Chapter XVIII explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Family and Heredity

  The chapter revolves around the Shandy family's decision about Mrs. Shandy's lying-in, highlighting parental concerns and the dynamics of marriage.

• The Absurdity of Systems

  Walter Shandy's elaborate political and philosophical arguments about the choice of midwife, including his metaphor of the body politic and his plan to regulate migration, are presented as absurdly over-systematized.

• Digression and Narrative Form

  Tristram's digression about Jenny and his playful teasing of the reader about her identity exemplifies the novel's digressive style.

• Love and Marriage

  The marital dispute between Walter and Mrs. Shandy over the midwife choice, and Tristram's ambiguous references to Jenny, explore themes of love, marriage, and gender relations.

Characters to notice

• Tristram Shandy

  Narrator and author, writing on March 9, 1759, and addressing the reader directly about his dear Jenny.

• Mrs. Shandy

  Determined to have the old midwife attend her lying-in, she argues with Walter and ultimately wins the dispute.

• Walter Shandy

  Argues against the midwife, preferring the man-midwife Dr. Slop, citing personal, political, and philosophical reasons.

• Uncle Toby

  Mentioned as being present to drink a bottle of wine with Walter and the operator in the back parlour.

• Dr. Slop

  The man-midwife and scientific operator who wrote a book on midwifery; he is to be paid five guineas for his consultation.

• Jenny

  Tristram's dear Jenny, whose identity is playfully left ambiguous—possibly his wife, mistress, child, or friend.

Key passages

• “As the point was that night agreed, or rather determined, that my mother should lye-in of me in the country, she took her measures accordingly; for which purpose, when she was three days, or thereabouts, gone with child, she began to cast her eyes upon the midwife, whom you have so often heard me mention;”

  It was decided that Mrs. Shandy would give birth to Tristram in the country, so she promptly began considering the local midwife as her attendant.

  Sets up the central conflict of the chapter regarding the choice of birth attendant.

• “My father was never able to give the history of this distemper, without the remedy along with it. 'Was I an absolute prince,' he would say, pulling up his breeches with both his hands, as he rose from his armchair, 'I would appoint able judges, at every avenue of my metropolis, who should take cognizance of every fool's business who came there;'”

  Walter always paired his diagnosis of social ills with a proposed cure, imagining himself as an absolute ruler who would station judges at city gates to send frivolous visitors back to their homes.

  Illustrates Walter's tendency to apply grand political theories to domestic matters.

• “My mother answered everything only like a woman; which was a little hard upon her; for as she could not assume and fight it out behind such a variety of characters, 'twas no fair match: 'twas seven to one.”

  Mrs. Shandy could only reply as a woman, while Walter argued from many perspectives—Christian, heathen, husband, father, patriot, man—making the contest unfair.

  Highlights the gendered power dynamics in the Shandy household.

• “All I plead for, in this case, Madam, is strict justice, and that you do so much of it, to me as well as to yourself, as not to prejudge, or receive such an impression of me, till you have better evidence, than, I am positive, at present can be produced against me.”

  Tristram asks the female reader not to assume he is married based on his mention of 'dear Jenny,' insisting on fair judgment until more evidence is available.

  Exemplifies Tristram's playful and digressive engagement with the reader.