Noses

According to Walter Shandy, a nose determines one's character. He is absolutely devistated by the crushing of baby Tristram's nose at birth and believes that Tristram is now doomed by fate. Much against the insistance by Sterne that a nose is just a nose, one's nose symobizes one's sexual organ. There are quite a few parallels in the book that relate the two, including the mishap at Tristram's birth. Dr. Slop was explaining the use of his new forceps for extracting the baby from it's mother and indicating that grave misfortune could occur if the baby were not to come out head-first. Baby Tristram's nose was crushed instead of his *****.

Walter has ancestral 'evidence' to support his theory that long noses are very important in determining character. His future great-grandfather had a very hard time convincing his wife-to-be to marry because he had a very small nose. Walter has read extensively on the subject of noses and determines that the German philosopher, Slawkenbergius is the most well versed on the subject finding many 'arguments' for the importance of long noses.

Click here for the first passage on Noses in Volume I.
Click here for the first passage on Noses in Volume II.

For a digression on Noses, click here!

Mainpage

Last modified May 12, 1996. Maintained by Keith Earley.
Comments or suggestions? Write us!