BEFORE YOU READ

1 BEFORE YOU READA ctivity1. The word proposal has several meanings. Can you guess whatsort of proposal the play is about?(i) a suggestion, plan or scheme for doing something(ii) an offer for a possible plan or action(iii)the act of asking someone s hand in marriageA Russian WeddingDo you know anything about a Russian marriage ceremony?Read this article about a Russian for a Russian Wedding: A Russian weddingis very simple. The planning only includes arranging forrings, brides dress, cars, and a reception. Earlier, the bride sfamily paid for the reception, but now-a-days brides andgrooms families usually share expenses. A Russian weddinglasts for two days; some weddings last as long as a week,and the occasion becomes something to remember for necessary part of the wedding ceremony is a weddingprocession of several cars.

2 The best friends of the groom/bride meet BEFORE the wedding a few times, make posters,write speeches and organise contests. When the groomarrives to fetch the bride for the registration, he has to fightto get her! Russians usually live in apartments in tallbuildings, and the groom has to climb several stairs to reachhis bride. But at each landing he must answer a questionto be allowed to go up. The bride s friends ask difficultquestions (sometimes about the bride, sometimes justdifficult riddles), and the groom must answer with the helpof his friends. For example, he may be shown a few photosof baby girls and he must say which one his bride is. If heguesses wrong, he must pay cash to move ahead.

3 After theWedding Ceremonies in Russia and IndiaCustoms similar toCustoms different fromIndian onesIndian onesmarriage registration, the newly-married couple leaves theguests for a tour of the city sights. After two or three hoursof the city tour the couple arrives at the reception. The couplesits at a specially arranged table with their family, friendsand invited guests. The reception starts with toasts to thecouple. A wedding toast is a custom where a close friend orrelative of the groom or the bride says a few words to wishthe couple, then everyone raises their glass of wine, anddrink it up at the same moment. The groom is then asked tokiss the bride. After a few toasts, people start eating anddrinking, and generally have fun.

4 After some time, the bridegets stolen ! She disappears, and when the groom startslooking for her, he is asked to pay a fee. Usually it is hisfriends who steal the bride. Then there are the bride sfriends they steal the bride s shoe. The groom must paymoney for the shoe too. The guests enjoy watching thesetussles, and continue Do you think Indian and Russian weddings have any customsin common? With the help of a partner, fill in the table below. The Proposal (originally titled A Marriage Proposal ) is a one-actplay, a farce, by the Russian short story writer and dramatist AntonChekhov. It was written in 1888 play is about the tendency of wealthy families to seek tieswith other wealthy families, to increase their estates by encouragingmarriages that make good economic sense.

5 Ivan Lomov, a long timewealthy neighbour of Stepan Chubukov, also wealthy, comes toseek the hand of Chubukov s twenty-five-year-old daughter, three are quarrelsome people, and they quarrel over petty proposal is in danger of being forgotten amidst all thisquarrelling. But economic good sense ensures that the proposal ismade, after all although the quarrelling perhaps continues!143 The Proposal144 First FlightCharactersSTEPAN STEPANOVITCH CHUBUKOV: a landownerNATALYA STEPANOVNA: his daughter, twenty-five years oldIVAN VASSILEVITCH LOMOV: a neighbour of Chubukov, a large andhearty, but very suspicious, landownerA drawing-room in Chubukov s enters, wearing a dress-jacket and white gloves.

6 Chubukov risesto meet : My dear fellow, whom do I see! Ivan Vassilevitch! I amextremely glad! [Squeezes his hand] Now this is asurprise, my How are you?LOMOV: Thank you. And how may you be getting on?CHUBUKOV: We just get along somehow, my angel, thanks to yourprayers, and so on. Sit down, please Now, you know,you shouldn t forget all about your neighbours, my dear fellow, why are you so formal in your get-up!Evening dress, gloves, and so on. Can you be goinganywhere, my treasure?LOMOV: No. I ve come only to see you, honoured : Then why are you in evening dress, my precious? As ifyou re paying a New Year s Eve visit!

7 LOMOV: Well, you see, it s like this. [Takes his arm] I ve come to you,honoured Stepan Stepanovitch, to trouble you with a once or twice have I already had the privilege of applyingto you for help, and you have always, so to I mustask your pardon, I am getting excited. I shall drink somewater, honoured Stepan Stepanovitch.[Drinks.]CHUBUKOV:[aside] He s come to borrow money. Shan t give him any![aloud] What is it, my beauty?LOMOV: You see, Honoured I beg pardon I mean, I m awfully excited, as you willplease In short, you alone can help me, though Idon t deserve it, of and haven t any right tocount on your : Oh, don t go round and round it, darling!

8 Spit it out! Well?LOMOV: One this very minute. The fact is I ve come toask the hand of your daughter, Natalya Stepanovna,in ProposalCHUBUKOV:[joyfully] By Jove! Ivan Vassilevitch! Say it again Ididn t hear it all!LOMOV: I have the honour to :[interrupting] My dear I m so glad, and so , indeed, and all that sort of thing. [Embraces and kissesLomov] I ve been hoping for it for a long time. It s been mycontinual desire. [Sheds a tear] And I ve always loved you,my angel, as if you were my own son. May God give youboth His help and His love and so on, and so What am I behaving in this idiotic way for? I m offmy balance with joy, absolutely off my balance!

9 Oh, withall my I ll go and call Natasha, and all :[greatly moved] Honoured Stepan Stepanovitch, do youthink I may count on her consent?CHUBUKOV: Why, of course, my darling, as if she won t consent!She s in love; egad, she s like a lovesick cat, and so t be long![Exit.]LOMOV: It s I m trembling all over, just as if I d got anexamination BEFORE me. The great thing is, I must havemy mind made up. If I give myself time to think, tohesitate, to talk a lot, to look for an ideal, or for reallove, then I ll never get married. It s cold! Natalya146 First FlightStepanovna is an excellent housekeeper, not bad-looking,well-educated.

10 What more do I want? But I m getting anoise in my ears from excitement. [Drinks] And it simpossible for me not to marry. In the first place, I malready 35 a critical age, so to speak. In the secondplace, I ought to lead a quiet and regular life. I sufferfrom palpitations, I m excitable and always gettingawfully upset; at this very moment my lips are trembling,and there s a twitch in my right eyebrow. But the veryworst of all is the way I sleep. I no sooner get into bedand begin to go off, when suddenly something in my leftside gives a pull, and I can feel it in my shoulder I jump up like a lunatic, walk about a bit and liedown again, but as soon as I begin to get off to sleepthere s another pull!