The Hobby-Horse Symbol Analysis

In Tristram Shandy, the concept of the hobby-horse (a personal hobby) symbolizes the idiosyncrasies of human nature—and the idiosyncratic nature of humans, both of which are central focuses of the novel. When Tristram first introduces the concept, he makes it clear that he believes the hobby-horse is an essential part of human nature. For this reason, society should encourage and facilitate people’s hobby-horses, no matter how strange a particular hobby-horse may seem to others. People need their hobby-horses, Tristram argues, and a careful observer of humankind—like an author—needs them too, as nothing illuminates the subtleties of a person’s mind as clearly as their hobby-horse.

The book’s featured hobby-horse is Toby’s obsession with fortifications. Toby initially comes to this interest to make sense of his career-ending wound to the groin, but it soon becomes the primary object of his life. As such, Toby and his manservant Trim read all the literature on fortifications they can get their hands on, closely following the latest news of sieges and urban battles on the continent, and even modeling these sieges on the bowling green behind Toby’s house. Bizarre as this may be, it gives Toby’s life meaning. Even Walter, who finds his brother’s hobby-horse extremely aggravating, is forced to concede this point, especially during Toby’s speech in which he eloquently defends the moral value of his hobby-horse. And Walter, of course, would be quite the hypocrite to deny anyone else their hobby-horse: his own unorthodox interests encompass everything from names to noses to the science of childbirth. Tristram, despite his “hobby-horsical” interest in hobby-horses, coyly avoids explicitly telling the reader what his own hobby-horse is, instead preferring to describe those of his family. In doing so, however, he suggests that perhaps his true hobby-horse is his book itself.