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 29. Tristram is happy that his post-chaise has been destroyed by the journey, as he can now abandon the frustrating experience of traveling through France by road and continue to Avignon by boat. This will not only be more pleasant but will be significantly cheaper too. As he imagines his river journey, a chaise undertaker appears and asks if he wants to repair his post-chaise and, when Tristram declines, buys it from him. Tristram then muses on fortune, feeling grateful that he has only been victim to many small evils and no large ones.
Tristram, remaining optimistic, sees the upside of abandoning his carriage. The “chaise undertaker” is simply a slightly suspicious businessman willing to buy a damaged post-chaise on the cheap. Tristram’s musings on fate again return to the question of coincidence and the role of God in the universe.
Themes
Chapter 30. Tristram declares that being in Lyons, a great and ancient city, and not being able to sightsee is a “VEXATION upon VEXATION.” Tristram drinks his coffee and looks forward to exploring the city, having four hours before his boat is set to depart. He plans to begin with the cathedral’s great clock, followed by the Jesuit library and its 30-volume history of China, though he knows nothing of clockwork and cannot read Chinese. Afterward, he will travel to his main destination, the tomb of the two lovers, which he will explain in the following chapter.
Tristram has had a sudden and unexpected change of heart regarding sightseeing, which he emphasizes by a design gag, as “VEXATION” is literally stacked above “VEXATION.” Though he is now excited to sightsee, he does not relent in his mockery of other travelers (and himself), and he deliberately chooses destinations that can hold little intellectual value for him.
Themes
Chapter 31. The two lovers, separated from each other by fate, were named Amandus and Amanda. Amandus went east, and Amanda went west, each of them struggling to find the other. After 20 years, they both return to Lyons, fall into each other arms, and die of happiness. On that site, outside of the city gates, a tomb is built for them. Tristram, comparing this shrine to Mecca, is most excited to see it. He pays his bill at the inn and sets out for his day about town, but then he is suddenly stopped at the gate.
Tristram recites the made-up legend of Amandus and Amanda, names derived from the Latin for “one who must be loved,” to explain his excitement about the tomb. This story moves Tristram not because he is a great enthusiast of love but for its poetic value.
Themes
Chapter 32. Tristram is blocked by an ass (mule) carrying a heavy load on its back. Tristram cannot bring himself to hit an ass; he finds their patience and endurance endearing and goes out of his way to speak kindly to them, having long imaginary conversations with them whenever he meets them. He cannot do this with other animals, even his own dog and cat. Tristram waits with the ass for its owner, hoping to save it from being beaten. Tristram gives the ass a macaroon. He’s about to speak the same words as the abbess of Andoüillets when the ass is struck from behind. It suddenly moves forward, and the basket catches and tears Tristram’s breeches.
As he has suggested before, Tristram has a great affinity for mules. Respecting mules for their gentle and patient nature, Tristram is oblivious to or unbothered by the obvious joke his conversations with mules suggests: that he is making an ass of himself.
Themes
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Chapter 33. Tristram goes back into the inn to change, but when he comes back outside to go to the tomb of the two lovers, he is stopped by the person who struck the ass, a commissary from the post office. The commissary has a bill for Tristram from the king of France.
Tristram’s encounter with the commissary is, besides being a comedic scene, commentary on the despotism of royal absolutism in France. France in the early eighteenth century did not guarantee its citizens the same rights and freedoms from government power as the constitutional monarchy in England did.
Themes
Chapter 34. Tristram assures the commissary that he does not owe the king of France money, and the commissary explains that because the road from Lyons to Avignon is a post royal, Tristram must pay double for his horses and his postilion. Tristram explains that he is traveling by boat, but the commissary is unfazed and insists he pay the bill regardless. Tristram demands his liberty, kneeling and blessing England, when he is stopped by a passerby asking if he needs the help of the church. Tristram replies that he is traveling by water and does not wish to pay for oil, too.
The needlessly complicated system of post roads that obligates Tristram to pay the king of France was seen as indicative of the elaborate, corrupt, and unjust legal framework of French society, which gave the king absolute power over his people. Tristram’s comment to the passerby is a jibe at the Catholic church, which uses oil in a number of ceremonies and which Protestants saw as being deeply corrupt.
Themes
Chapter 35. Tristram changes tack, asking the commissary how he can demand money from him after ruining his breeches. Tristram argues that it is against nature, reason, and religion. But the commissary simply responds that it is the king’s right, and he hands Tristram a paper. Tristram reads the paper, which explains that once a traveler has left Paris for Avignon by post, they cannot change modes of transportation without first settling their bill in full. The commissary asks Tristram why the French treasury should suffer for his fickleness. Tristram denounces France’s taxing of fickleness, but he agrees to settle up.
The commissary refuses to engage with Tristram’s English, democratic arguments based on human rights and freedoms, instead responding with the totalizing worldview of royal absolutism: because the king says so. Tristram, however, is in no position to fight back, and he attempts to hold onto his characteristic good humor.
Themes
