Tristram Shandy

THEMES

The novel articulates some of the key questions related to the "First Wave of Modernity"

Dissolution of Meaning:

The questionable form of the novel, its indefinable genre, is tied to a dissolution of traditional senses of meaning in the modern period (p 522). Dissolution of meaning (or purpose) is also expressed in the fact that the endless digressions in the novel undermine any sense that there is a narrative unity or intention behind the events described. Is there an overall shape or moral to this story, or is the story just a sequence of random events, akin to the random combinations and collisions of matter particles that make up the cosmos of the new natural philosophy.

Quarrel of Ancients and Moderns:

The novel seems to be in the tradition of Swift's, Battle of the Books and its satire on the battle of the ancients and moderns (See Scriblerian Satire and the Origins of Tristram Shandy). On this point, note the opposition between modern siege warfare and the ethical approach to conflict undertaken by the ancients (p 315). This also points to the reason / revelation distinction (reference to Sodom and Gomorrah) (p 324).

Lockean Epistemology:

The novel builds on Locke’s association of ideas as its point of departure. For Locke, humans do not have innate ideas or virtues; we are the product of sensations. This led to the logical conclusion that humanity can be composed of an infinite variety of individuals who are the product of their unique set of experiences, as opposed to humans as falling into certain categories according to their prevailing virtues or vices, or according to their nature.

This point of departure also raises the question as to whether we can ever truly communicate with other people. This finds its expression in the novel in the endless mis-understandings and the characters' vain attempts to make themselves understood.

The "Preface" in particular draws attention to the link to Locke (140-41) – this time, in relation to the distinction between wit and judgement. Locke had denigrated the role of wit in the human mind. “Perhaps the broadest aim of Sterne's novel is to rehabilitate wit after more than half a century during which it had played a subservient role to judgment in British thought”. (see Alter on this p 318)

The moral of the sermon is based on Locke (see Cash) (1964).

Lockean political philosophy is also present in the novel in the discussion of whether or not property right is by nature (p 161)

STERNE'S MORAL INTENTION

The question of the contingency of existence or whether or not there is a divine intention behind existence is tied to the play of the authorial intention (p 400-401). The author’s intention seems to be effaced by the contingency of events and the chaotic becoming of temporal existence he is prey to. However, he does control story time to a great degree through these digressions. And, there is this pointing, via the digressions and the education of the reader to a refined imagination, to a sense of an authorial plan behind the work: teaching patience and humility:

Major scholarly inquiries into the status of epistemology and skepticism in Sterne’s fiction tend to focus on the influence of empiricist philosophers like John Locke, David Hartley, and David Hume. However, critical investigations into a lengthier intellectual history of allusions make explicit what has often been overlooked: “Sterne did not need Locke, still less Hume, to direct him to the skeptical high road.” Scholars including J. T. Parnell and Donald R. Wehrs have fruitfully placed Sterne in a tradition of fideistic skepticism that allows for faith while “raising doubts about the rational or evidential merits of the justifications given for a belief” and about whether “necessary and sufficient reasons either have been or could be discovered to show that any particular belief must be true, and cannot possibly be false.” (Holm)

On the teaching of the patience to surrender stoically to the twists and turns of life, note: "I would go fifty miles on foot, for I have not a horse worth riding on, to kiss the hand of that man whose generous heart will give up the reins of his imagination into his author's hands, — be pleased he knows not why, and cares not wherefore” (III.12). Also, Toby says to Trim: a man should bring half the entertainment with him to a story – then he will sympathize with the tale (VIII.19).

Ultimately, however, the design of the novel, or lack thereof, means that the reader is left helplessly adrift in the seemingly meaningless shifts of events. I have therefore demoted this novel from its original standing in the List of 100 Great Books. The work does provoke a thoughtful reflection on ultimate questions, however. Thus, it retains its place, of course, on my list of 1001 Great Books of the Western Canon.