The Characters of "A Marriage Proposal"
Lomov (35 years old, a neighbour of Chubukov)
Lomov is a hypochondriac who
wants to get married for the sake of appearances. He doesn't seem to love
Natalya but decides to marry her because she's the best woman available.
He has difficulty coming to
the point, which makes conversing with him difficult. Because of his tendency
to digress, he becomes involved in silly arguments with Natalya and Chubukov
about land ownership and dogs. What seems most important to him is maintaining
a superior appearance, which is also true of the other two characters.
Chubukov
54 years old, man.Chubukov
seems happy about the potential marriage between Lomov and Natalya. However, he
sees marriage in a mercenary way, referring to Lomov's proposal as a merchant
buying goods. For him, the match is advantageous as a good business arrangement
for both families.
Whether Lomov and Natalya
really love each other probably doesn't matter much. Despite his eagerness for
the marriage to happen, Chubukov places greater value on maintaining a superior
appearance. As a result, he gets embroiled in the inane arguments between Lomov
and Natalya.
Natalya Chubukov (daughter of Chubukov, 25 years old)
Natalya is a strong-willed girl
who is more effective than Lomov in speaking clearly and getting to the point.
However, her will is focused on maintaining a superior appearance.
As a result, she insists
that Oxen Meadows belongs to her family and not to Lomov. She also argues that
her dog is better than Lomov's dog. Yet, she feels the burden of being a
potential if not actual spinster and, thus, desperately wants to marry Lomov.
Despite this, her concern for being right about superficial matters takes
precedence.
Story of “A Marriage Proposal” By Anton Chekhov
The play is set in the rural
countryside of Russia during the late 1800s. When Ivan arrives at the home of
the Chubukov family, the elderly Stepan assumes that the well-dressed young man
has come to borrow money.
Lomov
pays a visit to his neighbor, Chubukov. He is wearing a dress-suit. Chubukov
expresses a great pleasure. He welcomes him and gives him a warm handshake.
But
he is surprised to see him in a formal dress, and thinks that perhaps he is on
his way to some engagement. Lomov tells him that he has no engagement except
with him. He tries to explain the purpose of his visit, but he gets nervous and
excited.
Chubukov has a daughter
named Natalia. She is twenty-five, but unmarried. In fact, he has come with a
proposal to marry Natalia. He is so nervous that he finds it very difficult to
tell Tschubukov the purpose of his visit.
He
says that he has come to ask him for a favor, though he does not deserve it. Chubukov
thinks that he has come to borrow money, and asks him not to beat about the
bush.
After much hesitation and stammering, Lomov
tells him that he has come to ask for the hand of his daughter, Natalia.
Tschubukov naturally feels very happy and kisses him.
He
says that he will go to call his daughter and assures Lomov that she will at
once accept this proposal. When Lomov is left alone, he feels that he is cold
and his whole body is trembling.
He thinks that Natalia is
an excellent housekeeper, not at all bad-looking, well-educated - what more he
should ask. Moreover, if he does not marry now, he will never get married.
He
has been already thirty-five. He has a weak heart, and he suffers from
palpitation. The worst of all is the way he sleeps. He hardly lies down and
begins to doze when he gets a pull in his left side and something begins to
hammer in his left shoulder and in his head.
He
walks about a little, lies down again and feels the same way again. This
continues the whole night. Only a well-regulated life can help him in this
respect. Marriage alone can bring this much-needed peace and regularity in his
life.
Natalia comes and is surprised to see
Lomov, because her father has told her that there is a dealer who has come to
buy something. She begs to be excused for wearing an apron and an old dress.
She
asks if he would like to have something to eat. Then she offers him smoke, and
talks about the weather. She is also surprised to find him in a formal dress,
and tells him that he seems to be looking better.
She
thinks that perhaps he is on his way to a ball. Lomov gets excited. He is
unable to express the purpose of his visit. He wants to be brief, but in his
excitement he starts beating about the bush.
He speaks of the old relations of the
Lomovs and the Tschubukovs. He tells her that his late aunt and his late uncle
had a great regard for her father and her late mother, and furthermore his property
adjoins hers; his Oxen meadows touch her birch woods.
Natalia is shocked to
hear that the Oxen Meadows belong to Lomov. She claims that the meadows are
hers, and not his.
Poor
Lomov feels all the more excited. He tries to explain that once there was a
dispute over the Oxen Meadows, but now everybody knows that they belong to him.
His
aunt's grandmother put the meadows, free from all costs, into the hands of the
peasants of her father's grandfather for a certain time while they were laying
bricks for his grandmother.
These
people used the meadows free of cost for about forty years and began to
consider the land as theirs. Natalia, however, does not believe it.
Lomov is prepared to show the papers, but
of no use. She tells him that they have owned the property for nearly three
hundred years; the meadows are not worth much, but she cannot stand injustice.
If
he keeps explaining it for two days, she will not be convinced. She does not
want to take his property, and she refuses to give up what belongs to her. The
discussion turns into a quarrel and the marriage proposal is forgotten.
Natalia
tells him that she will immediately send her reapers to the meadows. Lomov
promises to turn them out. They shout at each other.
In
the course of their quarrel, Chubukov enters. When he is arguing about the Oxen
Meadows, he sides with his daughter. Lomov again tries to explain, but
Tschubukov does not listen.
He
tells Lomov that the latter cannot prove anything by yelling. He would rather
give them to the peasants than let him claim them. Lomov becomes rude. Chubukov
begs him to address him respectfully for he is not used to have people address
him in that tone of a rude person.
Lomov calls him a
land-grabber, and tells him that he will prove in the court. Tschubukov gets
furious, calls him an intriguer and accuses his whole family.
In this way, they start to pull each
other's family.
Lomov
says the entire race of the Lomov has always been honorable, and never has one
been brought to trial for embezzlement as Tschubukov's uncle has been.
Chubukov
tells Lomov that the latter's grandfather was a drunkard and that his aunt had
eloped with an architect. Lomov say that Tschubukov's mother was humpbacked. So
they drag their ancestors in their foolish quarrel.
Now Lomov gets much excited. The palpitation of his heart
becomes unbearable. His eyes are blurred. His foot goes numb. It seems as
though he were dying. He takes his hat, and staggers out of the room.
Chubukov
warns him not to come into his house again. The father and the daughter curse
him and tell him all sorts of dirty names.
After
Lomov has gone, Chubukov says that the fool had the courage to come to him with
a marriage proposal.
When Natalia hears that he had come to propose to her for marriage
and that is why he was dressed in evening clothes, she begins to weep and falls
into an armchair.
She blames her father for not telling
her that before. She goes into hysterics, and asks her father to bring him back
immediately.
The poor father
feels embarrassed: they have insulted him and thrown him out of their house;
and now he should call him back.
How
ridiculous! He feels like shooting himself. Natalia blames her father and calls
him brutal. She thinks if it were not for him, Lomov would not have gone. Her
behavior, indeed, is very funny. Tschubukov rushes out and calls him back.
Lomov returns; he is in a wretched state.
His heart is beating terribly; his side is hurting him; his leg is lamed.
Natalia feels sorry for her mistake, and admits that the Oxen Meadows belong to
him. She suggests that they should talk about something else.
She wants to avoid every possibility of dispute, and wishes
Lomov to make the proposal straight away.
She
asks him if he is going on hunting soon. Lomov replies that he expects to begin
after the harvest.
His
dog, Guess, has gone lame: perhaps it is a dislocation, or maybe he has been
bitten by some other dog.
Lomov
is very proud of his dog; he has bought him for a hundred and twenty five
roubles and thinks it is very cheap. Natalia however, does not agree. Her dog,
Leap, cost more than eighty five roubles, and he is in every way better than
Guess.
They are again dragged into an argument over the superiority of
each other's dogs.
In
his opinion Leap is over-short; he has a short lower jaw, and therefore he
cannot catch his prey. Natalia cannot stand this.
She
thinks that her dog is pure-bred, whereas his dog is old, ugly and skinny and
nobody can figure out his pedigree.
She
does not like when a person does not say what he really thinks. In the course
of hot discussion, Lomov again gets excited; he feels the palpitation of heart,
and his heart is bursting.
The
father again enters the room. Both turn to him for opinion. He says Guess
certainly has his good points. He is from a good breed, has a good stride,
strong haunches, and so forth.
But
he has two faults he is old and he has a short lower jaw. Lomov tells Chubukov
that on a hunting expedition his dog, Guess, had run neck to neck with the
Count's dog. But Leap was left behind. Chubukov says that the Count struck his
dog with a whip; that is why he was left behind.
Lomov
reminds him that his dog was whipped because instead of running after the fox,
he bit the sheep. Chubukov, however, does not agree. He requests Lomov to stop
that argument.
But
that does not seem possible. Chubukov gets angry. He tells Lomov to stay at
home with his palpitation; he is not fit for hunting.
They again abuse each
other and call names. Lomov begins to see stars; every part of his body is
bursting. He falls into a chair and faints.
Seeing Lomov faint, Natalia thinks that he is
dead. She starts weeping and crying, and requests her father to call in the
doctor.
The
poor father feels miserable. He holds a glass of water to Lomov's lips, but the
latter does not drink water.
The father finds himself in a terrible situation. He is so mad with desperation that he wants to shoot himself. In the meantime, Lomov comes to senses.
He sees
mist before his eyes. Chubukov does not want to take any more chance by leaving
them alone. He at once speaks out that his daughter is willing to marry.
He thrusts Lomov's hand into his daughter's
hand and gives them his blessings. He just wants to be left in peace. Lomov is
still dazed. He is not able to understand what is going on.
At last they kiss each other and are reconciled. But they again
start quarrelling over their dogs.
Natalia
says, "Guess is worse than Leap. Lomov says, "Better". Amid
their shouting, the poor old father shouts, "Champagne, Champagne".
Finally,
Ivan's heart cannot take it anymore and he flops down dead. At least that's
what Stepan and Natalya believe for a moment.
Fortunately, Ivan breaks out of his
fainting spell and regains his senses enough for him to propose to Natalya.
She accepts, but before the curtain falls,
they return to their old argument regarding who owns the better dog.
In short, "The Marriage Proposal" is a delightful gem of a comedy.
The End