writing is happening

Am sitting downstairs in the front room on the proper computer chair with the laptop on my desk. This is good ergonomically, but this room is cold in the evening. I also dislike sitting here when the light's on, as then other people can see in from the street, and I don't like having strangers watching what I'm doing. Oh well. My gall bladder is doing its stuff, but my back is ok, and that's the main thing.

Need some help again with writing.

1) I need a synonym for "realise", in the context "he realised that...". Even accounting for the transAtlantic shift from s to z, Merriam-Webster isn't helping me - its thesaurus is mostly thinking of realise in the business sense: "realising a vision", and that is so insanely far from the meaning I over-use that I'm surprised it's even the same word. "accomplish", "actualize" (that's English?!), "gain", "obtain" - nope, "suddenly became aware" - yep. Except "suddenly became aware" is too pretentious to fit into most of the contexts where I have "realised" currently.

2) Can anyone who knows more about drama than me (kightp, keldaryth, any of you current English or Drama scholars) please recommend a play or movie with a well-known (marriage) proposal scene? The proposal needs to be gratefully accepted, and the text of the proposal/script needs to be something that I can easily look up online or at the library. Thanks!

( Maybe boasting. )