In Anton Chekhov's "The Bet," as the banker and the lawyer argue about whether the death penalty or life imprisonment is crueler, the banker contends that the death penalty is more humane:
Capital punishment kills a man at once, but life imprisonment kills him slowly.
This statement acts as foreshadowing of what will occur with the lawyer, who is of the opinion that "[T]o live anyhow is better than not at all." For, after he and the banker wager on his being able to stay in solitary confinement, and he rashly adds ten years to the proposal of five years, he experiences several psychological changes that steadily debilitate his spirit.
During his confinement, the young man educates himself, plays the piano, indulges himself. After a while he again returns to disciplined studies, learning new languages, and then, he is back to escape with wine and such. After so many years of an isolated existence, the lawyer finds that any meaning in a person's life depends upon sharing ideas and feelings with others. Truly, the examination of human ideas has little meaning without someone with whom to measure them and discuss them. He learns the truth of Milton's phrase that "no man is an island unto himself."
Finally, after so many years of the deprivation of human company, the lawyer despairs. He writes a letter in which he declares that everything is empty, nothing endures, and all is vain, empty, and illusory. Certainly, the younger man's spirit has died slowly, just as the banker has declared at the beginning with the words, "life imprisonment kills slowly."
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