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Book 5: Chapters 15-21
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Tristram Shandy, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Truth, Fiction, and Storytelling
Language and Comprehension
Travel, Space, and Time
Sexuality and Propriety
Science, Technology, and the Enlightenment
Summary
Analysis
Chapter 22. Toby tells Yorick that after the battle of Steenkirk, King William refused to see Count Solmes for months. Yorick fears that Walter will feel similarly toward Trim, though Trim has behaved honorably while Solmes did not. Toby stands up and declares that he would blow up his fortifications before he would let Trim’s honor be insulted.
Toby not only feels bound to Trim as his commanding officer—he also has a deep loyalty and respect for his service. Trim’s honor, from Toby’s point of view, is beyond reproach, and Toby has an obligation to defend it just as Trim has an obligation to serve him.
Themes
Chapter 23. Toby gathers Yorick, Trim, and Susannah, and they all march over to Shandy-Hall. Trim says he wishes he had cut off the church spout instead of the sash weight, but Yorick tells him he has cut off enough spouts.
Tristram intentionally and ironically uses military terms to describe the group’s journey next door. Yorick’s comment is another lewd joke, referring to Tristram’s “spout,” or penis.
Themes
Chapter 24. Tristram explains that despite the description of his father he has already given, the reader cannot predict how Walter would react to any new or unexpected occurrence, as Walter reacts to things in his own unique way, considering events on the inside rather than the surface. This is why Tristram and Jenny argue, as she considers the exterior of things and he the interior.
Tristram stresses not only his father’s idiosyncratic nature, but the mysterious nature of humankind, which constantly confounds the observer’s—or the philosopher’s—expectations. Tristram’s allusion to his arguments with Jenny suggest that he, like his father, depends on the support of a more practical woman in his life.
Themes
Chapter 25. Tristram points out for the benefit of Confucius, an anonymous legislator, that a storyteller can go backward and forward without digressing. On this assumption, Tristram will go backward.
Confucius is perhaps an allusion to the writer Oliver Goldsmith, whose The Citizen of the World was written from the perspective of a Chinese philosopher named Lien Chi Altangi.
Themes
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Chapter 26. Tristram screams loudly after the incident and Mrs. Shandy runs up the front stairs, just missing Susannah running down the back stairs. On her way out through the kitchen, Susannah tells the scullion that the window has fallen on Tristram’s penis, who tells Jonathan, who tells Obadiah, who tells Walter, who is unsurprised. Walter had not, Tristram explains, already written the chapter on this subject in the Tristrapoedia, though it might seem so from his reaction. Tristram proves this by arguing that, first, had Walter done so, he would have taken steps to prevent the incident. Second, Tristram wrote and added this chapter of the Tristrapoedia himself.
Rewinding the narrative, Tristram fills in the gaps in the story of his accidental circumcision. The “machine” of the Shandy household springs into action and spreads the news, with Walter ironically being the very last to know. Tristram then plays an extended joke on the reader by suggesting that Walter may have already covered this subject in his Tristrapoedia, only to reveals this to have been a feint.
Themes
Chapter 27. Walter comes upstairs, puts on his glasses, looks at Tristram, and goes back downstairs without saying anything. He returns with his papers, and Mrs. Shandy assumes he is looking for an herbal remedy. Walter tells her to call Dr. Slop for that. Meanwhile, Walter researches the history of circumcision and is heartened by all the great historical societies who practiced it.
Mrs. Shandy mistakes Walter’s bemused reaction as readiness to address the problem, and she assumes he is looking up the proper cure in his books. Walter, characteristically refusing to explain anything to his wife, is rather seeking historical reference points to decide how he feels about his son’s circumcision.
Themes
Chapter 28. Walter smiles at Yorick and comments on how abnormal Tristram’s various religious rites have been. Yorick hopes that the rites have achieved their purpose, nevertheless. Walter emphasizes the strange coincidences of Tristram’s life, but he explains to Toby that the ancient philosophers believe there is nothing wrong with Tristram’s accidental circumcision, pointing out that Ilus circumcised his entire army. Historians, however, cannot agree upon why Ilus did so, or even who Ilus was. The conversation then turns to polemic divines. Toby does not know what that means, and Yorick promises to explain it with the story of the battle between Gymnast and Tripet. Toby suggests summon Trim, who would not want to miss a battle story.
Walter’s lack of respect for religion finds a good match in Yorick’s unconventional relationship to the priesthood and willingness to bend the rules. Walter returns to the theme of coincidence, but this time with a happier outcome. Toby is impressed by the story of the mass circumcision of Ilus’s army, but Walter undercuts the power of this story by admitting that this may be entirely apocryphal. The discussion of polemic divines is yet another joke on the reader, who does not know what they are either. In fact, the obscure term refers to arguments between religious doctrines.
Themes
