A FEW GENERAL REMARKS

From the publication of the first two volumes, Tristram Shandy was a success, and a success not only in England but also in France, Italy, and Germany. The characters of Uncle Toby and Corporal Trim and the Widow Wadman episode were particularly admired, and Sterne's humor was generally appreciated. Sterne regarded humor as "the gift of God," and he used it to achieve satiric ends. He acknowledged following Cervantes's lead in "describing silly and trifling Events, with the Circumstantial Pomp of Great Ones." Writing a comic novel with serious goals presented difficulties for Sterne, "I am going down to write a world of Nonsense–if possible like a man of Sense–but there is the Rub." The "rub" or the potential incompatibility which Sterne anticipated may apply to the reader as well. Do we read seriously, looking for meaning(s) and enjoying the humor as we go, or do we read as game players, having fun and taking serious meanings as they reveal themselves? or is there some other way to read this novel? Is Ian Watt right that "through imaginative play we learn about ourselves"?

One of Sterne's goals in writing Tristram Shandy "was the hopes of doing the world good by ridiculing what I thought deserving of it–or of disservice to sound learning." Sterne's satire of faulty scientific reasoning or misuse of knowledge is, I suspect, the part of the novel that is most difficult for most of us to understand. If this is the case, I suggest that, as you read passages which are laden with footnotes explaining Sterne's allusions, you keep in mind his purpose, even if you don't understand all the details or follow his argument completely. For example, Sterne explained that in his chapter on noses, "the principal satire throughout that part is levelled at those learned blockheads who, in all ages, have wasted their time and much learning upon points as foolish"; in other words, their learned theories are as ridiculous as Mr. Shandy's theories about noses.

The greatest objections which Sterne's contemporaries had to the novel stemmed from his sexual references and innuendos, which, coming from a clergyman, shocked many. Samuel Richardson wrote that Sterne's "character as a clergyman seems much impeached by printing such gross and vulgar tales, as no decent mind can endure without extreme disgust!" It is a criticism that has continued. Sir Walter Scott, writing half a century later, voiced the same basic objection, though more temperately,

... it cannot be said that the licentious humour of Tristram Shandy is of the kind which applies itself to the passions, or is calculated to corrupt society. But it is a sin against taste, if allowed to be harmless as to morals. A handful of mud is neither a firebrand nor a stone; but to fling it about in sport, argues coarseness of mind, and want of common manners.

Sterne has been called a modern novelist because of his novelistic practices and themes:

• He is concerned with the nature of time and plays with its various forms, e.g., chronological time, the reader's time.
• He uses the association of ideas to portray how his characters' (and our) minds work and to organize his novel.
• He challenges the conventions of the novel, e.g., chronological development and the use of dedications and prefaces, and explores the relationship between reality and the illusion of fiction.
• He upsets the reader's comfortable expectations and unthinking assumptions.
• He makes the reader part of the process of writing a novel by sharing creative decisions as Tristram writes the novel.
• He presents the essential aloneness of human beings, with each of his characters being the center of his own world.
• He shows the chaotic nature of life by presenting effects or consequences before their causes, by showing trivial causes having momentous consequences, and by showing momentous causes having trivial consequences.
• He reveals the unreliable nature of language and verbal communication.
• As a result of the above, reality and character become fluid, i.e., are constantly changing, and thus unpredictable; and the truth becomes difficult, if not impossible, to determine.

Many readers find Tristram Shandy disorganized, even chaotic. E.M. Forster expressed their perspective when he said, "Obviously a god is hidden in Tristram Shandy, and his name is Muddle." Certainly, the digressions, the apologies, the delays, the jokes, and even the narrator's statements that he doesn't know what he will write next because he doesn't know what idea may run away with him–all these things support their view, as does the narrator's statement that he never revises. Furthermore, Tristram announces his intention "to go on leisurely, writing and publishing two volumes of my life every year... as long as I live" (I, xiv, 33). However, to what extent are Sterne and Tristram to be equated? Is it relevant that statements like this appear in Sterne's correspondence: "I shall write as long as I live, ‘tis, in fact, my hobby horse"? If this was indeed Sterne's intention, how much planning could go into a novel which might end tomorrow or in twenty years?

There are, however, counter arguments to this view. Does a novel have to be tightly organized? Isn't Sterne's rambling part of his purpose in writing Tristram Shandy and a delight in itself? For Tristram–and presumably Sterne, "Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine;–they are the life, the soul of reading;–take them out of this book for instance,–you might as well take the book along with them" (I, xxii, 58). Is his digressiveness in fact an organizational technique? Tristram (and Sterne?) claimed, "my work is digressive, and it is progressive too,–and at the same time" (I, xxii, 58).

Not all readers concede that the novel lacks organization. They have found unity in Sterne's humor, in his characters, in the themes, in his philosophy, in his rhetoric, and in the narrator. Some have seen the novel as a monologue, in which case the rambling is an expression of the narrator's personality. Others see it as a dialog between the narrator and the reader, with the digressions of conversation. James Aiken argues, "The book was planned and written, for the most part, slowly and with care." To support his view, he cites the chronological consistency of the time scheme, which is complete and consistent, with one or two trivial lapses. The major actions–Tristram's conception, birth, and baptism and Uncle Toby's hobby horse and courtship–are arranged chronologically. Moreover the narrator refers to events, conversations, and beliefs which are developed and explained in later books; this technique required at least some planning on Sterne's part. Sterne wrote his publisher, "The Plan, as you will perceive, is a most extensive one–taking in, not only, the Weak part of the Sciences, in w^ch the true point of Ridicule lies–but every Thing else, which I find Laugh-at-able in my way–." Is this a sufficient organizational principle?

MAJOR THEMES

Major themes in this novel are communication, cause-and-effect, and time. 

COMMUNICATION

A primary barrier to communication is what Sterne calls a hobbyhorse; a character is so focused on a topic or behavior that he is dominated and nearly defined by it. Walter Shandy's obsession is theorizing, with little, if any awareness of reality, of the consequences of his theory, or of its effect on others. My uncle Toby's hobbyhorse is obvious–military strategy, battles, and his bowling-green battlefield. Corporal Trim's hobbyhorse is the pleasure of hearing himself talk, and Dr.Slop's hobbyhorse is Catholicism.

Another barrier to communication is the association of ideas which often carries the speaker, including the narrator, off on his hobbyhorse. As Dr. Slop is praising the forceps in making deliveries safer, Toby interrupts with the wish that Dr. Slop "had seen what prodigious armies we had in Flanders" (II, xviii, 115, III, i, 125, 126; III, vi, 129). When Trim reads the sermon, the reference to the Inquisiton makes him think of his brother, imprisoned by the Inquisition in Portugal; his belief that the sermon is describing the torments of his brother distresses him profoundly.

Full communication does occur, though not with language. Undeniably, the Shandy brothers have different views and often do not understand one another in conversation; Walter loses his temper at Toby's hobbyhorse, and Toby covers his disagreement and occasional disapproval of Walter's theories by smoking his pipe vigorously and, as a last recourse, whistling Lillabullero.

Nevertheless, they do communicate, and they communicate through emotion. They share feelings; each loves the other and perceives that he is loved in return. Their closeness is reflected in their companionableness; note how they smoke their pipes together and doze together. They are secure in their relationship with each other, as the following exchange shows; Toby notes, with satisfaction, "the best friends in the world may differ sometimes.–True,–brother Toby, quoth my father, shaking hands with him,–we'll fill our pipes, brother, and then Trim shall go on" (II, xvii, 106). They are able to communicate and to maintain their relationship through their consideration and love for each other. After Walter insults Toby's hobby horse, Toby

look'd up into my father's face, with a countenance spread over with so much good nature;–so placid;–so fraternal;–so inexpressibly tender toward him;–it penetrated my father to his heart: He rose up hastily from his chair, and seizing hold of both my uncle Toby's hands as he spoke:–Brother Toby, said he, –I beg thy pardon; forgive, I pray thee, this rash humor which my mother gave me.–My dear, dear brother, answer'd my uncle Toby, rising up by my father's help, say no more about it;–you are heartily welcome, had it been ten times as much, brother. But ‘tis ungenerous, replied my father, to hurt any man;–a brother worse;–but to hurt a brother of such gentle manners,–so unprovoking,–and so unresenting;–‘tis base:–By heaven, ‘tis cowardly.–You are heartily welcome, brother, quoth my uncle Toby–had it been fifty times as much.–Besides, what have I to do, my dear Toby, cried my father, either with your amusements or your pleasures, unless it was in my power (which it is not) to increase their measure?
     Brother Shandy, answer'd my uncle Toby, looking wistfully in his face,–you are much mistaken in this point; for you do increase my pleasure very much, in begetting children for the Shandy Family at your time of life (II, xii, 92).

The affection and the respect Toby and Trim have for each other enable them to be friends, despite their hobbyhorses. When Trim suggests creating a miniature battlefield, Toby is immediately eager to begin, but Trim keeps talking and talking despite Toby's repeated interruptions that he understands.

CAUSE AND EFFECT

The disjunction between cause and effect form part of the irrationality and randomness of life. The Shandy marriage settlement results in Tristram's nose being flattened at birth. Walter develops a theory of childbirth which results in his employing the man-midwife, Dr. Slop. Walter's habit of winding the clock the first of the month has unforseeable and, in Walter's eyes, tragic consequences in Tristram's begetting.

TIME

Time, a major theme in Tristram Shandy, takes many forms. Sterne deals with time as duration, both chronological and psychological; the time it takes a reader to actually read and the time that the reader feels or accepts has passed; the time events take; and time as an organizational device. Time is also a subject both Tristram (aka Sterne?) and the characters speculate about.

Time and the way the writer handles time.
Tristram Shandy opens in 1718 and ends in 1713 and ranges from Henry VIII's time to 1766. Mrs. Shandy's labor begins in Volume I (xx, 51), but Tristram is not born until Volume III (xxiii, 163); thus, though Tristram is an eight-month baby, it takes him a year to be born, since that is the amount of time that elapsed between the publication of Volume II and Volume III.

Time as a structural device.
Sterne uses not only flashbacks, which you are familiar with, but even a flashforward, i.e., he refers to an event which has not yet happened: "a cow broke in (tomorrow morning) to my uncle Toby's fortifications" (III, xxxviii, 187). The flashbacks often take the form of digressions, which Tristram claims are in actuality relevant and further the story: "In a word, my work is digressive, and it is progressive too–and at the same time.... I have constructed the main work and the adventitious parts of it with such intersections, and have so complicated and involved the digressive and progressive movements, one wheel within another, that the whole machine, in general, has been kept a-going..." (I, xxii, 58-9).

Suspended time.
Sterne sometimes inserts his digressions and flashbacks into a moment of the characters' time, stopping their time while, theoretically at least, providing information which furthers the "main story" of the novel. (An aside: just what is the main story?) In Volume I, Uncle Toby's reply to his brother is interrupted: "I think, replied my uncle Toby, taking his pipe from his mouth, and striking the head of it two or three times upon the nail of his left thumb, as he began his sentence,–I think, says he" (xxi, 51). Two pages later, Tristram returns to Toby without any time having passed in Toby's world, "But I forget my uncle Toby, whom all this while we have left knocking the ashes out of his tobacco pipe" (53). In Volume II, time is briefly reversed, and the reader is returned to my father's question, "What can they be doing, brother?" Only then does the reader learn what Toby has to say, and what he has to say, after all this delay, is not an explanation or a theory about the noise but the pedestrian suggestion that they ask a servant (vi, 80).

The reader's time and the characters' time.
Tristram notes that it has taken the reader about ninety minutes to read what happened since uncle Toby rang the bell and Obadiah left for Dr. Slop, "so that no one can say, with reason, that I have not allowed Obadiah time enough, poetically speaking, and considering the emergency too, both to go and come" (II, viii, 83). Here he is dealing with two kinds of time: the literal time of the reader, measurable by the clock, and the reader's sense of how much (fictional) time has elapsed in the lives of the characters; in the fictional time, they have performed actions requiring more than the mere ninety minutes of the reader's real time. Tristram goes onto acknowledge that no real or chronological time may have elapsed: "tho', morally and truly speaking, the man, perhaps, has scarce had time to get on his boots." He then addresses a literal-minded reader, whose objections he sets forth, in order to demolish their irrelevance to fictional time.

The writer's time.
Tristram refers to the time in which he is writing the novel, placing us in the room where he is writing, telling us about the weather as he writes, describing his activities or what he is wearing as he writes. A particular thought which he has just written down came to him "this very rainy day, March 26, 1759, and between the hours of nine and ten in the morning" (I, xx, 53). The year is, of course, the actual time when Sterne was writing this volume. Or, the narrator tells us, "And here am I sitting, this 12th day of August, 1766, in a purple jerkin and yellow pair of slippers, without either wig or cap on, a most tragicomical completion of his prediction, ‘That I should neither think, nor act like any other man's child, upon that very account'" (IX, i, 486). Such intrusions of the narrator's (and Sterne's?) time calls attention to the artificiality of the novel and the fictionality of his characters, who yet are convincingly alive for the reader. They also raise the question of the relationship of the actual writer (not the fictional persona) to his novel.

Time as duration.
My father looks at his watch, announces that two hours and ten minutes have passed, "but to my imagination it seems almost an age" (III, xviii, 149). The distinction is between chronological, measurable time whose units never change (a minute is never more nor less than 60 seconds) and time as experienced by human beings (it seems to pass slowly or to pass quickly, its duration changing according to circumstances). Of course, Walter is not interested in clarifying the issue for uncle Toby, but merely to have his ear so that he can expound his theory of time (introducing thereby the theme of communication or, it would be more accurate to say, the lack of communication). To his astonishment and the reader's amusement, Toby knows the reason, "‘Tis owing, entirely, quoth my uncle Toby, to the succession of our ideas" (149). A further twist to the comedy is Toby's admission that he does not at all understand what he just said; his brother responds, "there is a worth in thy honest ignorance, brother Toby–‘twere almost a pity to exchange it for a knowledge.–But I'll tell thee" (150). Walter is on his hobby horse and so cannot stop; he goes on to expound the theory of duration of time, which in this case is a valid contemporary theory. Toby cries out, "You puzzle me to death" (151). In this passage about time, Sterne presents simultaneously the brothers' lack of communication on the level of language but their loving communication at the level of emotional empathy and response.

Time and writing a novel.
The digressive-progressive technique presents problems to the narrator in telling the story of his life and propounding his opinions (the full title is, after all, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy). In following the associations that cross his mind, providing background, and giving his opinions and his father's opinions, the narrator is accumulating material faster than he can write about it:

          I am this month one whole year older than I was this time twelve-month; and having got, as you perceive, almost into the middle of the fourth volume–and no farther than to my first day's day–‘tis demonstrative that I have three hundred and sixty-four more days to write just now, than when I first set out; so that instead of advancing, as a common writer, in my work with what I have been doing at it–on the contrary, I am just thrown so many volumes back–was every day of my life to be as busy as this–And why not?–and the transactions and opinions of it to take up as much description–And for what reason should they be cut short? at this rate I should just live 364 times faster than I should write–It must follow, an' please your worships, that the more I write, the more I shall have to write–and consequently, the more your worships read, the more your worships will have to read (IV, xiii, 228).

The relationship of writing and time takes a different twist with the Trista-paedia that Walter is writing to provide a guide in raising Tristram; he hopes to overcome the crippling disadvantages of Tristram's unfortunate conception, his flattened nose, and his ill-omened name. As Walter writes, he discovers more and more that has to be said, so that the work gets longer and longer. After three years, he has written only half the Trista-paedia . The consequence is that Tristram himself "was all that time totally neglected and abandoned to my mother; and what was almost as bad, by the very delay, the first part of the work, upon which my father had spent the most of his pains, was rendered entirely useless,–every day a page or two became of no consequence" (V, xvii, 300). Walter, on his hobby horse again, loses sight of his purpose; even worse, instead of contributing to Tristram's education, he is relegating it to a woman whose understanding he holds in contempt. In addition, this is an example of a cause with ridiculous, unexpected consequences.

© "Laurence Sterne" Academic Brooklyn.cuny.edu October 13, 2004. 1 Nov 2008