THREE MEN IN A BOAT ( TERM 2)

Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)

Summary and Analysis of Chapters 11-14

Chapter 11

George and J. wake up at six the next morning, and cannot get back to sleep. George tells J. a story about how he once forgot to wind his watch before going to bed, which left him confused when he woke at three in the morning. He only realized the mistake when he arrived at work, and aroused the suspicion of several constables as he walked around London so late at night.

J. and George finally wake Harris. They had previously agreed to go for a morning swim, but are now reluctant to jump in the cold water. J. falls in and tries to trick his friends into joining him, but they refuse. J. also accidentally drops a shirt into the river, which George finds hilarious until he realizes it is actually his shirt.

Harris volunteers to make scrambled eggs, promising that they will be delicious. Of course, Harris has no idea how to make scrambled eggs, but George and J. enjoy watching him make a fool of himself in the process. Naturally, the eggs are inedible.

That morning, the men arrive at Magna Charta Island, near Runnymede. As the name suggests, Magna Charta Island is where King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215. J. speculates at length about what it would have been like to be a peasant living in Runnymede at the time of the event.

Analysis

Poetry occupied an important place in Victorian culture, and it was popular among readers of all classes. Jerome often borrows techniques from poetry for his prose. Personification is one technique he uses that is typically associated with poetry. Early in Chapter 9, Jerome personifies tow-lines at great length. “There may be,” he writes, “tow-lines that are a credit to their profession—conscientious, respectable tow-lines—tow-lines that do not imagine they are crochet-work, and try to knit themselves up into antimacassars the instant they are left to themselves” (80). The effect here is light and humorous; by using personification, Jerome engages the reader and manages to be entertaining even though he is writing at great length about a relatively simple point.

Jerome also continues to juxtapose highbrow with the low in these chapters. In addition to using different types of humor designed to appeal to readers of different levels of education, Jerome also has his characters interact with people from all walks of life. A prime example of this comes at the end of Chapter 9, when J. and his cousin are rescued by a group of “provincial ‘Arrys and ‘Arriets,” whom J. praises effusively for their kindness and earnestness (88). “‘Arry and ‘Arriets’” was a common, slightly derogatory slang term for the working-class during the Victorian period; it references the tendency of lower-class English people to drop H-sounds when speaking. Ironically, Punch Magazine would later mock Jerome for his tendency to pander to lower-class readers by referring to him as ‘Arry K. ‘Arry (“My Life” 75).

In Chapter 10, Jerome returns to the theme of wanting – and often not being able to get – the things that one does not have. He addresses this first in his comic description of the men's attempt to make dinner. As J. observes, hot water seems to take longer to boil when one most wants a cup of tea. The men comically try to work around this by talking loudly about how much they do not want tea, and J. believes the strategy actually works.

Jerome also explores this theme obliquely through the story of the knight in the woods. This story (and the digression about night that precedes it) is told in the serious, Romantic style that Jerome occasionally uses in the novel’s digressive passages. In it, the knight finds a deeper, more meaningful happiness being lost in the woods than his comrades do after weeks of feasting in the palace. Although the passage’s tone is dramatically different from the novel's more humorous sections, both address the phenomenon of wanting one does not have – be it physical comfort or emotional fulfillment.

The knight story also emphasizes the novel's common theme of the illusions men make for themselves. Where the knights in the castle are distracted by the luxury they believe defines them, the lonely night truly finds himself by stripping himself of such illusions. In this way, the story does hearken to the Romantic belief that nature could bring transcendence.

Callbacks to earlier jokes is a common technique used in comedic writing, and Jerome begins to use that technique heavily in these chapters, which are around the novel's midpoint. An example of a callback can be found early in Chapter 11, when J. explains that “the idea, overnight, had been that we should get up early in the morning . . . and revel in a long delicious swim. Somehow, now the morning had come, the notion seemed less tempting. The water looked damp and chilly: the wind felt cold” (102). This was foreshadowed in Chapter 3 when J. noted that he is always more excited about swimming when he is not immediately faced with the prospect of diving into cold water. And again, this moment touches on the theme of illusions - it is nice to make plans for ourselves, but another thing to actually carry through with those plans.

Chapter 11 concludes with a sentimental historical interlude. As the men approach Magna Charta Island, Jerome imagines what it would have been like to be a peasant when King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta in 1215. To a certain extent, this passage tips Jerome’s political hand. It is notable that despite his middle-class background (and his patronizing attitude toward ‘Arrys and ‘Arriets in the previous chapters), he identifies with the peasants rather than the bourgeoisie or the nobles. His positive description of the Magna Carta as “the great cornerstone in England’s temple of liberty” also hints at Jerome’s populist sentiments.

Chapter 12

Next, the men pass Picnic Point, where Henry VIII is said to have courted Anne Boleyn. J. remarks that such spots are located all over England, and the common people must have had a great deal of trouble trying to give Henry and Anne their privacy. He then digresses to discuss how awkward it is to walk in on young couples who are ‘spooning The boat then passes the spot where Earl Godwin choked after being accused of murdering Edward the Confessor’s brother.

They row past Datchet, and reminisce about the first boat trip they took together. They had attempted to find an inn in Datchet, but all of the town’s lodging-houses were full. After asking everywhere, the men came across a young boy who offered to let them sleep at his family’s house. They did, and were grateful for the room despite the uncomfortable conditions.

When lunchtime arrives, the men are very disappointed to discover that they had forgotten to pack mustard. George saves the day by revealing that he brought along pineapple, but the men have great trouble trying to open the can. After taking turns trying to break it open, they give it up.

They pass quickly through Maidenhead, a tourist town “too snobby to be pleasant” (119). They spot three old men fishing, and Harris’s poor steering disturbs the water near the men, who then curse at them.

That night, the friends stay at an inn in Marlow.

Chapter 13

The men pass by Marlow and Bisham Abbey, where many important historical figures are buried. At Medmenham, they pass an abbey that once housed a hedonistic order of monks whose motto was ‘Do as you please.’

The friends stop for lunch in a village, and Montmorency chases a large tom cat, only to back away when the cat calmly stares him down. The men stock up on food in Marlow, and by the time they finish shopping, several errand boys are trailing behind them carrying their purchases. J. humorously describes what the procession must look like to an outside eye. They then have trouble departing from Marlow because of the large number of steam-launches in the water, which are noisy and difficult to navigate around.

Near Hambledon lock, the travelers run out of drinking water. The lock-keeper advises them to drink from the river, but they are concerned about the “germs of poison” present in the Thames (130). They find some water from a nearby cottage well, but J. speculates in retrospect that this was probably river water as well. However, since they did not know it, it did not taste bad.

As they continue on their journey, they see a dog floating on its back down the river. When they settle down on the shore for dinner, Harris unwittingly sits at the edge of a gulch, and falls into it when he leans back. Because they do not see him fall, J. and George initially believe he is dead (and are not terribly upset about it). However, Harris then climbs from the gulch and angrily accuses them of making him sit there on purpose.

Chapter 14

George, Harris, and J. pass a number of landmarks near the idyllic villages of Wargrave and Shiplake. However, the day takes a turn for the worse when they attempt to peel potatoes for supper, but over-peel the potatoes until they are no bigger than peanuts. They attempt to make Irish stew anyway, putting in potatoes without peeling them. Montmorency catches a water-rat and offers it to the men to add to the stew, but they decline. The stew turns out to be delicious.

When the tea kettle shrieks, a frightened Montmorency attacks it. After dinner, George plays the banjo. A novice player, he is terrible at it. Montmorency howls along, and Harris and J. persuade George not to play for the remainder of the trip. J. mentions that George was later forced to sell the banjo because neither his landlady nor the passers-by outside his house can tolerate his playing.

That night, George and J. head into the village of Henley for drinks; Harris stays behind on account of an upset stomach. They return to the boat fairly late, but forget which island it is docked off of. When Harris does not answer their calls and it begins to rain, George and J. start to panic. They only find the boat by following the sound of Montmorency’s barking.

When they arrive, a terribly exhausted Harris explains that he spent hours fighting off a flock of aggressive swans, whose nest they disturbed when they moored the boat. The next morning, Harris does not remember anything about the swan fight, and George and J. wonder if he dreamt it.

Analysis

Jerome’s use of concise, accessible historical accounts is another reason why Three Men in a Boat was so popular. In the Victorian period, history texts tended to use formal language, presenting information in a stiff, politically correct manner. Jerome’s lighthearted, gossipy account of Henry VIII’s courtship of Anne Boleyn – and his jokes about Queen Elizabeth’s drinking habits – would have been unusual at this time. The account of the monks who lived under the motto 'Do as you please' provides a nice symbol through which to understand his educational approach - he both acknowledges the reverence of history while remaining willing to treat the figures like actual humans, with failures and desires. By taking a comedic tone as he describes local history, Jerome adds an educational layer to Three Men in a Boat without undermining its entertainment value.

As in Chapter 11, Jerome’s populist outlook is on full display here. He brushes off Maidenhead – a favored destination of the upper classes – as ‘snobby,’ covering it in less than a paragraph. Meanwhile, he spends more time on historical sites and middle-class villages like Datchet. This reflects Jerome’s experience (he was relatively poor when he wrote the book), but may also be an attempt to cater to working- and middle-class readers by detailing destinations that they could afford to visit.

Although Jerome is often critical of human foibles, he also shows a meticulous eye for psychology. Much of his humor is based on the contradictions and complexities of the human mind. These universal behaviors are his primary focus in Chapter 13, which consists of a short series of vignettes as the men continue down the river. When the travelers seek out drinking water, Jerome sends up their germ-phobia and notes that “what the eye does not see, the stomach does not get upset over” (129). Another example of Jerome’s unique brand of popular psychology comes when Harris insists on blaming his friends after he falls into the gulch. People, Jerome suggests, often find comfort in blaming others for their misfortunes, even when said misfortunes are truly an accident. All in all, these stories and others conform to Jerome's interest in the illusions that humans use when understanding themselves and others.

The discussion of George's banjo playing provides Jerome another opportunity for satire. As Jerome writes, “You would think that Society, for its own sake, would do all it could to assist a man to acquire the art of playing a musical instrument. But it doesn’t!” (138). Observations like these are written to be clever and entertaining, but they also imply a more serious critique of people who care more about their individual needs than about the common good. As mentioned earlier, Jerome reveals a somewhat cynical, judgmental attitude even in his lighthearted observations.

Finally, it is worth noting the way Jerome uses Montmorency. Interestingly, Jerome did not actually have or bring a dog on this journey, meaning that Montmorency is a purely literary invention. Throughout Three Men in a Boat, Jerome uses Montmorency to enhance the satirical points he makes about human nature. Often, Montmorency acts as a foil to his human masters. Consider, for example, his quiet competence in catching a water-rat for supper, which contrasts with the men’s mishap-filled attempts to cook. Jerome personifies Montmorency extensively. In addition to ascribing human traits and emotions to the dog, Jerome also has his characters interact with Montmorency as if he were human. This has the dual effect of further personifying Montmorency, while also putting his human masters into silly, comedic situations.

Summary and Analysis of Chapters 15-16

Summary

Chapter 15

George, Harris, and J. argue about who will tow the boat, the most physically demanding job by far. They eventually decide to row to Reading, at which point J. will tow for a while. We learn that J. learned to row by joining a club, but that George had some trouble learning. The first time he went out, with a group of friends on a trip to Kew, the coxswain did not know how to call out directions and they had great trouble navigating.

J. lists the different types of rowing, as well as the pitfalls that novices face when they attempt to row for the first time. He discusses punting, a type of rowing where the passenger stands up in the boat and propels it along using a long pole that is pushed against the riverbed. Punting is hazardous for beginners; J. describes a friend who was not paying attention and stepped off the boat, leaving himself clinging to the pole in the middle of the river as the boat drifted away.

On another occasion, J. and his friends noticed an amateur punter who could not keep control of his boat. Thinking it was someone they knew, they mercilessly mocked him until realizing that the man was actually a stranger. Harris once had a similar experience, when a stranger thought he was a friend and began roughhousing with him, holding his head under water.

J. concludes the chapter with a final anecdote about sailing on the river with his friend Hector. The men had trouble raising the sail, which was very tangled. They eventually ran the boat aground and decided to row back. However, they broke the oars in the process, and had to be towed.

Chapter 16

As the men approach Reading, J. describes several important historical events that happened there. Starting in the 17th century, it became a popular destination for Londoners fleeing the plague. However, it is now crowded and polluted, so the men pass through it quickly.

As they leave Reading, J. spots an acquaintance who owns a steam-launch; the steamboat tows them for several miles, giving the men a much-needed break from rowing.

As they approach Goring, they spot a dead woman floating in the water. Some other travelers take her to the coroner, but J. later learns that she killed herself after having a child out of wedlock and being abandoned by her family.

Analysis

Chapter 15 features another ‘callback’ to earlier in the text. The men’s argument about who will tow the boat is similar to earlier arguments they have about who will perform the most difficult jobs. (For example, consider the way Harris and J. force George to tow the boat out of Shepperton.) Both moments also reflect a similar sense of irony, since J. speaks proudly about his work ethic in both places while being clearly unwilling to work. These moments also conform to the novel's recurring theme of the illusions people have about themselves.

Most of Three Men in a Boat is written to be accessible to readers who are unfamiliar with boating. Although rowing and sailing were popular past-times in England at this time, they were not universal among the book’s intended audience. Three Men in a Boat was written as a comic travel novel rather than as a technical description of rowing. Chapter 15 is unusual, then, in that it features a number of anecdotes about punting and sailing that can only be fully appreciated by readers familiar with the activity. Despite these occasional technical interludes, Three Men was popular with boating and non-boating audiences alike, and is credited with popularizing the sport among travelers.

Readers familiar with English geography will note that Jerome uses a very antiquated location name: Wessex. Between 519 and 927 AD, Wessex was a kingdom in England. However, Victorian readers would have recognized the term from the work of Thomas Hardy. Thomas Hardy’s novels are set in Wessex, a fictional region in southern England where pastoral beauty and human drama collide. Jerome refers to Hardy’s works elsewhere in the novel, too. For instance, in Chapter 1, he uses the phrase “far from the madding crowd,” which was also the title of a Hardy novel (12). These literary allusions are just one more approach Jerome uses in this multi-faceted novel.

The dead woman in Chapter 16 heralds a marked departure from Jerome's usually comedic tone. Although it only unfolds over a few pages, the woman’s story provides an example of the gritty, earnest social realism that was popular during the Victorian period. In the nineteenth century, many English writers felt an obligation to portray society's injustices. Jerome’s short vignette about the unfortunate young mother is inspired by these ‘social realist’ stories, which often portrayed the difficult situations faced by members of the lower classes.

However, the short scene can also be connected to the novel's larger themes. His ire in the anecdote is directed particularly towards the family, which abandons the woman because of her trouble. Considering how often Jerome finds humor in the way humans lie to themselves, this scene provides an interesting counterpoint. The woman's family, clearly believing themselves above such behavior, made themselves implicitly responsible for her death. It is arguable that Jerome wishes us to realize how certain pretensions can be inexorably harmful, even if others are merely sources of simple irony

Summary and Analysis of Chapters 17-19

Summary

Chapter 17

The men try to wash their clothes in the Thames, but only succeed in making them dirtier than before. They pay a washerwoman in Streatley to do their laundry, and she charges them three times the normal rate because the clothes are so dirty. They do not complain.

After describing Streatley as a fishing town, J. advises readers not to fish in the Thames because there is nothing to be caught there but minnows and dead cats. J. explains that being a good angler has nothing to do with fishing, and everything to do with one’s ability to tell believable lies about the number of fish one has caught. He provides several examples of men he has met who have lied convincingly about their catch.

George and J. go to a pub in Wallingford. There is a large trout hanging on the wall there, and three different patrons (plus the bartender) each claim they were the one to catch it, each with a different story and description of its weight. At the end of the night, George trips and grabs the trout to steady himself. The trout falls to the ground and shatters, and the men realize that it is made of plaster of Paris.

Chapter 18

J. discusses how “the Thames would not be the fairyland it is without its flower-decked locks” (170).

He recalls another rowing trip he took with George to Hampton Court. A photographer was taking pictures of a steam-launch, and called out to George and J. to try to stay out of his photograph. In attempting to keep their boat out of the frame, George and J. fell over and were photographed lying in the boat with their feet in the air. Their feet took up nine-tenths of the image, and the owner of the steam-launch – who had commissioned the photos – refused to pay for them.

J. describes the sights and attractions of Dorchester, Clifton, and Abingdon. These include Roman ruins, a pleasant park, and the grave of a man who is said to have fathered 197 children. J. warns readers about a challenging stretch of river near Oxford.

Chapter 19

The friends spend two days in Oxford. Montmorency has a wonderful time fighting with the many stray dogs there. J. explains that many who vacation on the Thames start in Oxford and row downriver to London, so that they travel with the current the whole time. He recommends bringing one’s own boat rather than renting one in Oxford, however, because the boats there are of low quality. He remembers once hiring a boat in Oxford and mistaking it for an archeological artifact.

On the journey back from Oxford, it rains incessantly. The men, miserable, pass the time by playing penny nap, a card game, and listening to George play the banjo. Although J. describes him as an unskilled player elsewhere in the book, George here plays a mournful rendition of “Two Lovely Black Eyes” that plunges the men further into depression.

Though they swore to complete the trip, the men decide to abandon the boat and spend the rest of the trip in an inn in Pangbourne. They enjoy a delicious supper there, and tell the other guests about their travels. As the novel ends, they toast their decision to end the trip when they did, and Montmorency barks in agreement.

Analysis

The nineteenth century was a time of elevated awareness about public health concerns. England was becoming an increasingly urban society, and the growing cities had to deal with both internal population growth and an influx of rural migrants seeking work in the factories. Between 1800 and 1900, the population of London grew from one million to six million (Isola et al.). Sewage overflowed and leaked into both the streets and the Thames, and smoke from coal-powered appliances and factories polluted the air. The public health crisis was well-documented at the time, and many Victorian writers – including Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell - discussed it in their fiction. White-collar workers like George, J., and Harris would have been able to live in relatively tolerable conditions. However, Jerome’s vivid depiction of the polluted Thames shows that the sanitation crisis affected even London’s wealthier residents.

The incident with the plaster fish is another example of Jerome’s liberal attitude toward social class. In the bar, several patrons from different social backgrounds all claim to have caught the fish. In spite of their differences in background, they behave similarly. Through this incident, Jerome seems to suggest that pretension cuts across social classes. In other words, all people lie to themselves, regardless of their levels of comfort.

The humor of Three Men in a Boat is generally lighthearted, but does occasionally veer into very dark territory. One example of this comes in Chapter 18, when J. notes that “the pool under Sanford lasher . . . is a very good place to drown yourself in” (174). The comment is especially abrupt because it comes after a relatively prosaic description of Nuneham Park, and because it appears only pages after the episode where the men find the body of a woman who did drown herself. Jerome’s wild vacillations in tone are one reason why contemporary critics were not sure what to make of Three Men in a Boat, and it is a quality of the text that some readers continue to find challenging today.

All in all, these final chapters (and sections) continue to suggest the idea that Jerome was constructing the novel as he went along. Not only does the tone veer wildly, but the book also becomes significantly more focused on travel descriptions in its final chapters, and the plot becomes rather rushed. The sudden ending has a certain comic quality in its suddenness, but also provides the sense that Jerome has run out of steam much as J. and his friends did.

However, the ending does provide some resolution to its recurring question about what it means to be happy. Jerome suggests throughout the novel that people always want precisely what they cannot have, and see themselves as different from they actually are. The basic set-up reflects these ideas; the men believe they are unhappy in their urban lives and are actually outdoorsmen. Of course, through the journey, they finally accept that spending time off of the boat is more desirable than spending time in it. Ironically, they end up happy in the same urban environment that they found tiresome at the beginning of the novel. According to Jerome, this perennial dissatisfaction with one’s lot is part of human nature, and is what motivates people to keep trying new things. However, we always find our greatest happiness when we explore the new things and then accept who we actually are.