Biggest Irony in Three Men in a Boat

Three men in a boat by Jerome.K.Jerome has many chapters and funny stories that show ironies in relation to the three men. One of the biggest ironies is part of a section in chapter 8. This happened when Harris, in chapter eight, was when he went to a party and he sang a song that was funny and at the end he and his friends laughed but later they realized it was a tragic song which isn’t funny to laugh about. This shows that some people like Harris are too confident about their non-existent skills. Also, some people pretend to know something they don’t. This is the biggest irony out of all the ones in the book because of the serious tone, large number of people present, and the unexpected  influence it can have in that situation.

There are often multiple types of ironies based on different scenarios. The number of people who notice the contradiction, how obvious or subtle the unexpected outcome is, and other details of what happened can impact how strong the sense of irony feels. Harris is singing with his friends about what they think is a funny story while everyone else besides them knows how serious and tragic this story is. Tragic and funny are two opposite things that Harris and his friends mess up that make this irony the biggest of them all. “Then Herr Slossenn Boschen got up, and went on awful.  He swore at us in German (which I should judge to be a singularly effective language for that purpose), and he danced, and shook his fists, and called us all the English he knew.  He said he had never been so insulted in all his life." This shows us how serious the song they were singing was and how others reacted to it.This was a notable irony because one group saw it as a non-serious, fun thing, while others reacted very strongly since they realized how serious it really was. The huge gap between these two totally opposite views of the same situation made the irony very powerful.

Other aspects of irony include how many people were tricked who don’t realize what they have done until it's too late. The amount of people involved in an irony can affect how big the irony is or how significant an impact it has on the character involved. In this story, Harris and his friends all believed that they were right about the funny story but in reality, all the other people at the party knew that this was a tragic story. The reality that so many people could have believed the wrong idea supports the idea that this is the biggest theme and even after lots of people told them how insulted they were they still didn’t realize the mistakes they had made. This shows that even if a large group of people think they're right, others might still be still despite them, there was a huge gap between how one small group saw something versus how a large number of other people reacted. Even though most tried to explain the truth, the first group still didn't realize their mistake. This shows just how strong an irony it was due to such a big divide in understanding between almost everyone else and that one small group.

Ironies happen when some people think they have understood the situation but in reality they are completely wrong. Thinking too stubbornly can lead to wrong answers. In the book three men in a boat, the main character went to a lively party with a vibe of fun so when they went to sing they were expected to sing a funny song that was loud and joyful. They sang what they thought was a funny song but in reality, to everyone else, it was a tragic song so everyone felt insulted and they were too stubborn to realize their mistake. Everyone knew how serious the situation was so from their perspective, these kids were insulting the characters in the song and how tragically it had ended. This shows how ironies happen and how important one can be.It turned out to be a really strong irony because the group's casual behavior ended up deeply upsetting many more people than anyone expected. Even though most tried to explain the real effect, the group refused to accept they were wrong. This made the irony more powerful since their actions had such an unexpectedly large, negative influence on others, yet they failed to recognize this - showing a major difference between the small group and the feelings of nearly everyone else affected.

The book three men in a boat by Jerome.K.Jerome has three main characters who are humorous and take part in lots of ironies. Among these ironies I chose the biggest one where Harris is at a party and he sings a tragic song thinking it is a funny one and insults the entire crowd of people there. This is the biggest irony because of how many people are there, the seriousness of the situation, and how everyone was caught by surprise when they suddenly started laughing. Harris' group of friends went to the party and they thought this was a funny song because of the fun vibe at the party but little did they know it was a tragic one. The seriousness and the distance between tragic and funny makes this irony more funny and enormous. Tragic endings are to be sad about and quiet. Funny endings are to laugh about and this makes what Harris did so insulting to everyone else. Finally, everyone was insulted by their actions and this makes it such a big irony because of the reactions of the crowd and the people.