The Bet

The primary theme within all of the recently read short stories have been about unnecessary imprisonments and faith in self, god, truth and knowledge. The story that is the most impactful in my opinion is “The Bet.” In this story a lawyer makes a three million dollar bet with a banker that he cannot last for 15 years in prison. This bet is created as a result of a discussion surrounding capital punishment.
There are two primary characters within the story, the banker and the lawyer. The banker is more of a flat character because it is known that he feels he is going to be correct, and later, when he learns that he may be in the wrong, he gets very nervous and angry showing the reader that he is most likely very self centered. The lawyer, however, in the progression of the story is very dynamic in his character.
This lawyer begins as a man who seems confident in himself. After the bet is made he starts to feel a little unsure of himself and his feeling of self worth seemingly goes down drastically. Even though this is true he does not admit these things to the banker and into prison he travels. Within his first year of imprisonment he becomes very lonely and very isolated and becomes fairly depressed. He is aware that this is not permanent but he also knows that 15 years is an incredibly long time and within this years is his chance to come to terms with himself in regards to the bet. He begins playing piano to help himself cope with the stress of his situation.
In the second year he requests books and stops playing music. By the fifth year the lawyer returns to his music making and he decides to ask for wine, which before he had refused because it had seemed like a taste of freedom to him and he wanted to remain true to his...

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... more of a man like the banker was. The banker becomes more like the lawyer as well. The lawyer now is more conceited and self loving than he was when he was first entombed in prison.
All aspects of the story help create a strong image in the mind of any reader. All of the details of the characters and how they interact with one another and how they change are vital to the emotional connection of the reader to the story. The manner in which the story is told is also significant to the design and delivery of the story. Both men in the story learned about self, ego and forgiveness. Both men walk away damaged even if it is not fully noticed by either or both party. Part of the strength of the story is derived from the point of view from which it is told. The point of view provides a relatively third person view on the situation absent of as much bias as possible.