Tristram Shandy

Study Guide by Course Hero

The novel is written primarily in the past tense, but the narrator
What's Inside occasionally breaks into the present tense when addressing
the reader directly.

j Book Basics ................................................................................................. 1 ABOUT THE TITLE

The full title of the novel is The Life and Opinions of Tristram
d In Context ..................................................................................................... 1 Shandy, Gentleman. Tristram Shandy is the protagonist and
narrator of this supposedly autobiographical novel. The title
a Author Biography ..................................................................................... 3
promises to deliver both his life story and his opinions on
h Characters .................................................................................................. 4 various subjects, but the latter almost always upstage the
former.
k Plot Summary ............................................................................................. 8

c Chapter Summaries .............................................................................. 14

g Quotes ........................................................................................................ 39 d In Context

l Symbols ..................................................................................................... 42

m Themes ...................................................................................................... 44 Predecessors: Rabelais and

e Suggested Reading ............................................................................. 46 Cervantes
Tristram Shandy makes reference to an encyclopedic array of
earlier literary works, from ancient Greek and Roman
j Book Basics philosophical tracts to the writings of Sterne's contemporaries.
Two authors, however, had an especially pervasive influence
AUTHOR on Shandy's storytelling style: 16th-century French satirist
Laurence Sterne François Rabelais and Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes.
Rabelais is best known for his Gargantua and Pantagruel
YEARS PUBLISHED (1532–64), a series of five novels whose protagonists are a
1759–67 family of giants. The works are notable for their bizarre humor,
which is sometimes crude, sometimes highly learned, and—like
GENRE
Shandy's most sophisticated jokes—often a bit of both. The
Comedy
narrator of Rabelais's novels also anticipates Shandy in his
PERSPECTIVE AND NARRATOR fondness for digressions and anecdotes, though Shandy takes
The novel is narrated in the first person by Tristram Shandy, this tendency even further than Rabelais. Altogether, there is a
who focuses more on the stories of others than on the story of decided family resemblance between the French novels and
himself. their English descendant, especially in the third Gargantua
book (entitled simply Le Tiers Livre or The Third Book), where
TENSE Rabelais manufactures opportunities for satire and
Tristram Shandy Study Guide In Context 2

philosophizing by sending his protagonists on a quest for life in terms of sieges and skirmishes.
wisdom.

In a concession to the tastes of his era, Shandy pretends to be

prudishly unwilling to discuss such allegedly vulgar topics as
Sterne, Shandy, and
sex and the various bodily functions. The narrator of the
Gargantua novels, in contrast, has no compunction about doing
Enlightenment England
so. This gave Rabelais's works a reputation for naughtiness
Sterne's novel is also, in part, a comical counterpunch to some
among early modern readers, including those who
of the prevailing habits of thought in Enlightenment Europe
encountered them in English translation. Thus, it is not
(1685–1815). During the Enlightenment reason was valued as a
surprising to find that the characters of Sterne's novel, mostly
means to understanding God, nature, and humanity. Sterne
educated 18th-century Englishmen, are familiar with Rabelais's
mocks this tendency to account for life via overarching
writings, or at least know of them. Walter Shandy (Tristram's
systems and theories, as Walter Shandy repeatedly tries to do.
father), for example, is well aware of the ribald nature of these
"[Walter's] way," notes Tristram, is to "force every event in
novels and regards them as a frivolous, even dangerous,
nature into an hypothesis," a habit that leads him away from
distraction. When Uncle Toby begins courting the Widow
the truth rather than closer to it. Other inveterate system-
Wadman in Volume 8, Walter—a constant and eager giver of
builders include the theologians in Vol. 4, Chapter 26 and many
advice—counsels him to "suffer her not to look into Rabelais."
of the learned authors in Walter Shandy's library. Throughout

Cervantes is best-known worldwide as the author of the the novel Tristram jokingly adopts the language of scientific

episodic novel Don Quixote (1605 and 1615), whose titular inquiry and then laughs at the way it is over-applied to trivial

character is an aging Spanish knight with delusions of subjects. People who pretend to think scientifically, he says,

grandeur. Having read about the bygone days of chivalry and often suffer from unconscious prejudices, which today would

romance, Don Quixote sets out to relive them among his more be called confirmation bias: "It is the nature of an hypothesis,

modest, more modern surroundings. Whether Cervantes when once a man has conceived it, that it assimilates every

invented the novel or merely popularized it is a matter of thing to itself, as proper nourishment; and, from the first

critical opinion, but in either case, Don Quixote was an moment of your begetting it, it generally grows the stronger by

extremely influential work whose structure was widely imitated every thing you see, hear, read, or understand. This is of great

by 17th- and 18th-century authors. Works in the Spanish use." Tristram is not, however, anti-intellectual.

picaresque tradition, which related the adventures of fictional

As narrator, Tristram does not critique major Enlightenment
rogues, or pícaros, provided Sterne with further precedents for
authors directly; rather, his interest is in the way their ideas
the narrative structure of his first novel. Like Tristram Shandy,
have been popularized, oversimplified, and misapplied. Often,
picaresque works—including the many French and English
he finds, people claim to be conversant with these thinkers
adaptations of the style—tend to comprise a series of vivid but
without having read them at all. This is the case with English
largely independent episodes, told in the first person, and only
philosopher John Locke, whose Essay Concerning Human
loosely connected to a central plot.
Understanding (1689) was arguably the foundational work of

In modern English to describe someone as quixotic is to call Enlightenment philosophy in Britain. In this treatise Locke

them idealistic and impractical, or to suggest they are sought to define the limits of human knowledge, challenging

preoccupied with a foolish, romantic quest. Both labels surely the notion that such knowledge could ever be perfect or

apply to Tristram Shandy in his vain attempt to write his entire boundless. Shandy, accordingly, praises Locke as one who is

life story. Tristram, however, takes full ownership of this careful not to jump to conclusions in his attempts to arrive at

identity and imagines himself as a spiritual descendant of Don the truth. This trait, for Shandy, makes Locke the virtual

Quixote. Toby Shandy, the narrator's eccentric uncle, is opposite of the typical literary critic, whose judgments are

quixotic in a more immediate sense: like Cervantes's old knight, overconfident and incurably biased. Sterne would, no doubt, be

he has addled his brains somewhat by reading too much on a amused to discover that in the 21st century his work has

single subject. Immersed in his library of military works, Toby become a classic in just the same way as Locke's Essay was in

develops a kind of tunnel vision, seeing his quiet countryside the 18th century: many more people talk about it than have

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Tristram Shandy Study Guide
actually read it. "Most people of taste and a vague pretension
to learning," wrote Telegraph columnist Martin Rowson in
2006, "will, of course, have heard of [Tristram Shandy]; will
have every intention one day of reading it, ... but will admit,
under gentle pressure, to be waiting for the ... TV adaptation."
The structure of Tristram Shandy likewise sets it apart from
the other English novels of its time—so far apart, in fact, that
Sterne's book is sometimes described as an anti-novel. For one
thing Tristram Shandy rejects the tightly controlled plotting that
other early novelists seem to have upheld as an ideal, and
which Western literature in general has revered since Greek
philosopher Aristotle. Rowson, who in 1996 produced a
graphic-novel adaptation of Tristram Shandy, describes
Sterne's work as "a direct satire on the whole idea of The
Novel As It Was Then Developing." Unlike the highly selective
narrative offered in, say, English writer Samuel Richardson's
Pamela (1740), Tristram Shandy pretends to include every stray
whim that has popped into the narrator's head. Moreover,
Tristram takes a bold but not unheard-of step in addressing
the reader directly, often stopping to joke with the "Sir" or
"Madam" he imagines is reading his life story. The choice to
address a novel to someone was not, in itself, unusual: in
epistolary works, including the bestselling Pamela, the narrator
reveals the plot by writing letters to other characters in the
book. Tristram Shandy, however, flips this model on its head:
rather than supplying a fictional character to serve as the
reader, Sterne's anti-novel invites the reader—whoever he or
she might be—to participate as a kind of honorary character.
Critical Reception
The first few volumes of Tristram Shandy, though published
anonymously, made Sterne an almost overnight celebrity,
praised for his wit by some and ridiculed or even condemned
by others. Sterne's detractors, as Guardian literary
correspondent Robert McCrum (2013) notes, described his
work as "obscene, preposterous and infuriating, the opposite
of what a novel should be." Pamphleteers of the day,
themselves often writing anonymously, mocked almost every
distinguishing feature of the work, from the narrator's fondness
for pseudonyms to the extensive use of asterisks and dashes.
Sterne acknowledges this harsh reaction in a series of
rebuttals from Vol. 3 onward, assuring the English literary
world of his intention to keep tabs on his critics—and to go on
ignoring them.
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Author Biography 3
Despite its many detractors the work was widely popular from
the first volumes onward, prompting widespread speculation
as to the author's identity. When Sterne finally traveled to
London in March 1760, he was welcomed and heralded a
literary phenomenon. Moreover, like many popular works then
and since, Tristram Shandy soon became the subject of a
thriving fanfiction industry: unofficial sequels and other
Shandy-themed literature crowded London bookshops from
1760 onward. First to appear was Explanatory Remarks upon
the Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy offered in April 1760
under the pseudonym "Jeremiah Kunastrokius," a name itself
borrowed from an extremely minor figure in Sterne's book.
Other authors, bolder or perhaps just less scrupulous, came
forward with works purportedly written or approved by Sterne,
including unauthorized Shandy tributes and sequels. In 1766,
with eight authentic volumes of Tristram Shandy already
published, a book purporting to be "Vol. IX" began to circulate
in London. When Sterne's own Vol. 9 was published in 1767, the
spurious Vol. IX was re-titled "Vol. X" and continued to sell.
By the mid-1770s the "Shandy-mania" had cooled somewhat.
Nearly a decade after the last installment of Tristram Shandy
appeared, the eminent literary critic Samuel Johnson finally
pronounced Sterne's novel dead. "Nothing odd will do long," he
declared in 1776; "Tristram Shandy did not last." Modern critics
are apt to disagree with Johnson on both points: Tristram
Shandy has since taken its place among the classics of English
literature, not despite its eccentric style but because of it.
Instead of being seen as a mere curiosity—an anomaly in an
otherwise serious and dignified literary culture—Tristram
Shandy is now regarded as a trailblazing work, a precursor to
the many subsequent forms of "experimental" fiction. Its
relentless punning, typographical and visual playfulness, and
refusal to stick to a single straightforward narrative are all
characteristics alive and well in the postmodern novel, readily
seen in the works of American novelist Thomas Pynchon,
British novelist Salman Rushdie, American writer David Foster
Wallace, and others. Tristram Shandy, it seems, was not so
much "odd" as ahead of its time.
a Author Biography
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
Early Life
Laurence Sterne was born in Clonmel, County Tipperary,
Ireland, on November 24, 1713, to Roger Sterne, an English
army officer, and Agnes Nuttall. Because of his father's career,
Sterne grew up on the march: the family, never prosperous,
moved frequently as Roger was deployed to various parts of
Ireland. At age 10 Sterne went to live with his uncle, Richard
Sterne, who arranged for his education at a nearby grammar
school in Hipperholme, Yorkshire. Sterne's surviving notebooks
suggest a precocious boy with an ear for humorous language,
a fondness for drawing, and a tendency to daydream. Roger
Sterne, meanwhile, was deployed to Jamaica, which was then a
British colony. In 1731 he fell ill and died there, leaving Laurence
reliant on the care and financial support of his paternal
relatives.
Education and Career
After his years at Hipperholme, Sterne matriculated at Jesus
College, Cambridge. There, he was enrolled as a sizar, or
scholarship student; family members defrayed his other
educational expenses. He graduated in 1737 and took holy
orders a year later. Soon after his ordination Sterne became
the vicar of the small parish of Sutton-on-the-Forest through
the influence of his uncle, Jacques Sterne, a prominent
Anglican cleric. In his early postgraduate years Sterne seemed
poised to climb through the ranks of the church: he became a
canon of York Minster (i.e., a member of the cathedral's
governing body) and later succeeded to the vicarage of
Stillington in northern Yorkshire. He married Elizabeth Lumley
in 1741, but the relationship seems to have been vexed and
antagonistic almost from the wedding day. Sources vary as to
the cause of the strife, but Sterne's extramarital affairs—one of
which is commemorated in his late Bramine's Journal or Journal
to Eliza (not published until 1904)—almost certainly contributed
to the tension.
Literary Fame and Decline
Sterne's talent as a writer was evident in his early sermons, but
his efforts to branch out into other types of literature were
hampered by controversy. In the early 1740s Sterne's political
views alienated his uncle Jacques, who until that point had
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Characters 4
been a powerful benefactor. Political Romance (1759) was a
satirical jab at various high-ranking Anglican clergymen, a
move that cost him any further opportunity to advance in the
church hierarchy. Later that year he set aside the majority of
his vicarial duties in order to begin the lengthy satirical novel
later known as Tristram Shandy. The work brought him
immediate, though not always favorable, critical recognition,
leading to the publication of new installments at a rate of
roughly one volume per year. A prequel of sorts, entitled A
Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (1768),
capitalized on the popularity of Tristram Shandy and of Parson
Yorick, one of the novel's best-loved characters.
Sterne's tuberculosis, of which he had experienced
intermittent symptoms since his college years, became more
severe during the Shandy years, with a near-fatal episode in
1762. Extended trips to France—fictionalized in Vol. 7 of
Tristram Shandy—brought temporary relief, but on the whole
his health continued to decline. Sterne died on March 18, 1768,
shortly after publishing A Sentimental Journey, and he was
eulogized by the actor David Garrick, a personal friend who is
frequently and fondly mentioned in the pages of Tristram
Shandy. In his epitaph for Sterne, Garrick describes the late
novelist as a man of great "genius, wit, and humor," an opinion
now widely shared by literary critics. Most of Sterne's
remaining writings, including three volumes of sermons and a
selection of his correspondence, were published by his
daughter Lydia in the mid 1770s. Tristram Shandy, however,
remains his most noteworthy contribution to English literature.
h Characters
Tristram Shandy
Tristram Shandy, whose autobiography the novel purports to
be, is the hapless son of an English country squire. From his
conception onward Tristram is the victim of a series of minor
accidents, which he does his best to recount with good humor
and mild self-mockery. Tristram's conception, birth, and
baptism are the ostensible subjects of Vol. 1–4, though the
novel ends up being pretty light on autobiographical details.
Later in life Tristram contracts tuberculosis, which was at the
time a generally fatal illness. He spends Vol. 7 on a trip through
France in an attempt to cheat death—and, more practically,
recover his health via a change of climate.
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
Walter Shandy
Walter Shandy is the patriarch of the Shandy family and the
father of the protagonist. Having worked as a merchant in
Turkey, he retires to his countryside estate, Shandy Hall.
There, he spends much of his time attempting to raise his two
sons according to his own detailed theories of childhood
education. He is foiled at every turn: Bobby, the elder son, dies
suddenly, and his younger son, Tristram, proves to be
accident-prone and physically frail. Walter has peculiar
opinions on a wide variety of subjects, reinforced by his
extensive reading of philosophical and scientific writings. His
typical approach to a problem is to go to his library and dredge
up all the information he can find on the subject, even if
decisive action is called for. Tristram tends to regard his father
as a harmless, well-meaning eccentric.
Toby Shandy
Captain Toby Shandy, alias Uncle Toby, is a retired army
captain who fought in the Nine Years' War. He was discharged
from service after receiving serious injuries at the Siege of
Namur. Once he has recovered sufficiently to walk about, Toby
moves to Shandy Hall, where he spends most of his time
researching and building model fortifications. A pair of
extended flashbacks further develops Toby's character. In Vol.
6 he is shown tending to a dying soldier and later caring for his
orphaned son. Vols. 8 and 9 focus on Toby's ill-fated love affair
with the Widow Wadman, an episode that reveals his total
inexperience in romantic matters.
Yorick
Parson Yorick is something of an anomaly: a village priest who
loves jokes and pranks, shunning the excessive seriousness of
his fellow clerics. He is humble and genuinely concerned for his
flock, though he suffers from the same pedantic tendencies as
most of the men in the novel. Like Tristram, Yorick has many
traits which seem borrowed directly from Sterne's own life,
such as a keen and sometimes controversial sense of humor.
His sermon on conscience at the end of Vol. 2 is, in fact, one
that Sterne composed for his own congregation.
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Characters 5
Corporal Trim
Corporal Trim (his real name, James Butler, is seldom used)
once fought overseas under Uncle Toby's command. Like
Toby, he has had his military career cut short by an injury, but
he remains a soldier and a patriot at heart. After his retirement
from the army, he serves Toby as a valet and relocates with
him to Shandy Hall. Most of the servants at Shandy Hall are
minor characters who function simply to advance the plot and
provide a laugh here and there. Trim is the exception:
appearing in almost every volume of the novel, he emerges as
a well-rounded character who is notable for his loyalty,
thoughtfulness, and unpretentious ways.
Elizabeth Shandy
Mrs. Shandy appears much less frequently in the novel than
her husband and his brother. She is portrayed in an
affectionate but rather unflattering light and is often the butt of
jokes. Her relationship with Walter is a quarrelsome one:
although she is sometimes willing to placate her husband's odd
whims, she stands up for herself at other times, as when she
insists on choosing the midwife who will deliver Tristram.
Dr. Slop
Of the major recurring characters in Tristram Shandy, Dr. Slop
is the closest to an unflattering caricature. Walter pays him to
be on call during Tristram's birth and to take over when the
other midwife fails to complete the job. In the process of
delivering Tristram, he accidentally smashes the boy's nose flat
with a pair of medical forceps. As a doctor, Slop is incompetent
if not outright harmful. Physically, he is described as a "little,
squat, uncourtly" fellow; the name Slop gives him a further air
of piggishness. Fond of coarse jokes, the doctor fits uneasily
into the Shandy family circle.
Tristram Shandy Study Guide Characters 6

Character Map

Walter Shandy
Retired merchant;
Hires country squire Friends

Brothers Spouses

Toby Shandy Elizabeth Shandy

Former army captain; Father Practical, longsuffering
loves building forts mistress of Shandy Hall

Uncle

Mother
Tristram Shandy
English gentleman;
Employer
amused by his own
bad luck

Corporal Trim Present

Yorick
Loyal, plainspoken Well-meaning but incurably
at birth
army veteran witty parson

Dr. Slop
Bumbling physician;
"man-midwife"

Main Character

Other Major Character

Minor Character

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Tristram Shandy Study Guide
Full Character List
Character Description
The protagonist and narrator of this
whimsical novel, Tristram Shandy is an
English gentleman whose life seems one
Tristram long series of small misfortunes. He sets
Shandy out to tell his own life story but finds
himself drawn into recounting the
adventures of family, friends, and
neighbors.
Walter Shandy, Tristram's father, is a
country gentleman who worked as an
overseas merchant before retiring to
Walter
Shandy Hall. He obsesses over his sons'
Shandy
upbringing, but his plans are almost
always thwarted by unforeseeable
accidents.
Captain Toby Shandy is an army veteran
whose military career was cut short by
an injury at the Siege of Namur. In
Toby Shandy
retirement he develops a passion for
studying military fortifications and
reconstructing them on a model scale.
Yorick is the parson of the village church
near Shandy Hall. He is a good-​natured
priest who scorns the grave, pompous
Yorick
behavior of other clergymen. His death is
narrated early in Vol. 1, but many
flashbacks further develop his character.
Corporal Trim served in Uncle Toby's
regiment during the war and is his valet
and sidekick throughout the novel. Loyal
Corporal
and plainspoken, Trim has a down-​to-
Trim
earth wisdom that often impresses the
other members of the Shandy
household.
Mrs. Elizabeth Shandy, born Elizabeth
Mollineux, is the protagonist's long-
suffering mother; she rarely appears in
Elizabeth
scene but is often alluded to by the other
Shandy
characters. Her common sense and lack
of book learning make her a foil to her
erudite but impractical husband Walter.
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Characters 7
Dr. Slop is a "man-​midwife" whom Walter
hires to deliver his second child. He is
Dr. Slop arrogant, argumentative, and not very
gifted as a physician, fumbling his
instruments and botching his treatments.
Bridget is the maidservant to the Widow
Wadman. Her love affair with Corporal
Bridget
Trim parallels that of their respective
employers.
Diego is the mysterious, long-​nosed
stranger who appears in
Diego Slawkenbergius's Tale (Vol. 4). His
remarkable nose becomes the talk of the
town when he visits Strasburg.
"Didius" is Tristram's pseudonym for a
Didius lawyer who draws up excessively wordy
and ornate contracts.
Yorick's close friend Eugenius serves as
a counterbalance to the parson's
carefree, witty personality. He urges
Eugenius
Yorick to stop making jokes at the
expense of his fellow clergymen, lest he
inadvertently turn them into enemies.
Fernandez, a Spaniard traveling in
Germany, is a minor character in
Slawkenbergius's Tale (Vol. 4). The
Fernandez
brother of Diego's sweetheart, he sets
out to bring Diego back to Spain and
reconcile the estranged lovers.
The orphaned son of Lieutenant Le
Fever, Billy is raised and educated by
Uncle Toby after his father's death. Like
Billy Le the lieutenant, Billy tries his fortunes as a
Fever soldier but seeks to return to England
after contracting a serious illness
abroad. Toby recommends him as a
potential tutor for the young Tristram.
Lieutenant Le Fever is a fatally ill soldier
whom Uncle Toby encounters at an inn
Lieutenant
and tries to nurse back to health. When
Le Fever
he dies, Toby promises to take care of
his orphaned son Billy.
The unnamed village midwife is hired by
Mrs. Shandy to deliver her second child.
Midwife Her old-​fashioned midwifery is
contrasted with Dr. Slop's modern,
"scientific" approach.
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
Obadiah is Walter Shandy's manservant.
His role in the plot is largely mechanical:
Obadiah fetching things, conveying messages,
and spreading gossip among the
household staff.
Phutatorius is a religious scholar and the
author of a treatise on concubines. His
Phutatorius
lustful nature makes him the butt of
many jokes among his fellow clergymen.
Bobby is the eldest son of Walter and
Elizabeth Shandy. He never appears in
Bobby
scene, but his sudden death in Vol. 4,
Shandy
Chapter 31 leaves Tristram as the heir to
the Shandy estate.
Susannah is the maidservant at Shandy
Susannah Hall. She is more loyal to Mrs. Shandy
than to the men of the household.
A neighbor to the Shandy family, the
Widow Wadman has her eye on Uncle
Widow
Toby as a potential husband. Their
Wadman
courtship ends in an awkward
misunderstanding.
k Plot Summary
Vol. 1
Tristram Shandy proposes to tell his life story from the
moment of his conception onward. He blames his parents for
allowing themselves to be interrupted while they were
conceiving him, thus leading to a life beset with many small
misfortunes. He introduces his father, Walter Shandy, as an old
country gentleman with hard opinions on a variety of seemingly
trivial subjects. Walter's brother, Uncle Toby, is described as a
war veteran with a heart of gold. Filling out the cast is Parson
Yorick, a country priest whose wisecracking tendencies have
made him many friends and a few powerful enemies.
After a brief struggle to tell his story without getting bogged
down by digressions, Tristram throws in the towel and warns
the reader to expect constant interruptions and side stories. In
his autobiography Tristram barely makes it as far as the day of
his birth: Mrs. Shandy, Tristram's long-suffering mother,
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Plot Summary 8
intends to travel to London to bear her second child, but her
husband overrules her and she ends up "lying in" at Shandy
Hall. This basic narrative, however, is frequently submerged in
a welter of background details related to Tristram's family
members. Walter, he reveals, is obsessed with the significance
of names and would never have wanted his son to be named
Tristram. How, then, did Tristram get his name? The narrator
promises to reveal all in a later chapter.
Vol. 2
Tristram offers a more detailed backstory for Uncle Toby, who
has launched into an all-consuming study of military
fortifications while recovering from a battlefield wound to his
groin. His own biography continues at a glacial pace, with the
"man-midwife" Dr. Slop being sent for when the birth seems
like it will be a complicated one. Slop, who is described as a
"little, squat, uncourtly" fellow, is among the new characters
introduced in this volume. Also joining the cast is Corporal
Trim, a former soldier who serves as Uncle Toby's loyal valet.
Slop is about to go upstairs and tend to Mrs. Shandy when he
realizes he has forgotten his tools. They are retrieved just in
time to bring the volume to an end.
Vol. 3
Before Dr. Slop can go upstairs and deliver the baby, however,
he must open his doctor's bag, which has been bound up in
hopelessly complicated knots. Attempting to sever the knots
with a knife, he cuts his thumb and starts swearing in surprise
and anger. Susannah, the maidservant, runs downstairs to
report that things are not going well upstairs. Dr. Slop agrees
to come up and assist, once he has tested out his forceps and
his delivery technique on Uncle Toby's hands. The mock
procedure leaves Toby cut and bruised, throwing Dr. Slop's
abilities into question. Nonetheless, the doctor goes up to the
bedchamber, and the Shandy brothers soon doze off in their
armchairs.
They are woken up by Corporal Trim, who has just finished
turning a pair of old boots into mortars for Toby's model fort.
Dr. Slop, he announces, is making a "bridge" in the kitchen—not
a model drawbridge, as Toby thinks and hopes, but a device to
prop up the baby's nose, which has been crushed during
childbirth. To Walter this is disastrous news: he marches
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
upstairs and flings himself into bed, not saying a word. This
apparent overreaction, Tristram says, comes from Walter's
deep belief in the importance of having a long and shapely
nose. Although the Shandy men in general have placed a great
importance on noses, Walter has taken it to a new extreme,
amassing tracts and treatises on noses in various languages.
Tristram gives some highlights from his father's collection of
nose literature, promising to share a lengthier excerpt in Vol. 4.
Vol. 4
The volume opens with "Slawkenbergius's Tale," a whimsical
fable about a stranger with a long nose. After this digression,
which is one of the novel's most extensive, the scene returns
to Shandy Hall, where Walter is gradually recovering from the
news of his son's squashed nose. Given his belief in the power
of names, Walter proposes to make up for the baby's nasal
deficiencies by giving him the name Trismegistus. As Walter
and Toby attempt to make their way downstairs, Tristram
continually interrupts the narrative to indulge in chapter-length
tangents on various topics. Eventually, he simply fast-forwards
to the evening after his birth.
All, however, is not yet well. Susannah wakes Walter to let him
know that the baby may not survive and should be baptized
without delay. He tells her to convey his wish that the child be
named Trismegistus, but the name gets misheard as
"Tristram." The baby's health improves, but Walter is deeply
aggrieved when he learns his son has been misnamed. He
eventually decides to seek Yorick's advice, in case the
baptism—and thus the name—can be declared void. Yorick
invites him to a gathering of religious scholars where the
matter will be debated, but after a long and largely irrelevant
discussion, these men declare the baptism valid.
Disappointed, Walter throws himself into the new project of
deciding how to spend an unexpected bequest from his aunt.
He has enough money to send his older son Bobby to Europe
or to improve a parcel of land on the Shandy estate. Bobby, a
minor character who has scarcely been mentioned up to this
point, dies suddenly, making the decision an easy one.
Tristram, for all his flaws in Walter's eyes, is now the family's
sole heir.
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Plot Summary 9
Vol. 5
Walter copes with Bobby's death by making a long funereal
speech, leaving Mrs. Shandy to infer what has happened. Trim,
meanwhile, gives a similar sermon to the household staff.
Hoping to salvage what is left of his legacy, Walter begins
writing a work called the Tristrapedia, intended to cover all the
topics necessary for Tristram's education. Much like Tristram
Shandy itself, the book becomes an all-consuming undertaking,
but Walter finds he cannot write fast enough to keep up with
his son's growth and development.
Fast-forwarding to age five, Tristram describes a mishap in
which he is circumcised by a falling sash window (window
made of movable panels). After consulting his library, Walter
takes the news in stride, though he wonders what might be
causing all these misfortunes to befall his son. He returns to his
work on the Tristrapedia, sharing excerpts of the early
chapters with Uncle Toby, Parson Yorick, and Dr. Slop. As
might be expected given his opinions on noses, names, and
childbirth, Walter has some peculiar thoughts about parenting
and education as well.
Vol. 6
When Walter seeks a tutor for the young Tristram, Toby
mentions young Billy Le Fever as a candidate. This leads
Tristram to tell the sad tale of Lieutenant Le Fever, a dying
soldier to whom Toby ministered in his last days of life. The
lieutenant's son, Billy, has been Toby's ward ever since, though
he has recently gone off to serve as a soldier overseas and is
just now expected to return to England. Meanwhile, Dr. Slop
scandalizes the Shandy family by spreading rumors about
Tristram's injury, greatly exaggerating the extent of the
damage done. Walter decides it is time to dress Tristram in
breeches—the short trousers worn by older boys and men. As
is his habit, he agonizes over the style of breeches to order for
his son and does much reading on the subject.
In another extended flashback Tristram describes the last,
most glorious phase of Uncle Toby's model fort-building. As
the War of the Spanish Succession rages on overseas, Toby
and Trim busily recreate one besieged city after another on
their small plot of land. Trim even devises a way of simulating
siege artillery by blowing the smoke from a hookah through a
series of tiny cannons. The war, however, ends with the treaty
Tristram Shandy Study Guide Plot Summary 10

of Utrecht, leaving Toby without a hobby. Little by little he

starts courting his attractive neighbor, the Widow Wadman.
The other members of the Shandy family suspect the two will
marry shortly.
Vol. 9
Toby, dressed in his poorly fitting Sunday best, marches up to
Mrs. Wadman's, with Corporal Trim along for moral support.
Daunted by the task before him, he makes an about-face and

Vol. 7 marches back to the street, then summons his courage and
walks to her front door again. When Trim finally knocks, Mrs.
Wadman and her maid Bridget eagerly admit their guests. Toby
Before the reader can learn about Uncle Toby's love affair,
awkwardly confesses his love and proposes marriage within
however, the narrative lurches forward to the present (i.e.,
the space of a few minutes. Mrs. Wadman, however, is mainly
about 1765), where Tristram, now in his 40s, is preparing to
concerned about Toby's war wound, which she fears has left
travel to France. The stated purpose of this voyage is to
him impotent. Toby happily answers her questions but fails to
escape Death, who has tracked Tristram to his residence in
see the point of her inquiry. Bridget, meanwhile, plies Trim for
England and is planning to pay him a visit any day. Hurried
the same information with less delicateness and more success.
onward by an awareness of his own mortality, Tristram rushes
from one French city to another, barely stopping to record a Days later, Toby is reflecting on his ongoing courtship with
few landmarks for the reader. He finds Paris impressively large Mrs. Wadman, who has been so concerned and attentive about
but otherwise dreary, and none of the sights he wishes to see his old injuries. Trim, embarrassed, finally connects the dots for
in Lyons are open to the public. Tristram enjoys himself much his employer, who is surprised and (perhaps) a little dismayed
more in the rural south of France, where he slows his pace to learn the thrust of Mrs. Wadman's many questions. The two
enough to take part in fairs, festivals, and country dances. visit Shandy Hall, where Walter and Mrs. Shandy are chatting
with Yorick and Dr. Slop. In true Shandean fashion the novel
closes with an absurd, tangential story about a bull and a baby.
Vol. 8
Tristram finally begins the story of Uncle Toby and the Widow
Wadman. The two first met, he says, just after Toby moved up
from London, when he stayed in her guest room until his own
house could be furnished. Eleven years passed, during which
time the Widow Wadman vacillated about whether to pursue a
relationship with Toby. He, meanwhile, was too busy with his
siege works to give love a second thought. Spying on Toby
from the hedges between their yards, Mrs. Wadman
occasionally visited Toby to flirt under the pretext of asking
about his fort-building and past military exploits.

Back in the main timeline of the narrative, Toby and Trim

continue dismantling their fort, since the Peace of Utrecht
leaves them with no new battles to simulate. Mrs. Wadman
makes a bolder advance upon Toby by pretending to have
something in her eye and asking him to take a look. Struck by
her beauty, he realizes he is in love. As Toby prepares to pay
Mrs. Wadman a visit, Walter offers his brother some
characteristically longwinded advice, first in a speech and then
via a "Letter of Instruction" on conducting a love affair. The
letter never gets read, and the volume closes with Toby making
his way to Mrs. Wadman's front door.

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Tristram Shandy Study Guide Plot Summary 11

Plot Diagram

Climax

7
Falling Action
6
Rising Action
5 8

4
9
3
Resolution
2
1

Introduction

7. Now middle-aged, Tristram starts writing his autobiography.

Introduction

1. Tristram is conceived.
Falling Action

8. The older Tristram visits France to alleviate his illness.

Rising Action

2. Tristram is born, his nose smashed by the doctor's forceps.

Resolution
3. Tristram is baptized with the wrong name.
9. In failing health, Tristram ends his autobiography abruptly.
4. Bobby, Tristram's elder brother, dies suddenly.

5. Tristram's father writes a Tristrapedia to educate his son.

6. Tristram is circumcised by a falling window.

Climax

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Tristram Shandy Study Guide Plot Summary 12

Timeline of Events

March 1718

Tristram Shandy's misfortunes begin when he is

conceived.

November 5, 1718

The narrator is born into this "vile" and "scurvy" world.

That evening

The narrator is baptized "Tristram" by mistake.

Soon afterward

Bobby, the elder Shandy son, dies suddenly.

Almost immediately

Walter Shandy, Tristram's father, sets out to write a

Tristrapedia for his surviving heir.

Circa 1723

Tristram is accidentally circumcised by a falling window.

Shortly thereafter

A tutor is sought for the young Tristram.

About the same time

Dr. Slop scandalizes the Shandy family by gossiping

about Tristram's injury.

A few weeks later

After much deliberation, Walter decides to put Tristram

in breeches.

1759

Tristram, now much older, sets out to write his

autobiography.

Circa 1765

His health failing, Tristram takes a long trip to France.

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Tristram Shandy Study Guide Plot Summary 13

Later that year

Tristram sets aside his autobiography to tell of his Uncle

Toby's "amours."

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Tristram Shandy Study Guide
c Chapter Summaries
Tristram Shandy has over 300 chapters that are organized into
9 volumes of varying lengths. Chapters have been combined
for the purpose of summary and analysis in this study guide.
Title Page and Dedication
Summary
The title page to Vols. 1 and 2 is, for the most part, typical for
an English novel of its time. It is distinguished only by a short
Greek epigraph, which in English reads: "Not things, but
opinions about things, trouble men." Before the novel properly
begins, Sterne also offers a highly complimentary dedication to
"Mr. Pitt" (i.e., Lord William Pitt, 1708–78). He urges Pitt to
accept the book as a humble token of the author's admiration,
in the hope that its amusing contents will provide relief from
the cares of statecraft.
Analysis
Typographically unremarkable, the title page to Tristram
Shandy offers only a brief glimpse of the exuberant weirdness
to follow. The epigraph comes from the Stoic philosopher
Epictetus (55–135 CE), who urged philosophical self-cultivation
as a means of coping with life's inevitable adversities. This
seemingly incidental quote sets up one of the novel's greatest
dramatic ironies, since Walter Shandy's extensive reading of
philosophical works—including Epictetus's writings—has just
the opposite effect: armed with a knowledge of worst-case
scenarios, he tends to overreact to even slight misfortunes.
Brian Michael Norton, whose 2006 translation of the epigraph
is used above, regards the distinction between objective reality
and subjective opinion as a central theme of the novel.
William Pitt, the dedicatee of Tristram Shandy, was Great
Britain's de facto leader during the Seven Years' War
(1756–63) and was widely credited for the eventual victory
over France. At the time the first volumes of Tristram Shandy
appeared, Pitt led the House of Commons; in 1766 he was
created Earl of Chatham, joined the House of Lords, and
became the prime minister of the United Kingdom. In his final
Copyright © 2018 Course Hero, Inc.
Chapter Summaries 14
years Lord Pitt was most notable for his attempts to broker a
peaceful solution to the incipient Revolutionary War.
Vol. 1, Chapters 1–12
Summary
Tristram Shandy decides to tell his life story from the very
beginning, starting with the moment of his conception. At such
a time, he argues, the thoughts and feelings of the parents
have a profound impact on their future child's personality and
fortunes. In Tristram's case, however, the conjugal act was
interrupted when his mother reminded his father to wind up the
clock. This interruption, Tristram argues, "scattered and
dispersed the animal spirits" intended to assist his growth and
development in the womb. He justifies this complaint by
referring to a theory in which a tiny, fully formed human—a
homunculus—was thought to exist inside each sperm cell.
Mocking his readers for their nosiness, Tristram offers a little
family history. He introduces his Uncle Toby Shandy, a
thoughtful old gentleman who provided Tristram with the clock
anecdote later in life. (Much more will be said of Uncle Toby
later in the novel.) He also describes his father, Walter Shandy,
a country squire and former merchant who is obsessed with
order and exactness. This habit of mind, Tristram says, led his
father to wind up the household clock on the same day of
every month. At that time Walter would also tend to "some
other little family concernments," such as attempting to
conceive an heir.
The story now fast forwards to Tristram's birth on November 5,
1718. Describing Earth as a "scurvy and disastrous world," he
acknowledges that he has borne many "pitiful misadventures
and cross accidents," but few real tragedies. The logical next
step, he concedes, would be to explain how he was born. This,
however, is not the course he intends to take. Instead, Tristram
proposes to give the reader "not only my life, but my opinions
also." This way, by the time his birth is narrated, the reader will
know "what kind of a mortal" Tristram is and be more
interested in such biographical details.
Tristram does, however, offer some remarks on the village
midwife who assisted at his birth, "a thin, upright, motherly,
notable, good old body" who was hired and trained by the
parson's wife. He then takes up the subject of "hobby-
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
horses"—those obsessions and passions that give life its zest.
In most cases, he says, these hobbies are harmless, and in
some cases they even do good by keeping people too busy to
be malicious. He presents a generic dedication for his book,
which he then proceeds to hawk to anyone who might wish to
buy it. Tristram even offers to erase a chapter of his novel to
make room for all the titles and noble deeds of his patron.
Returning momentarily to the midwife, Tristram segues to a
description of Parson Yorick, whose wife was responsible for
helping the midwife set up shop. He describes Yorick as a
modest man who, after years of priding himself on his fine
horses, had a change of heart and decided to buy only the
cheapest, most broken-down horses he could find. More
notably, Yorick is also a descendant of the jester Yorick who
appeared in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Like his ancestor, Yorick
has a fondness for witty jokes, but he seldom thinks about how
his jests will be received. This jokey demeanor gets him in
trouble when he insults the wrong clergymen, ruining his
chances of advancement in the church hierarchy. He dies
brokenhearted and lies under a tombstone engraved with the
words, "Alas, poor Yorick!" In memory of the parson, Tristram
interrupts his story to print two pages covered in black ink.
Analysis
By the time Yorick's death is narrated, the basic rules of
engagement are established for the remainder of the novel:
Tristram will jump backwards and forwards in time with gleeful
abandon, trusting the reader to keep up and even to enjoy the
ride. "Laugh with me, or at me, or in short do any thing," he
cautions, "—only keep your temper." Yorick, though his death is
announced in Chapter 12, will reappear throughout the novel,
since Tristram is only loosely concerned with chronology and
can never resist the chance to tell a good story, of which
Yorick supplies plenty. In fact, many important moments for the
novel's characters will occur as flashbacks and digressions,
rather than in the main stream of narration. Yorick, who as a
clergyman combines wittiness with a genuine concern for his
congregation, will star in parts of Vol. 4, and a sermon of his
will be reprinted almost entirely in Vol. 2. Uncle Toby,
mentioned only in passing in the novel's opening chapters, will
likewise be the subject of several anecdotes, which
progressively round out his character. In Vol. 2 he is introduced
as an eccentric old officer obsessed with fort-building, but Vol.
6 portrays him in a more heartwarming light as he tends to a
dying fellow soldier. His thwarted love affair with the Widow
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Chapter Summaries 15
Wadman, the main event of Vols. 8 and 9, completes the
picture.
Tristram's attitude toward nearly everyone in the novel can be
summarized as "live and let live." His father, his uncle, and
Yorick are all preoccupied with various "hobby-horses," as
Tristram calls them, and the narrator himself might be said to
have a "hobby-horsical" quest to write his life story despite the
constant distractions he seems to encounter. Tristram's gentle
mockery of hobby-horses should not be confused with serious
criticism: rather, he considers the capacity to throw oneself
into a hobby to be a sign of humanity in an otherwise over-
serious person. Some of the most obnoxious characters in
Tristram Shandy—such as the pedantic clerics in Vol. 5 and the
literary critics mentioned throughout—are explicitly forgiven by
Tristram on this score, though not without a dash of sarcasm.
To him, obsessing over the details of the baptism ritual is as
much a "hobby-horse" as collecting books or butterflies and
therefore equally immune from judgment.
Death will be a recurring presence in this otherwise
lighthearted novel. Even Mrs. Shandy's remark about the clock
in Chapter 1, awkwardly funny as it is, might be seen as a
gesture toward the book's theme of time and mortality: in
conceiving Tristram, she and Walter are "winding up the clock"
that will wind down to his eventual demise. Although, as the
reader later learns, Tristram suffers from a chronic and life-
threatening disease, the narrator seldom treats the theme of
death with total seriousness. His typographical "funeral" for
Yorick—the two black pages after Vol. 1, Chapter 12—is a
perfect example of his attitude. On the one hand there is
something touching and sobering about this tribute, which
visually evokes the black fabric draped over a coffin and the
black garments worn by mourners. On the other hand the
gesture is also a playful one, interrupting the chatty flow of the
text with a simple, wordless block of black ink. If the black
pages are a funeral pall for Yorick, they might also be seen as
a curtain drawn over the scene by a self-consciously theatrical
writer.
Vol. 1, Chapters 13–20
Summary
Getting back to the village midwife (from Vol. 1, Chapter 7),
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
Tristram describes her as a highly respected person within her
own small social circle—of which he promises to include a map
at "the end of the twentieth volume." Realizing his story has
escaped his control, Tristram likens the narrative to a journey
full of interesting landmarks and scenic vistas. Because of
these "unforeseen stoppages," he cautions the reader, his life
story will likely never be told in full.
Undaunted, he proceeds to give a summary of his parents'
marriage settlement, a complicated legalese document, which
he quotes in a fancy blackletter font. The relevant point is his
mother's stipulation that she be allowed to travel to London
whenever she is to give birth. If she feigns pregnancy, however,
she "forfeits" the next London trip even if she really is with
child. One such false alarm takes place about two years before
Tristram's birth.
Irritated by the unnecessary London trip, Walter informs his
wife that she must, per the marriage contract, bear her next
child at home in the country. Tristram refuses to say whether
this counts as "perseverance" or "obstinacy" on his father's
part. Mrs. Shandy insists, however, on choosing her own
midwife. She and Walter argue for weeks about whom to hire:
she favors the unnamed village midwife, but he wants to hire a
"man-midwife" whom he regards as more professional and
scientific. Mrs. Shandy wins the fight, but Walter decides to
have the "man-midwife" standing by in case his services are
needed.
Tristram next describes his father's profound belief in the
power of names to shape a person's destiny. This belief has
led Walter to be extremely careful about naming his son, lest
he be doomed to a life of mediocrity or worse. In Walter's
opinion, the worst name a man can have is Tristram, a
"melancholy dissyllable of sound," which he thinks will lead to a
"mean and pitiful" life for anyone who bears it. Then, in an odd
chapter-length digression, Tristram considers the notion of
baptism by injection, a practice he regards as one of the quirks
of Catholicism. To show that such baptisms are sanctioned by
the Church, he produces a lengthy excerpt, in French, from a
theological work debating the validity of this mode of baptism.
Analysis
These chapters highlight Tristram's gossipy, playful way of
addressing the reader, whom he imagines sometimes as a
woman—"Madam"—and sometimes as a man—"Sir" or "your
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Chapter Summaries 16
Honor." Given his tendency to veer off into seemingly irrelevant
side stories, it is perhaps unsurprising that Tristram sometimes
jokingly quizzes the reader on details from previous chapters.
In Vol. 1, Chapter 20 for example, he pokes fun at the reader
for not noticing an insinuation about his mother's
religion—namely, that if she had been Roman Catholic, Tristram
could have been baptized before he was even born. His
reasoning on this minor point ends up filling multiple pages,
during which he quotes from the theologians of the University
of Paris (commonly known as the Sorbonne).
There is, by the way, no evidence to suggest baptism by
injection was ever actually performed. Instead, it seems to
have been a theoretical concept considered by religious
scholars in their attempts to define baptism more precisely.
The broader point is that the theologians are obsessed with
minute, impractical details—a tendency that greatly amuses
Tristram, who notes the same habit of thought among
clergymen, lawyers, philosophers, and physicians. In general,
Tristram enjoys making good-natured jokes at the expense of
learned professionals, whom he sees as overly self-serious
(unlike himself) and unable to avoid flaunting their knowledge
(much like himself). In this he resembles Parson Yorick, who is
generally eager to take his fellow clerics down a notch if they
start acting too arrogant and quarrelsome.
Another recurring source of amusement is Walter's obsession
with names, and with book learning of all sorts. Uncle Toby,
introduced earlier in Vol. 1, is almost entirely preoccupied with a
single "hobby-horse": studying military fortifications and
recreating them in miniature on the Shandy estate. Walter, in
contrast to his brother, has a seemingly inexhaustible interest
in many different subjects, from philosophy to the history of
fashion. Usually, his quest for knowledge is motivated by a
practical concern, such as Tristram's education. Just as often,
however, his reading leads him straight into a swamp of
pointless trivia. Such is the case in these chapters, where
Walter searches far and wide for works to support his belief in
the importance of a well-chosen name. When he embarks on
one of these intellectual expeditions, it is a sure sign he will be
thwarted by some kind of accident—like the momentary
confusion that leads to Tristram being named Tristram rather
than Trismegistus (Vol. 4, Chapter 14).
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
Vol. 1, Chapters 21–25
Summary
The story snaps back to the day of Tristram's birth, with Uncle
Toby and Walter sitting in the parlor and wondering about all
the noise upstairs. Immediately Tristram veers off onto another
tangent, this time contemplating the effect of England's climate
on the "odd and whimsical" personalities of its people. The
Shandy family, he maintains with pride, are among the weirdest
of the bunch. Building on his profile from previous chapters,
Tristram describes Uncle Toby as a war veteran who retired
from service after sustaining a groin injury.
Tristram now offers a "digression on digressions," in which he
commends the previous chapter for its "masterstroke of
digressive skill." Having admonished the reader to pay
attention to his artful style of narration, he then vows to keep
on digressing for another 40 years' worth of volumes, or as
long as "life and good spirits" hold out. Doubling down on the
digressions, Tristram next argues the merits of discerning a
person's character from their "hobby-horse." Thus, he
promises to describe Uncle Toby not in terms of his outward
appearance, but by analyzing his peculiar hobbies and
fascinations.
Before he proceeds, however, Tristram wants to explain why a
person's hobby-horse reveals so much about their personality.
Drawing on the equestrian image suggested by the term
"hobby-horse," he suggests that "by long journies [sic] and
much friction ... the body of the rider is at length fill'd as full of
hobby-horsical matter as it can hold." Describing the hobby,
therefore, gives a good idea of the "genius and character" of
the person.
Tristram sets the stage for Uncle Toby's hobby-horse by
describing his misfortunes at the siege of Namur, where Toby's
pelvic bone was "dismally crushed" by a chunk of falling stone.
During his recovery from this injury Toby took a room at the
London home of his brother Walter, where visitors often asked
him to describe the battle in which he was wounded.
Frustrated by his inability to give an exact account, Toby at last
figured out an "expedient" for helping him to remember, but
this won't be explained until Vol. 2.
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Chapter Summaries 17
Analysis
Tristram's concern for his "life and good spirits" is a glancing
reference to a sad autobiographical truth: when he began
writing Tristram Shandy, Laurence Sterne was already
suffering from symptoms of tuberculosis, a then incurable and
generally fatal illness. In successive volumes Tristram will
gradually succumb to the disease as well, though he will laugh
it off and reassure the reader of his intention to go on writing
as long as possible. In Vol. 7 Tristram will gamely attempt to
cheat Death by running away to France, but by Vol. 8 he has
seemingly made his peace with mortality and is resolved to
enjoy whatever years, or months, are left to him. Perhaps
because of his own physical weakness, Tristram is acutely
aware of the seeming disconnect between mind and body: one
can be lively and quick even as the other decays. "Our minds,"
he notes, "shine not through the body, but are wrapt up here in
a dark covering of uncrystalized flesh and blood." Tristram is
defined not by his status as a tuberculosis sufferer, but by his
wildly inventive wit and unflappable good humor, just as Uncle
Toby's kindly nature and love of military exploits are more
important than his war wound.
The novel's almost universally positive portrayal of soldiers is,
likewise, a reflection of Sterne's own life experiences as the
son of an infantryman. The most straightforwardly sympathetic
characters in the book, Uncle Toby and his sidekick Corporal
Trim, are English soldiers of different ranks and social classes,
but they are united by their wartime experiences and by an
attitude of loyalty and chivalry. Tristram will gently mock these
two for the "military" manner in which they do everything:
toward the end of the novel, Toby will fall in love, and he will
march up to his sweetheart's house as though attempting to
besiege a city. Minor characters who happen to be
soldiers—such as Lieutenant Le Fever in Vol. 6—will likewise
appear in a warmly sentimental light.
A related character point is the "contrariety of humors"
between the two Shandy brothers. As Tristram points out
here—not for the last time—Walter and Toby have quite
different personalities. Walter is scholarly, impractical, irascible,
and insists on doing things "by the book." Toby is a man of
action who admires his brother's intelligence but often fails to
grasp the subtlety of his brother's philosophical speeches and
sometimes simply dozes off or starts whistling loudly while
Walter is talking. He is also, however, a gallant and generous
man, and he is often particularly kind to those people—women,
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
children, and servants—whom Walter sees as bothersome. The
narrator evidently thinks fondly of both his father and his uncle,
and he seldom mentions either man's flaws without
emphasizing a counterbalancing virtue.
Vol. 2, Chapters 1–10
Summary
Tristram reminds his reader of the matter at hand: his Uncle
Toby's war injury, which led to Toby's developing an unusual
hobby. The siege of Namur, Tristram says, is almost impossible
to describe without an extensive knowledge of fortifications, a
subject that gave Toby great trouble in recounting the battle to
guests. At last Toby gets the idea to acquire a large map of
Namur to aid his explanations. Anticipating critics' objections to
his portrayal of Uncle Toby, Tristram insists Toby is much more
than the "pudding-headed, muddle-headed fellow" he seems to
be. Toby is, however, quite confused by the complex
terminology used to discuss military architecture. He then
explains how Toby's interest in Namur blossomed into a
preoccupation with fortifications of all kinds. Gradually, Toby
collects maps and books, learning more and more about the
subject until he became something of an expert. "Endless,"
Tristram wryly remarks, "is the Search of Truth!"
Eventually, Uncle Toby becomes dissatisfied with merely
reading about fort-building and, despite his surgeon's
warnings, decides to relocate to the Shandy estate in the
country. In doing so, he is egged on by his sidekick, Corporal
Trim, who served under Toby in the wars and is now his valet.
Trim has had the brilliant idea to clear out a small plot on the
family estate and build model fortifications rather than merely
drawing them on maps. This idea so excites Toby that he
makes plans to leave London immediately.
The timeline shifts forward—again—to Shandy Hall on the day
of Tristram's birth. Toby and Walter are still marking time in the
parlor while they await news from upstairs. Eventually losing
his patience, Walter calls his manservant Obadiah to go and
fetch the "man-midwife," whose name is Dr. Slop. Riding
furiously to fetch the doctor, Obadiah meets him in the road
and frightens him off his horse. Dr. Slop arrives at Shandy Hall
angry, out of breath, and coated in mud from head to foot.
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Chapter Summaries 18
Analysis
In these chapters Tristram continues to jokingly comment on
his own artfulness as a writer. After a "spirited" and
sentimental address to Uncle Toby in Chapter 3, he asks the
reader to pause with him and reflect on the "pencraft" that
went into writing the speech. Tristram's metafictional
commentary—i.e., writing about writing—contributes to the
novel's playful mood and reinforces the "conversational" quality
of the novel, as though the author is taking the reader on a
behind-the-scenes tour. For Tristram, writing is an all-
consuming "hobby-horse" just as fort-building is for Uncle Toby
and building a library is for Walter. He tells his story with an air
of obvious delight in the process, and his fixation on details of
craft is not so much an attempt to show off as it is an attempt
to share his enthusiasm.
The characters of Corporal Trim and Dr. Slop contrast sharply
with one another and give Tristram ample scope for
expressing his "opinions" about human nature. Trim is
plainspoken, unpretentious, and loyal to a fault. His lack of
formal schooling in no way diminishes his wisdom, which
surprises and impresses the older, college-educated men in
the household. Dr. Slop, on the other hand, represents all the
qualities Tristram finds laughable in learned men: he is proud,
pedantic, and full of sophisticated theories that fail to pass the
test of the real world. To an extent these same criticisms apply
to Walter Shandy, but his redeeming qualities—such as a
desire to do right by his children—get a great deal of airtime,
whereas Dr. Slop's positive traits are barely mentioned.
Tristram also takes a few potshots at Dr. Slop's Catholicism,
which he, being, like Sterne, an Anglican, sees as a collection
of outmoded superstitions: it is no coincidence that Slop is
making the sign of the cross as he slips from his horse and
tumbles into the mud. In general, Tristram will not attack
Catholic doctrines or practices directly but will strive to make
them seem ridiculous by association, invoking them at
particularly awkward or silly points in the story. Nuns and
monks, the figures most symbolic of Catholicism to an 18th-
century Briton, will frequently appear in indelicate or risqué
situations. Even Uncle Toby will occasionally get in on the act;
the tune "Lillabullero," which Toby whistles whenever he is at a
loss for words, has strong anti-Catholic connotations due to its
use during the Williamite Wars (1688-91).
Throughout these chapters, as in much of the novel, the
timeline lurches back and forth via a series of flashbacks and
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
side stories. By playing with time in this manner, Tristram
conjures up the theories of English philosopher John Locke,
who emphasized the subjective aspect of time (the "train and
succession of our ideas," as Tristram calls it in Chapter 8),
rather than the merely chronological. For Tristram, this appeal
to subjective time serves as a defense against the "hypercritic,"
whom he ridicules as apt to take issue with the timing of the
novel's events. Such a critic, Tristram jokes, is likely "to take a
pendulum, and measure the true distance betwixt the ringing
of the bell and the rap at the door." If Locke's view of time as
"duration" is accepted, such an analysis is not only overzealous
and mean-spirited, but pointless.
Vol. 2, Chapters 11–19
Summary
Dr. Slop, it is now revealed, has forgotten his bag of medical
instruments, so Obadiah must go and fetch them. Meanwhile,
the doctor has gotten cleaned up and takes a seat in the
parlor. By chance the conversation turns to fortification, and
Toby gives a long speech on the subject, quoting from various
military treatises. Walter loses his patience but then apologizes
to Toby almost immediately—a common dynamic between the
two brothers. The episode gives Tristram an opportunity to
describe Toby as a man "patient of injuries," as memorably
illustrated by his unwillingness to kill a fly that had "tormented
him cruelly" by buzzing about his head. "The world," Toby had
reflected as he shooed the fly out the window, "surely is wide
enough to hold both thee and me."
Corporal Trim is sent to fetch one of Toby's books, by an
author known as Stevinus. By the time he has returned,
however, the topic of conversation has turned to trade and
industry. He is about to return the book to Toby's house when
a small packet of papers—a sermon—falls out from between
the pages. Trim offers to read a portion of it to the gentlemen.
The sermon turns out to be a long tract on the failings of
conscience—specifically, its ability to lull a person into a false
sense of moral security. The listeners identify the style as that
of Parson Yorick, and Tristram parenthetically offers to publish
the rest of Yorick's sermons in a separate volume if enough
readers are interested. Obadiah arrives with the doctor's bag,
and Walter asks Dr. Slop to stick around in case the other
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Chapter Summaries 19
midwife has trouble. The volume closes with Walter's very
particular opinions on childbirth, including his belief that
children's brains develop better if they are born feet first.
Analysis
The Stevinus treatise—quoted from, interpreted, and eventually
brought forth in these chapters—serves as a convenient
symbol for the structure of Tristram Shandy as a whole. It is a
book within a book, which, in turn, contains another written text
(Yorick's sermon) on a completely different subject. Talking
about it, as the Shandy brothers do here, defers the actual
process of reading it, just as Tristram's discussions of literary
craft serve to prolong the novel and vary its pace. Like Yorick's
lost pages, digressions and extraneous anecdotes seem to
come tumbling out of Tristram's narrative every time he
attempts to "open" it—that is, every time he tries to resume a
straightforward retelling of his life story.
Sterne's novel, however, seldom organizes itself into such neat
layers as the above description might suggest. The
digressions, whose topics range from baptism to buttonholes,
are not introduced and resolved one after another, like a series
of books opened, read, and closed. Instead, digressive topics
accumulate as the novel goes on, with Tristram often referring
back to the growing number of loose ends in his work.
Nor is it as easy as it might seem to identify a single "authorial
spokesperson" within Tristram Shandy. Tristram himself, who
has a great deal in common with Sterne autobiographically,
might seem like an obvious surrogate for the author, and his
"life and opinions" might be hastily conflated with Sterne's.
Parson Yorick, however, also reflects important aspects of the
author's life and career, such as his training as a clergyman, his
carefree attitude toward controversy, and his disdain for
excessively serious people. The sermon on conscience is, in
fact, one of Sterne's own sermons, preached during his tenure
as a canon at York Minster, hence Tristram's eagerness to find
a publisher for the rest of the sermons. Given his career as a
churchman and his reputation as a literary jokester, it is easy to
see why Sterne's contemporaries nicknamed him "Parson
Yorick," a pen name he obligingly adopted in his later works.
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
Vol. 3, Chapters 1–10
Summary
Tristram continues, at his leisurely pace, to describe the
conversation taking place in the downstairs parlor while he was
being born. Uncle Toby attempts to steer the discussion back
toward military matters, but when Walter grumbles impatiently
and wipes his brow with a handkerchief, Toby backs off from
his pet subject. Likening himself to his uncle, Tristram asks the
reviewers of his book to have a little more charity and to share
in Toby's "live and let live" outlook.
Walter offers some remarks on the dangers of childbirth,
casting a momentarily somber tone over the conversation. Dr.
Slop, meanwhile, hastily attempts to undo his doctor's bag,
which has been tied up in knots by Obadiah. In trying to cut the
knots with a penknife, he slashes his thumb instead and falls
into a fit of cursing. Walter, in a mocking show of helpfulness,
offers Dr. Slop a pamphlet containing "fit forms of swearing
suitable to all cases." The work is actually a Catholic formula of
excommunication, written in Latin by a medieval bishop.
Analysis
The opening pages of Vol. 3 nicely illustrate Tristram's
tendency to get lost in trivialities: three chapters, almost in
their entirety, are devoted to Walter Shandy's movements as
he reaches for his handkerchief, takes off his wig, and dabs at
his brow. In a fit of gleeful over-narration, Tristram critiques
Walter's decision to remove his wig with his right hand and
retrieve his handkerchief from his pocket with the left. If he had
done the opposite, Tristram says, Walter would have been
"easy—natural—unforced." The critique of Walter's "ungraceful"
movements is an instance of situational irony, since Tristram
himself is busily leading the reader into a deliberately awkward
and contrived discussion of a minor detail.
Meanwhile, Dr. Slop's struggles with the knotted bag offer
another fitting symbol for the process of reading Tristram
Shandy, a work whose narrative strands crisscross in a manner
sometimes hard to separate. Try as one might, however, there
is no straightforward way of "cutting" the narrative into simple
pieces, as Slop does the bag. Instead, reading the novel is a
game of gradual disentanglement, as later volumes resolve
Copyright © 2018 Course Hero, Inc.
Chapter Summaries 20
some—but certainly not all—of the many lingering questions
concerning plot, character, and motivation.
These chapters also offer a further contrast between Walter
and Toby, who occasionally strains his brother's patience with
his single-minded focus on military matters. While Walter is
sometimes irritable and quarrelsome, Toby is infinitely patient;
when the one brother insists on insulting, the other brother
remains silent, except to whistle "Lillabullero." This is neither
the first nor the last time Toby will whistle the tune during a
stressful moment, a habit that sometimes (see Vol. 2, Chapters
1-10) does double duty as a jab at Slop's Catholicism.
Vol. 3, Chapters 11–20
Summary
The next chapter is a facing translation of the
excommunication formula: Latin on the left and (rather inexact)
English on the right. Obadiah's name—since he is the one who
tied the knots in the doctor's bag—is substituted in for that of
the possessed person. For Tristram, the pamphlet's exhaustive
and often violent catalog of curses shows how unoriginal
modern people are in swearing oaths.
Susannah, the maidservant, comes rushing downstairs and
reports a state of utter chaos in the bedroom. Both the nurse
and the midwife have injured themselves, and Mrs. Shandy is
no farther along in her labor. Dr. Slop agrees to come up and
take a look, but first he fumbles about in his bag for his
forceps. He then, to demonstrate the safety of his technique,
clamps the forceps around Uncle Toby's hands, which are
scratched up and severely bruised as a result. Walter
expresses relief "that the experiment was not first made upon
my child's head-piece."
Dr. Slop finally goes up to the bedchamber, leaving Uncle Toby
and Walter to remark upon the long time he has taken in
arriving and getting ready to deliver the baby. This leads to
some lengthy comments from Walter on the nature of time and
experience, which Toby patiently listens to but fails to
understand. Frustrated, Walter falls silent and soon dozes off,
with Toby falling asleep shortly thereafter.
Having disposed of his characters for a moment, Tristram
presents the preface to his book. He addresses himself
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
specifically to the "Anti-Shandeans" in the audience, wishing
them the wit and judgment to appreciate his work better. Wit,
he argues—adding another layer to his digression—is no good
without judgment, or vice versa—though many people have one
without the other. Those with "great wigs" and "long beards"
(i.e., lawyers, statesmen, and scholars), he announces, are still
free to read his life story if they like, but it is not written with
their tastes in mind.
Analysis
The mockery of Slop's Catholicism continues in this scene.
Ernulfus, the man credited with writing down the litany of
curses, was Bishop of Rochester in the late 11th and early 12th
centuries—about 400 years before English Reformation. When
the work was reprinted in England in 1681, the editors
described it as "The Pope's Dreadful Curse" and presented
it—part of a campaign to solidify Protestantism in Great Britain
and Ireland—as an example of what Britons could expect
should they choose to reenter communion with the Catholic
Church. Walter, who has a strong distaste for "Popish" beliefs
and practices, is following in this anti-Catholic vein when he
offers Slop the pamphlet as a primer on how to curse.
Certainly, to a modern audience, the hyper-detailed and
anatomical nature of the curses makes them seem silly rather
than severe, the opposite of their intended effect.
Tristram's address to the "Anti-Shandeans" is another highlight
of these chapters. Although Tristram spends a suspicious
amount of time defending himself from imagined critics, the
Anti-Shandeans—the people who voiced disapproval of
Tristram Shandy—were quite real. After the publication of Vols.
1 and 2 a flurry of pamphlets appeared in London criticizing the
books as immoral or, in some cases, just plain ridiculous. Critics
took issue with almost every aspect of the novel, from its crude
jokes to its excessive use of asterisks. At least a few of the so-
called Anti-Shandeans seem to have missed the point
altogether: Thomas Keymer, author of Laurence Sterne's
Tristram Shandy: A Casebook (2006), cites one 1765 review
that derided the novel as "a riddle, without an object."
Throughout the novel Tristram will engage with these critics in
a variety of ways, sometimes appealing to their good will, and
sometimes ridiculing them for their humorlessness and lack of
judgment.
Copyright © 2018 Course Hero, Inc.
Chapter Summaries 21
Vol. 3, Chapters 21–30
Summary
Corporal Trim enters the parlor, having completed a little
project for Uncle Toby's model siege works—a pair of mortars
made from old boots. A creaky hinge on the parlor door wakes
the two old gentlemen from their nap. Walter starts to upbraid
Toby and Trim for destroying his favorite boots, but Toby
immediately apologizes and offers to pay for them. Touched by
Toby's willingness to set matters right, Walter relents.
Dr. Slop, meanwhile, is in the kitchen making a "bridge."
Hearing this, Toby assumes it is a model bridge, to replace one
inadvertently destroyed by Trim during a moonlight tryst with
his girlfriend Bridget. Since this little disaster took place, Toby
has been planning and prototyping a replacement drawbridge
for his fort, but he has only recently decided what kind of
bridge to build. He is thus surprised and pleased to hear that
Dr. Slop is already constructing one.
The bridge in question, however, turns out to have nothing to
do with fort-building: it is a crude prosthesis meant to prop up
the baby's nose, which has been "crushed ... as flat as a
pancake" during delivery. Anguished and exasperated at this
news, Walter goes to his room immediately, flops down on the
bed "in the wildest disorder imaginable," and lies motionless. To
explain this dramatic reaction, Tristram warns, will require a
half-hour detour into the Shandy family history.
Analysis
The events in these chapters serve to flesh out the characters
of Trim and Toby, whose fort-building exploits momentarily
steal the show. Trim, as a rule, has the best of intentions and
wants only to impress Uncle Toby with his resourcefulness.
However, he often fails to think things through, and he has a
habit of "borrowing" household items to improve the backyard
fort. This is certainly the case here: Trim has spotted a pair of
old boots, assumed nobody will miss them, and set about
turning them into miniature mortars (short cannon-like
weapons that fire explosive shells). This time, he has merely
angered and inconvenienced Walter by destroying a cherished
heirloom. His "borrowing" will have more serious consequences
in Vol. 5, when he inadvertently turns the windows of Shandy
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
Hall into mini-guillotines by removing their lead counterweights.
Toby, though perhaps a little more conscientious, is generally
just as single-minded as his sidekick. Whenever a military-
sounding term is mentioned in conversation, Toby's ears perk
up, and he suddenly takes a great an interest in the discussion.
To the reader, and to most of the novel's characters, the
context is sufficient to show that no military meaning is
intended: why would Dr. Slop, who has no real interest in
warfare, take a break from his work as an obstetrician to
construct a miniature drawbridge? Toby, however, lives in his
own little world of battlements and barricades. From his point
of view the question is: why would Dr. Slop not want to build a
drawbridge?
Vol. 3, Chapters 31–42
Summary
For the past four generations, Tristram informs the reader, the
Shandy men have been cursed with short, flat noses. This has
caused them difficulty in marriage: Tristram's great
grandmother, for example, demanded a large share of her
husband's estate as recompense for marrying a man with "little
or no nose." Naturally, Shandys of later generations came to
view long noses as a desirable trait—a belief that, for Walter,
becomes an obsession. Like Toby with his fortifications, Walter
accumulates all the books he can find on noses and their
relationship to a person's fortunes.
Tristram embarks on a survey of the most important authors of
nose literature, including Bruscambille, a real French playwright
who wrote a "prologue upon long noses" and "the great and
learned Hafen Slawkenbergius," a fictional scholar and
storyteller who supposedly lived during the 17th century. The
discussion is interrupted by two pages of marbled paper
without text, which Shandy describes as the "motley emblem
of my work."
The summary of nose treatises resumes with a dialogue
between Pamphagus ("Glutton") and Cocles ("The One-Eyed
One"), two characters in a real work by Desiderius Erasmus.
Cocles, as Tristram notes, describes a long nose as a having
many practical uses, e.g., as a makeshift grappling hook during
sea battles and as a substitute for bellows "to stir up the fire."
Slawkenbergius, however, is the most prominent writer on
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Chapter Summaries 22
noses, having written an entire folio on the subject. Tristram
promises to share a partial translation from the work later on.
The novel shifts back into scene, with Uncle Toby and Walter
conversing in the parlor some years prior to Tristram's birth.
Walter is attempting to explain the different theories of noses
to Toby, who is half-listening, half-daydreaming. A silly but well-
intentioned question from Toby—"Can noses be
dissolved?"—causes Walter to bite a pincushion in half in a fit
of pique. Tristram closes the volume by asking the reader to
stay tuned for a story from Slawkenbergius in Vol. 4.
Analysis
The closing chapters of Vol. 3 are one of Tristram Shandy's
comic tours de force. By combining real and fictional authors in
his overview of nose literature, Tristram shows, in effect, that
truth is just as strange as fiction. None of the authors
mentioned in his roundup wrote extensively about noses, which
partly explains Walter Shandy's difficulty and frustration in
getting a comprehensive view of the subject. Bruscambille's
remarks, for example, consist of a mere half-page in which he
sings the praises of large noses as better able to "receive the
odiferous vapors" necessary for the sense of smell. "In a word,
Sirs," he concludes, "if it is a beautiful, a good, a commendable
thing to have a nose, it is all the more so to have a large one."
Slawkenbergius's fictionalized commentary, as "reported" by
Tristram, fits in perfectly with Bruscambille's mock-heroic style
of oration. Walter, characteristically, ignores the comedy and
seeks a deeply serious meaning in both works. "Learned men,"
he admonishes Toby, "don't write dialogues upon long noses
for nothing" (Vol. 3, Chapter 37).
With all due respect to Walter, however, learned
men—including Tristram and, by extension, Sterne—do write
long dialogues for their own amusement. By and large,
Tristram's constant allusions to noses are simply an extended
exercise in innuendo: for him, as later for Sigmund Freud, the
nose has strong phallic connotations. Hence all the talk of the
relationship between nose length and manhood, and of the role
played by a long and shapely nose in guaranteeing a happy
marriage. Naturally, Tristram doesn't say any of this outright;
instead, he affects a false prudishness and urges the reader
not to read too much into what he says about noses. He even
includes a warning, ostensibly to prevent the reader from
getting the wrong idea: "by the word Nose, throughout all this
long chapter of noses ... I declare, by that word I mean a Nose,
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
and nothing more, or less."
Tristram has another kindred spirit in Desiderius Erasmus
(1469–1536), a Dutch Renaissance thinker who, like many of
Sterne's literary heroes, often used absurd humor to make a
philosophical point. Pamphagus and Cocles are characters in a
colloquy (a literary dialogue) entitled De captandis sacerdotiis
(On the Pursuit of Benefices, 1522), in which Erasmus
lampoons the tendency of priests to seek out lucrative and
prestigious positions within the church. Like Erasmus, Sterne
scorned such careerist behavior; his role model is Yorick, the
simple country parson who tends his flock and moonlights as
an author. In Erasmus's dialogue, as in the dramatic writings of
Bruscambille, noses are a merely incidental subject—however
much they might mean to Walter Shandy.
An earlier and better-known work by Erasmus, Moriae
encomium (In Praise of Folly, 1509), is even more sympathetic
to Tristram's style of wit. In this prose monologue a personified
Foolishness boasts of her own popularity and proclaims her
usefulness to humankind. Throughout his rather rambling
autobiography, Tristram, too, has been concerned with the
relationship between wisdom and folly, eagerly reminding his
readers that fools can sometimes tell profound truths. By
inserting a sheet of "motley" (i.e., marbled) paper between the
pages of his novel, Tristram signals once more his affinity with
the figure of the court jester, who traditionally wore a "motley"
or multicolored costume.
Vol. 4, Slawkenbergius's Tale
Summary
Vol. 4 opens with a tale from Slawkenbergius's book De Nasis
(Of Noses). Tristram prints a few pages of the "original" Latin
alongside an English translation then tells the rest of the story
in English. In plot the tale is as nonsensical as many of the
other digressions in Tristram Shandy: it tells of a stranger with
a prominent nose entering the town of Strasburg and being
surrounded by curious citizens who wish to touch his nose.
Some believe the nose to be false, while others think it is
genuine. Unable to stay in Strasburg undisturbed, the stranger
leaves for Frankfurt, promising to return in a month.
While the stranger is away, a debate ensues about the nature
and origin of his nose. All strata of Strasburg society, including
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Chapter Summaries 23
the clergy, the academics, and the aristocracy, are swept up in
the madness. Those lucky enough to see the nose deliver
public lectures about it, and medical experts write
dissertations on the maximum possible size to which a man's
nose may grow. Eventually, a religious controversy erupts, with
the Nosarians insisting on God's power to make a nose as big
as he wants and the Antinosarians arguing "he can do nothing
... which implies contradictions."
At length the stranger leaves Frankfurt and begins his journey
back to Strasburg. Partway through his trip, however, he meets
a fellow traveler named Fernandez who happens to be the
brother of his former lover Julia. Fernandez entreats the
stranger, whose name is Diego, to return to Spain and
reconcile with Julia. He agrees, and the two set out by a route
which avoids Strasburg altogether. The disappointed
Strasburgers, who had been waiting on the road for a glimpse
at the stranger, return to their city, only to find it has been
captured by the French.
Analysis
In this off-kilter and somewhat risqué narrative, Sterne rounds
up several of his favorite subjects for mockery. On one level, by
crediting Slawkenbergius with the authorship of 100 such
stories, Sterne is doing a send-up of medieval collections such
as the Decameron (c. 1350) and the Canterbury Tales (late 14th
century). Unlike these frame stories, however,
Slawkenbergius's second book is focused exclusively on
stories about noses. It thus echoes Walter Shandy's own
single-minded devotion to the topic and mirrors the hyper-
specialized treatises which Tristram names—and
mocks—elsewhere in the novel. Perhaps more strongly than
any other part of the novel, Slawkenbergius's Tale also echoes
the writings of François Rabelais, which are rich in both
religious satire and bawdy humor of the sort presented here.
Within the tale clergymen (religious scholars in particular) are
lampooned at length, setting the reader up for the
ridiculousness of the baptism debate in Vol. 4, Chapters
26–29. Both Catholic and Protestant theologians are laughed
at here, since both are involved in the absurd, hair-splitting
debate over the nature of the stranger's nose. The
"Nosarian/Antinosarian" conflict—"Can God make an infinitely
big nose?"—notably involves scholars from two rival
universities, one Lutheran and one "Popish" (i.e., Catholic), as if
to imply that neither side has a monopoly on pedantry. Similar
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
disputes over God's omnipotence were carried out, often quite
passionately, throughout the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance.
Tristram, as the Yorick episode in Vol. 1 illustrates, is
unsympathetic to the hierarchy of the Anglican Church, which
he sees as out of touch and perhaps even oppressive. As
usual, however, there is a detectable anti-Catholic edge to his
satire here. The abbess of Quedlingberg, for example, is a
cartoonish figure who, in her patently lustful desire to touch the
stranger's nose, makes a mockery of the celibacy expected of
nuns. In fact, all the sisters in her order—and, indeed, all the
convents in Strasburg—are said to suffer from sleeplessness
and agitation on account of their dreams of the stranger's
nose. The notion of monks and nuns as sexually repressed—or,
worse, as frauds who did not live up to their vows of
celibacy—is a staple of anti-Catholic humor in Tristram Shandy.
Vol. 4, Chapters 1–11
Summary
Having shared Slawkenbergius's Tale with the reader, Tristram
returns to his description of Walter, still abject from the news
of his son's damaged nose. After an hour and a half, Walter
begins to stir, to the great relief of Uncle Toby, who is sitting in
an armchair and keeping watch over his brother. Walter
complains of the "lashes" dealt to him by fortune, which leads
Toby to recount the story of a grenadier who was severely
whipped for a suspected theft. Too tired even to get angry,
Walter collapses back into a motionless heap. Toby rings for
Trim to come up, and the two military men commiserate about
the falsely accused grenadier. Walter gradually revives once
more.
Feeling a little better, Walter explains to Toby his philosophical
views on the "hidden resources," which allow a person to bear
afflictions patiently. Human beings, he says, have a "great and
elastic power," which allows them to rebound against adversity,
"like a secret spring in a well-ordered machine." In order to
counterbalance this particular evil (i.e., the squashed nose),
Walter proposes to give his newborn son the powerful, glorious
name of Trismegistus. In attempting to get down the stairs,
Walter is clobbered by Uncle Toby's crutch, adding to the
"chapter of chances" that have befallen him.
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Chapter Summaries 24
The word "chapter" reminds Tristram of all the unwritten
chapters he has promised the reader, and he sets out to start
crossing some of these off his list. He begins with a "chapter
upon chapters," in which he decides not to offer the reader a
"sententious parade of wisdom," but instead to point him to
ancient authors who discussed the craft of fiction. Back at
Shandy Hall, Walter takes a single step down the stairs while
explaining the merits of the name Trismegistus.
Analysis
Most of Walter's favored names for his son, such as Caesar
and Archimedes, refer to famous figures from Greek and
Roman history. The name he eventually chooses, Trismegistus,
is a little obscurer. Also spelled "Trismegistos," it means
"thrice-great" in Greek, an etymology that no doubt appeals to
Walter all on its own. A further reason for choosing the name is
its association with Hermes Trismegistus, a legendary scholar
and alchemist reputed to have lived during the 2nd century
BCE and the alleged author of the Hermetic Corpus, a
collection of ancient Greek and Latin writings on the occult.
This biographical detail perfectly captures Walter's own
obsession with obscure knowledge and his pursuit of it via rare
books. Walter would, no doubt, be immensely pleased with a
son whose writings unraveled the secrets of the universe.
The other characters' reactions to the name are similarly
telling. Toby, hearing of Trismegistus's great deeds, naturally
assumes such a man must also have an illustrious military
record, since for him this is the most proper measure of a
person's greatness. Susannah, in later chapters of this volume,
will fail to recognize "Trismegistus" as a name at all, providing a
comic foil to Walter's extensive book learning. An awkward
game of telephone will ensue, with Susannah misremembering
the name as "Tristram-gistus." The curate who baptizes the
child may have heard of Trismegistus, but he is unlikely to be
familiar with "Tristramgistus." He thus balks at giving the baby
such a weird name: "There is no 'gistus' to it, noodle!" he
indignantly tells Susannah. "[Tristram] is my own name."
Vol. 4, Chapters 12–21
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
Summary
Still making their way down the stairs, Walter and Uncle Toby
remark on the way the women of the household seem to
become an inch taller when their mistress is about to have a
baby. Toby finds this admirable ("God bless 'em all!"); Walter
finds it annoying ("Duce [i.e., devil] take 'em all!"). Frustrated at
the slow pace of his own narrative, Tristram calls for a literary
critic "to get my father and my uncle Toby off the stairs." At the
current rate, he complains, his life is unfolding faster than his
autobiography can capture it.
While Tristram is pondering this issue, Walter and Toby retire
to their respective bedrooms. Walter, however, does not rest
long before Susannah bursts into the room: the baby is doing
poorly and must be baptized immediately in case the worst
should happen. While dressing, he asks Susannah to tell the
priest (Yorick's assistant) to christen the baby Trismegistus;
the name gets jumbled up in the retelling, and the baby is
named Tristram. Walter hears of the mistake at breakfast the
next morning. He grabs his hat, walks calmly out of the house,
and stands silently by the fishpond.
Corporal Trim arrives and immediately disavows any role in the
baby-naming fiasco. At length, Walter returns from the
fishpond and gives a dramatic speech on the evil which has
befallen his poor, misnamed infant. Toby offers to send for
Yorick, to see if the baby can simply be renamed.
Analysis
There's an element of casual but undeniable sexism in Walter's
remarks on the staircase (Vol. 4, Chapter 12). In general, his
views concerning women are about as sophisticated as those
of a typical sitcom dad: "Can't live with 'em, can't live without
'em." There's more going on here, however, than the brevity of
the scene might imply. Walter's annoyance at the audacity of
his female servants reflects his self-image not just as a man,
but as the man in charge. As the patriarch of the Shandy family,
he resents any encroachment on his authority—not only by
women, but by socially inferior men (e.g., Trim) and those
outside the family (Dr. Slop). On the one hand, Walter is more
likely to ascribe a woman's vexing behaviors to her sex, while
seeing a man's foibles as a result of ill-breeding, lack of
education, or religious difference. On the other hand, his little
outburst—"Duce take 'em!"—could easily apply to anyone who
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Chapter Summaries 25
diminishes his own authority within the household. Toby's "God
bless 'em!" is patronizing, perhaps, but it lacks any sense of ill-
will or insecurity.
Tristram's cheerful exposition of the Shandy brothers'
personalities is cut short by a startling realization in Chapter
29: "I am this month one whole year older," he complains, "than
I was this time twelve-month." In itself, this statement seems so
obvious that it might appear to be just another stroke of
Shandean silliness. For Tristram, however, the passing of
another year drives home his failure to write at the pace of life;
the more he reflects on the passage of time, the more
dauntingly apparent becomes the sheer scope of his project.
With "three hundred and sixty-four days more life to write just
now, than when [he] first set out," Tristram is unlikely ever to
catch up to the present—especially given how many chapters it
takes for him to narrate a single day.
Vol. 4, Chapters 22–32
Summary
Tristram pauses to apologize for anything in his writing that
might be misconstrued as controversial. His book, he insists, is
not "wrote against predestination, or free-will, or taxes," but
merely to entertain. Back at Shandy Hall, Walter asks Yorick
about the possibility of renaming his child and agrees to go to
a gathering of religious scholars to get their opinions. Vol. 4,
Chapter 24 is purposefully omitted, as Tristram believes the
book to be better off without it. By the beginning of Vol. 4,
Chapter 25 Walter, Toby, and Yorick are all en route to the
meeting place.
At the gathering the other clerics are horrified to find Yorick
passing around strips of an old sermon of his for use in lighting
their pipes. The sermon, Yorick explains, was overly academic
and did not come from the heart, thus should not be preserved
in writing. His discussion is interrupted by a pained scream
from across the room: a hot chestnut has rolled off the table
and landed in the codpiece of Yorick's colleague Phutatorius.
Some of those present—including Phutatorius—suspect this to
be a prank played by Yorick.
As Phutatorius seeks out a remedy for his singed crotch, the
rest of the group considers the issue of Tristram's baptism.
The clerics offer many pedantic and unhelpful examples of
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
cases in which a baptism might be null and void. Tristram's
baptism, however—and thus his name—is declared valid and
binding. Mercifully, Walter is soon distracted by a different
problem: how to spend an inheritance from his aunt Dinah. Two
projects stand out: he can either send his elder son Bobby on a
European tour to complete his education, or he can drain and
improve the Ox-moor, an undeveloped plot on the Shandy
estate. Before Walter can make up his mind, Bobby dies,
leaving Tristram the "heir-apparent to the Shandy family."
Analysis
The religious scholars gathered in Vol. 4, Chapters 26–29
comically invert one of the novel's major themes: rather than
being "wise fools" like Tristram, they might be said to be
"foolish sages." Deeply learned within their narrow discipline,
they are ludicrously eager to show off their knowledge. Their
explanations, peppered with details of Latin grammar and
canon law, are focused entirely on this kind of intellectual
showmanship, and not at all on answering Walter Shandy's
original question. Walter, as it happens, enjoys this sort of
erudite and impractical discussion, but it fails to give him any
remedy for his misbaptized son. Reflecting on the meeting
later, he will find it to be "like the anointing of a broken bone."
Remarkably, Walter appears to be more distraught over
Tristram's name than over the death of Bobby, who—like a
redshirt in Star Trek—is an incidental character, introduced
only to be killed off quickly.
The names of these learned divines also appear in the
"Preface" to Vol. 3 (between Chapter 20 and Chapter 21),
where they are collectively described as "doctors [i.e.,
academics] renowned for gravity and wisdom." Here, the satire
is extended, and the names are shown to fit their bearers.
"Phutatorius," as Brian Michael Norton points out in his essay
"The Moral in Phutatorius's Breeches" (2012), can mean either
"one who copulates" or "fastener." The name is an apt one: it
reinforces the ribald nature of the chestnut episode, and it
underscores Phutatorius's status as a lustful man, whose most
notorious piece of scholarship is a treatise entitled De
Concubinis Retinendis (Latin for "Of the Keeping of
Concubines"). Gastripheres, the "stomach-haver," is as much of
a glutton as his name suggests, and Somnolentus ("Sleepy")
snoozes his way through most of the meeting.
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Chapter Summaries 26
Vol. 5, Chapters 1–11
Summary
Tristram complains loudly of the
"pitiful—pimping—pettifogging" nature of other authors, who
imitate original works (including, by this point, Tristram Shandy
itself) rather than using their own creativity. He then turns,
regretfully, to the "chapter upon whiskers" he has promised. In
a short tale supposedly taken from the court of Margaret of
Navarre, he shows how a harmless word ("whiskers") can
acquire indecent connotations merely from the manner and
context in which it is said.
Walter Shandy is calculating the expense of Bobby's European
tour when the letter arrives announcing the young man's death.
He manages his grief by composing a long oration about death
and dying, quoting from several ancient authors in the process.
Mrs. Shandy, who happens to be passing by the door as Walter
speaks, stops to listen but does not yet learn that Bobby has
died.
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, news of Bobby's death is spreading
among the household staff. Corporal Trim gives his own short,
somber speech on the transience of life, to the admiration of
his coworkers. He also expresses his worries that Uncle Toby,
his employer and former commanding officer, will take the
death of his nephew too much to heart, just as he did when
Lieutenant Le Fever died. The others join him in praising Toby
for his gallant and warmhearted nature. Susannah asks to hear
about Lieutenant Le Fever, a wish that Trim is glad to oblige.
Before he can tell his tale, however, Tristram insists on
returning to the topic of his mother and her reaction to Bobby's
sudden demise.
Analysis
Like his playful quibbling with the "Anti-Shandeans" in Vol. 3,
Tristram's allegations of copycat works are grounded in real
life. Shortly after the first two volumes of Tristram Shandy were
published, imitations and other unauthorized Shandy books
began to crop up at a remarkable rate. Some claimed to be
written by Sterne, others insinuated as much by posing as
sequels to Tristram Shandy, and a few frankly admitted to
being critical commentaries on the novel. René Bosch covers
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
this phenomenon in detail in Labyrinth of Digressions: Tristram
Shandy as Perceived and Influenced by Sterne's Early Imitators
(2007). "That the hacks [i.e., low-quality writers] should jump
on Tristram Shandy," he points out, "was to be expected. What
nobody could have foreseen, however, was the scale on which
it happened."
Walter's response to Bobby's death is, characteristically, a
bookish one, but this does not necessarily make it shallow or
insincere. As previous volumes have shown, Walter is deeply
invested in literary learning—his "hobby-horse"—and looks to it
as a source of consolation in all kinds of hardships.
Nonetheless, Bobby is a decidedly marginal character in the
novel, and Tristram will not spend much time mourning his
brother, or describing his family's reaction to Bobby's death.
Mrs. Shandy will not even be present when the news of her
son's demise is broken to her. In essence, Bobby is less a
character than a plot device; with his death Walter is forced to
put all his eggs in one basket and focus on educating Tristram.
Vol. 5, Chapters 12–22
Summary
In attempting to get his story back on track, Tristram gets
drawn into an exploration of the literary sources of Walter's
funeral speech for Bobby. Mistaking a line from Socrates —"I
have three desolate children"—for an autobiographical
statement, Mrs. Shandy bursts through the door and demands
an explanation. Walter leaves the room and his wife follows
him, learning of her son's death offstage. Later, Walter begins
writing a Tristrapedia to serve as a guide to the education of
his surviving child. He soon finds that Tristram is growing up
faster than he can complete the book.
Tristram now attempts, in as delicate a manner as possible, to
tell of another formative childhood experience. In this scene
Tristram is five years old and is attempting to urinate out the
nursery window. The window sash falls, instantly circumcising
him, and Susannah the chambermaid runs to Uncle Toby's
house in a panic. She calls for Trim, who considers himself
guilty of Tristram's "murder," having taken the weights from the
windows to build model cannons for Toby. The two then inform
Uncle Toby, who nobly agrees to take the blame, since Trim
built the miniature cannons at his request. Together with
Copyright © 2018 Course Hero, Inc.
Chapter Summaries 27
Yorick, the three head back to Shandy Hall to break the news
to Walter.
Analysis
Like the "misnaming" episode in Vol. 4 Walter's eulogy for
Bobby is deflated by the other characters' failure to
understand his grandiose way of speaking. Toby is familiar
enough with Walter's fondness for Socrates to be in on the
joke, and even to humor his brother in his harmless little flight
of grandiloquence. He recognizes Walter's outpouring of
wordiness for what it is: a coping mechanism.
Mrs. Shandy, however, is not up to speed on her Greek
classics. When she hears Walter claiming to have "three
desolate children," her curiosity gets the better of her, and she
rushes in demanding to know about this mysterious third child
of his. "They are Socrates's children," Toby says in an attempt
to clarify, but this only leads Mrs. Shandy to retort that
"[Socrates] has been dead a hundred years ago." At this point
Bobby's death has been drained of any emotional impact it
might have had, and the whole scene is teetering on the brink
of farce. Tristram, like an embarrassed stage manager, hastily
closes the curtain by changing the subject in Chapter 15.
Vol. 5, Chapters 23–33
Summary
With Toby leading the way, the group arrives at Shandy Hall.
Walter, as Tristram now pauses to remind the reader, often
reacts unpredictably to an "untried occasion or occurrence of
life." His reaction to the news of Tristram's accidental
circumcision—an "untried occurrence" if ever there was one—is
understated. Instead of sending for a doctor, which he leaves
Mrs. Shandy to do, he goes down to his library and reads up on
the prominence of circumcision among ancient cultures.
Satisfied that the custom was widespread among the
Hebrews, the Egyptians, and others, he decides not to "fret or
fume one moment about the matter."
Joking about Tristram's accident, Walter wonders whether an
astrological phenomenon is not to blame for his son's
misfortunes. He and Yorick fall into a discussion of the
theology surrounding circumcision, and Toby—initially worried
Tristram Shandy Study Guide Chapter Summaries 28

about the child—gets drawn in as well. Yorick tells a story
about two acrobatic horsemen, which Toby finds dull on
account of its lack of fighting. Walter then describes his plans
for the Tristrapedia, beginning with the chapter on family
relations and respecting one's parents. This leads to a
discussion of the precepts on parents and children in the
Anglican Catechism, a work which, Toby proudly announces,
Corporal Trim can recite from memory.
At Toby's urging, Trim indeed recites the Catechism, one step
at a time, in a parody of a military drill. Unimpressed with this
rote approach to religious instruction, Walter asks whether
Trim really understands what is meant by "honoring thy father
and mother." Trim, with his usual simplicity and earnestness,
replies that it means "allowing them ... three halfpence a day
out of my pay, when they grew old." Yorick finds this answer
deeply moving, but Walter, embarrassed, proceeds to explain
his Tristrapedia chapter on health and longevity.
colleagues about matters of obscure religious doctrine.
Evidently, however, he lacks Trim's intuitive sense of the
requirements of Christian charity. Although he seldom shirks
his responsibilities as a father and husband, he often performs
them grudgingly, as when he carts Mrs. Shandy to London and
then grumbles all the way back home about the expense and
inconvenience of the trip (Vol. 1, Chapter 17). The present
scene, in which he picks on Trim for an apparent lack of
religious sophistication, is not one of Walter Shandy's prouder
moments.
Vol. 5, Chapters 34–43
Summary
Tristram describes his father's bizarre theories on health and
medicine, which are framed as an attack on the medical

Analysis teachings of "Lord Verulam" (i.e., Sir Francis Bacon) and the
famous Greek physician Hippocrates. In Walter's view, health

Trim, along with Mrs. Shandy to a lesser extent, serves as the depends on the balance of "radical heat" and "radical

voice of down-to-earth practicality throughout the novel. moisture." Too much heat, and the body simply dries out; too

Placing him in a dialogue with Walter and Dr. Slop—both much moisture, and "dropsies" (i.e., edema or abnormal fluid

theorists by nature—is bound to create some comical conflicts. retention) will result. Toby listens with unusual fascination to

Here, however, Tristram also makes a larger point about the his brother's theory, which reminds him of his experiences in

contrast between appearance and reality. By any conventional fighting off an illness during the Siege of Limerick (1690).

definition, Trim has not had much in the way of education,

Dr. Slop "waddles" into the room, and Walter offhandedly
religious or otherwise. Nor is the bar in this scene set
inquires about Tristram's condition. The prognosis, Slop says,
particularly high: the Catechism, a series of questions and
is poor. Trim ventures his own opinions on radical moisture and
answers intended for the instruction of the faithful, was and is
heat, which he says are "nothing but ditch-water—and a dram
a fundamental part of an Anglican upbringing, touching on such
of geneva." Dr. Slop is about to offer a pedantic lecture on the
topics as the sacraments, the Ten Commandments, and the
subject when he is called out to attend his patient. Sensing that
Lord's Prayer. Children were expected to commit it to memory,
the reader may be growing weary, Tristram likens himself to a
an accomplishment that most educated adults would have
sea captain and promises to bring everyone ashore soon.
regarded as trivial. Trim, however, recalls his Catechism
awkwardly and by rote—like a child who has memorized his The last two chapters of Vol. 5 set forth Walter's eccentric
times tables but is not truly fluent in basic arithmetic. views on education, which he sees as "entirely [depending] ...
upon the auxiliary verbs." If a child can master such words as
Nonetheless, Trim's answer to Walter's follow-up question
"have," "had," "should," and "could," Walter maintains, he will be
reveals a deep sense of his spiritual obligation "to love, honor,
able to speak intelligently—and at length—on any topic that
and succor [his] father and mother," just as the Catechism
happens to come up in conversation.
decrees. Walter, a much more privileged man than Trim, can
likely discuss Anglican doctrine with ease and may even be in
the process of helping the young Tristram to learn to recite the
Catechism for himself. In fact, Walter has a keen appetite for
theological learning and enjoys asking Yorick and his

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Tristram Shandy Study Guide Chapter Summaries 29

Analysis Vol. 6, Chapters 1–10

These scenes show Walter Shandy at his most gloriously
absurd. In formulating his medical theories, Shandy is picking a
fight with two authors whose works, though influential, are
Summary
much too old and outmoded for a normal 18th-century person
Tristram begins the new volume by expressing gratitude for
to take seriously. Hippocrates (c. 460–375 BCE) is often
having safely navigated the "wilderness" of his story so far.
considered the founder of Western medical tradition, and his
Walter continues discussing his plans for the young Tristram's
"how-to" medical writings are very astute for their time. His
education, and Yorick eggs him on by mentioning examples of
theories about anatomy and physiology, however, are largely
famous child prodigies. Meanwhile, Susannah and Dr. Slop
speculative. Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626), who lived and
squabble about how to apply the "cataplasm" (poultice or
wrote two millennia after Hippocrates, benefited from the
plaster) to Tristram's wound. In the course of the argument,
wealth of knowledge amassed through the dissection of
Susannah accidentally sets Slop's wig on fire, and the
cadavers, a practice that flourished during and after the
cataplasm is ruined. Walter plans to seek out a tutor for his
European Middle Ages. Consequently, his theory of anatomy
son, but his list of requirements is impossibly strict. Uncle Toby
(the parts of the body) was much more developed and
proposes the son of the late Lieutenant Le Fever as a
accurate than that of the ancient Greeks.
candidate, and Tristram (in his capacity as narrator) realizes he

Bacon's ideas concerning physiology (how the body works), still hasn't told the lieutenant's story.

however, were still far from the mark. A modern theory of

Lieutenant Le Fever, Tristram says, was a dying soldier who
circulation, for example, would not be established until two
happened to be lodging at an inn near Uncle Toby's house.
years after Bacon's death, and explanations of nerve function
Toby did all he could to ease Le Fever's suffering and even
in his time still relied on the idea of "animal spirits" traveling
attempted to save his life by hiring a physician, but to no avail.
along the nerve fibers. It's thus not surprising to find Bacon
When death was imminent, Toby promised to look after Le
accepting along such vague, musty concepts as "radical
Fever's son Billy.
moisture" and "innate heat," even though these have no
established meaning in modern medical discourse. Walter's
tendency to seek wisdom in old books serves him well when it
Analysis
comes to subjects like philosophy and human nature, but it
does him no favors in understanding the natural sciences.
Tristram, in his chatty little asides to the reader, does his best
to cultivate the impression of a random, rambling work in which
The Siege of Limerick, which Toby mentions almost in passing,
nothing is premeditated by more than a chapter or two. Behind
was likely a significant event for Sterne, as it marked a decisive
this façade of spontaneity, however, Sterne is constantly
but temporary turning point in the Williamite Wars (1689-91).
balancing and rebalancing the novel to keep things from
The Irish troops headquartered at Limerick, loyal to James II,
getting stale. Whether he succeeds has been a matter of
successfully repelled an all-out invasion by the Williamites,
critical debate for the past 250 years, give or take. In Vol. 6
British troops loyal to William III. The siege was a grueling one
Sterne decides it's high time for a serious, sentimental moment
for both sides and would likely have made a deep impression
after all the phallic jokes and mock-encyclopedia chapters in
on such a sensitive soul as Toby, who indeed speaks with
Vol. 5. Bobby's death might have been expected to serve as
horror and pity of the soggy, disease-ridden condition of his
this sort of emotional counterweight, but Sterne instead chose
fellow soldiers. Toby's latent anti-Irish bias (as indicated by his
to play the eulogy scene (Vol. 5, Chapters 12–14) for laughs,
habit of whistling "Lillabullero") is perhaps a consequence of
causing Walter's high-minded musings about death to land with
this demoralizing campaign. Sterne, who was Irish by birth but
an awkward thud. The death of Le Fever, in contrast, is about
also a member of the Anglican clergy, is sometimes described
as serious as Tristram Shandy gets. Only Tristram's reflections
by biographers as "Anglo-Irish." In Tristram Shandy, however,
on his own mortality (Vol. 7) and the inexorable passage of
his attitudes toward Ireland and its people are presented only
time (Vol. 9, Chapter 8) come close to the high-water mark
ambiguously.
established in these chapters.

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Tristram Shandy Study Guide
Vol. 6, Chapters 11–20
Summary
Tristram continues telling the story of Lieutenant Le Fever and
his son. When Le Fever died, he says, Uncle Toby and the
lieutenant's son Billy were the chief mourners at the funeral,
with Yorick delivering the sermon. (Tristram reiterates his offer
to publish Yorick's sermons if readers are interested.) After
settling the late lieutenant's accounts, Toby gave Billy a
rudimentary education and enrolled him at a boarding school,
where he remained until age 17. At that point Billy took up his
father's sword and became a soldier, but fell ill during the
campaign and sought passage home from France. Back in the
main narrative timeline, Dr. Slop spreads wildly exaggerated
rumors about the extent of young Tristram's injury.
Walter has resolved to put Tristram into breeches (in 18th-
century England, both boys and girls wore gowns during the
first few years of life), having "pro'd and conn'd" the decision at
length and argued about it with Mrs. Shandy. As is his usual
practice, Walter has also consulted the ancient and medieval
historians, who—he finds—say much about fashion in general
but nothing about breeches. Finally, frustrated with the
fruitlessness of his research, he simply orders a pair of
breeches to be made for Tristram.
Analysis
These chapters, along with those immediately preceding, are
Uncle Toby's moment to shine. Early volumes of Tristram
Shandy have painted Toby as a harmless but lovable eccentric,
with hints here and there of his kindheartedness and gallantry.
Vols. 8 and 9 will thrust Toby into an awkward romance with
the Widow Wadman, his neighbor and not-so-secret admirer.
There, his clumsiness in matters of love will make him an object
of sympathy, not admiration. Here, in the middle of the novel,
Toby gets a touch of character development that helps to
explain why Trim and the servants revere him so much. Given
the chance to help a fellow soldier, he does everything in his
power to give Le Fever a chance at recovering his health, and
then, when those measures fail, to ease his death and take
care of his orphaned son. These actions, motivated by both a
generous spirit and a sense of military camaraderie, make a
deep impression on Corporal Trim.
Copyright © 2018 Course Hero, Inc.
Chapter Summaries 30
Vol. 6, Chapters 21–30
Summary
Tristram interrupts his tale once more to describe the model
fortifications Uncle Toby is building at Shandy Hall. Whenever a
new siege is begun, he reports, Toby and Corporal Trim set
about recreating the town and its environs on a miniature
scale, with the whole scene taking up about "a rood and a half"
(i.e., three eighths of an acre) of ground. Then, every time news
of the siege reaches England, Toby updates his model siege
works to match the latest intelligence. Tristram promises to
give a more detailed account of this process in a separate
work.
One development, however, is so extraordinary that Tristram is
compelled to describe it before moving on with his own story.
As the war wears on, he explains, Toby and Trim find it difficult
to "keep up something like a continual firing" to simulate the
use of siege artillery. To solve this problem, Trim connects a
pair of "Turkish tobacco pipes" (hookahs) to several tiny
cannons. The next morning Toby wakes up to find the siege in
full swing.
When Toby walks out onto the siege works, he finds Trim
puffing furiously and smoke pouring out of the jury-rigged
cannons. After a few minutes' hesitation, Toby grabs one of the
pipes and does his part to keep the cannons going.
Afterwards, he and Trim keep augmenting and rearranging
their miniature fort until the Treaty of Utrecht is signed,
bringing an end to the war. With no battles being fought by
England's forces on the continent, Toby has no reason to go
on staging his own small-scale battles in the garden.
Analysis
The hookah-cannon invention is something of a "star turn" for
Corporal Trim, who has been diligent and resourceful in
previous fort-building scenes, but not particularly creative. The
episode might also be seen as a counterbalance to Trim's
earlier, dubious decision to use the lead sash-weights as raw
material for his siege weapons. If Trim is sometimes
remarkably obtuse and single-track minded in building, he is
evidently also capable of the occasional stroke of genius.
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
At the same time, the use of the hookahs is another piece of
self-sacrificing generosity on Trim's part, since he received
them as a gift from his brother Tom. His decision to repurpose
them for Uncle Toby's pleasure is consistent with the
description of Trim in Vol. 5, Chapter 19: "had it been his last
crown, he would have sate [sic] down and hammered it into a
paderero [a small cannon] to have [anticipated] a single wish in
his Master."
By describing the Treaty of Utrecht as a stroke of bad luck,
however, Tristram sets up a character problem. Almost
everyone would agree that peace is preferable to war, since it
means an end to the killing, maiming, and general disorder war
inevitably brings. For Toby, however, the end of the war has a
decided drawback: it robs him of an excuse for building his
miniature forts. The reader is thus left to wonder how Toby—a
warm-hearted humanitarian, but also a soldier and an
obsessive hobbyist—will take the news. After all, backyard fort-
building may be a silly pastime, as Walter certainly believes it to
be, but it has also helped Toby to recover his zest for life after
a career-ending injury, and it has provided Trim with a more
dignified and soldier-like employment than merely fetching
books and maps. Uncle Toby's mixed feelings about the Peace
of Utrecht will be explored in the next few chapters.
Vol. 6, Chapters 31–40
Summary
Uncle Toby is disappointed by the Treaty of Utrecht, but
Walter believes his brother merely wants an excuse to keep
building miniature forts. Fearful of being misunderstood, Toby
gives a long speech explaining his "principles and conduct in
wishing to continue the war." In this "apologetical oration,"
Toby professes his awareness of war's evils and his sympathy
for its victims. He argues, however, that war is necessary for
peace-loving people "to keep the ambitious and the turbulent
within bounds." Nevertheless, Toby and Trim are somber as
they dismantle the model fort. When the job is done, Toby
becomes quiet and listless, lacking a "hobby-horse" to occupy
him. This will not last long: Uncle Toby is about to fall in love.
Before he tells of Toby's courtship of the Widow Wadman,
however, Tristram stops to survey various ancient and
medieval theories on love. Plato, he says, sees love as "one
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Chapter Summaries 31
great Devil," but Ficinus (Marsilio Ficino, 1433–99) thinks it is a
mixture of the divine and the demonic. The medieval scholar
Bernardus Gordonius offers rough prescriptions for "curing"
lovesick individuals. All these authors Tristram points out, will
be closely consulted by Walter Shandy as his brother's love
affair progresses.
He then invites the reader to come up with his own description
of the Widow Wadman: "Sit down, Sir, paint her to your own
mind—as like your mistress as you can—as unlike your wife as
your conscience will let you." He leaves a blank page for this
purpose then praises the reader's depiction as "sweet" and
"exquisite" on the next page. Meanwhile, the Shandy household
is abuzz with rumors that Toby will marry Mrs.
Wadman—though Toby has not yet made any plans in this
regard.
Tristram concludes the volume with another one of his
typographical tricks: a set of squiggly lines intended to sum up
the plots of Vols. 1–5. A straighter line, in this scheme, means a
simpler, more linear plot. Unsurprisingly, the lines for Vols. 1–4
are a tangle of curlicues and switchbacks; in Vol. 5, however,
Tristram maintains he has been "I have been very good," not
taking "the least frisk of a digression" for several chapters on
end. He semi-sarcastically promises to be even less digressive
in later volumes, until eventually his plot can be captured by a
perfectly straight line.
Analysis
Anytime a big issue (e.g., love, war, death, religion) comes up,
Walter can be counted on to consult his library of cherished
classics, seeking out the advice of the ancients in order to
pass it on—usually unsolicited—to anyone who looks like they
might need it. This time Tristram helpfully provides a digest of
the different books from which Walter has assembled his
patchwork view of love.
"Ficinus" (Ficino) was one of the major Renaissance-era
interpreters of Plato, whose works he attempted to reconcile
with the Christian theology of his day. Plato, in turn, had written
extensively on the nature of love in his Symposium, a
philosophical dialogue that imagines various ancient Athenian
thinkers giving their views on the subject. Several of the
participants in the Symposium attempt to differentiate love into
two contrasting types, with Socrates eventually sketching out
a gradation between them. In his view, love of merely physical
Tristram Shandy Study Guide Chapter Summaries 32

beauty is not bad or wicked but has the potential to function as

a stepping stone to higher, more philosophical kinds of love.
Analysis
This argument is, with an added layer of Christian morality,
Ever the jokester, Tristram plays off a near-fatal illness as
transmitted by Ficino in his translations and commentaries
though it were a house call from a creditor. Death stops by, but
then distilled by Walter into a "Devil vs. Angel" view of love.
Tristram smoothly convinces Death he has the wrong address,
Walter's core position, which might be summarized as "pro-love
since someone as cheerful as Tristram cannot be ready to die.
but anti-lust," is a radical simplification of the attitudes
"There must certainly be some mistake in this matter," Death
presented in Plato. Tristram's own view of love is evidently
shrugs as he departs.
contrary to both Walter's and Plato's: he objects even to the
phrase "fall in love," since it seems to imply "that love is a thing Underneath the humor, however, there is something desperate
below a man." From Tristram's perspective, such a demeaning about the first chapters of Vol. 7, with Tristram hurrying like a
attitude toward love is "damnable and heretical." fugitive from one French post town to another. He is tired,
irritable, harried, and "splenetic" (i.e., spiteful), but seldom if
Bernardus Gordonius (alias Bernard of Gordon), the other
ever happy. There is a tinge of desperation even in his lusting
author mentioned here, was a French physician and medical
after Janatone, which might otherwise be taken as a sign of
scholar who lived at the beginning of the 14th century. His
life. Ordinarily quite casual in his praise of female beauty,
works are less well known in modern times than those of
Tristram dwells on Janatone's actions as she knits a stocking,
Marsilio Ficino, but they are much more concrete and thus
then hungrily fantasizes about seeing her in "the wettest
provide an interesting counterpoint to Ficino's more abstract
drapery" and drawing her features with a pencil. Like a splash
views. His prescriptions for healing a variety of illnesses,
of cold water, a sobering thought interrupts Tristram's erotic
including venereal diseases, are given in the Lilium medicinae
reveries: Janatone, he realizes, will not be young and beautiful
("Lily of Medicine"), a medical treatise composed c. 1303.
forever, but "carries the principles of change within [her]
frame."

Vol. 7, Chapters 1–11

Vol. 7, Chapters 12–22
Summary
Tristram jokingly recalls a visit from Death, whom he plans to
Summary
escape by traveling to France. After a long and nauseous sea
Still preoccupied with his own mortality, Tristram sets out for
voyage, Tristram arrives at the port city of Calais, where he
his next stop at four in the morning. "So much of motion," he
stops overnight. He describes the city's major buildings,
explains, "is so much of life, and so much of joy," but "to stand
including the town hall, the church, and a "monstrous high"
still, or get on but slowly, is death and the devil." As he travels,
tower known as the Tour de Guet. After threatening the reader
he muses on the decline of Christian belief in his time and
with a 50-page digression on the Siege of Calais (1346–47),
prophesies that the old Greek and Roman deities will "come
Tristram relents and makes his way to Boulogne.
into play again." The carriage makes its way through several
The other travelers, noting Tristram's haste, assume he is smaller towns before stopping at Amiens. Tristram, still
either a wanted criminal or a debtor fleeing his creditors. He seriously ill, finds himself annoyed by the difficulty of getting a
assures them he has "no debt but the debt of Nature ... and I satisfactory nap during his journey.
will pay her every farthing I owe her." From Boulogne, Tristram
Tristram finally arrives in Paris, but he finds the city much less
hurries inland to Montreuil, which he describes as looking
impressive than he expected. Begrudgingly slipping into the
beautiful in maps but "pitifully" up close. The town's one
role of a travel writer, he adds up the number of "grand Hôtels"
redeeming feature, in his opinion, is the innkeeper's daughter
and the number of streets in the city but offers no description
Janatone, whom he describes with a mixture of lighthearted
of individual landmarks, except for a rather grandiose
affection and unconcealed lust.
inscription on the entrance of the Louvre.

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Tristram Shandy Study Guide
He next comments on the poor treatment of French horses,
who—he suggests—are fed on curses rather than on grain. The
words used to encourage the horses, he says, are too
indelicate to print, so he will get at them indirectly by telling a
story. His anecdote concerns an abbess and a novice (a
woman training to be a nun) who, while traveling in a mule-
drawn carriage, find the mules suddenly unwilling to budge.
The abbess whistles, shouts, and raps her cane against the
carriage floor, but the mules pay no heed.
Analysis
Tristram's mood continues to deteriorate in these chapters,
despite a few temporary sparks of liveliness. His reflections on
motion and life nicely summarize his general approach to
narration, but they also suggest a rushed, even frenzied
approach to living: cram in all the experiences you can while
you still can. In embracing this way of life—getting up before
dawn to move on to the next town, barely stopping to see
Paris—it's easy to see Tristram is not really living. Rather, he is
running from death, just as he joked he would do at the
beginning of the volume.
Motion, to an extent, may indeed represent life and joy, but
motion for its own sake can be joyless, as Tristram's hustling
about in these chapters tends to be. In any case, there's a
marked difference between the vivacious bustle of Tristram
Shandy as a whole and the grim, dyspeptic hurry of these
chapters. Fortunately for both narrator and reader, a well-
timed digression presents itself in Chapters 21–25. The story
of the swearing nuns brightens the mood and, just as
importantly, pulls Tristram out of his ruminations for several
chapters at a stretch.
Vol. 7, Chapters 23–33
Summary
Tristram concludes his tale of the abbess and the novice.
Panicked at the mules' refusal to move, the novice offers a
suggestion: there are two "certain words" that "will force any
horse, or ass, or mule, to go up a hill whether he will or no."
These words are "sinful" and thus inappropriate for a religious
woman to pronounce, but as the abbess points out, it's not a
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Chapter Summaries 33
sin to say half of a dirty word. Accordingly, the abbess starts
saying "bou" repeatedly, while the novice chants "ger." Then
they switch off: the novice says "fou" and the abbess says "ter."
The mules fail to budge.
In the course of telling his story, Tristram has crossed another
half-dozen French cities. Most of these he passes over without
comment, but he cannot resist recounting his father's trip to
Auxerre to see a collection of mummified saints. Then, pausing
for a moment to collect himself, Tristram moves onward to
Lyons, arriving on foot after his carriage literally falls apart. He
sells the carriage parts for scrap and plans to continue his
French tour by boat.
First, however, Tristram wants to take in some of the sights of
Lyons, starting with the famous mechanical clock in the city's
cathedral. Next on the itinerary is the library of the Jesuits,
which contains a 30-volume history of China written in Chinese
characters (such works were then a rarity in Europe). The final
stop on Tristram's planned tour of Lyons is a local landmark
known as the Tomb of the Lovers. Before the tour can get
underway, however, Tristram is stopped by a French official
who presents him with a bill.
Analysis
The two "sinful" words in the abbess's story are a pair of
French verbs. "Fouter" is an older spelling of a French expletive
still widely used in the 21st century and still widely considered
offensive. "Bouger," which literally means "move" (cf. English
"budge") is no longer regarded as offensive, but it isn't an
especially polite word either. Tristram's aim here is to show the
silliness and hypocrisy of the two women, who are too saintly
to swear but not too delicate to shout "bou bou bou" and "fou
fou fou" repeatedly. This, like the digression on "baptism by
injection" in Vol. 1, Chapter 20, and the caricatural presentation
of Dr. Slop throughout Vol. 2, is part of a broad anti-Catholic
current in the novel's satire.
Tristram turns the tables, however, in telling of his father's trip
to Auxerre. Walter has nothing but contempt for Catholic
traditions in general; moreover, he thinks "a monk and the very
smell of a monk worse than all the devils in hell." He thus enters
the abbey of St. Germain determined to make a mockery of
both the monks living there and the saints entombed there. He
interrupts the story told by the sacristan, the Benedictine monk
who serves as the tombs' caretaker and tour guide. He
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
deliberately mixes up the names of the deceased for comical
effect. He even interjects his own rude remarks, insinuating
that some of the saints at Auxerre were involved in an illicit
relationship. In short, Walter is a pretty boorish guest.
Ultimately, however, he is "disarmed" by the piety and
reverence of the sacristan, who patiently explains the abbey's
history to the English tourists. Sectarian differences, Tristram
seems to suggest here, are no excuse for abusing the good
faith of others.
Vol. 7, Chapters 34–43
Summary
The French commissary informs Tristram that he owes money
for the remainder of his carriage trip, even though the carriage
has broken down and Tristram intends to continue his travels
by boat. After some quibbling over these regulations, Tristram
pays the official and is about to leave the inn when he realizes
he has misplaced his "remarks"—a sheaf of paper on which he
has been documenting his travels. He eventually finds them
with the man to whom he sold the carriage parts.
With these interruptions out of the way, Tristram cheerfully
proceeds to the cathedral to observe the famous clock, only to
find it is out of order. Undaunted, he heads to the Jesuit library
to look over the Chinese history books, but all the Jesuits in
residence at Lyons have fallen ill, so there is no one to admit
him to the library. Still in good spirits, he decides to visit the
Tomb of the Lovers ... which turns out not to exist at all.
Dejected, Tristram barely catches his boat, sails down the
Rhône, and arrives in the city of Avignon. Confident that he has
left Death many miles behind him, he rides across the south of
France, stopping to take part in country fairs and rustic
dances.
Analysis
The closing chapters of Vol. 7 are among the most bittersweet
in the entire novel. Tristram has gotten a reprieve from his
illness, but he knows—as did his 18th-century readers—that
such a reprieve is likely to be temporary. Tuberculosis, the
illness hounding Tristram, was incurable with the medical
treatments of his time. Instead, those affluent enough to travel
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Chapter Summaries 34
to a warmer climate did so in the hopes of slowing or even
reversing the disease's progress, which was hastened by cold
and humidity. Although Tristram has described his trip as an
attempt to confuse Death via a sudden change of address, his
real motive is likely this "climate cure."
Ultimately, the cure won't work. For the moment, however,
Tristram is feeling better physically and emotionally, and his
mood is reflected in symbolic cues throughout these chapters.
The defunct clock at Lyons is only mildly disappointing to
Tristram; on a deeper level, it suggests a reprieve from the
"clock time" in which death is inexorably advancing. The absent
tomb is (again, despite Tristram's transient disappointment at
not getting to see it) a similarly positive sign: a looming and
highly anticipated symbol of death which simply fails to show
up. After Lyons, Tristram is living once more in the liberating
world of subjective time—what English philosopher John Locke
called "duration"—rather than the inflexible time of the external
world.
Zooming out a bit, it's apparent that Tristram has undergone a
remarkable transformation over the course of Vol. 7. When he
first landed in France, he was so harried and preoccupied that
his fellow travelers thought he was a wanted criminal. In
Paris—and in most of the towns along the way—Tristram felt
too pressed for time to do more than stop for a night and make
a few notes in his journal. But with his arrival on the bright,
sparsely populated plains of southern France, something
changes: Tristram is no longer afraid to stop and take in the
sights. Instead of rushing about as though pursued by demons,
he crosses the countryside at a leisurely pace, engaging in
conversation with those he meets along the way.
Vol. 8, Chapters 1–10
Summary
After once more paying tribute to the beauty of the French
countryside, Tristram sets out to "write [his] Uncle Toby's
amours." He begins by likening love to cuckoldom: the person
who falls in love, like the one whose spouse has been
unfaithful, is "at least the third, but generally the last in the
house who knows anything about the matter." Seeking to
account for the Widow Wadman's interest in Uncle Toby,
Tristram observes that curiosity often leads to fancy (fondness
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
or infatuation), which in turn leads to desire.
Laughing at his own tendency to get tangled up in anecdotes,
Tristram admits he still has no idea why the Widow Wadman
fell for Uncle Toby. It happened, he says, just after Toby had
left London to live on the Shandy estate. In their haste to leave
town, they forget to bring a bed for Toby, leaving him
"constrained" to stay in the guest room at Mrs. Wadman's
house. For the widow it is practically love at first sight, but
Toby's head is "full of other matters," and 11 years pass without
any development in the relationship.
Analysis
Although these chapters are primarily Uncle Toby's story,
Tristram takes a slight detour to keep the reader informed of
his progressively worsening health. Just a few months ago,
Tristram notes in Vol. 8, Chapter 6 that he suffered a serious
relapse of his tuberculosis, suggesting that the French climate
has eased his illness but in no way cured it. "In two hours," he
remarks in a moment of self-apostrophe, "thou lost as many
quarts of blood; and hadst thou lost as much more, did not the
faculty tell thee—it would have amounted to a gallon?"
Characteristically of Tristram, this dangerous episode was
provoked not by stress, trauma, or heavy drinking, but by a fit
of excessive laughter.
The subject of tuberculosis will crop up again in Vol. 9, by
which point Tristram's condition will seem to have grown even
direr. In the final chapters of the novel Tristram will even drop a
half-apologetic hint about his inability to finish the story
properly. For the rest of Vol. 8, however, Tristram is candid
about his desire to avoid discussing his health. Recounting
Uncle Toby's amorous misadventures is, he finds, a welcome
distraction.
Vol. 8, Chapters 11–20
Summary
Tristram describes love and lust as dreadful conditions that
make a person agitated and indecisive. "Alphabetically
speaking," he says, love is "one of the most Agitating,
Bewitching, Confounded, Devilish affairs of life" ... with the
adjectives continuing down to R for "Ridiculous." Resuming his
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Chapter Summaries 35
story, he tells of the Widow Wadman's habit of spying on Uncle
Toby through the branches of her arbor.
Tristram praises Mrs. Wadman's "generalship" in asking Toby
to point out features on his military map, which eventually leads
to his hand touching hers. The widow's "attacks," he says, are
very gradual but have the cumulative effect of piquing Toby's
interest in her.
The plot now rejoins the main timeline from the end of Vol. 6,
when Toby and Trim were forced to retire from fort-building.
The two men are shown dismantling the rest of their
fortifications, with Trim attempting to tell Toby a story to cheer
him up. Trim is eventually led to recount his own experience of
falling in love with a Beguine (a woman charged with caring for
the sick) who tended to him after he was wounded in battle.
Analysis
As if infected by the military spirit which possesses Toby and
Trim, Tristram himself starts using the language of attacks and
maneuvers to describe the Widow Wadman's approach to
courtship. Mrs. Wadman soon reveals herself to be a cunning
tactician who is well aware of her enemy's weaknesses. Toby,
like the holder of a heavily fortified town, requires a protracted
"siege" on the part of the lady who wishes to win his heart, and
Mrs. Wadman has seemingly committed herself to playing the
long game. Toby's resistance to being wooed is not, however, a
sign of cold-heartedness or lack of feeling, but only of
obtuseness: for the longest time he is apparently unable to
recognize that Mrs. Wadman is flirting with him at all. Arguably,
this works to Mrs. Wadman's advantage, since it gives her the
opportunity to study her opponent up close.
Vol. 8, Chapters 21–30
Summary
Continuing his tale, Trim tells of the leg massages administered
by the Beguine to help his knee wound heal. The anecdote
grows increasingly erotic until Toby interrupts the story—to the
disappointment of Mrs. Wadman, who has been
eavesdropping. Coming out of hiding, she pretends to have
something in her eye and asks Toby to take a look. He obliges
and finds himself smitten by Mrs. Wadman's beauty. Tristram
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
spends a chapter praising the loveliness of the Widow
Wadman's eyes.
Walter Shandy, in contrast to his brother, has a low opinion of
love, which he rails against in poems and speeches. Toby,
however, calmly submits to having fallen in love with Mrs.
Wadman, finally announcing the fact to Corporal Trim.
Appealing to Toby's martial instincts, Trim promises to "lay
down [a] plan of attack," and Toby asks the corporal to serve
as his "aid de camp." They prepare materials for the upcoming
"siege," beginning with Toby's finest clothes and wig. Mrs.
Wadman, meanwhile, wonders whether Toby's groin wound
has left him impotent, and Bridget, her maidservant, promises
to get some answers out of Corporal Trim.
Analysis
Walter Shandy's dour attitude toward love is, for Tristram, just
one of his father's many little quirks. As with other human
passions, Walter is not immune to love; on the contrary, he is all
too prone to it and resents the vulnerability it induces. He gives
voice to this predicament in his writings, which include "the
bitterest Philippics [angry speeches or tirades] ... that ever man
wrote." Despite these outbursts, Walter is not fanatical in his
condemnation of love: although he values his intellect, possibly
to excess, and sees emotionality as a weakness, Walter
regards his own flaws not with anger or scorn but with a
"subacid kind of drollish impatience"—a kind of gently mocking
sarcasm. He describes the eye, for example—which not
coincidentally is Mrs. Wadman's main weapon against
Toby—as a "Devil" capable of working great "mischief," thus
comically exaggerating the threat posed by an attractive gaze.
Tristram, as Vol. 8, Chapters 11–13 have already shown, shares
his father's "subacid" response to the idea of being in love. Like
Walter he uses the written word both to explore the feeling
and to distance himself from it.
Vol. 8, Chapters 31–35
Summary
Walter Shandy warns Toby to be careful in his courtship of
Mrs. Wadman, since, according to Plato, there are two kinds of
love—one that "excites to the desire of philosophy and truth,"
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Chapter Summaries 36
and another that "excites to desire, simply." Yorick and Mrs.
Shandy beg to differ: in their views, love is an unequivocally
good thing. After all, says Mrs. Shandy, it "keeps peace in the
world" and "replenishes the earth." "'Tis Virginity," Dr. Slop
interjects, "which fills paradise."
Later, Walter sits down to write a "Letter of Instruction" to
Toby for the management of his love affair. As usual, he offers
impractically precise suggestions, telling Toby how often to
shave, what to eat, how to dress, and what kind of books to
encourage Mrs. Wadman to read. Toby, he insists, should
cultivate an air of mystery to excite her curiosity, refraining
even from holding her hand for as long as possible. While the
letter is being written, Toby prepares for the "attack," which
commences the following morning at 11 o'clock sharp. Walter
and Mrs. Shandy shamelessly spy on Toby as he makes his
way to Mrs. Wadman's house.
Analysis
For Walter Shandy, long-winded and off-base explanations are
more than a character flaw: they're practically a way of life. His
attempts to guide Toby in matters of courtship are tinged with
dramatic irony, since—despite his apparent proneness to
falling in love—Walter's approach to his own marriage is utterly
unromantic. He regards both love and lust with suspicion, as
defects in human nature, and, as Tristram points out in Vol. 1,
Chapter 1, he schedules sex with Mrs. Shandy once a month,
"to get [it] out of the way." Making love, in Walter's view, is
about as exciting as winding up a house clock, and it serves a
similarly utilitarian purpose: producing heirs to carry on the
Shandy legacy. Moreover, many of Walter's suggestions are
bizarrely specific, such as the instruction to "shave the whole
top of thy crown clean, once at least every four or five days,
but oftener if convenient." It is a stroke of good fortune that
Toby, in his nervous and impressionable state, never ends up
reading the letter.
Vol. 9, Chapters 1–11
Summary
Tristram resumes his story of Uncle Toby's "amours" right
where he left off, with Mrs. Shandy wondering how Toby will
Tristram Shandy Study Guide Chapter Summaries 37

fare in his meeting with the Widow Wadman. Toby, meanwhile, Toby, as it turns out, will be too keyed up to follow anyone's
makes his way to Mrs. Wadman's residence in a squashed wig, advice on making conversation.
a beaten-up hat, and an ill-fitting coat. He worries Mrs.
Wadman will reject him or even be offended by his attempt to
court her. Vol. 9, Chapters 12–22
Trim attempts to encourage Toby by telling a story about his
brother Tom, who married the widowed owner of a sausage-
shop in Portugal. Tom and his wife, Trim says, met quite
Summary
casually when he came to her shop to buy a pound of
Feeling that his story has gotten too linear and plot-driven,
sausages. Little by little, however, he worked his way into her
Tristram promises half a dozen pages of digressions to
good graces by helping out around the store.
maintain the "balance betwixt wisdom and folly" in his writings.
Toby and Trim circle the Widow Wadman's house as if The trouble, he says, will be to find something suitably off-topic
preparing to besiege it. Walter and Mrs. Shandy continue to and fanciful to fill the pages. He racks his brains for something
watch them under the pretext of going out for a walk. When to write about until, eventually, the search for a topic becomes
they get to Mrs. Wadman's door, Toby and the corporal do an the topic: "in talking of my digression—I declare before heaven
about-face and march away again, to the great puzzlement of I have made it!"
the onlookers. Observing their odd movements, Mrs. Shandy
Toby and Corporal Trim march back up the walkway to Mrs.
wonders whether the two men intend to build an actual fort on
Wadman's house. Trim puts his hand on the door rapper and
Mrs. Wadman's property.
prepares to knock, despite Toby's obvious agitation. Mrs.
Wadman, meanwhile, sits "breathless behind the window-

Analysis curtain of her bed-chamber," and Bridget stands ready to open

the latch the moment a knock is heard. Finally, this anxious

Things are not looking great for Uncle Toby, who would "slow-motion" passage is brought to a close as Trim knocks,

probably be suffering from first-date jitters even if his wig and and Bridget admits the two visitors.

breeches weren't so shabby. Tristram has repeatedly, though

Tristram skips Chapters 18 and 19, leaving a blank page for
only incidentally, mentioned Toby's inexperience in matters of
each. The missing text, it is implied, contains the beginnings of
courtship, and Walter has rather indelicately accused Toby of
the conversation between Toby and Mrs. Wadman. When the
not knowing "the right end of a Woman from the wrong." His
narration resumes in Chapter 20, Mrs. Wadman is asking Toby
chivalrous and naïve demeanor sets him at a disadvantage
where exactly he was wounded. Toby, misunderstanding the
before the Widow Wadman, who is much shrewder and more
question, promises to show her "the very place" and to let her
cunning than he.
"lay [her] finger" upon it. She blushes furiously at this

Perhaps because of his nerves, Toby defaults to his insinuation. Trim, meanwhile, goes to fetch a map of Namur,

stereotypically "soldierly" behaviors even more energetically the town in which Toby received his injuries.

than usual. He does not walk to the Widow's door; he marches,

In a series of farfetched metaphors, Tristram spells out what
carrying his cane like an infantryman wielding a pike. Corporal
Mrs. Wadman really wants to know: has Toby been left
Trim, to his credit, recognizes this awkward performance as a
impotent by the wound to his groin? The narrator answers in
kind of distress call and tries to reassure Toby, but his efforts
the negative: Toby may have had his pelvis smashed by a
culminate in an unintentionally lewd tale about love and
chunk of falling masonry, but his "donation" to his future wife
sausage-making. Notably, Trim's advice on courting directly
was not "defeated" by the injury.
contradicts the suggestions given by Walter in his "Letter of
Instruction" (Vol. 8, Chapter 34), where Toby is counseled to
"avoid all kinds of pleasantry or facetiousness." Trim—equally
simplistically—insists that "all womankind ... love jokes," and
"the difficulty is to know how they choose to have them cut."

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Tristram Shandy Study Guide
Analysis
Here, as throughout the novel, Tristram puts on the costume of
the "wise fool," a figure in whom a foolish exterior conceals a
hidden wisdom. In past volumes, Tristram has cajoled his
reader by acknowledging the outward foolishness of his tale
but promising a wise message for those with the patience to
seek it. In these late chapters a new and opposite situation
arises: Tristram fears his work is getting too overtly wise and
will therefore run the risk of boring the reader. Fortunately,
Tristram seldom has trouble coming up with a silly topic that is
sufficient to fill a few chapters and delay the main plot just a
little bit longer. His apparent struggle to find such a topic here
is actually an elaborate show, like the tumbling of an artful
jester who always lands on his feet. The "ta-da" moment
comes when Tristram realizes what, in fact, he has known all
along: the search for a digression can be entertaining in itself.
Similarly, when it comes to the matter of Toby's "donation,"
Tristram's attempts to avoid being crude end up being funny in
their own right. Both the narrator and the Widow Wadman are
extremely self-consciously dainty in approaching the subject of
Toby's supposed impotence. Mrs. Wadman's strategy is to do a
bit of medical detective work, asking numerous questions
about the extent, location, and symptoms of the wound.
Tristram, as usual, adopts a series of wacky metaphors to talk
around the subject, using highly abstract, academic-sounding
speech to further distance himself from this sensitive issue.
"Nature," he lectures, has not only made Toby "gentle,
generous, and humane," but has also equipped him to fulfill "the
other causes for which matrimony was ordained." Mrs.
Wadman, Toby delicately implies, is at least as interested in
these "other causes" as she is in Toby's emotional support and
companionship.
Vol. 9, Chapters 23–33
Summary
Invoking the "Spirit of sweetest humor" to give him strength
amid his failing health, Tristram supplies the missing chapters
(18 and 19) from earlier in the volume. In them Toby arrives at
Mrs. Wadman's house, clumsily confesses his love for her, and
takes a seat on the sofa. After a long, awkward silence Mrs.
Wadman brings up the subject of marriage. Toby proposes on
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Chapter Summaries 38
the spot then quietly reads a Bible while Mrs. Wadman thinks
over his offer. Still curious about Toby's injury, she asks him
several questions with the aim of establishing where—on his
body—the wound was received. He obtusely promises to show
her where—on the battlefield—the injury took place.
Out in the kitchen Bridget grills Corporal Trim about Toby's
injury in her own less subtle way. He answers her questions
then woos her with kisses and flattering remarks. At home, a
few days later, Toby expresses his fondness for Mrs. Wadman,
who has been so attentive and kindhearted in asking about his
war injuries. Unable to keep quiet Trim explains to Toby why
Mrs. Wadman is so concerned about his wounds. Toby
abruptly suggests paying a visit to Shandy Hall, where the
other family members are hanging out in the parlor with Yorick
and Dr. Slop. Having heard of Toby's difficulties in wooing Mrs.
Wadman, Walter inveighs against the lustfulness of women and
of humankind in general. "Provision should be made," he
concedes, for continuing the human race, but sex is in his view
a demeaning and disreputable thing.
Obadiah, Walter's manservant, rushes in and complains about
the town bull, which has seemingly failed to impregnate his
cow. Obadiah took the cow on a "pop-visit" to the bull on the
same day he got married, and his wife gave birth weeks ago.
Thus, by Obadiah's reasoning, the cow should have calved as
well, unless the bull is infertile. Dr. Slop interjects and asks
whether Obadiah's baby "has hair upon his head." The baby,
Obadiah replies, is extremely hairy. Walter whistles with relief:
apparently the bull is not sterile after all!
Analysis
Fittingly, Tristram Shandy ends with a "cock and bull story," a
proverbial term applied not only to tales concerning livestock,
but to absurd and implausible narratives of all kinds. In this
case, Obadiah's story seems to imply that his wife has been
impregnated by the bull; hence the exceptional hairiness of the
baby. This raises an awkward question: who impregnated—or
tried to impregnate—the cow?
This is an odd moment for the novel, which has so far relied on
eccentric characters and unlikely, but not wholly impossible,
events. True, there have been a few moments which required
considerable suspension of disbelief, as when Tristram is
circumcised, rather than, say, maimed, by the falling window in
Vol. 5. On the final page, however, the novel abandons even the
Tristram Shandy Study Guide Quotes 39

loosest ties to realism, and Obadiah is implied to be the does himself. His attitude is one of good-natured amusement,
stepfather of a minotaur or some similar creature. His child's not cynicism or judgment, and he goes through life unburdened
parentage is also linked to that of King Minos, the Greek by grudges or bitterness.
mythical figure whose mother was impregnated by Zeus in the
form of a white bull. One element of the story—the timing of
the two births—is not as absurd as it might seem: humans and "So long as a man rides his hobby-
cattle do, in fact, have nearly the same gestation period.
horse peaceably and quietly along
Mrs. Shandy's confusion and Yorick's amused reaction serve to
further dismantle the "fourth wall." On one level Mrs. Shandy is
the King's highway ... pray, Sir,
simply asking what Obadiah's story is about, and Yorick is what have either you or I to do
punningly, but still accurately, describing the anecdote as a
"cock and ... bull" story. This exchange, however, could just as with it?"
easily be taken to apply to the novel as a whole, with Mrs.
Shandy asking, in effect, "What were these past six hundred — Tristram Shandy, Vol. 1, Chapter 7
pages about?" Yorick's reply is then the verbal equivalent of a
shrug: "The novel is a bunch of nonsense! It sure was
This is a strong early statement of Tristram's "live and let live"
entertaining, though." Multilayered and self-referential, the
philosophy. "Hobby-horse," here as elsewhere in the book,
comment might even be seen as a microcosm of Tristram
means something like the modern word "hobby," but it implies a
Shandy's overall style, in which every symbol has at least two
degree of passion or even obsession that "hobby" fails to
meanings and imaginary events blend freely with those of the
capture. For Tristram, "hobby-horsical" pursuits—like music,
real world. It is, as Mark Loveridge argued in his 1992 essay
butterfly collecting, or building model forts—are a healthy part
"Stories of Cocks and Bulls," a "conclusion 'in which nothing is
of life, not a cause for scorn or embarrassment.
concluded,'" leaving the novel almost as open-ended as when it
began.

"Writing, when properly managed

g Quotes
"Give me credit for a little more
wisdom than appears upon my
outside."
— Tristram Shandy, Vol. 1, Chapter 6
Throughout the nine volumes of his autobiography, Tristram
will insist on his status as a "wise fool" figure. He will repeatedly
make fun of his own weaknesses as a narrator, such as his
inability to pass up a chance to tell a funny story. At times he
even invokes the metaphor of a jester's cap and bells to
reinforce his "foolish" exterior.
All this, however, serves as the backdrop to what is arguably a
very wise approach to life. Tristram is well aware of others'
foibles, as well as his own, but he readily forgives them as he
... is but a different name for
conversation."
— Tristram Shandy, Vol. 2, Chapter 11
Despite the narrator's sweeping claim, it would be more
accurate to describe Tristram Shandy as a work that mimics
conversation in a few specific respects. The novel is chatty and
convivial in tone, and it leaps gleefully about from topic to topic,
often without warning. These traits certainly make Tristram
Shandy more of a "conversation" than, say, a lecture or a
philosophical dialogue.
Still, like any novelist, Tristram is firmly in control of the
supposed conversation between himself and the reader, who
is, for the most part, merely along for the ride. To mitigate this,
Tristram makes various attempts to involve his audience
explicitly, by asking questions, "keeping score" of chapters yet
to be written, and even inviting readers to fill in part of the story

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Tristram Shandy Study Guide
for themselves. This gives the novel a participatory if not
necessarily "conversational" quality.
"Of all the cants which are canted
in this canting world—though the
cant of hypocrites may be the
worst—the cant of criticism is the
most tormenting!"
— Tristram Shandy, Vol. 3, Chapter 12
Literary criticism—especially over-serious and pedantic
criticism—is one of Tristram's pet peeves. Consequently, he
stops his narrative roughly once per volume to address himself
to critics, either defending himself against their remarks or
attacking them for missing the point.
Here, Tristram describes the language of critics as "cant,"
meaning jargon unintelligible to outsiders. In this sense the
word was first applied to the secret languages of thieves and
beggars, an image Tristram may be trying to invoke in these
lines. By Sterne's time, however, cant could also mean the
jargon of any specialized group, including a class of
professionals or academics.
"His anger at the worst was never
more than a spark."
— Tristram Shandy, Vol. 3, Chapter 22
It would be easy to see Walter Shandy as the "bad guy" in his
arguments with others, since he tends (albeit briefly) to lose his
temper when people fail to keep up with his longwinded
explanations. Tristram, however, cautions the reader not to
read too much into his father's little outbursts. In his view,
Walter's irritability is a minor foible, not a serious character
flaw.
"Don't be terrified, madam, this
Copyright © 2018 Course Hero, Inc.
Quotes 40
stair-case conversation is not so
long as the last."
— Tristram Shandy, Vol. 4, Chapter 30
Shandy jokes with his reader about the length of his novel's
many digressions, though the book would not be nearly as
entertaining without them—and he knows it. When he makes
this remark, a multi-chapter scene has just transpired in which,
every time Walter and Uncle Toby start to descend the stairs,
Tristram pauses the narration and goes off on a tangent of
some kind.
"Come! cheer up, my lads; I'll shew
you land."
— Tristram Shandy, Vol. 5, Chapter 41
Although Tristram half-boasts and half-admits to his ability to
spin out an endlessly rambling narrative, he recognizes his
reader may not always share his enthusiasm for long and
meandering stories. Thus, he occasionally stops to reassure
readers of his intention to rein things back in—and, equally
importantly, to tie up some of the narrative's loose ends he
constantly creates. Here, he adopts the persona of a ship
captain and promises to bring his weary voyagers (i.e., readers)
safely to the end of Vol. 5.
"'Tis not my brother Toby's nature,
kind soul! ... to insult any one."
— Walter Shandy, Vol. 6, Chapter 22
Walter may express his feelings in a somewhat patronizing
way, but he's right on the money when he describes Toby as a
"kind soul." This, after all, is the man who took care of his dying
fellow officer just a few chapters ago, then offered to look
after his orphaned son. Earlier, Toby was gallantly protective of
Trim and Susannah when they faced blame for Tristram's
window sash accident (Vol. 5). Toby, however, should not be
mistaken for a weakling or a pushover. As Tristram reminds the
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
reader from time to time, Toby showed great courage during
his soldiering years, as attested by Trim's high opinion of his
former commanding officer.
"So much of motion, is so much of
life, and so much of joy ... to stand
still, or get on but slowly, is death
and the devil."
— Tristram Shandy, Vol. 7, Chapter 13
The desire for continuous movement and activity, voiced here
as Tristram hurries through northern France, fits perfectly with
the overall tone and structure of Tristram Shandy. As narrator,
Tristram is constantly darting off on one tangent or another,
ducking and dodging from topic to topic. He rarely moves
"slowly," and he seldom if ever can be said to "stand still."
"But where am I? and into what a
delicious riot of things am I
rushing? I—I who must be cut
short in the midst of my days."
— Tristram Shandy, Vol. 7, Chapter 14
This side remark, which Tristram utters while attempting to
collect his thoughts, is one of the more poignant testaments to
the narrator's awareness of his own mortality. By Vol. 7
Tristram's "consumption" (i.e., his tuberculosis) has begun to
get the better of him, and the rest of his writing is suffused with
the realization that time is short.
"For my own part, I am resolved
never to read any book but my
own, as long as I live."
— Tristram Shandy, Vol. 8, Chapter 5
Copyright © 2018 Course Hero, Inc.
Quotes 41
This moment of false modesty echoes back to Tristram's
earlier promises to cut back on literary allusions. In Vol. 5,
Chapter 1 he recounts a promise to "lock up my study door ...
and throw the key" into a deep well. Despite his protestation
here, Tristram continues to make free and frequent use of
many different literary sources in Vols. 8 and 9. Among the
figures referenced in later chapters are Sterne's
contemporaries Alexander Pope and Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
the Jacobean scholar Robert Burton, and the ancient Greek
philosopher Plato.
"I declare, Corporal, I had rather
march up to the very edge of a
trench."
— Toby Shandy, Vol. 8, Chapter 30
Uncle Toby, as both Trim and Tristram have pointed out from
Vol. 2 onward, is a brave and gallant man. When it comes to
courtship, however, this courage seems to desert him
completely. Fully aware of the horrors of war—and having
himself been severely wounded in battle—Toby nonetheless
describes his visit to the Widow Wadman as if it were a march
into a potentially deadly ambush.
"Nothing ... can be so sad as
confinement for life—or so sweet,
an' please your honor, as liberty."
— Corporal Trim, Vol. 9, Chapter 4
As Toby gets ready for his chat with Widow Wadman, Trim
offers an encouraging anecdote about his brother Tom, who
has also married a widow. The story, however, ends on a
somber note, as Tom has become a prisoner of the Spanish
Inquisition. Moreover, in lamenting Tom's captivity, Trim fails to
see the potential parallel to marriage, which could also be
regarded as a sort of "confinement for life." Toby, however,
picks up on this unintended implication, and Tristram, the
narrator, praises Trim's speech as an excellent argument for
never getting married.
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
"All I wish is, that it may be a
lesson to the world, 'to let people
tell their stories their own way.'"
— Tristram Shandy, Vol. 9, Chapter 25
Tristram continues to defy his critics almost to the very end of
the novel. He has, indeed, repeatedly insisted on telling his
story his own way, no matter what the reviewers might say.
Now, he takes things a step further by anticipating potential
complaints, writing out the critics' probable insults, and
forgiving them in advance for mistrusting him. Readers,
Tristram says, might regard him as a "numscul" and a
"nincompoop" for skipping two chapters only to reprint them
later, but he has own aesthetic reasons for doing so.
"L—d! ... What is all this story
about?"
— Elizabeth Shandy, Vol. 9, Chapter 33
Mrs. Shandy's seemingly constant confusion is sometimes
exploited for a laugh and has occasionally led critics to
describe Tristram Shandy as a sexist work. In this scene,
however, her question is a perfectly reasonable one—not only
with regard to Obadiah's story about the bull but with regard to
the novel as a whole. Finishing Tristram Shandy for the first
time, a reader may well feel a similar sense of bewilderment at
the novel's many twists and turns.
l Symbols
Hobby-Horses
Tristram Shandy uses the word "hobby-horse" to embrace a
wide variety of attitudes and pastimes, from a lawyer's
fondness for flowery language to Uncle Toby's model fort-
Copyright © 2018 Course Hero, Inc.
Symbols 42
building. These various "hobby-horses" are defined not so
much by the activity itself—which can range from butterfly-
collecting to fiddle-playing—but by the disproportionate
enthusiasm which people bring to it. From some of the
examples Tristram provides, one might correctly infer that the
word is related to modern "hobby." The connotations of
"hobby-horse," however, are somewhat broader: the word can
describe almost any sort of intellectual or recreational passion,
including political causes and academic subjects. Hobby-
horses are so central to the rhetoric of Tristram Shandy that
the narrator even coins an adjective, "hobby-horsical," to
describe people obsessed with them.
You can learn a lot about a person, Tristram argues, by
observing their hobby-horse. This principle guides his
description of several of the novel's major characters, including
his father Walter, his Uncle Toby, and their mutual friend
Parson Yorick. In talking about his family, Tristram gives
relatively little in the way of traditional biographical detail. The
reader learns, for example, that Walter used to be a merchant
and that he is in his 50s when Tristram is born. What really fills
out the picture of Walter, however, is his obsession with book
learning of all sorts and his insistence on applying this learning
to everyday life, even when it is totally impractical to do so.
Tristram devotes literally dozens of chapters to describing his
father's library and his joy in stocking it with unusual books and
manuscripts. He even jokingly likens his father's quest for rare
works to a wooer's pursuit of a mistress.
A side benefit of hobby-horses, in Tristram's view, is their
tendency to keep people too busy to do much harm to one
another. Just as one might tell an excessively nagging or
critical person to "get a hobby," Tristram is delighted when
people burn off their excess energy on harmless pastimes. He
is particularly delighted when England's politicians spend time
and attention on their hobby-horses, since this keeps them
from getting into worse forms of mischief, such as corruption
and scandal. Vamping on the horse-riding analogy, he declares:
"Let them ride on without opposition from me; for were their
lordships unhorsed this very night—'tis ten to one but that
many of them would be worse mounted ... before tomorrow
morning." He is willing, however, to make an exception for Lord
Pitt, a leading British statesman and the dedicatee of the novel.
Such a "generous and noble" man, he flatteringly argues,
cannot take the time to indulge in a hobby-horse without
robbing the country of his brilliant leadership.
Tristram Shandy Study Guide Symbols 43

Then, in Slawkenbergius's Tale (beginning of Vol. 4), Tristram

Nose presents the protagonist's prominent nose as an object of
borderline erotic fascination for the women of Strasburg.
Having made the joke as explicit as he dares, however,
Walter Shandy's hobby-horse leads him, from time to time, into Tristram repeatedly warns the reader against reading too
the realm of the absurd. Whenever a new issue or idea catches much into his discussion of noses—when, in fact, this is exactly
his fascination, he stocks his library with all the books on the what he wants the reader to do. In Vol. 3, Chapter 31 he even
subject he can find—even those of doubtful relevance. He does offers a sarcastic disclaimer in which he urges readers "to
this when deciding what to name his son, how to dress him, guard against the temptations and suggestions of the devil."
and even in what manner the boy should be born. Of all "By the word Nose," he disingenuously maintains, "I mean a
Walter's fits of research, however, his investigation of noses is nose, and nothing more, or less."
perhaps the weirdest. Tristram devotes ample space to it:
noses and "nose literature" are the subject of almost a third of
Vol. 3 (Chapters 31 onward) and the first quarter of Vol. 4
(starting with Slawkenbergius's Tale). Uncle Toby's Fort
Whenever Walter becomes overly invested in his plans for his
son, those plans are sure to be disappointed. Predictably
When he moves up from London to the Shandy family estate,
enough, this happens with Tristram's nose, which is "crush'd ...
Uncle Toby sets about constructing a model fortified city on
as flat as a pancake" during childbirth rather than growing into
the bowling green: a 3/8-acre plot of land reserved for a lawn
the distinctive appendage Walter hopes for. Dr. Slop, no doubt
game similar to bocce. This fort, whose construction and
aware of Walter's strong opinions concerning noses, rushes
maintenance Toby oversees throughout the novel, becomes
down into the kitchen and makes up a "bridge" to support the
Tristram's prime example of a hobby-horse. Together with his
baby's squashed nose. Tristram declines to say whether Slop
valet and fellow veteran Corporal Trim, Toby meticulously
is hoping to actually repair the damage or merely to prop it up
refashions the fort to match the landscape of each major siege
so Walter will not notice. In either event, this bit of emergency
in the ongoing War of the Spanish Succession. When the war
rhinoplasty is unlikely to improve matters, especially with the
eventually ends (Vol. 6, Chapter 30), Toby feels adrift without
bungling Dr. Slop overseeing the treatment. Walter, who nearly
the structure provided by his cherished hobby. Walter Shandy,
faints at the news, certainly has little faith in Slop's ability to
Toby's brother, finds this to be a ridiculous pastime, and he
restore the smashed nose.
makes periodic jokes—usually good-natured ones—about the

All this talk of noses also leaves Tristram with room for one of progress of the fortifications. Toby, meanwhile, finds his

his favorite authorial pastimes: innuendo. In general, Tristram enjoyment of fort-building heightened by the sense that he is

loves to pretend he is too bashful to make a dirty joke, when in serving his country, though it is unclear whether the model fort

fact he revels in this sort of humor. He repeatedly imagines his is ever visited by active British military leaders.

reader as a person of delicate, even prudish sensibilities,

Apart from its role as a plot device—it brings Toby and Trim to
then—to avoid offending such a person—proceeds in a
Shandy Hall and gives them something to do—the fort
cautious and overly delicate manner whenever a topic with
functions as a symbol with multiple overlapping meanings. On
possible sexual overtones comes up. The net effect is to draw
the surface it represents Toby's ongoing attachment to the
even more attention to these implications than if they were
soldiering life, even though his wounds will no longer permit
simply mentioned directly. Tristram's discussion of noses is a
him to return to the field. "You can take the dog out of the
prime example: he spends several pages talking about their
fight," as the old saying goes, "but you can't take the fight out
size, shape, and status as a symbol of manhood, using
of the dog." Toby, despite his gentleness and good humor, has
asterisks as the verbal equivalent of winks and nudges. He
a lot of fight left in him when he is sidelined by his injury.
even, in an episode from the Shandy family history, insists that
Recreating Great Britain's overseas campaigns allows him to
a man's nose must be of a given length in order to please his
participate in the wars vicariously, and in a much more
wife. Otherwise, she will demand extra compensation when the
meaningful way than merely tracing the engagements on a
marriage contract is drawn up.

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Tristram Shandy Study Guide
map. Tristram's constant allusions to the fort help to craft an
image of Toby as having a single-track mind, so the reader is
not surprised when Toby describes other aspects of life—such
as courtship—in term of a battle or a siege. The fort also
showcases Toby's "hobby-horsical" nature more broadly:
there's something endearingly wacky about the way he
lavishes attention on his pet project, setting aside a sizable
portion of his income to adorn it with tiny cannons,
drawbridges, and watchtowers. In short, the fort offers a better
glimpse into Uncle Toby's mind than most of his lines of
dialogue can provide.
Finally, as a key to Toby's personality, the model fort also helps
to establish the difference in character between the two
Shandy brothers. Whatever he may have been during his
career abroad, Walter, when he appears in the novel, is a man
of reflection, study, and argument. He seems most at home in
his library, dredging up books on some obscure subject, or in
his parlor chair holding forth with Dr. Slop and Parson Yorick.
Toby, in contrast, is a man of action, and his hobby suits this
image. Although he eagerly reads up on the science of military
fortification, he is much happier building than studying.
m Themes
Live and Let Live
One of the most remarkable things about Tristram Shandy is
his generous, forgiving attitude toward others. Despite having
suffered much and having been wronged in many ways,
Tristram retains a nonjudgmental outlook, and his mockery of
the world and its follies is almost always gentle. In part, this
comes from Tristram's belief in the pervasiveness of fate and
human nature—two qualities that it is foolish to resist and that
together control much of human life. It would be madness, in
Tristram's view, to try and make Uncle Toby give up his model
forts and take up a more useful or "respectable" pastime, just
as it would be absurd to expect Tristram's father to set aside
his pet theories about noses, names, and medicine. This point
is made early on through the story of Parson Yorick (Vol. 1,
Chapters 7–12), whose friend Eugenius urges him to rein in his
jokes and pranks before he offends the wrong person. The
Copyright © 2018 Course Hero, Inc.
Themes 44
advice, well-intentioned though it may be, is given in vain, since
being a jester runs deep in Yorick's nature.
For Tristram, the constancy of human nature is a basic truth of
life. Thus, it makes little sense to criticize people for their
habits of mind, which they cannot help. Instead, Tristram takes
pleasure in describing the good aspects of his characters,
even though, strictly speaking, they are no more responsible
for their virtues than for their vices. Walter Shandy furnishes a
good example: to judge simply from his words and actions, he
is irritable and a bit pompous but also hard-working and deeply
invested in his son's well-being. Tristram, in his description of
his father, constantly downplays his grouchiness—"his anger at
the worst was never more than a spark" (Vol. 3, Chapter
22)—and makes light of Walter's know-it-all tendencies. What
is more important, in Tristram's view, is his father's impressive
learning and his zeal in attempting to do right by Tristram,
despite constant disappointments. Nor does Tristram make
such allowances only for family members and other loved
ones. Even the humorless tax collector in Vol. 7, Chapters
33–36 is ultimately absolved by Tristram, who jokingly
describes their conversation as a peace treaty between
France and England.
Because Tristram is such a forgiving fellow, he sometimes
finds himself irked or offended by the judgmental attitudes of
others. "Only keep your temper," he cautions the reader in Vol.
1, Chapter 6, and both author and audience will be sure to have
a pleasant time. By Vol. 3, however, some readers—i.e.,
professional reviewers—have evidently failed to keep their
tempers, and Tristram chides them for this shortcoming. In his
view, critics who have nothing nice to say about Tristram
Shandy are wasting his time as well as their own: the novel was
written to be enjoyed as an experience, not looked over for
flaws like a horse at a livestock auction. To the extent that
anything really bothers Tristram, apart from his bad health, it is
the critics' tendency to fixate on small defects. "Their heads,"
Tristram sneers in Vol. 3, Chapter 12 "are stuck so full of rules
and compasses ... that a work of genius had better go to the
devil at once, than stand to be prick'd and tortured to death by
'em."
Time and Mortality
Tristram Shandy Study Guide
For the most part Tristram Shandy is irrepressibly cheerful in
tone. Underneath its brisk and bubbling surface, however, is a
chilly undercurrent of death. The novel's emphasis on time and
mortality is in part autobiographical, since Sterne's tuberculosis
continued to worsen as the volumes of Tristram Shandy were
published, nearly killing him in 1762 and ultimately claiming his
life in 1768. Tristram, who is suffering from the same illness,
does his best to be cheerful in spite of his chronic (and likely
terminal) condition. Early volumes repeatedly include a promise
to keep writing "if": if "life and good spirits" hold out (Vol. 1,
Chapter 22); if "this vile cough" does not "kill me in the
meantime" (Vol. 4, Chapter 32).
In Vols. 5 and 6 health and sickness become a more pressing
preoccupation: Tristram's dedication to the two volumes
apologetically describes them as "the best my talents, with
such bad health as I have, could produce." Walter Shandy's
pursuit of the "secret of health" in Vol. 5, Chapters 33–36 might
be seen as an instance of dramatic irony, given how elusive any
such secret will later prove to Tristram. Nonetheless, when
Tristram tells the tale of Lieutenant Le Fever in Vol. 6, the dying
man is more an object of pity than of empathy.
By Vol. 7 Tristram is clearly writing against the clock. The early
chapters proceed at an almost frantic pace: Tristram hurries
from one French town to another, leaving himself no time to
appreciate the sights. Movement, he says, is life and joy; to
stop, or even to slow down, could be fatal. It is with a kind of
serene self-abandonment that, late in the volume, he finally
does slow down and resume living life to the fullest. The hectic,
clattering carriage is traded for a plodding mule. Ever the
jester, Tristram claims he can now relax because he has outrun
Death. It would be more accurate, if also more sobering, to say
he has made his peace with death and is now ready to enjoy
the rest of his life, however short it may be.
In the final two volumes Tristram keeps up at least the
appearance of good cheer, but he cannot help dropping a few
hints as to his deteriorating condition. In a side remark in Vol. 8,
Chapter 6 he casually mentions that he has, just a few months
ago, "[broken] a vessel in [his] lungs" during a fit of laughter,
losing a half gallon of blood in the process. Then, in Vol. 9,
Chapter 8 the notions of time and mortality are sounded
directly in a short but wistful monologue: "Time wastes too
fast: every letter I trace tells me with what rapidity Life follows
my pen; the days and hours of it ... are flying over our heads like
light clouds of a windy day, never to return more—every thing
presses on."
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Themes 45
Finally, as if from sheer exhaustion, Tristram proposes leaving
his narrative incomplete, trusting to future writers to take up
the pen and continue the story. His weakness, he confesses, is
the result of further acute blood loss and a "most uncritical
fever" (Vol. 9, Chapter 24)—symptoms of worsening and
possibly end-stage tuberculosis. In the last 10 or so chapters,
the narrator practically staggers toward the finish line, telling
his story with unusual directness and concision. In most
narrators these qualities would be laudable, but in
Tristram—who never met a digression he didn't like—they are
more than a little worrisome.
One of Tristram's main rhetorical defenses against the
encroachment of death is his unusual view of time. Like the
English philosopher John Locke, Tristram adopts the notion of
time as "duration," i.e., the "train and succession of our ideas"
(Vol. 2, Chapter 8) as opposed to the linear "clock time" of the
external world. He seems to come by this perspective honestly,
since Walter, his father, is of a very similar persuasion. In fact,
the novel's longest single exposition of the Lockean view of
chronology takes place in Vol. 3, Chapter 18 where Walter sets
out to educate Toby about the nature of time. The "train" of
ideas in a person's head is, he implies, a more authentic and
useful way of reckoning the passage of time than the
customary "minutes, hours, weeks, and months."
For Tristram, at any rate, rushing back and forth between the
past and the present affords a kind of freedom from the
steadily ticking clock of mortality. At moments, however—some
of them already listed above—Tristram cannot avoid the
awareness of time's inexorable passage in the real world. This
painful realization underlies, for example, his lament in Vol. 4,
Chapter 13 where he complains of being "one whole year older
than I was this time twelve-month." Tristram may achieve a
sense of timelessness in telling his life story out of order, but
ultimately he is still living—and thus dying—faster than he can
write it all down.
Wisdom and Foolishness
Tristram loves to play the part of the "wise fool," and he
frequently summons up the trappings of a traditional court
jester to symbolize this role. In Vol. 1, Chapter 6 he warns of his
tendency to "sometimes put on a fool's cap with a bell to it, for
Tristram Shandy Study Guide Suggested Reading 46

a moment or two as we pass along." In fact, such moments of

foolery are not transitory and intermittent but grow to take up e Suggested Reading
much of the novel: after asking to be credited with "a little more
wisdom than appears upon my outside," Tristram seems bound Allan, David. "Book-Collecting and Literature in Eighteenth-
and determined to maximize the outward display of foolishness Century Britain." The Yearbook of English Studies, vol. 45, 2015,
in his novel. As if to reinforce this impression, he will wager his pp. 74–92.
fool's cap in Vol. 2, Chapter 2 and invoke the "cap-and-bell" a
third time in Vol. 3, Chapter 18. Motley, the multicolored fabric Keymer, Thomas, editor. The Cambridge Companion to
of a jester's outfit, is also symbolically included in Vol. 3 in the Laurence Sterne. Cambridge UP, 2009.
form of two marbled pages without any printed text. (These
McCrum, Robert. "The 100 Best Novels: No 6 – The Life and
appear between Chapters 36 and 37, with Tristram describing
Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
them as the "motly emblem of my work.") In Vol. 9, Chapter 12
(1759)." The Guardian, 28 Oct. 2013.
Tristram will even worry that his work is growing too wise and,
therefore, insufficiently foolish. He promises to insert "a good New, Melvyn, editor. Approaches to Teaching Sterne's Tristram
quantity of heterogeneous matter"—i.e., a few chapters of Shandy. MLA, 1989.
miscellaneous nonsense—right away, simply in order "to keep
up [the] just balance betwixt wisdom and folly." Yet for all this Sterne, Laurence. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy,
focus on foolishness, Tristram manages to deliver some Gentleman. Edited by Melvyn New and Joan New, Penguin,
striking insights about human nature and to advance a view of 2003.
life remarkably free from bitterness, envy, or fault-finding. For
these reasons he might be considered a deeply wise
character.

The natural counterpart to the "wise fool" is the "foolish sage,"

a person who pretends to great wisdom by virtue of an
extensive (or at least lengthy) education but who fails to
recognize the shortcomings of mere book-learning. Walter
Shandy, whom Tristram gently mocks for his insistence on
consulting his library for solutions to all life's problems, is a mild
version of the foolish-sage archetype. More outwardly learned
and, at the same time, more inwardly foolish are the religious
scholars whom Walter consults about his son's baptism in Vol.
4, Chapters 26–29. These men, who pride themselves on their
familiarity with Christian doctrine and canon law, cannot even
answer a simple question without launching into a dissertation
on the most trivial aspects of baptism. By vaunting their
wisdom, they unwittingly underscore their own folly.

Foolishness, in Tristram's view, is an unavoidable feature of

human nature. Everyone, no matter how kind (Uncle Toby) or
intelligent (Walter) or practical-minded (Mrs. Shandy), has their
share. The appropriate response, he argues by example, is not
to ignore one's own foolishness or try to hide it from others but
to embrace it and hope to accumulate a little wisdom as a by-
product.

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