Class 10 English · Original EZT practice
The Proposal (Class 10 English Chapter 9): Chekhov's quarrelling engagement
The Proposal - originally titled A Marriage Proposal - is a one-act farce by the Russian writer and dramatist Anton Chekhov, which the textbook's introduction dates to 1888-89. Ivan Lomov, a wealthy but excitable landowner, puts on a dress-jacket and white gloves and calls on his neighbour Stepan Chubukov to ask for the hand of his twenty-five-year-old daughter, Natalya. It should be simple: both families are wealthy, and the match makes good economic sense. Instead, the three quarrelsome people argue over who owns the Oxen Meadows and whose dog is better, and the proposal is nearly forgotten altogether. This page gives a summary, themes and practice questions. (Note: this is original practice, not a textbook exercise key.)
6 original worked examples, 6 fresh self-check questions and 4 mixed questions, with explained answers. These are not copied textbook exercises, an official chapter index or a full answer key. No affiliation with NCERT is claimed.
Official sources for topic and edition context, checked 24 October 2026:
1. Summary - a proposal that cannot get said
Lomov arrives in evening dress, trembling as if he had an examination before him, and after much circling comes out with it: he has come to ask for Natalya's hand. Chubukov is overjoyed - he has hoped for it for a long time, sheds a tear, and rushes off to call his daughter. Left alone, Lomov reasons it out: Natalya is an excellent housekeeper, not bad-looking, well-educated - and he is already 35, a critical age, suffering from palpitations; he needs a quiet and regular life. But when Natalya enters, the talk turns to the Oxen Meadows. Lomov calls them 'my Oxen Meadows'; Natalya insists they are theirs. His aunt's grandmother, he explains, gave the free use of the Meadows in perpetuity to the peasants of her father's grandfather, who used them for forty years and came to think of them as their own; her side replies that their grandfather and great-grandfather reckoned their land extended to Burnt Marsh, and that they have had the land for nearly three hundred years. The quarrel swallows the proposal whole.
2. Summary - from Meadows to dogs to a fainting suitor
Chubukov returns and joins his daughter's side; insults fly - the Lomovs are called embezzlers and drunkards - and Lomov, clutching his heart, is thrown out. Only then does Natalya learn he had come to propose: she collapses into hysterics and shrieks at her father to bring him back. Brought back, Lomov and Natalya fall at once into a second quarrel, this time over dogs. Lomov's Guess cost him 125 roubles from Mironov; Chubukov gave 85 roubles for his Squeezer, whom Natalya calls heaps better - young and thoroughbred - while Lomov insists Squeezer is overshot, his lower jaw shorter than the upper, and that on the Marusinsky hunt Guess ran neck-and-neck with the Count's dog while Squeezer was left a whole verst behind. The shouting brings on Lomov's palpitations and he collapses, apparently dead. When he comes round, Chubukov seizes the moment: 'She's willing! Kiss and be damned to you!' - the engagement is settled, and the quarrel about the dogs starts again at once as Chubukov shouts for champagne.
3. Themes - marriage as economics, and the comedy of quarrelling
The play, as the textbook's introduction puts it, is about the tendency of wealthy families to seek ties with other wealthy families, increasing their estates through marriages that make good economic sense. Nobody in the play speaks of love: Lomov lists Natalya's housekeeping and his own palpitations, and Chubukov's joy is the joy of a good arrangement. The farce is that three quarrelsome people keep nearly wrecking the very economic good sense they all serve - fighting over five dessiatins worth perhaps 300 roubles and over whose dog is better - and that, as the introduction says, economic good sense ensures that the proposal is made, after all, although the quarrelling perhaps continues. Chekhov's people cannot stop being themselves even at their own engagement.
Choose, solve, check, then try a fresh question.
Before calculating, read the method prompt and name the condition that makes it useful. Write your own attempt. Open the steps only when you need them, and use the check to catch a wrong sign, unit or interpretation. Finish with the fresh question before reading its answer.
Audit the suitor's reasons
Choose the method: Arithmetic, not ardour.
EZT practice question
Why does Lomov want to marry Natalya?
Show the worked solution
- Not from romantic love but from a calculation he states aloud: she is an excellent housekeeper, not bad-looking and well-educated.
- He is already 35 - 'a critical age' - and suffers from palpitations, so he ought to lead a quiet and regular life.
- If he waits to look for an ideal or real love, he says, he will never get married.
Answer: Not from romantic love but from a calculation he states aloud: she is an excellent housekeeper, not bad-looking and well-educated; he is already 35 - 'a critical age' - and suffers from palpitations, so he ought to lead a quiet and regular life. If he waits to look for an ideal or real love, he says, he will never get married.
Check: His reasons are a list of practicalities - housekeeping, looks, education, age, health - love is the item missing.
Watch for this: Do not soften it into courtship - the play has Lomov say the quiet part aloud, alone on stage.
Now try it yourself
What does Chubukov first suspect when Lomov says he has come with a request?
Check your answer
In an aside - 'He's come to borrow money. Shan't give him any!' - before he learns the request is for Natalya's hand, which delights him.
The wrong guess sets the play's money-first tone in its first minute.
Weigh the Meadows claims
Choose the method: Forty years against three hundred.
EZT practice question
What is the history of the Oxen Meadows dispute?
Show the worked solution
- Lomov says his aunt's grandmother gave the peasants of Natalya's father's grandfather the free use of the Meadows in perpetuity.
- After forty years of use they came to treat them as their own.
- Natalya's side holds that their grandfather and great-grandfather reckoned the land extended to Burnt Marsh, making the Meadows theirs for nearly three hundred years.
Answer: Lomov says his aunt's grandmother gave the peasants of Natalya's father's grandfather the free use of the Meadows in perpetuity, and after forty years of use they came to treat them as their own; Natalya's side holds that their grandfather and great-grandfather reckoned the land extended to Burnt Marsh, so they have had the Meadows for nearly three hundred years.
Check: Keep the two genealogies straight - his aunt's grandmother gave free use; her grandfathers reckoned ownership to Burnt Marsh.
Watch for this: Do not decide the case - the play never settles it, and the unsettledness is the joke.
Now try it yourself
What are the Meadows actually worth?
Check your answer
By Lomov's own account they come to only five dessiatins, worth perhaps 300 roubles - a trifle, which makes the ferocity of the quarrel comic.
The tiny stake is the measure of the outsized pride.
Time Natalya's turn
Choose the method: From eviction to hysterics.
EZT practice question
How does Natalya's behaviour change when she learns Lomov came to propose?
Show the worked solution
- A moment earlier she was yelling that the Oxen Meadows are hers and sending mowers to them.
- The moment she hears of the proposal she falls into hysterics and blames her father - 'you drove him out'.
- She orders him to fetch Lomov back at once - the Meadows and her pride vanish beside the prospect of losing the match.
Answer: Instantly and completely: a moment earlier she was yelling that the Oxen Meadows are hers and sending mowers to them; the moment she hears of the proposal she falls into hysterics, blames her father - 'you drove him out' - and orders him to bring Lomov back at once.
Check: The pivot is total and immediate - property pride collapses the instant a match is at risk.
Watch for this: Do not read her turn as love discovered - the play frames it as panic at losing the arrangement.
Now try it yourself
How is Lomov thrown out before the turn?
Check your answer
Chubukov returns, joins his daughter's side, insults fly - the Lomovs are called embezzlers and drunkards - and Lomov leaves clutching his heart.
The expulsion is what makes the retrieval necessary and the reversal complete.
Score the dog quarrel
Choose the method: Guess against Squeezer.
EZT practice question
What are the rival claims about the two dogs?
Show the worked solution
- Lomov paid Mironov 125 roubles for Guess and calls him first-rate.
- Natalya says her father gave only 85 roubles for Squeezer, who is young and thoroughbred.
- Lomov counters that Squeezer is overshot - lower jaw shorter than the upper - and that on the Marusinsky hunt Guess ran neck-and-neck with the Count's dog while Squeezer was left a whole verst behind.
Answer: Lomov paid Mironov 125 roubles for Guess and calls him first-rate; Natalya says her father gave only 85 roubles for Squeezer, who is young and thoroughbred, while Lomov counters that Squeezer is overshot - lower jaw shorter than the upper - and that Guess ran neck-and-neck with the Count's dog on the Marusinsky hunt while Squeezer was left a whole verst behind.
Check: Price, pedigree, jaw and one hunt - four fronts in one quarrel; keep each side's evidence separate.
Watch for this: Do not let the prices drift - 125 for Guess from Mironov, 85 for Squeezer; the play repeats them as ammunition.
Now try it yourself
How does the dog quarrel end?
Check your answer
It does not - the shouting brings on Lomov's palpitations and he collapses, and the engaged pair resume the argument as the curtain falls.
An unresolved quarrel is the play's idea of a happy ending.
Stage the forced engagement
Choose the method: A faint, then a shout.
EZT practice question
How does the engagement finally happen?
Show the worked solution
- Lomov faints during the dog quarrel and is thought dead.
- As he comes round, Chubukov pushes the two together - 'She's willing! Well? Kiss and be damned to you!'
- The dazed Lomov finds himself engaged, kissing Natalya's hand - while Chubukov shouts 'Champagne! Champagne!' over the resumed quarrel.
Answer: Lomov faints during the dog quarrel and is thought dead; as he comes round, Chubukov seizes the moment - 'She's willing! Well? Kiss and be damned to you!' - and the dazed Lomov finds himself engaged, kissing Natalya's hand, while Chubukov shouts for champagne over the quarrel that starts again at once.
Check: The engagement is declared over a recovering man, not proposed to a conscious one - that is the farce's climax.
Watch for this: Do not call it a reconciliation - nobody agrees to stop quarrelling; they agree to marry.
Now try it yourself
What does the resumed argument at the curtain tell us?
Check your answer
That quarrelling, not romance, is the permanent condition of this marriage - the engaged pair start on the dogs again immediately.
Chekhov ends where he began: property and pride, louder than love.
Judge the genre
Choose the method: Everything upside down.
EZT practice question
What makes The Proposal a farce rather than a romance?
Show the worked solution
- Everything is exaggerated: the suitor comes trembling in a dress-jacket as if for an examination.
- The lovers quarrel furiously over land and dogs before, during and after the proposal; the suitor faints and is thought dead at the climax.
- The engagement is sealed by a shout - 'Kiss and be damned to you!' - while the quarrel resumes; love is absent and property, pride and temper supply all the energy.
Answer: Everything is exaggerated and upside down: the suitor trembles in a dress-jacket as if for an examination; the lovers quarrel over land and dogs before, during and after the proposal; the suitor faints and is thought dead at the climax; and the engagement is sealed by a shout - 'Kiss and be damned to you!' - while the quarrel resumes. Love is absent; property, pride and temper supply all the energy.
Check: Farce is proved by inversion: every convention of a proposal scene happens backwards.
Watch for this: Do not hunt for a tender moment - the play's point is that there is not one.
Now try it yourself
What is the play's comment on marriages between wealthy families, per the textbook's introduction?
Check your answer
That they are economic arrangements: the introduction notes the tendency of wealthy families to seek ties with other wealthy families - and economic good sense ensures the proposal is made, although the quarrelling perhaps continues.
The introduction's own sentence hands you the theme in exam-ready form.
Try a mixed set
Choose a method or explanation before opening each answer.
1. The three characters?
Show answer and reason
Stepan Chubukov, landowner; Natalya, his twenty-five-year-old daughter; Ivan Lomov, their neighbour, 35 and excitable.
The textbook calls all three quarrelsome people.
2. The Meadows' size and worth?
Show answer and reason
Five dessiatins, worth perhaps 300 roubles - by Lomov's own account.
The trifling stake makes the quarrel comic.
3. Dog prices and sellers?
Show answer and reason
Guess cost Lomov 125 roubles from Mironov; Squeezer cost Chubukov 85 roubles.
Lomov calls Squeezer overshot; Natalya calls Squeezer heaps better.
4. How is the engagement sealed?
Show answer and reason
Chubukov declares 'She's willing! Kiss and be damned to you!' as Lomov comes round from his faint.
Then he shouts for champagne over the resumed dog quarrel.
Try it yourself
Work these on paper before checking any notes. Answers are deliberately not shown here.
- Give Lomov's four stated reasons for marrying, in his own order.
- Summarise each family's claim to the Oxen Meadows in one sentence.
- Explain why the resumed quarrel at the curtain is the play's point.
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Questions about this practice page
- What is The Proposal about?
- Ivan Lomov calls on his neighbour Stepan Chubukov to propose to his daughter Natalya, but the match - sensible for two wealthy families - is nearly forgotten as the three quarrel over the ownership of the Oxen Meadows and then over whose hunting dog is better, before Chubukov forces the engagement through.
- Who are the characters in The Proposal?
- Stepan Stepanovitch Chubukov, a landowner; Natalya Stepanovna, his daughter, twenty-five years old; and Ivan Vassilevitch Lomov, their neighbour - a large and hearty but very suspicious landowner of 35, excitable and given to palpitations.
- What is the Oxen Meadows quarrel?
- Lomov claims the Meadows because his aunt's grandmother let Natalya's father's grandfather's peasants use them free for forty years; Natalya's family says their land always reached Burnt Marsh and that they have held the Meadows nearly three hundred years - over property worth perhaps 300 roubles.
- How do Guess and Squeezer compare in the play?
- Guess is Lomov's dog, bought from Mironov for 125 roubles - old and short in the muzzle, but first-rate to Lomov; Squeezer is Chubukov's, bought for 85 roubles - young per Natalya, overshot per Lomov, who recalls Guess neck-and-neck with the Count's dog while Squeezer trailed a whole verst behind.
- What is the theme of The Proposal?
- A satire on marriages arranged for economic sense between wealthy families: love never enters the discussion, pride and temper rule everything, and the proposal survives only because the economics require it - the quarrelling continues to the final curtain.