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 15. Tristram proposes that if this volume were a farce, the previous chapter would have closed the first act, and the second would begin with a serious of musical sounds, which he then imitates.
Tristram makes a self-deprecating joke about his own writing’s incomprehensibility by filling the page with onomatopoeic musical sounds.
Themes
Chapter 16. Once things have been cleared up Walter resolves to sit down and start working immediately on the Tristrapoedia, a system of education for his only son. Walter is convinced that this is his last chance to save Tristram. Walter writes diligently, and in three years is about halfway done with the project. He keeps in mind the example of John de la Casse, who spent 40 years composing a work that is only a few pages long. Tristram argues, however, that John de la Casse was overly influenced by his religious conviction that all human writing is tainted by the devil, leading to his extremely slow progress. Walter is enamored with this theory, though it is unclear to Tristram if he even believes in the devil, which he uses as a metaphor for the “prejudice of education.”
Despite the disasters of Tristram’s head-first birth, his crushed nose, and his name, Walter refuses to give up on his intellectual schemes. His project to devise a system of education for Tristram is inspired by the ancient philosopher Xenophon, among others. Walter’s sources are as varied as ever, as he simultaneously strives to compose a compendium for educating children and a spare, exacting, and perfect work; Walter does not seem to grasp the incompatibility of these two goals. Walter’s curiously philosophical idea of the devil further highlights his ambiguous relationship to religion.
Themes
Unfortunately, while Walter is writing, Tristram continues to grow under the care of Mrs. Shandy alone, rapidly making the Tristrapoedia obsolete. The uselessness of this will soon be overshadowed, however, by another event. Tristram promises to explain this event at once, if he can do so “with decency.”
Walter’s intellectual preoccupations get the best of him, as his perfectionism as a writer overpowers his zeal as an educator. Tristram then teases another, even more scandalous misfortune to come.
Themes
Chapter 17. The event was nothing extreme, Tristram says, and did not even require a doctor; Dr. Slop made an unnecessary fuss about it. Susannah had placed the young Tristram on the windowsill, not realizing how badly hung the sash on the window was. It fell down with force, and Susannah, exclaiming that “Nothing is left,” ran to Toby’s house, fearing that Tristram didn’t survive the fall.
Tristram’s oblique and dismissive exposition reveals what the offending incident was only slowly and dismissively. Susannah, while cleaning the room, puts Tristram on the windowsill. The window, which is not properly hung, snaps shut, cutting off the tip of Tristram’s penis, resulting in an accidental circumcision.
Themes
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Chapter 18. Susannah explains her situation to Trim, believing that she has murdered Tristram. Trim feels complicit and panics, assuming this makes Toby complicit too. Tristram says the reader will not be able to guess what actually happened and promises to explain.
Susannah ran off before inspecting Tristram and so believes he is dead, which is obviously not the case. Trim’s willingness to take responsibility at first appears to be soldierly honor, but Tristram promises a fuller explanation.
Themes
Chapter 19. Trim and Toby examine the bowling green with satisfaction, having just added several new models to the fortifications. To build them, Trim removed the weights from the sashes on the nursery window, having already taken the weights from Toby’s windows. Tristram suggests that a great moral might be drawn from this, but that he does not have time to do it.
Trim’s sense of guilt is revealed to have genuine foundations: much like Walter’s boots, he has systematically dismantled parts of the windows in Shandy-Hall to build more model fortifications. Tristram leaves unclear the great moral this story supposedly suggests.
Themes
Chapter 20. Trim refuses to place the blame on Susannah and confesses to Toby, who is in the middle of telling Yorick the story of the battle of Steenkirk, which was lost because of Count Solmes’s poor leadership.
Trim, in accordance with his strict sense of honor, will not let Susannah take the blame. The story Toby is recounting is a true one, though it is a matter of interpretation whether or not the English lost because of Count Solmes.
Themes
Chapter 21. Toby responds that he is to blame, as he gave Trim the orders to build the models out of the weights. Yorick points out that if Count Solmes were as good a commander as Toby, the battle of Steenkirk would have been won. Trim excitedly interjects and lists the battalions that would have been saved. Toby agrees, and Trim adds that had that battle been won he would not have been wounded at Landen, which was the next battle of the war. Toby says that is possible but points out the treacherous nature of the French before continuing his story.
Toby is bound to just as strict a sense of military honor as Trim: as Trim’s commanding officer, he is responsible for Trim’s actions. Yorick’s attempt to extract a moral lesson from this goes over Toby and Trim’s heads, however; when it comes to military history, they simply cannot be induced to view the matter through any other lens.
Themes
