How we cite our quotes: (Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
A lively discussion arose. The banker, who was younger and more nervous in those days, was suddenly carried away by excitement; he struck the table with his fist and shouted at the young man: "It's not true! I'll bet you two millions you wouldn't stay in solitary confinement for five years." (1.6-7)
Check out how the banker, who first was all, "we don't really need experience to make this judgment," immediately jumps on the first guy to disagree with him and demand physical proof. Someone's a flip-flopper.
Quote #2
"If you mean that in earnest," said the young man, "I'll take the bet, but I would stay not five but fifteen years." (1.8)
We're dying to know. Why on earth would this guy raise the bet against himself to fifteen years? Without actually raising the money at stake? Is this supposed to tell us something about him? Maybe he's just that crazy.
Quote #3
And this wild, senseless bet was carried out! The banker, spoilt and frivolous, with millions beyond his reckoning, was delighted at the bet. (1.11)
Why is there so much emphasis on how crazy rich the banker is? Even the personality traits we get here—"spoiled", "frivolous", "senseless"—are all related to the fact that he just has more money than he can count.
Quote #4
Fifteen years before, his millions had been beyond his reckoning; now he was afraid to ask himself which were greater, his debts or his assets. Desperate gambling on the Stock Exchange, wild speculation and the excitability which he could not get over even in advancing years, had by degrees led to the decline of his fortune and the proud, fearless, self-confident millionaire had become a banker of middling rank, trembling at every rise and fall in his investments. (2.3)
In a way, there are two bets going on at the same time—there's the main one with the dude locked away for fifteen years, and then there's the one with the banker staking his money on the stock market. He's quite the gambler, this banker.
Quote #5
"Poor creature!" thought the banker, "he is asleep and most likely dreaming of the millions. And I have only to take this half-dead man, throw him on the bed, stifle him a little with the pillow, and the most conscientious expert would find no sign of a violent death." (2.11)
The banker is down to the last possible way to compete with the lawyer—brute strength. It's also worth noting that the banker's interest in physical proof comes back here. He's not really stressed about the morality of killing the guy—just like he wasn't that interested in the morality of imprisoning him. Instead, he's just worried about the physical evidence of the dastardly deed.
Quote #6
"To prove to you in action how I despise all that you live by, I renounce the two millions of which I once dreamed as of paradise and which now I despise. To deprive myself of the right to the money I shall go out from here five hours before the time fixed, and so break the compact. . . ."
When the banker had read this he laid the page on the table, kissed the strange man on the head, and went out of the lodge, weeping. At no other time, even when he had lost heavily on the Stock Exchange, had he felt so great a contempt for himself. When he got home he lay on his bed, but his tears and emotion kept him for hours from sleeping. (2.18-19)
Whoa, the old win-by-losing twist ending trick. Think about it—if the lawyer hadn't written that letter giving up the money, the banker would have killed him. So this way, the lawyer wins his life back in two ways—literally, since he saves himself from murder, and more figuratively, since he's no longer imprisoned. We'd say he's won this competition, but we're not actually sure if he comes out on top, since we never hear from him again.