Hi Everyone!! This article will share The Bet Questions & Answers.
In my previous posts, I have shared the questions and answers of The Lady or The Tiger, Ozymandias, On a Bicycle and The Earthworm’s Monologue so, you can check these posts as well.
The Bet Questions & Answers
Question 1: When and where was the party taking place?
Answer: The party took place at the banker’s residence before 15 years on one autumn evening.
Question 2: Which group of guests considered death penalty out of date? What was their justification?
Answer: Majority of the guests, among whom were many journalists, and intellectual men, disapproved of the death penalty. They considered that form of punishment out of date, immoral and unsuitable for Christian states.
Question 3: Why did the banker argue that death penalty was more moral and more humane than imprisonment for life?
Answer: The banker argue that death penalty was more moral and more humane than imprisonment for life because in death penalty the man is killed in a moment whereas life long imprisonment kills him slowly.
Question 4: Read and answer the questions:
“The death sentence and the life sentence are equally immoral, but if I had to choose between the death penalty and imprisonment for life ………”
(a) Who is the speaker where is he at the moment?
Answer: The young lawyer is the speaker and he is speaking at the banker’s residence.
(b) If given a choice between life imprisonment and the death sentence, which one would he choose and why?
Answer: If given a choice he would choose life imprisonment because to live anyhow is better than not living at all.
(c) Where did the debate escalate to? Why do you think it escalated to such proportions? What was the first offer made by the banker?
Answer: The banker who was younger and more nervous those days because of sudden and silly change in behaviour, suddenly carried away by the excitement. He struck the table with his fist and shouted at the young lawyer. He bet two millions if lawyer would stay for five years in imprisonment. Later, lawyer in greed, extended the duration to fifteen years and accepted the bet. The bet escalated to such proportions because they each believe that their opinion is right and they risk everything to prove it.
Question 5: On what ground did one of the guests observe that both capital punishment and imprisonment for life were equally immoral?
Answer: According to one of the guests both capital punishment and imprisonment for life were equally immoral because they both had the same object – to take away life.
The Bet Questions & Answers
Question 6: Why did the young lawyer choose life sentence over death penalty as a more benevolent method of killing?
Answer: The young lawyer said that the death sentence and the life sentence are both equally immoral but if he had to choose, he would certainly choose the life sentence because to live anyhow is better than not at all.
Question 7: Read and answer the questions:
“On my part it was a caprice of a pampered man, and on his part the simple greed for money.”
(a) Who is the speaker? When is he speaking these words?
Answer: The banker says these words when he regrets on striking the bet.
(b) When exactly was the bet carried out?
Answer: The bet began at 12 o’clock on 14 Nov, 1870.
(c) Give the account of arrangements made by the banker regarding the lodging of the lawyer.
Answer: It was decided that the young lawyer should spend 15 years under strictest supervision in one of the lodges in the banker’s garden and should not cross the threshold of the lodge to see human beings or to hear human voice or to receive newspapers and letters but he was allowed to write letters. The musical instruments and books were allowed through a little window.
Question 8: What did the prisoner suffer from in the first year of his confinement? How do you know about it?
Answer: In the first year of his confinement, the prisoner suffered from loneliness and depression. This was clear from the sounds of the piano that could be heard continuously day and night from his lodge. He refused wine and tobacco.
Question 9: What did the prisoner read in the last two years?
Answer: In the last two years of his confinement, the prisoner read an immense quantity of books. they were on natural science, literature, medicine, chemistry, philosophy and theology.
Question 10: Read and answer the questions:
Then after the tenth year, the prisoner sat immovably at the table and read nothing but…..
(a) Who is the prisoner? Why is he a prisoner? What did he start reading after the tenth year?
Answer: The prisoner is the young lawyer under the voluntary confinement following the terms of the bet. After tenth year, he started reading the Gospel.
(b) What changes were observed in the character of the prisoner in the fifth and the second half of the sixth year?
Answer: In the fifth year, music was audible again. The prisoner spent whole year doing nothing but eating and lying on the bed, frequently yawning and angrily talking to himself. In the second half of the sixth year, he began zealous study of languages, philosophy and history.
(c) How did he spend the last two years of his confinement?
Answer: In the last two years of his confinement, the prisoner read an immense quantity of books quite indiscriminately. At once, he was busy with natural science, then he would ask for Byron or Shakespeare.
The Bet Questions & Answers
Question 11: Why would the banker utterly ruined if he were to give up two million to the lawyer now?
Answer: Fifteen years before, the banker’s millions had been beyond reckoning; now he was afraid to ask himself which were greater his debts or his assets.
Question 12: Why did the banker regret his action in the end of the period of agreement?
Answer: The banker regretted his action in the end of the period of agreement because he was not able to manage two million. In order to save himself from bankruptcy, he went into the cell to kill the prisoner where he came to know that the lawyer was not interested in money. This disclosure made him regret his action.
Question 13: Why did the lawyer renounce the two million of which he once dreamed as paradise?
Answer: The lawyer renounced the two million because in prison, he read a lot and reading of philosophical and religious books gave him wisdom. He realised the futility of money. It was as illusory and deceptive as mirage.
Question 14: What did the banker ultimately do with the letter?
Answer: To avoid arousing unnecessary talk, he took the letter from the table, in which the millions were renounced, and when he got home, he locked it up in the fire proof safe.
Question 15: Read and answer the questions:
“At the table a man unlike ordinary people was sitting motionless. He was a skeleton.”
(a) Who is the man? What do you think made him unlike ordinary people?
Answer: The man is young lawyer. He was unlike ordinary people because he was motionless.
(b) How was his face? Why was it hard to believe that he was only forty?
Answer: He had shaggy beard, hair grew like long curls of a woman with silver streaks, his cheeks were hollow and skin became yellow. Seeing his emaciated aged looking face, no one would believe that he was only forty.
(c) How did the banker planned to kill the lawyer?
Answer: The banker thought that the lawyer is asleep and most likely dreaming of the millions. He also thought of raking half dead man on the bed, stifle him with a pillow and the most conscientious expert would find no sign of violent death.
So, these were The Bet Questions & Answers.