Compare and contrast the experience of reading The Proposal to listening to an audio version. Did the manner in which any of the actors delivered their lines affect your interpretation of the dialogue? Also comment on the impact reading versus listening to stage directions had on the flow of the dialogue. Use examples from the play in your response.

The experience of listening to an audio version of The Proposal was very different from reading it. While the actors’ line deliveries didn’t affect my interpretation of the dialogue, it helped make the play more funny and entertaining. For example, take this excerpt from the play:

LOMOV: But you can see from the documents, honoured Natalya Stepanovna. Oxen Meadows, it's true, were once the subject of dispute, but now everybody knows that they are mine. There's nothing to argue about. You see, my aunt's grandmother gave the free use of these Meadows in perpetuity to the peasants of your father's grandfather, in return for which they were to make bricks for her. The peasants belonging to your father's grandfather had the free use of the Meadows for forty years, and had got into the habit of regarding them as their own, when it happened that. . .

NATALYA STEPANOVNA: No, it isn't at all like that! Both my grandfather and great-grandfather reckoned that their land extended to Burnt Marsh—which means that Oxen Meadows were ours. I don't see what there is to argue about. It's simply silly!

LOMOV: I'll show you the documents, Natalya Stepanovna!

At first, I thought Lomov and Natalya were being civil toward one another. However, in the audio version, the actors’ voices are quite high-pitched, and they speak in a somewhat exaggerated manner. So the manner in which these actors deliver the lines in the audio version helped make it more humorous. Plus, the brash manner in which these lines are delivered provides a nice contrast to the polite manner in which Natalya and Lomov greet each other when they first come face-to-face in the play.

The stage directions didn’t affect the flow of the dialogue much. Hearing the stage directions read aloud in the play helped enhance the dialogue for me. Note this example from the play:

LOMOV: Well, you see, it's like this. [Takes his arm] I've come to you, honoured Stepan Stepanovitch, to trouble you with a request. Not once or twice have I already had the privilege of applying to you for help, and you have always, so to speak... I must ask your pardon, I am getting excited. I shall drink some water, honoured Stepan Stepanovitch. [Drinks.]

The stage directions from this excerpt helped me visualize what was happening, especially since I wasn’t following along with the print version of the play as I was listening.

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