Tristram Shandy

Tristram Shandy

by

Laurence Sterne

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The Young Woman (The Beguine Nun) Character Analysis

The Beguine nun is a young nun in Flanders who is Trim’s first love. The special rules of the Beguine order, who travel as nurses, allow members to love and marry. After Trim is wounded in the knee in the battle of Landen, the Beguine stays behind with him in a farmhouse to supervise his recovery. The care she gives him and, in particular, the rubbing she applies to his knee, slowly transforms into both love and, it is implied, sexual relations.

The Young Woman (The Beguine Nun) Quotes in Tristram Shandy

The Tristram Shandy quotes below are all either spoken by The Young Woman (The Beguine Nun) or refer to The Young Woman (The Beguine Nun) . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Truth, Fiction, and Storytelling  Theme Icon
).
Book 8: Chapters 22-28 Quotes

I perceived, then, I was beginning to be in love—

As she continued rub-rub-rubbing—I felt it spread from under her hand, an’ please your honour, to every part of my frame—

The more she rubb’d, and the longer strokes she took—the more fire kindled in my veins—till at length, by two or three strokes longer than the rest—my passion rose to the highest pitch—I seiz’d her hand—

—And then, thou clapped’st it to thy lips, Trim, said my uncle Toby—and madest a speech.

Whether the corporal’s amour terminated precisely in the way my uncle Toby described it, is not material; it is enough that it contain’d in it the essence of all the love-romances which ever have been wrote since the beginning of the world.

Related Characters: Tristram Shandy (speaker), Uncle Toby (speaker), Corporal Trim (speaker), The Young Woman (The Beguine Nun)
Page Number: 521-522
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Young Woman (The Beguine Nun) Quotes in Tristram Shandy

The Tristram Shandy quotes below are all either spoken by The Young Woman (The Beguine Nun) or refer to The Young Woman (The Beguine Nun) . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Truth, Fiction, and Storytelling  Theme Icon
).
Book 8: Chapters 22-28 Quotes

I perceived, then, I was beginning to be in love—

As she continued rub-rub-rubbing—I felt it spread from under her hand, an’ please your honour, to every part of my frame—

The more she rubb’d, and the longer strokes she took—the more fire kindled in my veins—till at length, by two or three strokes longer than the rest—my passion rose to the highest pitch—I seiz’d her hand—

—And then, thou clapped’st it to thy lips, Trim, said my uncle Toby—and madest a speech.

Whether the corporal’s amour terminated precisely in the way my uncle Toby described it, is not material; it is enough that it contain’d in it the essence of all the love-romances which ever have been wrote since the beginning of the world.

Related Characters: Tristram Shandy (speaker), Uncle Toby (speaker), Corporal Trim (speaker), The Young Woman (The Beguine Nun)
Page Number: 521-522
Explanation and Analysis: