short, humorous sketches to support and pay his tuition fees.
He also worked as a physician throughout his literary career.
In 1886, he wrote the most popular newspaper for The New York Times, “Novoye Vremya”
His first book was “V Sumerkakh”. That book won him The Pushkin Prize.
“The Bet” was written in 1889.
Died in Badenweiler, Germany on July 15th, 1904 at the age of 44.
He was considered to be the greatest short-story writers of world literature history.
Questions
•
•
•
•
•
•
1.How does Chekhov convey the banker’s
feeling of anxiety in the opening
paragraph?
2. Why do you think that Chekhov chose
to explain the origin of the bet in the form
of a flashback?
How does his use of flashbacks make this
story more suspenseful?
3. How does the lawyer’s behavior change
from year to year during his
imprisonment?
How would you explain each of these
changes?
4. After being imprisoned for 15 years.
Would the lawyer still argue that, “Any
sort of life’s better than none at all.”?
Explain.
•
•
•
•
•
•
5. Considering the banker’s assumption
that the lawyer is “Probably asleep
dreaming of all those millions,” what is
ironic, or surprising, about the lawyer’s
note?
6. Considering the description of the
lawyer’s behavior during his
imprisonment, how would you explain the
content of his note?
7. After reading the lawyer’s note, why
does the banker kiss the lawyer’s head
and leave, “The lodge weeping”?
Why does the banker feel contempt for
himself?
8. What is the theme or main point of this
story?
How is the theme conveyed?
Answers
•
•
•
•
•
•
1. He understood that, “Great majority of
the guests had been against it.”
2A. Because he seems to be asking, “How
can that prove that Death penalty is any
better or worse than life imprisonment?”
B. To ensure his confinement was strictly
solitary, the agreement compelled the
lawyer to serve a term of 15 years in
prison.
3A. He suffered dreadfully form loneliness
and boredom.
B. Loneliness: He depressed of being
alone.
Boredom: If he’s bored, he’ll
experience pain.
4. No. The lawyer fled, but the banker
didn’t see him. Instead, he was informed
by the watchmen.
•
•
•
•
•
•
5. With a clear conscience, and with God
as my witness, I declare that I despise
freedom, life, health and everything that
those books of yours call the blessings of
this world.
6. Since the lawyer suffered from
boredom and loneliness, he may have
dreamed those millions. (including: Read
books, writing etc.)
7A. This is because of the lawyer’s feeling
from his note.
B. Because the lawyer had regarded.
8A. It was a dark, autumn night as the
banker was pacing his study, reminiscing
about the party he had given 15 autumn
years ago.
B. The banker thinks that capital
punishment is more moral and humane
than imprisonment.
MLA Work Cited
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Chekhov
(Anton Chekhov’s biography)
• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/
ec/Anton_Chekhov_1889.png
(Picture of Anton Chekhov)
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bet_(short_story)
(The Bet)
Multiple Choice
•
•
1. How does the banker reveal his personality with his comments and actions from the party?
A: He believed death penalty should be replaced everywhere with life imprisonment.
B: He agrees with his guests that he never tasted capitol punishment or life imprisonment.
C: He thinks capital punishment is more moral and humane than imprisonment.
D: He answered his opinion that the death penalty and life imprisonment are equally
immoral.
Answer: D. “Immoral” means, to violate legal principles. Death penalty and imprisonment
can result if you are immoral.
2. When the banker imagines the lawyer’s note, how can he project into his own feelings?
A: He feels sorry about the man in the lodge.
B: He felt tears in his eyes.
C: He was informed that the lawyer flees.
D: He locked the renunciation sheet in his fireproof safe.
Answer: B. He was weeping with tears in his eyes probably because of how the lawyer
suffered, but the note shows how he did millions of things for just 15 years.
“The BeT”
Anton Chekhov
(capital punishment)
Capital Punishment
• Capital punishment is a life and death issue.
Sometimes it’s called the death penalty, it is
the execution of the people who have been
found guilty to the capital crime.
The Opposing side of Capital
Punishment
• Some people oppose to capital punishment because
of the death penalty in the U.S is expensive and
wasteful program with no clear benefits.
• They also believe that people should die the natural
way and should not die a slow and painful death.
The Supporting side of Capital
Punishment
• Most people support capital punishment because if
there is no fear of punishment then the murderers
will continue on even more than they are today.
• They believe murderer should not get to live on tax
payers dollars when they should die for their horrible
crime they committed.
How capital punishment was brought up in
the short story “the Bet”
• In the short story “The Bet” the guests at the
party the banker was hosting fell into a
discussion of capital punishment; the banker
argued that capital punishment is more
humane than life imprisonment, while the
young lawyer disagreed, saying that he would
choose life in prison rather than death.
Work site
•
"www.gale.com/world." capital punishment. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Sep 2011.
<http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/topic/actionWin?limiter=&showDisambiguation=&displayGroups=&query=&prodId=OVIC&userGroup
Name=&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=GALE%7C00000000LVVL&scanId=&display-query=&mode=view>.
“The Bet”
Written by Anton Chekhov
Summarized by Jarrett Lefler
Episode One
• The banker is very worried.
• He remembers the party he held fifteen years
ago…
Episode Two
• The partygoers get into a
discussion about life sentences
and executions.
• A lawyer says that a life
sentence is the better of the
two.
• The banker and the lawyer
make a bet over whether or
not the lawyer could survive
fifteen years of imprisonment.
• The lawyer is locked in the
shed in the banker’s back yard.
Episode Three
• The lawyer is allowed
whatever he wants within the
shed’s confines, but can only
communicate through written
notes.
• The lawyer has strange habits
throughout the years.
1.
2.
3.
In the first year he refused
wine and tobacco and got
some books.
In the second, he did very
little.
Then he read a lot, ranging
from Shakespeare to the
Bible.
Episode Four
• The banker is in trouble.
• Fifteen years of
gambling has left him
very much in debt.
• The banker decides to
kill the lawyer so that
he will not have to pay
the wager and go
bankrupt.
Episode Five
• The banker goes into the
shed to find the lawyer
sitting very still, looking
almost like a corpse.
• The lawyer is asleep, and
the banker is happy because
now killing him will be easy.
• Before killing the lawyer,
the banker finds a note that
says that the lawyer’s
studies have made him
decide that he doesn’t like
the outside world and will
forfeit the bet.
My dear Gaoler!
Tomorrow at twelve
o’clock I regain my freedom and the
right to mix with people again. But
before I leave this room and see the
sun again there’s some things I feel
I should tell you.
Episode Six
• The banker is thankful
and leaves the shed
without killing the lawyer.
• The next morning, the
watchmen tell the banker
that the lawyer has
escaped.
• The banker goes to the
shed and sees that,
indeed, the lawyer did
leave, forfeiting the bet.
Pop Quiz!!
• What did the lawyer
refuse in the first years?
• A) Tobacco
• B) Wine
• C) Books
• D) A + B
• The answer is: D
Pop Quiz!!
• How long was the
lawyer locked in the
shed?
• A) 5 Years
• B) 10 Years
• C) 15 Years
• D) 20 Years
• The answer is: C
My Fake Wall
• http://www.myfakewall.com/w/the+Lawyer
Questions
The Bet
Questions
•
•
•
•
•
How long was the lawyer in jail for?
A. 24 years
B. 2 days
C. 15 years
D. He got bailed out
• C. 15 years
Who’s the protagonist?
•
•
•
•
A. The Banker
B. The Lawyer
C. The Guard
D. All The Above
B. The Lawyer