The Proposal
Proposals and weddings
Compare wedding customs and preview 'The Proposal'.
Which 'proposal'? 'Proposal' can mean a plan, an offer, or asking someone to marry you. This play, originally 'A Marriage Proposal', is about the last kind.
A Russian wedding. Simple to plan (rings, a dress, cars, a reception) but it can last two days or more.
- A car procession is a must.
- The groom climbs the stairs of the bride's building. On each landing her friends ask him a question or a riddle (e.g. 'which baby photo is your bride?'). If he gets it wrong, he pays cash to go on.
- After registration, a city tour, then a reception with toasts.
- Later the bride is 'stolen', and so is her shoe. The groom pays to get them back.
Like an Indian wedding? Make a table: customs like ours (paying the bride's friends; hiding the shoe, like joota chhupai; feasting; friends' speeches) and customs different from ours.
What the play is about. A one-act farce (an exaggerated comedy) by Anton Chekhov, written in 1888–89. Rich families want marriages with other rich families, 'to increase their estates'. Lomov comes to ask for the hand of Natalya, the 25-year-old daughter of his neighbour Chubukov. All three are quarrelsome, and the proposal is nearly lost in their fights.
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