ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND

L I T E R AT U R E

HOLIDAY HOMEWORK
-ADITYA KAPOOR, X-B
 1. CONCEPT OF FARCE
2. IDEA OF MARRIAGE
3. MARRIAGE IN RUSSIAN
SOCIETY
4. TRADITIONAL RITUALS
5. SETTING OF THE PLAY
CONTENT
6. QUALITIES IN A PARTNER
7. ANALYSIS OF PLOT
8. LEARNINGS FROM THE PLAY
9. THOUGHTS ON ANGER
 CONCEPT OF FARCE

Farce is a comedy that seeks to

entertain an audience through
situations that are highly exaggerated,
extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and
improbable.
 IDEA OF MARRIAGE

Marriage is a sacred, legal, and binding union of

two people to journey through adult life as
partners in a personal relationship of
companionship, fulfillment, and love; and for the
purpose of producing offspring. Marriage is the
foundation of family, and family is the
fundamental unit of society.
MARRIAGE IN RUSSIAN SOCIETY

A traditional Russian wedding can last between two

days and one week. The celebration involves
dancing, singing, toasting, and banqueting. The
best man and maid of honor are called Witnesses.
The ceremony and the ring exchange take place on
the first day of the wedding.
• The ceremony and the ring exchange take place on the first day of the wedding. Russian
weddings are unique matrimonial ceremonies which have undertaken some western
traditions, including incorporating bridesmaids into the wedding party.
• The bride and groom have the option to have a traditional ceremony, the wedding in a
church. It is divided into two parts: the Betrothal and the Crowning.
• The bride and groom stand at the entrance of the church and the priest blesses them and
gives each a lit candle to hold throughout the ceremony. The priest then says two brief
prayers for the couple, then blesses the rings that are then placed on the couple's right
hands.
• The priest leads the couple into the center of the church, where they stand on a piece of
new, rose colored fabric, symbolizing their entry into a new life. The bride and groom
each publicly professes that they are marrying of their own free will, and that they have
not promised themselves to another.
 A wedding ceremony's prime
function is to provide the bride and
groom an opportunity to make
TRADITIONAL promises to each other.
RITUALS
Those promises form the basis of
I N VA R I O U S their marriage and give the
C U LT U R A L officiating clergy the right to
WEDDINGS pronounce them man and wife.

And the similarity in all the

weddings taking place all over the
globe is those promises that bride
and groom makes to each other, in
all different cultural weddings.
 DIFFERENT WEDDING TRADITIONS
AROUND THE WORLD
 India: Mehndi - Right before the wedding, it's common for Indian women to gather their
closest girlfriends and sit for hours at a time to have their skin intricately painted, in tattoo
fashion, with mehndi. The elaborate and beautiful skin art lasts about two weeks.
 Niger: Camel Dance - You've heard of the chicken dance, but in the West African country
of Niger, the camel dance is done at the reception in the desert by a real camel. The
humpback animal gets his groove on to a rhythmic drumbeat, all while surrounded by
wedding guests.
 Philippines: Releasing White Doves - After tying the knot, happy brides and grooms in the
Philippines release a pair of white doves - one male, one female, into the air. The birds are
said to represent a harmonious life together for the newly married couple.
 In the one-act play The Proposal, the
playwright Anton Chekhov portrayed a fine
social life of the bourgeoisie in Russia through
three dramatic characters. The then Russian
people's major livelihood was agriculture.
They were apparently very polite-speaking
persons. But when the fact of their interest
RUSSIAN came, they became desperate to full that. They
considered marriage as a social necessity.
SOCIETY IN 1888- There was no place of love in marriage. Just
as One character Lomov wanted to marry his
89 neighbor Chubukov's daughter Natalya only
to fulfill his own sake. On the other hand, once
other characters savagely behaved with
Lomov when situation went against them.
Again they behaved sweetly with him when
the matter came about their own interest
regarding marriage of Natalya. So in that
society, all ran after profits.
 QUALITIES IN A PARTNER
IN SEARCH OF A PARTNER, ONE SHOULD LOOK ABOUT
THESE 3 THINGS –
• PERSONAL QUALITIES – LOOKS, HUMOUR, ATTITUDE
& BELIEFS
• VALUE SYSTEM – COMPASSION, KINDNESS, AMBITION
• EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
 PERSONAL QUALITIES
This is one of the things to know about when finding an appropriate life
partner. A life partner helps one to live a happy and full life, someone who
understands you and will share the most memorable moments of life together.
A person's attitude, beliefs, mindset – comprises of how he lives and these
things matter the most when you have decide whom to choose to live your
whole life with.
I believe one should look for a trustworthy, honest, compassionate and a caring
person.
VA L U E S Y S T E M
A person's value system –
priorities, ambition, kindness,
tolerance, compassion.
A person's actions are effected
by his/her value system.
Ethics, priorities, principles of a
person defines a person.
So these matter a lot in getting a
right partner for life.
EDUCATION AND
PROFESSIONAL
BACKGROUND
After knowing personal qualities
and value system, another
important thing that matters is
education and professional
background. This also plays a
significance role in choosing for
the right partner.
 ANALYSIS OF PLOT
It is a one-act play written by the Russian story writer and dramatist Chekhov in
1888–89.
The play is about the tendency of rich families to hunt ties with other wealthy
families, to extend their estates by encouraging marriages that observe economic
sense. Ivan Lomov, a wealthy neighbor of Stepan Chubukov, also wealthy, who
seeks the hand of Chubukov’s twenty-five-year-old daughter, Natalya. All three
are argumentative, and they argue over petty issues. The proposal is on the verge
of losing in the middle of all this quarrelling. But economic common sense ensures
that the proposal is formed, in any case — although the quarrelling perhaps
continues.
 CHARACTER SKETCHES
Natalya
Daughter of Stepan Chubukov, Natalya is a twenty-five-year-old unmarried woman
who wishes that somebody should love her and propose to her. Her father calls her
‘a love-sick cat’ as she has reached a stage where she is so desperate to get married
that she would accept anybody as her husband. She is quarrelsome, money-minded
and quite possessive by nature that she is not ready to leave her claim over ‘Oxen
Meadows’. She is such a bad-tempered woman that forgets that her behaviour
would jeopardize her prospect of matrimony. Lomov considers her well-educated,
not bad-looking and an excellent housekeeper.
 Stepan Stepanovitch Chubukov

Stepan Stepanovitch Chubukov is a

landowner. He has a helping nature towards
Lomov. He loves his daughter and plays the
role of a good father. He is in search of a good
match for his daughter. He is a good selector
of words. He calls Lomov my angel, treasure,
etc. This shows his cunningness. When
Chubukov finds Lomov fighting with Natalya,
he immediately changes and starts to support
his daughter. He uses many ill words for
Lomov and tells him to leave his house.
 Ivan Vassilevitch Lomov
Lomov is a well-to-do unmarried man in his mid-thirties
who suffers from palpitations, is easily excitable and
always gets awfully upset. Whenever he gets excited, his
lips tremble and he has a twitch in his right eyebrow. He
has a disturbed sleep and he always feel that his left side
gives him a pull when he begins to go off in bed. He can
feel it in his shoulder and head and he jumps up like a
lunatic, walk about a bit and lies down again.
Lomov has been looking for a perfect marriage partner
for himself but has failed to find the one. Though, he
doesn’t consider Natalya to be ideally suited for him but
he takes into account his advancing age and decides to
propose to her. Lomov is a nervous wreck, lacks self-
confidence and keeps beating about the bush instead of
stating the matters clearly.
 CENTRAL IDEA AND THEME

The major theme of Chekhov's The Proposal is the cold approach to marriage that had been
common in nineteenth-century Russia, especially among the wealthy. The play, as a satire for
this money-driven type of marriage, depicts the two main characters as excessively posh and
desperately wanting to wed each other for economic security, blind to the fact they would not
get along well.Ivan Lomov was a wealthy neighbour of another wealthy farmer Stepan
Chubukov. Lomov comes to seek the hand of Chubukov’s twenty-five-year-old daughter,
Natalya. Tomov, Chubukov and Natalya’-all three are quarrelsome people. They quarrel
over petty or small issues. Each one of them has a claim over a particular piece of land. They
also quarrel over their dogs. Amidst this quarrelling, they completely forget the real issue —
the marriage proposal. But good sense prevails in the end. Economic good sense ensures that
the proposal is made. Chubukov doesn’t want to miss the opportunity. He puts his
daughter’s hand into Lomov’s hands. He doesn’t waste any time and blesses them. However,
old habits die hard. The newly married couple starts their married life with a fresh quarrel.
 LEARNINGS FROM THE PLAY

The farce - The Proposal by Anton Chekhov depicts two

wealthy neighbour in 19th century Russian society, ready to tie
knot together just for their financial greed. It also shows short
tempered people fighting and quarreling over silly arguments.
It teaches us to be attentive and careful in this world full of
different types of people having different dealings according to
their own self-interest.
 THOUGHTS ON ANGER
 Anger should never be the way to handle any issue or the way to make someone
understand your point of way.
 A conversation involving someone angered can never lead to a good end.
 We should try to keep ourselves calm in all situations and prevent ourselves from
reacting to a situation without full knowledge of the event.
 In modern era, people have become short tempered due to addiction of social media,
disbalance in society, loads of work among many other reasons.
 Being angered over small things and being short tempered can cause loss of
productivity, lack of focus, etc.
 We should accept this as a responsibility to spread goodness and positivity among our
known and loved ones.
 THE PROPOSAL
PRESENTATION PROJECT
- BY ADITYA KAPOOR
CLASS – X-B
ROLL NO. - 03

THE END