What was the Banker's reaction after reading the letter in "The Bet"?

The banker experiences a whole range of emotions after reading the letter his prisoner is leaving for him in which he relinquishes the two million rubles which would be his if he remained in solitary confinement until the deadline the next morning. For one thing, the banker kisses the man on the head.

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.

The banker cannot understand what the lawyer has learned in fifteen years of solitary study and meditation, but he feels gratitude for being allowed to keep his money even while feeling deeply ashamed of himself for planning to commit dastardly crimes in order to keep it. He was planning to murder his prisoner to get out of paying the bet, and then he was planning to allow one of his servants to be convicted of the crime and sent to Siberia. The prisoner, though unwittingly, has not only given the banker a gift of two million rubles but has spared him the dreaded necessity of committing a cowardly murder.

The banker's reaction to the letter proves that every word of it is true, including these:

"You have lost your reason and taken the wrong path. You have taken lies for truth, and hideousness for beauty. 

He is thoroughly ashamed of himself. He has devoted his life to making and spending money, and now that he is old he realizes that his materialism has never made him happy and never will. He knows he is contemptible. Nevertheless, he is vastly relieved to be able to keep his big home, his money, his servants, his costly possessions, and all his luxuries. He locks the lawyer's letter in a fireproof safe to serve as evidence that he had won the bet, if any question should arise in the future.

What does the letter in Chekhov's "The Bet" contain and how does the banker react?

Anton Chekhov’s “The Bet” is an ironic story about a young man who, on a large bet with a wealthy banker, voluntarily submits to solitary confinement for fifteen years. The young man’s purpose is to show that solitary confinement was preferable to the death penalty, because, in his words:

To live anyhow is better than not at all.

Over the course of his confinement he reads many books, plays the piano, drinks wine, writes out his thoughts, but does not have any interaction with other human beings. Meanwhile, the banker foolishly loses most of his fortune, and begins to fear for his financial future when it appears that the young man will serve the fifteen years and win the bet, depriving the banker of the remainder of his money.

The ironic twist comes at the end when the banker sneaks into the sleeping prisoner’s room on the last day of the bet, planning to kill him to avoid paying off the bet. The prisoner, sleeping as the banker enters, has written a letter stating that the he will leave the room just five hours before completing the terms of the bet, thereby forfeiting his right to the fortune. It also reveals how the prisoner has been affected by the fifteen years alone:

It is true I have not seen the earth nor men, but in your books I have drunk fragrant wine, I have sung songs, I have hunted stags and wild boars in the forests, have loved women . . .

However, these books, in the end, do not bring him happiness:

And I despise your books, I despise wisdom and the blessings of this world. It is all worthless, fleeting, illusory, and deceptive, like a mirage. 

He finds that he rejects civilization. The years alone have taught him that mankind has deceived itself and created a world that leads not to happiness and fulfillment, but to emptiness:

"You have lost your reason and taken the wrong path. You have taken lies for truth, and hideousness for beauty."

After reading the letter, the banker feels “contempt for himself,” presumably because he is guilty of just what the prisoner is writing about: believing in the lies mankind has lived by. However, this does not stop him from continuing to follow “the wrong path,” for the story’s final lines are:

To avoid arousing unnecessary talk, he took from the table the writing in which the millions were renounced, and when he got home locked it up in the fireproof safe.

He locks up the letter so that he will have proof that the prisoner has lost the bet. The banker is still thinking about money and holding on to what he can of his fortune, even though the prisoner has just given him this staggering example of how it is the wrong way to live life.

In "The Bet," what impact did the lawyer's letter have on the banker?

When the banker reads the lawyer's letter, he is immediately overcome with relief and this is shown through his first physical reaction in which he "kisses the man on the head," a sign of immense gratitude.

The banker's relief, however, is tinged with a much darker feeling: he feels ashamed of himself, more so than at any other point in his life:

"At no other time, even when he had lost heavily on the Stock Exchange, had he felt so great a contempt for himself."

Chekhov does not make clear the reason for the banker's sense of self-contempt. Presumably, the banker comes to despise himself because he is so greedy and materialistic, an attitude which contrasts sharply with that of the lawyer. Whatever the reason, the banker cannot control his outpouring of emotion and cries himself to sleep.

The next morning, the banker is eager to keep the details of the bet a secret and so he locks up the lawyer's letter in a fireproof safe, to guarantee its security. 

In "The Bet," how did the imprisoned man begin his letter and how might the banker react?

In "The Bet," the imprisoned man (the lawyer) begins his letter by stating that he must say some things to the banker before he is freed and rejoins society. Specifically, he says he has come to "despise freedom and life and health" and all of the activities which humans call "the good things of the world," like drinking "fragrant wine" and hunting stags and wild boar.

His words are shocking because we would expect the lawyer to feel great excitement ahead of regaining his freedom. At the beginning of the story, for instance, the lawyer promoted the sanctity of life:

To live anyhow is better than not at all.

Likewise, we would expect the banker to be overjoyed by this decision because it saves him from paying the two million rubles but, in fact, he weeps before being filled with "contempt." It is not clear why the banker feels this way about himself but it may be that he feels shame for being such a materialistic and greedy person.