# Chapter XXXI explained — The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

> Chapter companion for The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne.

## 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.

## Character check-ins

### 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 lines

> 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.'_

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tristram_shandy_se/chapters/xxxi
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tristram_shandy_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tristram_shandy_se/chapters