NCERT Solutions Class 10 English Chapter 11 The Proposal

GIST OF THE LESSON:
The Proposal is a one-act play written by the Russian story writer and dramatist Anton Chekov in 1888-89. The play is about the tendency of rich families to hunt ties with other wealthy families and to extend their estates by encouraging marriages that observe economic sense. This is a highly humorous play which satirizes marriages of convenience that are solemnized without any feeling of love or affection between the partners. The play, with three quarrelsome characters, is replete with comic situations that generate a lot of humour.

SUMMARY OF THE LESSON:
“The Proposal” is a humorous play where a thirty-five years old bachelor, Ivan Lomov, comes to his neighbor, Stepan Chubukov, to propose to his twenty-five years old daughter, Natalya Stepanovna. Both Lomov and Natalya are desperate to get married. Though Lomov doesn’t consider Natalya to be an ideal match for him, yet knowing his own limitations, he decides to take this step. Not only is Natalya fairly good looking and well-educated, she is an excellent house-keeper too. As far as Lomov is concerned, in the first place he is at a critical age of thirty-five years, secondly his nervousness, lack of confidence and fragile health leave him with no option but to propose to Natalya. Natalya, on the other hand, is more than eager to be proposed by someone.
When Lomov tells Chubukov, the father of Natalya, about the purpose of his visit, the old man who feels it a burden to be the father of a grown up daughter, gets very excited. He is absolutely certain that Natalya would readily give her consent for the proposal. He rushes in to call out Natalya. However, when Natalya comes to the drawing room, she is surprised to see Lomov is formal dress as she doesn’t know the purpose of his visit. After exchanging a few pleasantries, when Lomov is just on the verge of proposing to the girl, there crops up a controversy between the two of them regarding the ownership of a piece of land ‘Oxen Meadows’.
Both Lomov and Natalya claim to be the real owner of this property. Initially both of them claimed it very politely. However, soon the argument becomes heated and they start shouting at each other. Lomov insists that the documents prove that Oxen Meadows belong to him, although at one time they were a subject of dispute. Natalya counters his claim by telling that their land extended till Burnt Marsh, which meant that the Oxen Meadows were theirs. In the meantime, Chubukov also makes his entry and he joins the two in the argument. After a lot of accusations and mudslinging at each other’s family, the flared up Lomov became unwell and his heart started palpitating dangerously. He leaves the father and daughter in a fit of temper. Soon after he leaves, Natalya gets to know from her father that he had come to propose to her. Instantly she creates a scene. In hysterics, she tells her father to get back to Lomov immediately. Both the father and the daughter accuse each other of driving Lomov out. However, the father runs after and gets him back.
This time Natalya is very sweet to Lomov but she doesn’t know how to make him propose to her. Unfortunately, there is yet another argument between the two before the proposal is made. This time they start quarrelling over the superiority of their respective dogs. Natalya finds faults with Lomov’s dog ‘Guess’, whereas Lomov feels that ‘Guess’ is a far better dog than the Chubukovs’ ‘Squeezer’. Soon both of them flare up once again and Chubukov also joins them. They abuse and accuse each other repeatedly. Lomov, too frail to continue the argument, falls into a chair exhausted!
Natalya, taking the unconscious man to be dead, starts wailing. Chubukov is thoroughly unnerved, but the moment he realizes that Lomov is not dead, with all his presence of mind, he puts Lomov’s hand into his daughter’s hand and gives consent for the wedding on Natalya’s behalf. He gives his blessings and makes them kiss each other. He rushes to get the entire drama through so that the weight of marrying Natalya is off his shoulder. However, though the proposal matures, Lomov and Natalya still continue to argue with each other about the superiority of their dogs. When the curtain drops, the reader is left guessing about the fate of this couple after the two gets married. Thus, we understand that this drama displays the greed of rich families to marry their children into other wealthy families with the aim of enhancing their wealth.