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The Bet
The banker and lawyer make a bet over capital punishment. If the lawyer can stay in solitary confinement for 15 years, the banker will pay him 2 million dollars, -
The First Year
The lawyer suffered severely from loneliness and depression. The sounds of the piano could be heard continually day and night from his lodge. He refused wine and tobacco. He read books principally of a light character; novels with a complicated love plot, sensational and fantastic stories, and so on. -
The Second Year
The lodge is silent, and he only read the classics. -
The Third Year*
The lawyer focused mainly on the arts requesting books on various art techniques primarly those used in the Renaissance period. He used an empty wall in the lodge as his canvas and painted murals that represented the beauty of the Renaissance as well expressed his depression he was suffering from. -
The Fourt Year*
During this period, the lawyer requested cook books where he began learning how to cook. He practiced on his one eyed stove that he ordered from the banker and attempted to make various cuisines from around the globe. -
The Fifth Year
Music was once again audible, and the prisoner asked for wine. He spent all this time eating, drinking, and lying in bed. He spent hours writing but did not read books. He could be heard crying more than once. -
The Sixth Year
He began zealously stydying languages, philosophy and history -
The Letter
The prisoner wrote a letter in six different languages to be critiqued. -
The Seventh Year*
He began to write sonnets for his lover who was waiting for him. In these poems, he expressed his love for her and how they will be united once again. -
The Eigth Year*
The lawyer was being driven to madness from this isolation. He would be constantly yelling and screaming at himself for his idiocy for accepting the bet. He would bang on the door and break the ceramics in the lodge. Once he had calmed down, he would write in a journal about his emotions and cry himself to sleep. -
The Ninth Year*
The lawyer began to ask for books on Phsycology and tried to understand the human mind and how it works. He tried to understand why he behaved the way he did the previous year. -
The Tenth Year
The prisoner read nothing but the Gospel. Theology and histories of religion followed the Gospels. -
The Eleventh Year*
After studying the gospels, the lodge became very quiet as the lawyer spent most of his time in prayer. He tried various methods of yoga and meditation in order to calm his mind. -
The Twelth Year*
After a few years of no music being heard, an instrument other than a paino was heard, Using books he ordered, the lawyer made a guitar and spent his time learning how to play it because he got bored of the piano. -
Period: to
The Last Two Years
The prisoner read an immense quantity of books quite indiscriminately. At one time he was busy with the natural sciences, then he would ask for Byron or Shakespeare. There were notes in which he demanded at the same time books on chemistry, and a manual of medicine, and a novel, and some treatise on philosophy or theology. -
Escape
The prisoner escaped 5 minutes before being released, and paid. He did not want the money so he escaped.
