53 pages • 1 hour read

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1759

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Volumes 1-2

Volumes 3-4

Volumes 5-6

Volumes 7-8

Volume 9

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Hobbyhorses

“Hobby-horse” is the term Tristram uses to refer to the obsessions that affect his characters. Preoccupations that form a set of associations in the characters’ minds that dominate their thoughts and behaviors, hobbyhorses are the main symbol of the theme of Association, Digression, and the Nature of Memory. From philosophical theories to novels to model building, these passions are unique to each person.

Hobbyhorses provide direction and meaning to a person’s life, allowing them to express a certain idea of themselves which might otherwise be impossible. Tristram’s desire to sketch the most complete and detailed version of himself that he can is his hobbyhorse. He is driven by his memories of his family and his need to understand them and, by extension, himself. For other characters, their hobbyhorses stem from their traumas. Toby’s model battlefield helps him come to terms with the injury he suffered during the Siege of Namur. It is an externalization of the way he constantly relives his battlefield experiences in his mind. Walter’s obsession with education is an attempt to live vicariously through his son, obsessing over creating a legacy by trying (and failing) to control every facet of his son’s existence. The fact that Walter decides to write the Trista-paedia after his first son, Bobby, dies suggests that part of his obsession with controlling Tristram’s life is a response to his regret and grief over losing Bobby.

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Thus, hobbyhorses are important because they speak to a common humanity among the characters, describing a fundamental desire to comprehend one’s own life and experiences and to share that experience with the world. Tristram describes people such as Walter and Toby through their obsessions, using their hobbyhorses as a neat shorthand for their character. The hobbyhorses, in this narrative sense, become representations of the characters themselves, self-constructed diagrams of character that can be presented out of context as a means of understanding the nuances of a person’s life. Though at first, this may seem like a frivolous way to illustrate their characters, hobbyhorses prove to be the key to profound insight into their motivations and histories. When Tristram urges the reader to humor other people’s hobbyhorses, he is not merely suggesting that we tolerate their silliness, but that we have compassion for the ways we each cope with the challenges of life.

Hobbyhorses are also beneficial for the way they provide a harmless distraction. Rather than bother other people, Walter and Toby can focus on their obsessions and spend their energy on pursuits that do not harm others. In the wider world, Tristram says, politicians benefit from having hobbyhorses, as they spend less time being corrupt. He practically encourages the politicians of Britain (save for Lord Pitt, to whom he dedicates his story) to distract themselves by mounting their hobbyhorses, saving the populace from their scandals and their meddling.

Toby’s Fortifications

Toby’s model fort is the primary example of a hobbyhorse in Tristram Shandy. Toby moves to the country with the desire to build a scale-model replica of the battlefield where he received his injury. The model is constructed in private, replacing a bowling green that is shielded on each side and keeps his work out of sight of other people. The construction project begins long before Tristram’s birth and continues throughout his life, recreating each major siege of the War of the Spanish Succession. When the war ends, Toby is set adrift and must find a new meaning for the model. Toby recruits his servant Corporal Trim to help him in the construction of the model, and through the intense research they conduct, they both become experts in military science. This has a secondary effect, meaning that both men come to view every problem through the lens of fortifications. They use military science as a lens through which to view the world, whether they are talking about romance or childbirth. When Toby decides to court Widow Wadman, for example, his work on the model fort means that he approaches the relationship as though it were a battle. The fort dominates Toby’s life, just as it comes to dominate his thoughts.

Toby’s fort is an important symbol in the novel and one that contains many meanings. The desire to build the fort speaks to the trauma of the injury that Toby suffered during the Siege of Namur. He feels that his military career was cut short by the injury and that building the fort is a way to reclaim it and take control of the events that cut him down in his prime. He struggles to leave his past behind, literally reconstructing the most traumatic event in his life so that he can help other people understand what happened to him. Rather than just reading the reports in a newspaper, he is actively involved in understanding what is happening on the ground. Toby feels as though he has unfinished business. The energy he devotes to the fort symbolizes the burning passion for army life that still lingers inside him and must be directed somewhere.

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The fort is also an analogy for Tristram’s novel. Toby’s hobbyhorse is his fort, while Tristram’s hobbyhorse is the book he is writing. The nuances and complexities that Toby is continually trying to implement are echoes of Tristram’s constant diversions and digressions. Toby makes the fort to convey to people the exact nature of what happened to him and as a way for him to better understand the feelings and traumatic experiences he cannot describe. Tristram writes his story for the same purpose, his book becoming a physical embodiment of the same complex feelings as Toby’s fort. While Toby struggles to put his thoughts into words, Tristram has inherited his father’s verbosity, so the model fort of his own trauma is an extended narrative that blends the two primary male influences in his life. Toby’s fort is a symbolic autobiography, which Tristram appreciates.

Noses

Tristram’s nose is a complex symbol in Tristram Shandy, representing family legacy, sexual performance, and the ways that hobbyhorses shape lives. During his difficult birth, Doctor Slop accidentally crushes Tristram’s nose with his forceps. As a result, Tristram grows up with a flattened nose rather than the long, prominent nose his father hoped he would have. Tristram might have been happy with a flattened nose, but his father’s obsession with noses means that he can never simply ignore what has happened to him. Walter believes that noses are an important indicator of future success. A large nose is an auspicious sign; a small nose suggests failure. When Tristram’s nose is damaged in his birth, Walter sees this as a sign that his son will never be able to succeed to the degree that he hopes he will. Though there is no basis in reality for Walter’s theory, his preoccupation with the meaning of noses shapes his son’s self-perception. Tristram develops a terrible self-consciousness about his own misfortune. He may mock his father’s belief in the auspiciousness of noses, but Tristram is self-conscious about what happened to him. He also feels victimized by the world, and he points to the flattened nose (and the traumatizing parenting it represents) as evidence of how unlucky he has been.

Part of the reason for noses’ importance to Walter and Tristram is their connection to patrilineal inheritance and masculine sexuality. Throughout the novel, noses are associated with penises. The injury to Tristram’s nose during his birth is paralleled by his accidental circumcision by a window as a young boy. Both injuries are interpreted by Walter as harbingers of impotence and failure. Walter’s favorite theorist of noses, the fictional German philosopher Slawkenbergius, tells a story that is an extended double entendre in which a man’s large nose stands in for his large penis. His prominent nose inspires desire and admiration in the people who see it; it symbolizes his virility and masculinity. When Tristram’s nose is crushed, therefore, it foreshadows the demise of the line of Shandy men. Tristram has not inherited his father’s nose, and he fears he will not be able to carry on his legacy by fathering children, so he attempts to preserve the family line in the form of his book.