Monday, 26 June 2017

Character of Lomov - The Proposal by Anton Chekhov



Character of Lomov:

          
           Lomov is the protagonist of the play. He is a wealthy thirty-five years old unmarried man. He wants to marry Natalya, who is the daughter of his neighbour Chubukov. He visits Chubukov’s house but it turned into a bad experience for him. His proposal converted into a quarrel and it became the hurdle in his marriage. 

         Lomov is the hero of the play but he lacks heroic qualities. He has very weak heart which can be observed in the play. He time and again says that,
“Oh, my heart...! I can see stars.....”
“My heart is going to pieces.....”

         He is physically very weak. He starts getting nervous when Natalya and Chubukov started fighting and shouting. He continuously repeats,

“I think I am dying..... My foot’s quite numb....”

          Lomov frequently gets upset and he has a very sensitive heart. He often feels that he is about to die and he needs doctor time and again for the treatment. It represents his possessiveness.

         When he went to Chubukov’s house with marriage proposal, the marriage proposal was forgotten and they start quarrelled. In the first quarrel Natalya claimed that the meadows belong to her and Lomov was ready to accept that he was sure that the meadows has his ownership. He believes that it is the matter of justice and principles. He said,

“I don’t want the meadows, but I am acting on principles. If you like, I’ll make you the present of them.”

         He was ready to gift those meadows to Natalya but he only wanted to prove that the meadows belong to him. He was getting so excited during the quarrel and also getting physically effected by the shouting and aggressive behaviour of Natalya and Chubukov. Though he was not ready to let go his meadows ownership, he was arguing continuously and ready to drag his neighbours to court.

        The second quarrel was about their dogs. Lomov deeply loves his dog. He is highly conscious about Natalya’s comments about his dog. He feels that his Dog “Guess” (Ugadi) is superior to Natalya’s dog “Squeezer” (Utkatai). He refuses Natalya’s claim that Squeezer is better than Guess. He is not ready to tolerate his dog’s insult.

Lomov can be considered as the comic figure of the play. His weak physic, greed, possessiveness, and excited nature provides comic element in the play. He has a weak heart and though he tries to fight with his two aggressive neighbours and during that he also feels palpitation and numbness but he continues the fight which creates humour. 

Lomov: 

     ®   Hero – lacks heroic quality
     ®  Lover – Fights with beloved
     ®  Comic figure of the play
     ®  More human than Hero
        
    Questions:
      
     1. Judge the character of Lomov- Hero or not? Why? 
     2. Can we consider the character of Lomov as 'true to life'.
     3. Explain - Humour in the character of Lomov
      
 Introduction and Background of the play
 Character of Natalya 
     Critical views
   
    
 



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