Anton Chekhov has a unique writing style. He goes to the extreme to prove a point, in this story capital punishment. In true life, I doubt that a person who would stay imprisoned for fifteen years voluntarily. Also, a bet like this one would have been considered as not authentic, because these gentlemen were having a heated discussion where violence could have possibly taken place. Also both men were young and hot tempered, they made …showed first 75 words of 512 total…

…showed last 75 words of 512 total…will enjoy life, will gamble on the Exchange . . .”In this quote, the avid banker will kill for the money. I believe that the banker would have killed the lawyer if he hadn’t seen the letter. “ . . . when he got home locked it up in the fireproof safe.” In the end, the banker hasn’t learned the lesson. He had to make sure that the letter wouldn’t be destroyed, so he could keep his money.