"Bring him back/ fetch him…….”—Who says this and to whom? Why is the speaker so excited? Bring out the irony from the context.

Answer:   In the one act play The Proposal by Anton Chekhov, Natalya says this to her father Chubukov.

 Lomov comes to his long-time neighbour Chubukov’s house to give the proposal to marry his daughter Natalya. But before conveying his proposal, Natalya and Lomov get involved into argument over the ownership of a disputed land called Oxen Meadows. But due to severe palpitation, Lomov cannot carry on the argument and leaves their house. Then when Natalya asks her father about the reason of Lomov’s arrival, father informs her about the real reason of lomov’s coming and Natalya gets upset and begins to wail for missing the chance of marrying Lomov because she is also like a love-sick cat and is adult enough to marry, especially Lomov.

 Natalya has actually no love for Lomov. She just wants to marry Lomov to lead her life smoothly. That is why, before knowing the matter of proposal, she badly abuses Lomov and after knowing about proposal, she becomes desperate to marry Lomov forgetting her earlier act. Here the irony lies.