A Marriage Proposal: A Comedy in One Act
by Anton Chekhov
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"A Marriage Proposal" is a short, one-act play, written by Anton Chekhov in the late 1880s and first performed on stage in 1890. It is an amusing farce, and reading it suggests that it was highly enjoyable to perform and to watch. The plot is simple. Lomov, an aristocratic famer, has come to propose marriage to Natalyia, daughter of his neighbor Chubukov. As he tries to convey his proposal, argument develops over a disputed tract of land between the properties of the two families. Conflict then turns to the question of whose hunting dog is better; and Lomov (a hypochondriac) collapses on the floor in outrage and exhaustion. When Chubukov realizes that Natalyia does in fact want to marry Lomov, he forces a happy reconciliation, which show more dissolves soon into argument once again. The play's performance entails much in the way of histrionics, outraged argument, all no doubt to the wild laughter of the audience. Readers are encouraged to seek out a video online, of which several are available via YouTube. show less
And they lived happily ever after -- NOT! Very funny. I'd like to see this one done on stage.
And they lived forever happy. Absurd, comic, dramatic.
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Author Information
2,642+ Works 44,757 Members
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born in the provincial town of Taganrog, Ukraine, in 1860. In the mid-1880s, Chekhov became a physician, and shortly thereafter he began to write short stories. Chekhov started writing plays a few years later, mainly short comic sketches he called vaudvilles. The first collection of his humorous writings, Motley show more Stories, appeared in 1886, and his first play, Ivanov, was produced in Moscow the next year. In 1896, the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg performed his first full- length drama, The Seagull. Some of Chekhov's most successful plays include The Cherry Orchard, Uncle Vanya, and Three Sisters. Chekhov brought believable but complex personalizations to his characters, while exploring the conflict between the landed gentry and the oppressed peasant classes. Chekhov voiced a need for serious, even revolutionary, action, and the social stresses he described prefigured the Communist Revolution in Russia by twenty years. He is considered one of Russia's greatest playwrights. Chekhov contracted tuberculosis in 1884, and was certain he would die an early death. In 1901, he married Olga Knipper, an actress who had played leading roles in several of his plays. Chekhov died in 1904, spending his final years in Yalta. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- Ivan Vassiliyitch Lomov; Stepan Stepanovitch Chubukov; Natalia Chubukov
Classifications
- Genre
- Fiction and Literature
- DDC/MDS
- 891.723 — Literature & rhetoric Asian Literature East Indo-European and Celtic literatures Russian and East Slavic languages Russian drama 1800–1917
- LCC
- PG3456 .P7 .B3 — Language and Literature Slavic languages and literatures. Baltic languages. Albanian language Slavic. Baltic. Albanian Russian literature Individual authors and works 1870-1917 Chekhov
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 52
- Popularity
- 581,982
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.50)
- Languages
- English, French, Russian
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 8
- ASINs
- 3
