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 19. Walter comes back from the fishpond, catching Toby in the act of miming a siege. Luckily, Tristram comments, Walter’s despair prevents him from insulting Toby’s hobby-horse. Instead, he curses his fate, suggesting that God is punishing him for his or the Shandy family’s sins by condemning his badly named, noseless child to a life of failure. Walter bemoans the loss of his animal spirits, feeling weak and defeated. He also blames Mrs. Shandy for refusing to take a scientific approach to her pregnancy and believes that her arguing was also bad for the fetus. Toby suggests they call Yorick.
While Toby invokes God and his will to prove the essential goodness of the world, Walter almost exclusively invokes God in the negative. This distinction emphasizes the brothers’ differing views on meaning and free will in the universe: whereas Toby is comforted by faith, Walter is driven by curiosity. Walter’s list of theories according to which Tristram is destined for failure likewise underscore his scientific (or pseudoscientific) cast of mind.
Themes
Chapter 20. Tristram, looking back at his first four volumes, is astounded by his pace. Comparing himself to a rider on horseback, he claims that while he never intended to “trod upon” anyone, he has moved with such haste that he now stands accused of splashing dirt on all kinds of passersby. He promises to defend himself with the story in the next chapter.
Having finally narrated his own birth, Tristram can pause and reflect. His apology for moving through the story so quickly ironically references the many, many digressions he has made, while the “dirt” he has splashed refers to his lewd jokes and blasphemous insinuations.
Themes
Chapter 21. Francis I of France suggests to his minister that they improve relations with Switzerland. The minister is dismayed and argues that they cannot keep bribing Switzerland. Francis suggests that instead he offer Switzerland the chance to be godfather to his child. The minister replies that Switzerland, as a republic, is female, so Francis suggests it be godmother. Switzerland agrees but claims its right as godmother to name the child. Francis consents, assuming Switzerland will suggest a normal name. Instead, they offer the options of Shadrach, Mesech, and Abed-nego. Francis is furious and suggests bribing them instead, but there is not enough money for that—instead, Francis demands that they go to war.
Tristram’s purported explanation launches immediately into the story of Francis I of France, giving no indication of the context or relationship to the story of his birth. Shadrach, Mesech, and Abed-nego are three Biblical characters who are thrown into a fiery furnace for refusing to bow to the king of Babylon. As such, they would be extremely sarcastic names for the prince of France. The blasé declaration of war made by Francis in retaliation pokes fun at the bellicosity and thin skin of European leaders.
Themes
Chapter 22. Tristram humbly apologizes to the reader for the careless with which he has written his book so far, digressing from one topic to the next. The true intention of the book, he argues, is to counteract the spleen and the bitter humors it produces.
Tristram reinforces his goal to give the reader narrative pleasure in the form of humor, not to tell a story in the conventional sense.
Themes
Get the entire Tristram Shandy LitChart as a printable PDF.
Chapter 23. Walter asks Yorick if a child can be renamed after it’s been christened. Yorick suggests that Walter come with him to dinner with Didius and several other church leaders to discuss the possibility of renaming Tristram. Walter insists Toby come with them too.
Christening in the Anglican church is the same as baptism and was therefore generally considered to be irrevocable in the eighteenth century. Walter, however, is so desperate to rename Tristram that he asks Yorick to find him a theological justification to do so.
Themes
Chapter 24. Tristram points out that there is an entire chapter missing here, not by accident but quite deliberately—he has torn it out. The excised chapter describes Tristram’s father, Toby, Trim, and Obadiah’s journey to the dinner. On their carriage, however, the Shandy coat of arms, which once contained a bend dexter, has much to Walter’s chagrin been mistakenly repainted with a bend sinister. As this mistake has not been correct, Walter refuses to get into the carriage, suggesting to Toby that while it might be fit to visit Aunt Dinah, he will not take it to see the church leaders. Moreover, the damp carriage worsens Walter’s sciatica, so they agree to travel on horseback. Tristram has removed this chapter because it is so much better written than anything else in his book, and it would have ruined the rest of the story to include it.
Tristram toys with both the reader and the very idea of narrative consistency, as his description of the missing chapter makes clear exactly what happened in it. His suggestion that the chapter was far superior to the rest of his novel also self-deprecatingly pokes fun at the uneven, slapdash structure of his book. Walter’s displeasure with the coat of arms on his carriage is due to the fact that a bend sinister typically signifies bastardy, or children born outside of marriage, and is therefore a disgraceful flourish on the Shandy crest—a side from Dinah, the family has steered clear of sexual scandal. Sciatica is a reoccurring pain in the leg.
Themes
