ADAPTING TRISTRAM SHANDY by Adria Young Submitted in ...

Widow Wadman’s preoccupation with Toby’s groin injury and his genital area in
general, and Tristram’s and Walter’s concern with nose sizes. We also cannot forget the
chestnut scene, the window sash scene, and the constant word-play with the
“hobbyhorse,” which, as Frank Brady notes, is “a slang term for a whore” (41-2). Brady
also points out that there are “at least fifteen” references to “fingers and thumbs,” which
suggest “either sexual intercourse or masturbation” (42-3), and also to “whiskers,” which
are euphemisms for either pubic hair or testicles (44). Indeed, while all of these allusions
are present in the text, Sterne’s method of delivery is euphemistic and, at times,
ambiguous, which he achieves through his use of the asterisk. As Paul Goring argues,
Sterne’s use of ellipses fills in for explicit language (189). For instance, while discussing
Mr. Slop’s presence at Tristram’s birth, Toby asserts, “My sister, I dare say, added he,
does not care to let a man come so near her * * * *” (Sterne 89). Goring argues that the
use of the asterisk (of which there are many) creates a “narrative pose of innocence” and
readers are “nudged into producing their own bawdy interpretations of what is not
explicitly bawdy” (189). This is one way that Sterne is able to defend his work against his
critics, which come in an onslaught after the publication of the first two volumes. “In
books of strict morality and close reasoning, such as this” Tristram writes, “the world has
revenged itself upon me for leaving so many openings to equivocal strictures, -- and for
depending so much as I have done, all along, upon the cleanliness of my reader’s
imaginations” (Sterne 196). Just as penis jokes and sexual innuendo fill the
novel, 40 Sterne’s anticipation of criticism and rebuttals of it are definitively Shandean
qualities.
The critical history surrounding Sterne’s novel is both celebratory and
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