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 36. Returning to radical heat and radical moisture, Walter argues that doctors and chemists have mistaken animal fats for radical moisture, which is in fact a warm, oily substance. Radical moisture contains radical heat, not the other way around, and the decay of the former causes the decay of the latter, resulting in excessive dryness or moisture. The solution, Walter finds, is that children should avoid direct contact with both fire and water.
Walter’s medical theories are both comically complex and straightforward. His elaborate and grandiose descriptions of radical heat and radical moisture, made without any scientific basis whatsoever, lead him to the commonsensical conclusion that the human body is healthier when it is not being burnt or drowned.
Themes
Chapter 37. Toby finds Walter’s instruction riveting. Once Walter is finished, he calls Trim over and whispers a question, to which Trim answers that it was at the siege of Limerick. Toby explains that he and Trim would have died at the siege of Limerick if not for the brandy they burned. Walter is thoroughly confused, while Toby turns to Yorick and continues his explanation.
Unfailingly, Toby’s mind turns to sieges. While Walter is unable to follow Toby’s train of thought, Toby is too caught up with his own story to stop to explain to the confused Walter, so he simply tells Yorick instead.
Themes
Chapter 38. Toby explains that he and Trim fell ill at the siege of Limerick, which Toby interprets as a textbook case of excessive radical moisture. Trim, however, thought to maintain the balance of radical heat and radical moisture with hot wine and spices. Yorick asks Trim for his opinion, and Trim takes up his oratorical pose again and prepares to speak.
Toby has seized upon Walter’s theory and made it his own, interpreting his own experiences at the siege of Limerick through the framework of radical heat and radical moisture. Tristram uses this story to show how ideas are transformed beyond recognition once they make their way into the wider world.
Themes
Chapter 39. Before Trim can speak, Dr. Slop enters, (Tristram promises Trim will continue in the next chapter.) Walter very casually asks Dr. Slop how Tristram is doing, and Dr. Slop, offended, sits down in silence. Toby asks again, more politely, and Dr. Slop answers that Tristram will experience phimosis. Walter tells Trim to continue, and Trim bows to Dr. Slop before beginning his speech.
Dr. Slop takes offense not to the lack of concern Walter shows for Tristram, but the lack of interest in and respect for his work. Phimosis is a common condition in male babies in which the foreskin is unable to retract: in this case, the condition is a consequence of Tristram’s accidental circumcision.
Themes
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Chapter 40. Limerick, Trim explains, is a well-fortified town surrounded by marshlands. Dr. Slop comments that this is a strange medical lecture, to which Yorick replies that more doctors should follow Trim’s example. Trim tells the company that during the siege the ground was like a puddle, leading to his and Toby’s illness. The only way they could counteract the dampness in their tent was to set a dish of brandy on fire each night. Walter asks Trim what his conclusions are, and Trim replies that radical moisture is ditch water and radical heat is burnt brandy, and each that individual only needs enough brandy and a pipe to stop worrying about death. Dr. Slop sarcastically compliments Trim on his learning.
Dr. Slop’s animosity toward Trim resurfaces; the doctor is especially aggravated to have to listen to Trim lecture about his own area of expertise, medicine. Yorick is much more open-minded than Dr. Slop and is genuinely interested in what Trim has to say. Trim’s theory, while far from scientific, has a simple and poetic truth to it: it is certainly true that with enough brandy, one stops worrying about death.
Themes
Chapter 41. Dr. Slop is called out to prepare a cataplasm, and Walter is inspired to add another chapter to the Tristrapoedia. Tristram urges the reader to persevere, as after that chapter there will be no more Tristrapoedia in his book for at least a year.
Dr. Slop returns upstairs to treat Tristram’s injured penis. Walter’s compulsion to add to the Tristrapoedia makes clear that he is far more concerned with exploring ideas than using these ideas to teach his son.
Themes
Chapter 42. Walter rattles off a list of educational methods and ideas, comparing the ages at which different historical figures learned how to reason. Yorick pays close attention to Walter’s bizarre logic. Walter explains his theory that there is an intellectual Northwest Passage and that each child only needs a properly qualified parent to show it to them. Walter believes this secret is auxiliary verbs. Yorick is shocked, and Walter sympathizes, as he was shocked too by his discovery. Trim interjects that the Danish auxiliaries at the siege of Limerick were very good soldiers. Toby tells Trim that his brother has a different meaning of auxiliary in mind, greatly surprising Walter.
Walter returns to the original goal of the Tristrapoedia: educating Tristram in a radical new way. Walter’s allusion to the Northwest Passage, the sea route from the Atlantic to the Pacific over the north coast of North America, refers to a hypothetical, secret method to circumvent regular education (the first successful journey across the Northwest Passage did not take place until 1906). Walter believes this intellectual Northwest Passage is linguistic: auxiliary verbs add tenses, emphases, and other qualifications to sentences, modifying the main verbs. Trim confuses this meaning of “auxiliary” with the military term, which refers to an affiliated but separate unit, in this case the Danish soldiers attached to the British army. Walter is shocked and impressed that Toby catches this distinction.
Themes
Chapter 43. Walter walks around the room, sits down, and finishes his chapter. He explains that by teaching a child to form questions using auxiliary verbs like “am,” “was,” and “have,” the child will be able to develop any new idea in all kinds of ways. Walter suddenly asks Trim if he has ever seen a white bear. Trim has not, but Walter asks him to talk about it anyways. Toby asks how Trim could talk about a white bear that he has never seen, and Walter demonstrates the various ways auxiliary verbs would enable Trim to ask if he has seen, might see, or could see a white bear. Walter gets carried away with every possible question, asking if the white bear is worth seeing, if it is sinful, and if it is better than seeing a black bear.
Walter’s elaborate system of auxiliary verbs is, as his audience’s confusion would suggest, perhaps not as effective a means of education as he thinks it will be. By developing a set of hypotheticals with the help of auxiliary verbs, Walter and his interlocutors completely lose sight of the actual object of discussion: in this case, the white bear, which does not even exist. Tristram’s recounting, while poking fun at his father, also asks a deeply philosophical question: what is the real relationship between language and the material world?
Themes
