The following excerpt from Anton Chekhov's The Proposal is a monologue. Which two statements can best help to distinguish this e
xcerpt as a monologue? LOMOV: It's cold . . . I'm trembling all over, just as if I'd got an examination before me. The great thing is, I must have my mind made up. If I give myself time to think, to hesitate, to talk a lot, to look for an ideal, or for real love, then I'll never get married. . . . Brr! . . . It's cold! Natalya Stepanovna is an excellent housekeeper, not bad-looking, well-educated. . . .What more do I want? But I'm getting a noise in my ears from excitement. [Drinks] And it's impossible for me not to marry. . . . In the first place, I'm already 35—a critical age, so to speak. In the second place, I ought to lead a quiet and regular life. . . .I suffer from palpitations, I'm excitable and always getting awfully upset. . . .At this very moment my lips are trembling, and there's a twitch in my right eyebrow. . . . But the very worst of all is the way I sleep. I no sooner get into bed and begin to go off when suddenly something in my left side—gives a pull, and I can feel it in my shoulder and head. . . . I jump up like a lunatic, walk about a bit, and lie down again, but as soon as I begin to get off to sleep there's another pull! And this may happen twenty times. . . .
The two statements which can best help to distinguish the excerpt as a monologue are the following ones:
1- " If I give myself time to think..."
2- "What more do I want?"
In both sentences, there are unusual language constructions, that is, they do not occur as frequently as other ones. In the first sentence, there is the reflexive pronoun "myself", and that is a sign of reflection, of one being talking about oneself. The second sentence is interrogative, and the subject is first person singular, which means the speaker is asking questions about himself. Both sentences could also have taken place in a non-monologue situation, but they are surely the ones that best distinguish the excerpt as a monologue, since they are completely self-centered.
