The bet by anton chekhov meaning

The story begins with several guests debating whether capital punishment is justified. The guests, intellectuals, come to the conclusion that it is a medieval and out-of-date practice that should be retired, a view that the story continues to support until its end.

Indeed, one could consider the fact that the lawyer manages not only to survive his imprisonment, but also to educate himself through it, a thesis defending the value of imprisonment over the value of capital punishment.

While at his party, the banker makes the case that lifelong imprisonment kills slowly, while capital punishment kills quickly and thus is more humane.

It is worth considering whether and in what ways the lawyer "dies" over the course of his own imprisonment: does his survival refute the banker's argument, or has he in fact lost parts of himself during his time in isolation?

The young lawyer argues with the banker that life imprisonment is a better option than capital punishment, since any life is better