CBSE Class 10 · English · board exam 2027
Chapter 9: The Proposal — notes
The chapter’s 6 parts in the book’s order — the first idea of each and the points Medha Ma’am writes on the board — and the summary at the end. The full lesson and a check question for each part are in the app.
1. About the play and its writer
Okay, so — today we meet a play called "The Proposal".
- • Play: The Proposal (first titled A Marriage Proposal)
- • Writer: Anton Chekhov, Russian writer, 1888-89
- • Type: one-act play, a farce
- • Lomov: wealthy neighbour, comes to propose
- • Chubukov: wealthy landowner; Natalya: his daughter, 25 years old
- • Theme: wealthy families tying up through marriage
2. Lomov arrives to propose
The play opens in a drawing-room in Chubukov's house, where Lomov enters all dressed up in a dress-jacket and white gloves.
- • Lomov enters, dressed formally, nervous
- • Chubukov first thinks Lomov wants money
- • Lomov: "I've come to ask the hand of your daughter"
- • Chubukov overjoyed, calls Natalya
- • Lomov: age 35, suffers palpitations, cannot sleep well
- • Decides he must marry without delay
3. The quarrel over Oxen Meadows
Okay, so Natalya comes in, in her apron, shelling peas.
- • Oxen Meadows: land between birchwoods and Burnt Marsh
- • Lomov: land is his, by documents
- • Natalya: land is theirs, held for 300 years
- • Meadows worth: five dessiatins, 300 roubles
- • Chubukov sides with Natalya
- • Lomov calls Chubukov a grabber
4. Insults fly and Lomov collapses
As the quarrel over the land grows fiercer, Lomov and Chubukov begin hurling insults at each other's families: Chubukov says the Lomovs have had lunacy in the family, that Lomov's grandfather was a drunkard and his aunt ran away with an architect, while Lomov…
- • Insults: lunacy, drunkard, hump-backed, intriguer
- • Chubukov: "Boy! Pup!" Lomov: "Old rat! Jesuit!"
- • Lomov: heart pain, numb foot, sees stars, leaves
- • Chubukov, Natalya call him rascal, monster, scarecrow
- • Chubukov remembers: he came to propose!
- • Natalya cries, begs: "Fetch him back!"
5. Lomov returns and the dog quarrel
Lomov comes back, still exhausted, with his heart beating and his foot asleep, and Natalya quickly tells him that the Meadows really are his, so that peace can be restored between them and the real subject of marriage can continue.
- • Natalya: "The Meadows are yours, yes, yours"
- • New quarrel: whose dog is better
- • Guess cost 125 roubles; Squeezer cost 85 roubles
- • Lomov: Squeezer is overshot (short lower jaw)
- • More insults exchanged, heart trouble again
- • Lomov falls into armchair, seems dead
6. The ending: marriage despite the quarrelling
Okay, so let's see how this play ends.
- • Lomov faints, Chubukov panics
- • Lomov revives; Chubukov joins their hands
- • Chubukov: "She's willing!" gives blessing
- • Lomov and Natalya kiss
- • They argue again: Guess vs Squeezer
- • Chubukov shouts: "Champagne! Champagne!"
Summary
The lesson introduced \"The Proposal\", a one-act farce by Anton Chekhov, about wealthy neighbours whose marriage proposal almost gets lost in constant quarrelling. Lomov comes dressed up to Chubukov's house to ask for Natalya's hand, and Chubukov is overjoyed, but when Natalya comes in, the two end up quarrelling fiercely over who owns Oxen Meadows. The argument turns into a storm of family insults, Lomov collapses and leaves, and only then does Natalya learn he had come to propose, so she begs for him to be brought back. When he returns, the Meadows quarrel is settled, but a fresh fight breaks out over whose dog, Guess or Squeezer, is better, and Lomov again seems to collapse. In the end, Chubukov simply joins their hands, declares Natalya willing, and the two agree to marry, kissing even as they go right back to arguing about the dogs, showing that economic good sense wins out despite the endless quarrelling.
AskMedha · Medha Ma’am — CBSE Class 10 English, Chapter 9. Written from the textbook, checked twice.
Questions parents and students ask
- How do I get the "The Proposal" notes as a PDF?
- Press "Save as PDF" — the phone’s print sheet opens; choose "Save as PDF" there. The PDF holds the notes only.
- Where are these notes written from?
- From the chapter’s own textbook text, part by part, in the book’s own terms; a second, independent model then checked every part against the book. The full lesson, a check question for each part and the practice are in the AskMedha app.
The same preparation, with Medha Ma’am — on your phone
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