Lomov is 35 years old, and a nervous hypochondriac, who is socially awkward and prone to anxiety attacks. As is gradually revealed over the course of the play, he is not particularly romantic, and his proposal has more to do with the economic advantages of of combining their families' adjacent properties than with any particular degree of love of Natalia or desire to get married. His efforts to actually propose keep on getting derailed as he and Natalia get in various arguments, but with some help from her father, and despite a major panic attack, he does successfully succeed in proposing and the proposal is accepted.