"A Marriage Proposal"

In the short play "A Marriage Proposal," Anton Chekhov describes the odd courtship of Lomov, who seeks a marriage with his neighbor's daughter. Lomov and the woman he wants to marry fight before he can make his proposal, fight while he proposes, and fight after she agrees to marry him. They tend to fight every time they speak to one another, and while this alarms her father at first, he decides that the two just like to fight with each other. In the end, the father calls this last fight the "beginning of family happiness," though it is doubtful that a couple can fight all the time and achieve anything like bliss.

The meeting between Lomov and Tchubukov suggests one sort of neighborhood arrangement, for Tchubukov could not be friendlier and more delighted to see Lomov, happier being asked about the marriage, and more positive about Lomov's prospects. At the same time, there is a slight undercurrent as Tchubukov, first believing that Lomov wants to borrow money, states as an aside, "I am not going to give it to him" (107). Money remains an undercurrent throughout. Natalya sees Lomov and is disappointed, stating, "Papa said a purchaser had come for the goods!" (109). Of course, she is the goods her father is talking about, and the purchaser would be whoever asks to marry her. The whole affair has the aura of a business deal for both sides. Lomov, for his part, has selected Natalya because she "is an excellent manager, not bad looking, educated" (108)--in other word

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