Three men in a boat -written by K.Jerom.

Analysis of the text

“Three men in a boat” written by K.Jerom. 
 

     I’am going to analyze the text “Three men in the boat”. The author of this text is Jerome K. Jerome. He is a popular English writer. The most famous works are Three Men in a Boat, The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, Novel Notes. He is famous for his art of story-telling and his humour which is based on misunderstanding. He is good at revealing the weak sides of human nature. 

   This text is about three men who decided to cook an Irish stew. Jerome presents his story as 1^st-person narration with elements of the description. In this story we can dearly distinguish three main characters: the narrator, Harris and George. The general slant of the story is realistic, the emotive key is prosaic, with some shades of humor.   

     The main characters of the story are three friends. This extract may be divided into the following parts. The first one is a description of Sonning. The second is decision of cooking an Irish stew. The third is Montmorency’s contribution to the dinner. The last one is about great success of Irish stew. This text is written with the cheerful, humorous, emotional and optimistic. The author resorts indirect methods of characterization. There are no descriptions of characters and the reader can’t imagine them himself. We can see them through their actions, events, speech, etc. The characters do their best with the help of each other. Two heads better than one head. The composition of the story is open as all the components in the text are clearly seen. Exposition takes place at the beginning of the story and its introduced by description of the beauty of the village houses. Ex: “It is the most fairylike little nook on the whole river. It is more like a stage village than one built of bricks and mortar. Every house is smothered in roses…” 

   The text consists of two parts: the descriptions of Sonning and the events, which are happened with the characters. Also, the author’s humour and vivid style are best represented in the process of the narrator. The story itself introdused humorously. There are two kinds of it: humour of words and humour of situation. The fact that those potatoes were about the size of a peanut makes us wonder and even smile: such an easy task sometimes turns out for men quite difficult.

   Ex: “Scrapping was even harder than peeling” makes us completely sure the author wanted to show the humor of the situation. And it comes as no surprise that the narrator says: “I never saw such a thing as potato scrapping for making a fellow in a mess”, which truly confirms our guesses. As well we can’t take for granted the fact of working steadily over the four potatoes for such a long time.  

The most interesting fact concerning all this fuss is that their supper was a great success:

Ex:“I don’t think I ever enjoyed a meal more. There was something so fresh and piquant about it. …here was a dish with a new flavor, with a taste like nothing else on earth.” So, we should admit their work wasn’t in vain, if they liked it so mush. 

The plot of the story is full of humour and comic situations, bright words, because the author used some stylistic devices such as irony, metaphor, hyperbole, etc. The author used in this text a lot of lexical and stylistic devices which helped to create the needful atmosphere. In the description of Sonning Jerome used metaphor: they (roses) were bursting forth in clouds of dainty splendour; simile: it is more like a stage village than one built of bricks and mortar; epithets: veritable picture, quaint rooms, winding passages, splendid opportunity, a slap-up supper, sweet Sonning. The author underlines his own attitude towards the village, he conveys his positive emotions to the reader.  

The main idea of the text is to show the conflict between the characters and the readers understanding of the situation. It is pure intertaining story, very light and interesting for reader, because it is written in a casual way.