Marriage Proposal by Antin Chekhov

1. Themes of “ A Marriage Proposal”
Made By:
Saveeda Hina

2. Major Themes
Stubbornness
Lack of effective
communication
Greed
Pride
Marriage
Class of Landowners
Selfishness
Opportunity
Class superficiality
Lack of emotional
bonding

3. Stubbornness
Chekov has shown us that all the three
characters as being so stubborn that they can't
admit being wrong.
Reference
 NATALYA STEPANOVNA: What are you talking
about? Oxen Meadows are ours, not yours!
 LOMOV: No, mine, honoured Natalya Stepanovna.
 LOMOV: He's better!
 NATALYA STEPANOVNA: Worse! worse! worse!

4. Lack of effective communication & Lack of
Emotional Bonding
 Instead of directly proposing to Natalya,
Lomov talks about their families, meadows,
and dogs.
 Throughout the play biased and insulting
statements.
References
 NATALYA STEPANOVNA: Oxen Meadows
are ours, and I shan't give them up, shan't give
them up, shan't give them up!
 NATALYA STEPANOVNA: All, all, all!

5. Class of Landowners &Class Superficiality
Class of
Landowners
 Mentality of Landowners
 Care more about lands
rather than relationships.
 Seek their own benefits.
 LOMOV: But, please,
Stepan Stepanitch, how
can they be yours? Do be a
reasonable man! My aunt's
grandmother gave the
Meadows fo the temporary
and free use of your
grandfather's peasants.
Class
Superficially
 Always consider own
self superior.
 See others as inferior.
 LOMOV: Never mind
about my people! The
Lomovs have all been
honourable people,
and not one has ever
been tried for
embezzlement,
like your grandfather!

6. Appearance can be Deceptive
 All three characters is
maintaining a superior
appearance.
 Natalya though being a
strong-willed woman
is focused on
maintaining a superior
appearance.
 Chubukov also places
greater value on
maintaining a superior
appearance.
 At first, all appeared
as kind, good and
polite.
 In reality, all are
aggressive when it
comes to money and
property.
 One side is appeared
as good and other as
greedy.

7. Greed and Pride
 Chekhov makes fun of the
landowners by
depicting Lomov, Natalya,
and Chubukov as greedy,
having pride and obsessed
about ownership of a worthless
tract called Oxen Meadows.
 Their pride and greed are so
extreme that they override a
marriage proposal. Lomov
calls Chubukov a land grabber,
but, in truth, they all are.

8. Marriage
 The major theme of Chekhov's The
Proposal is the cold approach to marriage that
had been common in nineteenth-century
Russia, especially among the wealthy.
 The play, as a satire for this money-driven
type of marriage, depicts the two main
characters as excessively posh and desperately
wanting to wed each other for economic
security, blind to the fact they would not get
along well.

9. Selfishness & Opportunity
 All three characters
are selfish and are
concerned
excessively or
exclusively with their
own self.
 They are seeking one
another advantage,
pleasure, or well-
being without regard
for others.
 Natalia wanted to avail
the opportunity of
becoming the wife of a
rich man.
 Chekhov wanted to avail
the opportunity of
marriage with Nataliya as
she is an excellent
housekeeper, not bad-
looking, well-educated.
 Chubokhov wanted to
avail the opportunity to
have a rich son in law.

10. Thank you