The Bet Anton Chekhov Anton Chekhov Story Overview

The Bet Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov

Story Overview “The Bet” is an 1889 short story about a banker and a young lawyer who make a bet with each other based on capital punishment and whether the death penalty is better or worse than life in prison. The terms of the wager state that if the lawyer can live in solitary confinement for 15 years, he will be given 2 million rubles.

Ruble is Russian currency. 1 Russian Ruble equals 0. 013 United States Dollar 2, 000 Russian Rubles equals 26, 837. 21 USD

A few more things to look into…. .

Capital Punishment (AKA the death penalty) “Capital punishment” is the legal execution of a criminal. The word capital comes from the Latin word for head. In ancient times, capital punishment was often carried out by beheading.

History of the Death Penalty As far back as the Ancient Laws of China, the death penalty has been established as a punishment for crimes. In the 18 th Century BC, the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon classified the death penalty for twenty five different crimes, although murder was not one of them. The first death sentence historically recorded occurred in 16 th Century BC Egypt where the wrongdoer, a member of nobility, was accused of magic, and ordered to take his own life. During this period non-nobility was usually killed with an ax. (“History of the Death Penalty” pbs. org)

Death Row Facts: • As of December 12, 2019, capital punishment is legal in 28 US states. • According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 22 people were executed in the United States in 2019. The number of death sentences imposed was 34. • According to the Criminal Justice Project of the NAACP, there are 2, 656 people on death row in the United States as of July 1, 2019.

Life Sentence A life sentence is a type of prison sentence for serious offenses, requiring that the criminal stay in prison for the rest of his life unless paroled, pardoned or permitted to leave under state laws. Currently, one of every seven people in U. S. prisons is serving a life sentence.

Consider who is the winner of the bet and why. As you read: Be thinking of possible themes for the story and text evidence that would support those themes (reminder: theme is a lesson/message the author wants us to learn).