Summary with the elements of interpretation

THREE MEN IN A BOAT (ch. XIV) By Jerome K.Jerome

The passage presents a piece of narration intercepted with a description. It may be split into two logically complete parts. The first part describes the place the three friends got out of the boat and put up for the night. The second part narrates how they cooked Irish stew. (Give titles to the parts.)

The first part presents a piece of description. The author describes the place the characters got out very colourfully and vividly. The vividness of the description

has been achieved, firstly, by the use of bookish words and word-combinations (“to be smothered in”, “dainty”,  “splendour”),  secondly, by the use of the epithets which

disclose the author’s emotionally coloured individual attitude towards the place de- scribed (“fairy-like”, “dainty”,  “veritable”,  “sweet”), thirdly, by the similes “fairy- like nook”, (Sonning) “like a stage village”, which also create a picturesque image,

and, finally, by the metaphors “smothered in roses” and “clouds of dainty splendour”

which contribute to the same effect – to a more colourful presentation of the setting.

All these language means create a lyrical romantic mood of this part.

The second part presents a piece of narration which deals with the proceed- ings of making an Irish stew. This part is written in a humorous and ironical key (slant). It is the humour of the laughter provoking situations in which the three friends found themselves when cooking the stew. (Give a summary of this part.)

Besides, a special choice of words also produces a humorous and, especially, an ironical effect. That is due to the author’s mock-serious manner of treating the tri- fling incident of making the stew as a big event. The formal words and phrases

(evince, proceedings, throughout, reappear, contribution, desire, assist, etc.) are out of place in this context, they create a contrast between the situation and the language units chosen to reproduce it. As a result, the sentences acquire a definite ironical

sounding. The other device of revealing the author’s irony is оverstatrment. The fol- lowing statements sound exaggerated: “The job turned out to be the biggest thing of its kind that I had ever been in.”; “We worked steadily for five-and-twenty minutes,

and did four potatoes.”;  “We said we should require the rest of the evening for scraping ourselves”; “The more we peeled, the more peel there seemed to be left on.”; “It seemed difficult to believe that the potato-scrapings in which Harris and I

stood, half-smothered, could have come off four potatoes.” Irony is also strongly felt in the sentences: “It shows you what could be done with economy and care.”; “He said that was the advantage of Irish stew: you got rid of such a lot of things.” The words in the sentences are marked by positive connotation, but it is obvious, that

these connotative shades of their meanings contradict the situation, and conse- quently, the sentences sound absurd and imply mockery.

The  passage,  as  the  novel  itself,  presents  a  remarkable  example  of

Jerome K.Jerome’s vivid style and sparkling humour.