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. Tristram, having already claimed the significance of Toby’s amours with widow Wadman as a story of “love and love-making,” wonders if the reader expects him to define love first. Tristram rejects this approach. He refuses to come out for or against love or become otherwise enmeshed in philosophical debates about love as a disease, citing various ancient treatments to cure love, including potions and thrashing. Walter, who was very interested in these discussions of love, had prepared a camphorated washcloth as a remedy for Toby—but this will be told in its proper place.
Tristram’s question for the reader is somewhat disingenuous, as he has had no problem up till now with launching into topics without any warning to the reader. Tristram’s strenuous refusal to engage in debates about the nature of love allows him, paradoxically, to briefly map out the different positions on love, alerting the reader to the importance these debates will have later in the novel and in the story of Toby’s amours.
Themes
Chapter 37. Tristram argues that his definition of love will reveal itself independently as he tells the story, and that moreover he is not obliged to provide the reader with a definition as long as his story is intelligible. For now, he hopes that the reader is satisfied by being told that “Toby fell in love,” though this isn’t Tristram’s ideal description, as he does not wish to imply that love is beneath people.
Tristram continues to dance around the subject of love. His defenses for not defining love can be seen as applicable to the novel at large: as a fiction writer, Tristram is not beholden to logical arguments and can instead focus on letting his ideas develop of their own accord. His clarification about disliking the phrase “fell in love,” however, reveals that unlike his father, Tristram is favorably disposed to love.
Themes
Chapter 38. To properly imagine widow Wadman, the reader should draw as attractive an image of her as they can, on the following blank page (the next page of Tristram Shandy is left blank). Tristram rejoices that his book will have at least one page uncorrupted by malice or ignorance.
The inclusion of the blank page following this passage is yet another example of the novel’s experimental, narrative style. Tristram’s instruction for readers to draw widow Wadman themselves explicitly draws attention to the constructed, fictional quality of the story.
Themes
Chapter 39. Bridget tells Susannah that Toby has fallen in love with widow Wadman, who tells Mrs. Shandy, who in turn tells Walter, that Toby will soon marry widow Wadman. Walter responds that Toby will never be able to lie diagonally in bed again, and he is annoyed that his wife does not ask what he means. One of his great frustrations with Mrs. Shandy is her refusal to ask questions, which stifles their conversations. Mrs. Shandy, meanwhile, looks forward to Toby’s children. Walter begs God for mercy.
As in the cases of Tristram’s circumcision and Bobby’s death, news travels quickly at Shandy-Hall. Walter’s comment refers to the fact one cannot lie at an angle when one shares a bed, disregarding the fact that most people sleep straight anyway. To Walter, however, it is the principle of freedom that matters. Walter’s ironic appeal to God suggests that he does not have high hopes for Toby as a father.
Themes
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Chapter 40. Tristram believes that with the help of a vegetarian diet he will be about to tell Toby’s story in a straight line. He presents four different jagged lines, representing the first four volumes of his book. He follows these with a precise line with marked subsections representing the fifth volume; these subsections, he explains, include the story of Lady Baussiere, John de la Casse, and so on. Volume Six, Tristram claims, has been even better, moving more or less straight ahead after Le Fever’s story. Tristram hopes that he will soon move forward in a perfectly straight line, which many philosophers describe as a symbol of moral righteousness. Tristram asks, before he writes a chapter on straight lines, how philosophers have confused this line with that of gravity.
Tristram concedes to his critics that he has been digressing constantly from the story of his life, but he promises that he is improving and will be able to tell Toby’s story in a linear format. He ignores the fact that Toby’s amours are themselves a digression, and he also disregards the fact that his narration has long forgotten the life and opinions of Tristram himself. Tristram's graphs sarcastically compare science and literature, "mapping" his previous volumes and their many, many digressions before he clarifies his opinion that the straight lines of science or morality should not be considered interchangeable. Philosophers, Tristram suggests, have sought moral clarity at the expense of both nuance and pleasure.
Themes
