person
Stepan Stepanovich Chubukov
Chubukov
also: Степан Степаныч Чубуков, Чубуков, Степан Степаныч
A landowner, father of Natalya Stepanovna, who joyfully welcomes his neighbor Lomov's proposal of marriage to his daughter, then repeatedly joins and escalates the farcical quarrels (over the Ox Meadows, then over the family's and the dogs' relative merits) that keep derailing it, in "The Proposal" (1888).
Reading notes
- The Proposal §104 Papa, please explain to this gentleman
Chubukov's entrance in scene IV marks the escalation of the Ox Meadows dispute from a two-person quarrel into a three-way shouting match; his instinctive first move is to side unquestioningly with his daughter's claim ("the Meadows are ours!") before Lomov has even finished restating his case, showing that the argument was never really about evidence or deeds but about family loyalty and stubbornness.
- The Proposal §132 your late wife used to beat you
The insult exchange resumes in scene VII (loc. 232-257) over the relative merits of the two hunting dogs, and again degenerates into personal attack: Lomov accuses Chubukov of having been beaten by his late wife and of being dominated by his housekeeper, while Chubukov calls Lomov a young pup and Jesuit and threatens (facetiously, within the farce) to shoot him "like a partridge." As with the earlier exchange, these are period-typical comic insults internal to the escalating quarrel, not factual claims, and are rendered faithfully rather than softened.
- The Proposal §254 I'll shoot you like a partridge with a filthy gun! You whipper-snapper!
Chubukov's threat to shoot Lomov is farcical bluster consistent with the play's escalating, physically impossible threats (compare Natalya's earlier vow to have her mowers driven off "by the scruff of the neck"), not a genuine threat of violence; it is immediately followed by Lomov's counter-accusation and then both men's simultaneous physical collapse, the play's routine way of capping an argument.
- The Proposal §286 Get married, the sooner the better, and -- the devil take the pair of you! She consents!
Chubukov's blessing, delivered the instant Lomov revives, is less a father's benediction than an exhausted plea to be left in peace; his blunt phrasing ("the devil take the pair of you") is consistent with the play's refusal of sentimentality even at its supposed emotional resolution.