"The Proposal" by Anton Chekhov

 Anton Pavlov Chekhov was a Russian playwright and a short story writer. He is considered to be the greatest writer of short fiction in history. His notable works are “The Seagull”, “Uncle Vanya”, “Three Sisters” and “The Cherry Orchard”. 

“The Proposal” or “A Marriage Proposal” is a one act farce written by Anton Chekhov in 1888 – 1889. It was first performed in 1890. It is very fast paced play which involves three characters. Ivan Vasilyevich Lomov who is neighbor to Stepan Stepnovich Chubukov. Chubukov has a daughter Natalya who is 25 year old unmarried young, beautiful girl. Lomov is 35 year old unmarried men with some heart disease and now wants to settle down. Lomov dressed up and visit his neighbor Chubukov to ask for the hand of his daughter. Chubukov agrees and sent Natalya but somehow hey both got in to fight upon Oxen meadows and then on their dogs. At the end Lomov and Natalya got married in presence of Chubukov. This whole chaotic situation provides plenty laugh to the audience. 

If we look at the play critically we can see how hypocrite was behavior of Chubukov and Lomov with each other. When Lomov came to visit Mr. Chubukov was calling him by pronouns like “my precious one” and “my treasure” but he would not give him a penny if he would have come for money. He also abuses him and his family when they were fighting about Oxen meadows. Lomov also take abuses to Chubukov family while fighting. 

The man who denied giving a penny to a man agrees as fast as he can to give his daughter to that person. Chubukov also says that his unmarried daughter is burden over him. When Natalya didn’t know that Lomov was here to propose her for wedding she kept on fighting for meadows but when she came to know she called Lomov back and let Lomov win the argument. This shows how important it was for a woman at that time to get married. Both Natalya and Lomov were fighting on a small thing but they both got married. It shows how wealth of a man and beauty of a woman was only considered important at that time. 

Thank you.