The author
pauses to look back over his work, remarking on the number of jackasses
the world contains. Walter too surveys his work, congratulating himself
on the usefulness of his Tristra-paedia. Dr. Slop and Susannah bicker
as they dress young Tristram's wound. Walter begins to think of hiring
a governor (a private tutor) for his son, in order to improve
Tristram's supervision and begin his education. He reflects on the
qualities of the ideal governor, which inspires Toby to recommend Le
Fever's son, Billy. Tristram embarks on the sentimental story about Le
Fever and his boy, regretting that he missed the opportunity, with all
the scene-shifting in the last volume, to give the story in Corporal
Trim's own words.
Toby and Trim had taken a particular interest
in Lieutenant Le Fever when he fell ill while passing through their
village. Despite their kind and generous attentions, Le Fever died,
leaving Uncle Toby to be the executor of his estate and the guardian of
his orphaned son. Young Billy Le Fever had been in the army until poor
health and financial trouble recently recalled him home. His arrival is
expected at any moment when Toby proposes him for Tristram's governor.
Dr. Slop
exaggerates the extent of Tristram's injury, creating a public
embarrassment for the Shandy family. Walter considers putting the boy
in breeches as a corrective to public opinion and decides to submit the
matter to one of his "beds of justice." Tristram explains that his
father's preferred method for making big decisions is a modified
version of a Gothic tradition, in which important matters are debated
twice: once in a state of sobriety and once while drunk. The
discussions Walter conducts while in bed with Mrs. Shandy are more
sober than he might wish, however, since she is a markedly unspirited
conversationalist. She acquiesces to putting the boy in breeches, and
submits to each of Walter's changing opinions about what sort of
breeches they should be. Walter then consults his library for ancient
wisdom on breeches.
Tristram
declares a turning point in the book, leaving all these considerations
behind "to enter upon a new scene of events," which will concern his
Uncle Toby. He describes the details of Toby's fortifications, the
history of their construction, and the pleasure Toby and Trim took in
re-enacting the events of the war. He eventually leaves off the account
of their fortification project to discuss the other side of his Uncle
Toby's personality, referring again to Toby's unusual modesty and
preparing the stage for the story of Toby's love affair. Toby grieves
when the war ends, but Tristram insists that it is not out of any love
of violence or disregard for human life. Toby delivers an Apologetical
Oration in which he argues that war is a necessary evil. Nevertheless,
the Treaty of Utrecht forces a hiatus in Toby's obsessive activities.
It is during this "fateful interval," Tristram hints, that his uncle
falls victim to Widow Wadman's amorous designs. After a series of
ruminations about the nature of love, Tristram finally comes around to
stating bluntly, "My uncle Toby fell in love." But Toby, oddly, is
among the last to learn of his own plans to marry Mrs. Wadman.
Commentary
The decisive
event in this volume comes when Tristram announces a shift in the
emphasis of the book. Up to this point, the major sequence of events
has involved the conception, birth, baptism, and circumcision of the
infant Tristram. Here the author transfers his focus to the adventures
of his Uncle Toby. The transition is not as drastic as Tristram makes
it out to be; we have been gathering pieces of Toby's story all along,
as well as promises of more to come (though they have mainly occurred
as digressions to the main narrative line). One of the most striking
aspects of the book, however, is the degree to which the main plot
trajectory often recedes into the background, often seeming like no
more than a skeleton on which the author hangs a diversity of opinions
and analyses.
Now, however,
Tristram declares outright that he would like to leave his own story
behind. But he feels he cannot do so: "I must go along with you to the
end of the work." This statement reveals the fact that the story of the
infant Tristram does not exhaust the "life and opinions" of Tristram
Shandy. Toby's story is just as important in disclosing the mental life
of the author. As if to prove this fact, Tristram drops the issues of
the window sash accident, the tutor, and the breeches and whisks the
story back to the early days of Toby's obsessive hobbies. One of the
most notable things about this particular hobby-horse is that it keeps
Toby firmly rooted in the past, emphasizing re-creations and
re-enactments. When the end of the war suspends his pleasures, Toby
does look to the future; he hopes for a new war to break out--but only
so that he can relegate it just as firmly to the past by retracing its
every movement. The intensity of Toby's immersion in this imaginary
world is such that it incorporates and transforms everything that comes
within his purview.
© "Section 6"
Santos, Matilda.
SparkNote on Tristram Shandy. 1 Nov. 2008
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/tristram/section6.rhtml