Three Men in a Boat-Question and Answers based on Themes and Plots
Question: 1. Discuss the main plot of “Three Men in a Boat”.
Answer
The story is a travelogue which starts with three friends George, Harris and Jerome and their dog, Montmorency. They all were smoking in the room and suffering from health issues. They decided to go for a trip to River Thames between Kingston and Oxford on Saturday. The story is a humorous compilation of the incidents that occur to them on their trip. The story also includes the related incidents told by the author and his friends. They hired a boat for their journey. They decided to camp outside in fine weather and inside during bad weather. They did a lot of mishaps during their journey of the boat which was quite funny. The characters present their views on different aspects of life. We get to know of Uncle Rodger, the Hampton Court Maze and the unreliability of barometers. Jerome also tells about how girls tow their boat and other related funny stories.
Question: 2. Describe the packing incident before the trip.
Answer
They move the table up against the window, piled everything in a heap in the middle of the floor, and sat round and looked at it. Jerome asked to leave the packing to him. George and Harris started relaxing which hurt Jerome as he thought to supervise the packing. When he packed everything, Harris told him that he forgot the boot so he had to repack everything. Harris and George started packing rest of the hamper, they started with breaking a cup. They packed the strawberry jam on top of a tomato and squashed it and Harris sat on butter. Montmorency sat down on things, put his leg into the jam and pretended that the lemons were rats. Harris move him away with a frying pan.
Question: 3. What problem that three men discussed and what they decided? /Why three men went to the trip?
Answer
The three men were feeling seedy. Harris and George felt extraordinary fits of giddiness. Jerome liver was out of order. He thought that he is suffering from each diseases that pill-circular mention except housemaid’s knee. They thought that they wanted rest and change. They should go out for a week to some old world and a peaceful spot. George was in the favour of sea trip but Jerome opposed it. He thought that sea-trip will make them tired after the journey. Lastly, they decided to go for a boat trip. However, Montmorency was not happy with this idea but they didn’t care about his thought.
Question: 4. Describe the incident in the party where Herr Slossenn Boschen sang his song?
Answer
It was a highly cultured party. Two young men who just returned from Germany said that Herr Slossenn Boschen will sing a comic song for them. They said nobody could sing it like Her Slossenn Boschen. Young men whispered that they all will laugh while passing through the room. As the song started, everyone in crowd including the narrator fixed their eyes on young men as they didn’t understand German. When they tittered, all tittered; when they roared, all roared. German Professor did not seem happy and the expression of his face was one of intense surprise. Actually, it was a sad song. The two young men disappeared. He told that he only knew to sing the song in German. He felt very insulted and the party was ended.
Question: 5. Describe any humourous incident from the novel./Describe the incident of two ladies who were beautifully dressed.
Answer
Once the narrator went on a boat trip with two ladies. They had put on silky stuff, ribbons, dainty shoes and light gloves and were beautifully dressed. But they didn’t dressed for a river picnic, they were going to a photographic studio. While stepping in boat, the first thing that they noticed was that the boat was not clean so the narrator and his friend dusted all the seats for them. They thought that a drop of water would destroy their dress. The narrator tried his best, but could not prevent a few drops of water falling on their clothes. The ladies felt relieved when he asked another man to row. But the man spread more than a pint of water on their dresses, they began to protect themselves with their umbrellas and drew rugs and coats over themselves.
Question: 6. What happened to Harry at Hampton Court Place?
Answer
Harris one went in to maze to show it to his country cousin. He studied the map thought that it is simple. He met some people who had been there for three-quarters of an hour and lost. Harris asked them to follow him. Harris kept on turning to the right but it seemed a long way and his cousin thought that it was a very big maze. After a long time, they passed the half of penny on the ground. The woman with the baby said that she thrown it on the ground just before she met him and said he is an impostor. Harris thought they should go back to the entrance and try again but he failed. They called the young keeper who was new and not able to locate them and also got lost while entering the maze. The old keeper came after the lunch and rescued them.
Question: 7. What happened to George’s father and his friend in the inn called “The Pig and Whistle”?
Answer
George’s father and his friend got into the same bed in a dark hotel room unknowingly. When they got a room they were very happy and switched off the light and went to bed as they were tired. They got in the same bed the only difference was one lay with his feet next to the other's head. Each thought that there is another man in his bed. They both fought with each other not knowing that the other person was his friend. Each complained to the other that there was someone else in their bed then the other advised them to throw out the intruder. Finally they threw each other out and both landed on the floor. They thought that it was not a very naive hotel as strange things happened in it.
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