Hello friends today we are discuss this question, the question is -What is ironic about Natalya’s request to bring Lomov back?
In Chekhov’s play ‘The Proposal’, it is ironic that Natalya requests her father Chubukov to bring Lomov back after he leaves their house. Chubukov and Natalya quarrel bitterly with Lomov regarding the ownership of Oxen Meadows. She and her father abuse Lomov and his family members and almost drive him out of their house. They express their rage upon him by calling him “rascal”, “monster” etc. But when Chubukov mentions that Lomov came with a proposal for marriage, Natalya gets overwhelmingly excited. She wants her father to call Lomov back as she becomes desperate to marry him. It is ironic that whom she calls a “rascal” only a while ago, now becomes so important and dear to her. This irony reveals to us that in the 19th century Russian society, marriage was almost a business deal. Love and understanding was of least importance and women. considered marriage as a social ladder through which they could gain social and economic stability.