Do you think Chubukov and Lomov are good neighbours? Give reasons with reference from the play.

Do you think Chubukov and Lomov are good neighbours? Give reasons with reference from the play.

No, I don’t think Chubukov and Lomov are good neighbours.

In Chekhov’s play ‘The Proposal Ivan Vassilevitch Lomov and Stepan Stepanovitch Chubukov, the two landowners are neighbours. When the play begins, both of them are full of neighbourly manners. Lomov comes to ‘honoured Stepan Stepanovitch’ to propose to his daughter Natalya. Chubukov also regards him as ‘my beauty’ or ‘my darling’. But both Lomov and Chubukov show their true colours when a dispute over property ownership arises. Lomov forgets his original purpose and engages himself in verbal fighting. Even though a little while ago they were full of good neighbourly feelings, they call each other names and begin to expose the scandals of each other’s family. Lomov starts considering Chubukov ‘an intriguer’ and Chubukov calls him the villain’ and ‘the scarecrow’. Actually, in the play Chekhov satirises the so-called amiable feelings of neighbours. He wants to show that they are basically fake, and are completely devoid of any friendly feelings. The above-mentioned neighbours are actually too practical and business-minded, who understand only their own interests.

What change of behaviour and tone do you notice in Natalya as she heard that Lomov’s actual intention was to propose to her for marriage?

Ivan Vassilevitch Lomov had come to Chubukov house to propose marriage to his daughter Natalya but things did not turn out to be in his favour. He accidentally got involved in a bitter squabble over property ownership with Natalya and her father. When Lomov left their house being insulted and angry, Chubukov blurted out that Lomov had come with a marriage proposal. At once Natalya changed her behaviour and tone of talking. She wailed hysterically to call him back and screamed that she was dying. Suddenly she became too eager to get married to Lomov. Thus Chekhov points out the deception underlying courtship and marriage for Natalya who suddenly became extremely zealous to marry the man whom she and her father had been abusing for so long. They even insulted his dead ancestors. But as he had come with a marriage proposal, she was willing to have him back, as marriage was the only way for her to secure her future.