The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman · Chapter
Chapter XXXI explained
Tristram recounts a dispute between his great-grandfather and great-grandmother over her jointure, where she retorts that he has 'little or no nose.' This leads Tristram to a digression on the importance of defining terms precisely to avoid
What happens
Tristram recounts a dispute between his great-grandfather and great-grandmother over her jointure, where she retorts that he has 'little or no nose.' This leads Tristram to a digression on the importance of defining terms precisely to avoid confusion, especially in moral and philosophical works. He then defines 'nose' literally, warning readers not to read any double entendre into the word.
Themes in this chapter
Digression and Narrative Form
Tristram digresses from the family anecdote to discuss the necessity of defining terms, a hallmark of the novel's self-reflexive narrative style.
Modesty and Obscenity
Tristram explicitly warns readers against interpreting 'nose' in any indecent sense, highlighting the tension between literal meaning and bawdy innuendo.
Characters to notice
- Tristram Shandy
Narrator and authorial voice, reflecting on definitions and the word 'nose.'
- Eugenius
Interlocutor who points out a double meaning in the word 'crevice' and discusses the two senses of words with Tristram.
Key passages
“I think it a very unreasonable demand—cried my great-grandfather, twisting up the paper, and throwing it upon the table.—By this account, madam, you have but two thousand pounds fortune, and not a shilling more—and you insist upon having three hundred pounds a year jointure for it.—"Because," replied my great-grandmother, "you have little or no nose, Sir."”
Tristram's great-grandfather angrily rejects his wife's demand for a large jointure given her small dowry, but she retorts that his lack of a nose justifies her request.
This anecdote sets up the central pun on 'nose' and the theme of marital negotiation.
“For by the word Nose, throughout all this long chapter of noses, and in every other part of my work, where the word Nose occurs—I declare, by that word I mean a nose, and nothing more, or less.”
Tristram insists that his use of the word 'nose' is purely literal and should not be interpreted as having any hidden or obscene meaning.
This declaration is ironic, as the entire chapter plays on the potential double entendre of 'nose.'