Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Tristram Shandy, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Truth, Fiction, and Storytelling
Language and Comprehension
Travel, Space, and Time
Sexuality and Propriety
Science, Technology, and the Enlightenment
Summary
Analysis
Chapter 22. Trim, having finished building two new model mortars for Toby, is too excited to wait and enters the parlor to show them to his master immediately. Because of the squeaky hinge, however, Trim accidentally wakes up both Walter and Toby. This is such an ordinary occurrence that Walter’s fear of being disturbed by the hinge prevents him from properly enjoying his naps in the parlor. Trim tries to explain why he came in, but Walter, misunderstanding, insists that Dr. Slop use the mortars in the kitchen, not the parlor. Then Walter realizes that the mortars have been made out of their great-grandfather’s boots. Toby offers to pay for them to make things right, and Walter scolds him for his financial irresponsibility. Toby brushes this off, arguing that his expensive model sieges are for the benefit of the nation.
Tristram plays with the two meanings of the word “mortar”: the military equipment and a mortar and pestle, used for grinding herbs and powders. Walter has the latter sense of the word in mind and is thinking of Dr. Slop preparing medicine for Mrs. Shandy. Toby once again demonstrates his loyalty to Trim, taking responsibility for his servant’s mistake and offering to cover the costs himself. His brother’s lack of financial planning is a frequent source of frustration for Walter, but Toby’s zeal impresses Walter and prompts him to forgive his brother.
Themes
Chapter 23. The upstairs is quiet, and Walter asks Trim if there is anyone in the kitchen. Trim answers that only Dr. Slop is there. Walter is enraged and bemoans the chaos in his house, asking why Dr. Slop is not upstairs with Mrs. Shandy. Trim answers that Dr. Slop is making a bridge, prompting Toby to instruct Trim to go thank him. Tristram interrupts the narrative to explain Toby’s misunderstanding, the result of another of Trim’s mishaps. Though Tristram believes this story should be included later, together with Toby’s affair with widow Wadman, he feels he has no choice but to address it now. He curses the difficulties of biography and its digressions.
Tristram once again toys with the reader, taking advantage of their disorientation and confusion regarding the other characters in the house. This time, though, Toby misunderstands the meaning of a word, assuming that the bridge Dr. Slop is building is for him. Before explaining this to the reader, Tristram interrupts the narrative and teases the story of Toby’s amours with widow Wadman. Though these amours happened several years before Tristram’s birth, he will not narrate them until later in the novel.
Themes
Chapter 24. Tristram describes how Toby’s affair with widow Wadman led him to swear off relationships with women. Trim, however, continued his tryst with widow Wadman’s maid, Bridget, whom he had begun to court at the same time as Toby was courting widow Wadman. Tristram promises to tell the full story of their romances later. In the meantime, he describes how Trim met Bridget on the bowling green at night. By the morning, Toby’s model drawbridge over the ditch had been crushed and destroyed. Walter was greatly amused, and he teases Toby and Trim mercilessly, forcing Trim to retell his version of the story and joking that no weapons of siege are as destructive as Trim. Toby only angrily smokes his pipe in response. Tristram, as narrator, recounts an evening when Toby smoked up such a cloud that Walter had an asthma attack and Toby leapt up to help him. Walter, in response, praised Toby’s character.
Tristram briefly summarizes Toby’s affair with widow Wadman, alerting the reader to the fact that it will end badly for Toby. Trim, lacking Toby’s modesty, is quite willing to go on pursuing Bridget and, Tristram implies, destroys the bridge by accident while sleeping with her in the ditch. Toby is still unable to bring himself to rebuke Trim, however. Walter’s jokes poke fun at both the comedic circumstances of the bridge’s destruction and at Toby’s hobby-horse in general, pointing out the silliness of the whole endeavor. Despite the sensitive nature of these jokes, however, their brotherly love is still able to overcome their differences.
Themes
Chapter 25. After the bridge was destroyed Trim immediately began building a new bridge, but in the Italian style, as he and Toby deduced that the next war would be Italy and they should update their models accordingly. Walter was able to convince them, however, that the war will come to Flanders too, and they go back to the Dutch style instead. Toby quickly became dissatisfied, however, as every feasible kind of bridge has significant military defects, being susceptible to capture from one side or the other, and the project stalls.
Toby and Trim take their sieges extremely seriously and strive to use their models to accurately represent real wars. Toby’s enthusiasm for the science of fortifications goes beyond the bounds of realism, however, as he finds that no manner of bridge is perfectly designed for sieges, and his obsession with his hobby-horse prevents him from making peace with this limitation.
Themes
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Chapter 26. Returning to the parlor, Tristram explains how the mortars turned Toby’s thoughts to military matters, leading to his assumption that Dr. Slop is building a bridge for him. Walter quickly realizes what Toby is thinking, to his great frustration.
Having completed his digression, Tristram clarifies the nature of Toby’s misunderstanding, Walter also realizes the source of Toby’s confusion, as he has become familiar with his brother’s one-track mind.
Themes
Chapter 27. Trim clears up the confusion, explaining that Dr. Slop is building a bridge for Tristram’s nose, which has been crushed flat to his face by the forceps Dr. Slop used to extract him. Walter asks Toby to take him upstairs immediately.
Tristram reveals the previously mentioned tragedy of his nose, confirming the doubt that Dr. Slop’s uninspiring practice with the forceps earlier, on Toby’s fingers, sowed in the reader.
Themes
Chapter 28. Tristram finds that a cloud of misfortune has been drawn to Walter from the very beginning of his book—and the storm is now about to break. Tristram approaches this part of the narrative with apprehension, but his tone is completely calm, unlike his typically rash, impulsive style of writing.
Tristram plays up the tragicomedy of Walter’s situation, suggesting that there is a deeper reason that his father is so upset. Tristram’s comments about his own style of writing are highly ironic, emphasizing the drama of the coming chapters.
Themes
