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 29. Tristram believes that pain, sorrow, and pleasure are all best taken horizontally. Accordingly, Walter’s first act upon entering his room is to throw himself face-down on his bed, one hand covering his eyes and the other draped over the edge of the bed and resting on the handle of the chamber pot. Toby sits down in a chair opposite him. Tristram argues that consolation almost always comes too soon or too late, and Toby especially fails to give it at the correct time.
Tristram makes a lewd joke, referring to how illness, depression, and sex are all usually experienced lying down. Walter’s ridiculous position reveals how upset he is, as he fails to notice that he is touching the chamber pot. Tristram’s remarks about consolation suggest that proper consolation may be impossible, as both the consoler and the consoled are too wrapped up in their own affairs.
Themes
Chapter 30. Tristram explains that Walter’s despair is not an overreaction to a situation that would upset any new father—in fact, it’s because another of his theories that Tristram’s lack of a nose is so unbearable to him.
This chapter reveals Walter’s extreme reaction to be the consequence of one of his own bizarre beliefs.
Themes
Chapter 31. Tristram explains the origins of Walter’s extreme reaction to the loss of Tristram’s nose. Tristram’s great-grandfather and great-grandmother argue viciously over the terms of their jointure. Tristram’s great-grandmother refuses to negotiate, continually pointing out that Tristram’s great-grandfather has “little or no nose.” Tristram interrupts himself to clarify what he means by “nose,” criticizing other writers for vagueness and confusion. Tristram finds himself to have been neglectful, entrusting his narrative to the reader’s imagination and thus creating opportunities for lewd interpretations. Tristram argues with Eugenius over the different meanings of crevice. Though Tristram’s argument, that to define which meaning he has in mind is to distrust his reader, triumphs over Eugenius, Tristram believes this is a fool’s victory and now defines nose: a nose and nothing more.
Tristram abruptly begins narrating this conversation between his great-grandparents without explaining to the reader when or where it is happening; it must be taking place in the past, however, as Tristram’s great-grandparents were almost certainly not still alive at the time of his birth. Tristram deliberately plays with the meaning of “nose,” seeming to imply that it is innuendo for “penis” (much like “crevice” suggests “vagina”), but he coyly insists that this is not the case. Of course, Tristram’s insistence that a nose is but a nose would not prevent the reader from interpreting the follow chapters as sexual innuendo.
Themes
Chapter 32. Tristram’s great-grandfather and great-grandmother continue arguing. His great-grandfather attempts to convince his great-grandmother that his own nose is an inch longer than his father’s, but she is unmoved. Tristram’s great-grandfather loses hope, concedes, and signs the contract.
Tristram’s great-grandmother is able to extract a larger jointure out of her husband because of his short nose, which is unable to satisfy her.
Themes
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Chapter 33. Tristram’s grandmother complains to his grandfather about the jointure they pay. His grandfather only answers that his own father had no nose to speak of. Tristram, as narrator, explains that his great-grandmother lived for 12 years after his great-grandfather’s death, during which time Tristram’s grandfather had to pay the exorbitant jointure. Tristram’s father, on the other hand, handles his financial obligations with grace, though he quibbles more over small differences than large sums. Over these three generations, however, long noses become the norm in the Shandy family; Walter not only follows in his grandmother’s footsteps but develops this tradition into a theory. Walter believes that his grandfather’s short nose was a blow to the Shandy family’s honor that they have never recovered from. Tristram bemoans his fate.
Tristram again abruptly switches from a conversation between his great-grandparents to one between his grandparents. Evidently Tristram’s great-grandfather’s short nose continued to leave its mark on the family, as Tristram’s grandfather had to continue paying his mother an extremely large jointure. Walter’s concern for noses is not just due to this family history, however; as usual, he has developed it into an elaborate theory. Therefore, Tristram reveals, the loss of his nose to Dr. Slop’s forceps is both a philosophical and a personal defeat for his father.
Themes
Chapter 34. Tristram praises nature for making the human mind so resistant to new convictions, imagining how useless a philosopher who was convinced by all new ideas would be. Tristram’s father takes after the former example, firmly sticking to his opinions like someone in the state of nature holding an apple. Tristram concedes that Didius will disagree with him on this matter, asking what right the person has to the apple, but he points out that Tribonius has just as effective a counterargument, which is that finding and using the apple makes the apple one’s own. Walter agrees with Tribonius, refusing to be separated from his opinions. Much like Toby with fortification, Walter collects literature on noses. Tristram, at this point, becomes distracted paying tribute to Toby’s goodness. He promises that as long as he is the master of Shandy-Hall, he will never demolish Toby’s model fortifications.
Tristram’s ironic praise for stubbornness is, of course, exactly the opposite of what most philosophy teaches: open-minded investigation of the facts. Tristram’s comments about the state of nature crib the language of popular political theories of the development of property and society, especially those of Locke and Hobbes. Didius surfaces once again as the voice of reason—a voice Tristram easily brushes off. Tristram, unlike his father, fails to stick to the topic at hand, instead getting too wrapped up in the emotions his own narration inspires within him.
Themes
Chapter 35. Though Tristram’s father is not an ambitious scholar of noses, he is very curious, and he quickly proceeds in his research after beginning with Bruscambille’s prologue on long noses. Tristram compares Bruscambille’s significance to his father to a man’s first mistress. Walter quickly moves on to other scholars of noses, eventually coming to the renowned Hafen Slawkenbergius, whom Tristram promises to discuss in depth later.
Tristram mixes and matches real and fictional scholars in his father’s library of studies of noses (Bruscambille was a sixteenth-century French comedian). Tristram’s comparison of early reading to a first mistress reflects his general interest in the pleasures—and seductions—of reading. Tristram’s promise to return to Slawkenbergius suggests that the latter will play an important role in the novel; the name “Hafen Slawkenbergius” is a play on the German words for “chamber pot” and “a pile of manure.”
Themes
