justify the title of the novel three men in a boat
Answers
The title of the novel, ‘Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)’, is a perfectly apt title for the novel. As the novel is all about three men, Jerome K Jerome, George, Harris, and Jerome’s dog, Montmorency. The three friends along with their dog travel from Kingston to Oxford in a boat, tarrying, lingering, sojourning on at many places along the river course. Thus while travelling the novelist narrates many funny, extremely humorous incidents and episodes such as Harris's maze scene, short stay at Hampton, Mrs. Thomas's tomb, Magna-Carta Island, Marlow, Shiplake, and finally reaching Oxford their return home-ward journey. This entire comic odyssey is interspersed with the narrator's extremely funny and humorous narratives, descriptions, reminiscences, etc.
The title of the novel Three Men in a Boat is perfectly justified. This is because the novel presents the adventures of three men George, Harris and Jerome who are also friends when they undertake a two-week boat journey on River Thames. They travel in a boat from Kingston to England along with the author’s dog Montmorency. While the men hope for a relaxed boat ride, they encounter all sorts of challenges throughout the trip.
Incidentally, while the dog is fictional, the two other characters apart from the author are actually based on two of Jerome’s friends. George was based on George Wingrave, a senior manager at Barclays Bank and Harris was supposed to be Carl Hentschel, who owned a printing business in London. The trio often undertook boating trips together.