according to the excerpt, what motivated the lawyer to wager the bet?
Just 25 years old when he attends the broker's party at the beginning of the story, the lawyer initially asserts that life-imprisonment is far preferable to capital punishment. He proves as reckless as the banker in agreeing to the bet and foolish in lengthening his sentence for the sake of some misplaced pride. Unlike the broker, nevertheless, he is non responsible for anyone's safety only his own. He evolves equally the years get by in his cell, eventually committing to reading every bit much as he can and sharpening his heed. Past the end of his 15-year term he is a completely changed human being—extremely learned even so completely dismissive of all earthly things, insisting that they are misleading mirages that bullheaded human beings to the transience of life. He is resentful of others and sees himself as above those who have "bartered heaven for world"—that is, who are living in sin. The banker notes that the lawyer is so emaciated past the cease of his judgement that he is hard to expect at, prematurely aged, and appears ill. This outward appearance contrasts with the lawyer's own belief that he has bettered himself. He ultimately renounces the bet by escaping his prison cell just 5 hours before he would exist awarded his winnings.
The Lawyer Quotes in The Bet
The The Bet quotes beneath are all either spoken by The Lawyer or refer to The Lawyer. For each quote, you lot can also meet the other characters and themes related to information technology (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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"I myself take experienced neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment, but if one may judge a priori, then in my opinion capital letter penalization is more than moral and more than humane than imprisonment. Execution kills instantly, life-imprisonment kills by degrees. Who is the more humane executioner, ane who kills you in a few seconds or one who draws the life out of you lot incessantly, for years?"
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"Death penalty and life-imprisonment are equally immoral; but if I were offered the choice between them, I would certainly choose the 2nd. It's amend to live somehow than not to live at all."
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"Why did I make this bet? What's the good? The lawyer loses fifteen years of his life and I throw away two one thousand thousand. Will it convince people that capital punishment is worse or better than imprisonment for life? No, no! all stuff and rubbish. On my part, it was the caprice of a well-fed man; on the lawyer'due south pure greed of gilt."
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During the last two years of his confinement the prisoner read an extraordinary amount, quite haphazard. Now he would apply himself to the natural sciences, then he would read Byron or Shakespeare … He read as though he were swimming in the ocean among cleaved pieces of wreckage, and in his desire to save his life was eagerly grasping i piece after some other.
Related Symbols: Books
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"He will accept away my last farthing, ally, savour life, risk on the Exchange, and I will wait on like an envious ragamuffin and hear the same words from him every day: 'I'thou obliged to you for the happiness of my life. Let me help you.' No, it's too much! The only escape from bankruptcy and disgrace—is that the human should die."
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"Before the tabular array sat a man, unlike an ordinary human. Information technology was a skeleton, with tight-drawn skin, with long curly hair similar a woman'due south, and a shaggy beard. The color of his face was yellow, of an bawdy shade; the cheeks were sunken, the back long and narrow, and the manus upon which he leaned his hairy caput was and then lean and skinny that it was painful to wait upon. His pilus was already silvering with greyness, and no 1 who glanced at the senile emaciation of the face would accept believed that he was only xl years one-time."
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"To-morrow at twelve o'clock midnight, I shall obtain my freedom and the right to mix with people. Simply… [o]n my own clear censor and earlier God who sees me I declare to you that I despise freedom, life, health, and all that your books call the blessings of the world."
Related Symbols: Books
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"Everything is void, frail, visionary and delusive as a delusion. Though y'all exist proud and wise and beautiful, still will expiry wipe yous from the face up of the world … You lot are mad, and gone the wrong way. You have falsehood for truth and ugliness for beauty... So do I marvel at you, who take bartered heaven for earth. I do not want to understand you."
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"When he had read, the banker put the sheet on the table, kissed the caput of the strange man, and began to weep … Never at any other time, not fifty-fifty after his terrible losses on the Commutation, had he felt such contempt for himself as at present. Coming home, he lay downwards on his bed, merely agitation and tears kept him a long fourth dimension from sleeping…"
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"The banker instantly went with his servants to the wing and established the escape of his prisoner. To avoid unnecessary rumors he took the paper with the renunciation from the table and, on his render, locked it in his condom."
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The Lawyer Graphic symbol Timeline in The Bet
The timeline below shows where the character The Lawyer appears in The Bet. The colored dots and icons bespeak which themes are associated with that appearance.
...non have the right to take away that which it cannot give back. A immature lawyer then speaks upward, like-minded that both punishments are equally immoral but adding that he would... (total context)
...loses his atmosphere, bangs his fist on the table, and makes a bet with the lawyer for two one thousand thousand rubles that he couldn't stay in a prison cell for five years. The... (full context)
The banker further goads the lawyer over dinner, telling him to back out before information technology is too tardily. He points out... (total context)
...the banker bemoans his decision to make this bet, because nothing has been gained: the lawyer has lost fifteen years of his life, it looks like the banker will lose two... (full context)
Fifteen years previously, the lawyer is put under strict observation in a garden wing of the broker'southward business firm. He is... (full context)
At start, the lawyer struggles to adjust to the loneliness and boredom of his captivity. He plays piano all... (full context)
In the 2d year, the lawyer stops playing pianoforte and starts reading classic books. By the fifth year, he is playing... (full context)
In the 6th year, the lawyer begins to zealously report languages, philosophy, and history, reading more books than tin easily be... (full context)
In the tenth twelvemonth, the lawyer reads only the New Testament. In the next two years, he reads haphazardly and randomly,... (full context)
It is fifteen years afterwards and the eve of the lawyer's release. The banker is distraught considering he cannot beget to pay the two million rubles.... (full context)
The old banker fears that the lawyer will, having won the bet, go wealthy, marry, and enjoy life the same way he... (full context)
...enters the hall and sees that the watchman is indeed missing. He taps on the lawyer'southward window merely the prisoner does non stir. He charily opens the door. The lawyer is... (full context)
The lawyer has written that he will receive his freedom the adjacent day, and with it the... (full context)
All the wisdom from the books, writes the lawyer, is condensed into a little lump in his skull. He has get cleverer than almost... (full context)
The lawyer has come to hold people who capeesh earthly things in contempt, and as such he... (total context)
The banker has begun to weep. He puts the alphabetic character down and kisses the lawyer on the head before leaving. He is full of contempt for himself, and he has... (full context)
The next morning, the watchman comes running to the banker and says that the lawyer climbed through the window into the garden and escaped. The broker goes to the garden... (full context)
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Source: https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-bet/characters/the-lawyer
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