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 21. Tristram claims that if the reader has only their own lack of imagination to blame if they struggle to picture Toby’s bowling green, since Tristram has described it very well. The bowling green had a particularly lucky kind of soil, perfectly suited to Toby’s fortifications. Toby takes every town plan he can get his hands on has Trim build a model to scale on the green. They then build parallels outside it and prepare for the attack, though their parallels often spill over into the garden. Tristram maintains that this description is but a short sketch, and that it would take many more books to detail Toby’s campaigns.
Tristram’s description of Toby and Trim’s “campaigns” emphasizes how elaborate—and ridiculous—the campaigns are. Tristram also reveals the methodology to the campaigns: Toby acquires a map of a given town’s fortifications, which he and Trim build in miniature form, followed by the “parallels” (the counter-fortifications built by an attacking army to besiege a city or fort).
Themes
Chapter 22. Toby and Trim do not run their parallels as they please, but closely follow the actual sequence of events in each given siege as told by the newspapers. When the Duke of Marlborough attacks a certain part of the fortifications, Toby and Trim do the same, taking great pleasure in each new victory. This routine keeps Toby and Trim entertained, except when poor winds prevent the delivery of mail from Flanders. Toby begins to add more expensive model bridges and gates, and eventually builds a sentry box to observe the bowling green even when it rains.
Tristram clarifies, as he suggested earlier, that Toby and Trim’s hobby-horse is indeed “scientific.” Rather than playing with toys, Toby and Trim are carefully modeling real events (of course, they are also playing with toys). These activities keep Toby and Trim entertained and engaged with the wider world as they closely follow the news from Flanders. Toby’s increasingly elaborate additions recall Walter’s warning that this hobby-horse will bankrupt him.
Themes
Chapter 23. Tristram points out that for the first year of Toby’s campaigns, the model fortifications did not actually surround a model town. By the third year, however, Toby and Trim have added a model town in the style of towns in Flanders, which can be rearranged to represent different towns as the campaign goes on. This town, Tristram explains, has acted more parts than any others since Sodom and Gomorrah. In the fourth year of his campaigns Toby adds a church, and then model cannons. Eventually he adds the mortars made out of Walter’s boots. The following year Toby becomes frustrated that his model cannons will not fire, as the news of the siege of Lisle is full of reports of constant cannon fire. Trim, always a creative inventor, comes up with a clever solution.
Toby and Trim continue to develop their models, inventing new and creative ways to build modular equipment. Tristram’s joke about the town playing more parts than Sodom and Gomorrah alludes to the Bible—God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their inhabitants’ sins, and they are frequently invoked when discussing places rife with immorality—that is, everywhere. Toby’s decision to add a church emphasizes his religiosity. As Tristram points out, while Toby guides the overall endeavor, it’s Trim who discovers many of the most creative solutions.
Themes
Chapter 24. Trim owns a few souvenirs sent to him by his brother Tom, including a Montero cap and two Turkish tobacco pipes. The pipes are not particularly special, one tipped with ivory, one with ebony and silver. Walter believes Tom sent these to Trim to get rid of them, a theory Trim vehemently rejects. The Montero cap, made of high-quality Spanish cloth, is one of Trim’s prized possessions which he only wears on special occasions. Trim, attempting to make Toby’s cannons fire, swears on his Montero cap that he will find a solution. Toby prepares for the attack the next morning very seriously, as it was a bloody battle. In the morning, Toby takes so long getting fully dressed with his wig and sword that he is half an hour late to the bowling green.
Tom sent Trim the souvenirs in question at some point in time between marrying the Jew’s widow and his being imprisoned by the Inquisition. A Montero cap is a Spanish hunter’s hat. Walter’s theory is based on the idea that Tom would not want to wear a hat or smoke a pipe that formerly belonged to a Jewish man. Trim rejects this theory on both counts, arguing that his brother would never send him a gift that was not genuine and that Tom had no prejudice against Jews. Tristram sarcastically emphasizes the intensity of the “battle” being conducted, which Toby feels the need to dress up for in full regimental gear.
Themes
Get the entire Tristram Shandy LitChart as a printable PDF.
Chapter 25. Coming around the hedge, Toby realizes Trim has already begun the attack. Tristram promises to describe Trim’s invention, pausing first to praise Trim’s genius and mourn his death. Describing Trim’s death, Tristram imagines Toby’s grief, and he prays that he will have the strength to write about such an emotional scene.
Tristram becomes so caught up in his praise of Trim that he jumps far ahead in the narrative—farther than the book itself will go—to Trim’s death. As Tristram suggests, Toby will certainly be bereft at the loss of his faithful servant and best friend.
Themes
