Editor's Choice
Ivan Vasilyevich Lomov can be described as a rash, impulsive man prone to get into arguments over the slightest little thing. Without wishing to indulge in a spot of amateur psychology, it does appear that he's more than a tad unbalanced. At the very least, we can say that his behavior towards Natalia is far from being what most people would regard as normal.
As Lomov reveals in his very revealing soliloquy, he's rather a nervous chap. Not only that, but he's beset by all manner of physical ailments. At least that's what he says, anyway. We get the distinct impression that he's actually a hypochondriac.
Even if Lomov really is ill, however, his various maladies would seem to be related to his hair-trigger temper, which more than meets its match in the argumentative nature of Natalya Stepanova, who radically departs from the conventions of the time in yelling...
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at Lomov in a most un-ladylike manner.
Whatever the truth of Lomov's condition, his apparent death by heart attack would seem to be an indication of the effect that his nervousness and inability to control his temper has had upon him. As it turns out, Lomov wasn't dead after all; he was just having a fainting fit.
Even so, our earlier impression appears confirmed: Lomov is profoundly unbalanced. And that impression is only strengthened by his behavior right up to the final curtain, which remains as argumentative, as rancorous, and as unreasonable as ever.
Ivan Vassiliyitch Lomov is a prententious, proud, self-serving, argumentative, impetuous, hysterical hypochondriac. A wealthy landowner, he comes to his neighbor with the overt intentions of marriage, but he really wishes to expand his own land boundaries.
In his farce, Chekhov ridicules the Russian landowners for whom marriage was more a land deal than a love match. Having long been the neighbor of Stepan Stepanovitch Tschubukov, Lomov comes to him in formal attire and speaks with stilted language when his neighbor warmly urges him to sit down, "No, I have no engagement except with you, Stepan Stepanovitch."
After he formally asks Tschubukov for "the hand of your daughter, Natalia Stepanovna," the father is elated and exuberantly goes to call his daughter. As he waits, Tschubukov feels cold and trembles with nervousness. Talking to himself, he enumerates all the physical changes he undergoes--his ears roar as though his blood pressure is rising, he worries about his weak heart, he ponders his ailments that prevent a good night's sleep, he is already thirty-five. Then, when Natalia enters he does greet her in a friendly manner; however, he approaches his proposal of marriage impetuously as the land deal that he considers it, mentioning that his meadows reach to her birchwood trees. This mention, however, sparks a heated argument as Natalia retorts that the meadows belong to her family. Finally, Lomov insults Natalia,
My dear lady, if it weren't that I were suffering from palpitation of the heart and hammering of the arteries in my temples, I would deal with you very differently! [In a loud voice] The meadows belong to me!
Hearing the bickering, Natalia's father rushes in to ameliorate the situation, telling Lomov that the meadows are, in fact, his; however, he, too, becomes disputatious to the point that Lomov staggers out. Tschubukov finally convinces him to return, but Lomov falls into a chair and faints from renewing the argument with Natalia. Complaining of his heart and his ailing shoulder, he declares that he is dying, but somehow revives long enough to agree to the marriage.
How would you describe Ivan Vassiliyitch Lomov in Chekhov's A Marriage Proposal?
Ivan Vassilievich Lomov’s character in Anton Chekhov’s A Marriage Proposal (also titled The Proposal in some English translations) is fundamentally a comic one. In the play, he is seen attempting to work up his nerve to propose to Natalia, his neighbor's daughter. They are not well-acquainted, despite being neighbors.
Lomov is 35 years old, and a nervous hypochondriac, who is socially awkward and prone to anxiety attacks. As is gradually revealed over the course of the play, he is not particularly romantic, and his proposal has more to do with the economic advantages of of combining their families' adjacent properties than with any particular degree of love of Natalia or desire to get married. His efforts to actually propose keep on getting derailed as he and Natalia get in various arguments, but with some help from her father, and despite a major panic attack, he does successfully succeed in proposing and the proposal is accepted.
A ridiculous figure befitting farce, Ivan Vassilievich Lomov is a personnage whose defining character is his lack of character. For his attempts to prove his manliness fail as he seeks a wife to care for him,
"I must live a well regulated life. I have a weak heart, continual pappitations, and I am very sensitive and always getting excited...But the worst of all is sleep! I hardly lie down and begin to doze before....I jump up like a madman, walk about a little , lie down again.... And so it is all night long!"
A hypochodriac, Lomov is a ridiculous fellow. When he attempts to propose, he sputters and murmurs about the coldness of the air. Then, when he mentions the meadows, Natalia overpowers him in argument and he reaches fearfully for water as the argument degenerates into family name-calling.
After he departs, Natalia has her father call Lomov back; although he returns he complains of his leg and side and his heart palpitations. Then, with his disputatious procliviity, he recommences his arguing and name-calling with Natalia, not realizing that such confrontations will increase after they marry.