The Bet Isolation Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Section.Paragraph)

Quote #4

Everyone was asleep in the house and nothing could be heard outside but the rustling of the chilled trees. Trying to make no noise, he took from a fireproof safe the key of the door which had not been opened for fifteen years, put on his overcoat, and went out of the house.

It was dark and cold in the garden. Rain was falling. A damp cutting wind was racing about the garden, howling and giving the trees no rest. The banker strained his eyes, but could see neither the earth nor the white statues, nor the lodge, nor the trees. (2.4-5)

Now it's the banker who's the total loner. In a way, since we never see him interact with anyone in the story, he is just as much a prisoner as the lawyer. A prisoner… of his own mind. Dun dun dun.

Quote #5

At the table a man unlike ordinary people was sitting motionless. He was a skeleton with the skin drawn tight over his bones, with long curls like a woman's and a shaggy beard. His face was yellow with an earthy tint in it, his cheeks were hollow, his back long and narrow, and the hand on which his shaggy head was propped was so thin and delicate that it was dreadful to look at it. His hair was already streaked with silver, and seeing his emaciated, aged-looking face, no one would have believed that he was only forty. (2.10)

Wow, so he's pretty much stopped being human altogether. He's lost his gender (his hair is "like a woman's" but he also has a beard). He doesn't have the right age markers (he is "emaciated" and "aged-looking" and just looks off). And overall, he has become "unlike ordinary people"—he has totally left the community of human beings.