A Marriage Proposal

Lomov serves as the play’s central figure, and his character presents a study in anxious masculinity and failed self-control. At 35 years old, he has reached the age where marriage becomes not a romantic aspiration but a social necessity for a man of his era and position. His opening soliloquy reveals a man driven entirely by pragmatic calculation rather than emotional desire, establishing the theme of Marriage as Social Transaction. He evaluates Nataliya according to utilitarian criteria—housekeeping skills, adequate appearance, basic education—and finds her acceptable for his purposes. This assessment establishes Lomov as someone who approaches life’s major decisions with business-like rationality, yet this rational facade proves impossible for him to maintain.

Lomov’s defining characteristic is his hypochondria, which manifests in an elaborate catalog of physical ailments. He experiences heart palpitations, trembling, insomnia, muscular spasms, and various forms of paralysis or numbness. The timing and intensity of these symptoms reveal their psychosomatic nature: Each time emotional stress escalates, Lomov experiences a physical crisis. The hypochondria serves multiple dramatic functions. It provides comic stage material as Lomov clutches his chest, drinks water frantically, and staggers about. It also creates dramatic tension, as his physical collapses threaten to derail the marriage proposal entirely. Most significantly, the hypochondria reveals character depth. Lomov is not simply a flat comic type but someone whose anxiety correlates to his struggle to navigate social expectations that he finds overwhelming. His inability to control his physical responses underscores his inability to control the social interaction itself and thus embodies the theme of The Instability of Civility Under Emotional Strain.

Lomov’s behavior throughout the play demonstrates a fundamental contradiction between intention and execution. He arrives with a clear purpose and a rational plan. He will propose marriage, Nataliya will accept, and he will achieve the stable domestic life he requires. Yet at every stage, he proves incapable of following through on his plan; he warns himself against “hesitat[ing]” and “talk[ing] things over” (437), but this is precisely what he does. He cannot make the proposal without first explaining family history and property boundaries. When challenged on the ownership of the fields, he cannot simply concede the point to maintain harmony but must defend his position with increasing vehemence. When the dispute threatens the engagement, he cannot walk away with dignity but staggers out in a state of physical collapse. The character thus embodies failed masculine authority within the context of traditional expectations. Such expectations would position Lomov as the confident suitor, the one who initiates and controls the courtship process. Instead, he is passive, reactive, and physically fragile. He requires assistance to accomplish his goal; Chubukov must literally place his hand in Nataliya’s and announce the engagement while Lomov is still dazed and confused. Even at this moment of apparent success, Lomov cannot resist reengaging in argument over the dogs, demonstrating his inability to master his own combative impulses—a key facet of the play’s exploration of Ego and Pride Disrupting Relationships.

Chekhov uses Lomov to illustrate the bankruptcy of purely rational approaches to human relationships. The character believes he can solve his life problems through logical planning and strategic marriage, yet his psychological makeup makes him incapable of executing this plan. The result is a figure who is comic in his incompetence and even in his distress. Lomov represents a class in crisis, unable to adapt to changing social conditions yet equally unable to maintain the dignified self-possession that traditional gentry identity required.