Hello friends today we are discuss this question, the question is -“What have they done to me! Fetch him back!”-Who is the speaker? Who is ‘him’? What is ironic about the speaker’s request to bring ‘him’ back?
The speaker of the above mentioned line is Natalya Stepanovna.
Here “him’ refers to Ivan Vassilevitch Lomov. Lomov comes to Chubukov’s house to propose his daughter Natalya for marriage. But instead of expressing his desire, Lomov gets involved in an ugly squabble with Natalya over the ownership of Oxen Meadows which makes him over-excited and forces him to leave Chubukov’s house. With the departure of Lomov, Chubukov reveals to Natalya that their neighbour came to propose marriage to her. Hearing the truth, Natalya becomes impatient and wants to get him back as she cannot afford to miss such a lucrative offer. Here lies the irony, because Natalya was ready to spend her entire life with a person with whom she does not share any emotional bond.