Anton Chekhov, a Russian author of the late 1800s, is one of the world's major playwrights. Although he is known for his longer serious plays, Chekhov also wrote a number of short farces, such as the one-act A Marriage Proposal. During Chekhov's time, farces were very popular, and he tried his hand in writing this type. A Marriage Proposal, is about the tendency of wealthy families to seek other wealthy families, to increase their estates by encouraging marriages that made good economic sense, and the problems that arise in marriage. In the play, Ivan Vassiliyitch Lomov, long time, wealthy neighbor, of Stepan Stepanovitch Tschubukov, also wealthy, has come to seek marriage of Tschubukov's twenty-five year-old daughter, Natalia Stepanovna. Lomov and Stepanovna are bickerers at heart and fight throughout the play until the end, when they get married, only to presumably, argue more after.