Ivan Vassilevitch Lomov

• Lomov, a suspicious land owner is a well-to-do unmarried man in his mid-thirties. He suffers from a variety of ailments. He starts trembling when he is nervous. He also suffers from palpitations, is easily excitable and always gets awfully upset. Atsucha moment his lips tremble and there’s a twitch in his right eyebrow.
• Lomov has been looking for a perfect marriage partner for himself but has failed to meet an ideal match. He does not consider Natalya to be ideally suited for him, but being practical, he takes into account his advancing age and decides to make a compromise by proposing to her.
• However, he lacks self-confidence and keeps beating about the bush instead of stating matters clearly.
• Lomov is quarrelsome by nature and starts arguing about the rightful ownership of the “Oxen Meadows”, whereas his actual purpose was to propose to Natalya. He is a comical character who has not learnt the wise lesson of proper discrimination between the relative importance of different situations. Instead of concentrating on the topic of proposing romantically, he keeps on foolishly asserting his claim over “Oxen Meadows”. He is childish, unintelligent and foolish who stubbornly keeps on arguing with the lady, who seems to be the only person he could marry. He does not even hesitate to hurl abuses at the Chubukov family when he gets into heated arguments over Oxen Meadows and the dogs. His stubbornness and immaturity almost ruin the sole prospect of his marriage.

Natalya Stepanovna

• Natalya is the twenty-five year old daughter of Stepan Chubukov, a landowner. She is a garrulous, quarrelsome and money-minded woman,who is so possessive by nature that inno case, is she prepared to leave her claim, rightful or otherwise, over “Oxen Meadows”, a stretch of land.
• She has reached a stage where she is so desperate to get married that she would accept anybody as her husband. According to her father, Chubukov, “She is a lovesick cat.” Butwhen it comes to quarrelling, in a fit of agitation, she forgets that her foolish behaviour could project her as a bad-tempered woman and jeopardise her prospect of matrimony. Lomov considers her to be an excellent housekeeper, not bad looking and well-educated.
• Natalya’s basic aim is to tie the nuptial knot, even if her husband is an ailing and stubborn person like Lomov. However, egoist, as she is, she picks up a quarrel once again with Lomov regarding the superiority of her dog. Squeezer, forgetting all about the proposal which needed to be given the up priority. This shows that Natalya is foolish, short-sighted and immature. Her behaviour is childish and she treats Lomov really bad. But when there is a threat to her matrimonial prospect, she pretends to swoon. Thus, Natalya is ever inch a comical character.

Stepan Stepanovitch Chubukov

• Chubukov is a wealthy, but greedy person past his prime and father of an unmarried daughter. He is a stupid and quarrelsome individual, who is rather unfriendly towards Lomov, his immediate neighbour.
• Chubukov is adept in the art of pretence. On seeing Lomov at his door, he pretends to be happy and asks him the reason of his visit. He conjectures to himself that Lomov has come to borrow money but – asserts he “shan’t give him any.” However, he is a hypocrite and feigns to be very cordial and asks him, “What is it, beauty.”
• As a father, Chubukov feels it his responsibility to marry off his daughter. He cares for her but many times, in the heat of the moment, he overlooks her interestand behaves in an immature manner. He hurls abuses at the man who has come to propose to his daughter, Natalya.
• Chubukov is a short-tempered fellow. Natalya’s hysteria on learning that Lomov had come to propose to her but has gone away annoyed, makes him lose his cool, and out of sheer anger he curses himself and all fathers of grown-up daughters. However, towards the end of the play, when a bit of sanity prevails over him, he hurriedly makes the proposal materialize without the proper consent of Lomov and Natalya.