The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

I am going to analyse an extract (Tristram's conception - Volume I - Chapter IV) from a novel written by Laurence Sterne.

The title of the novel is The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.

Right from the title the reader may expect the novel to tell about the events of a man's life, probably the protagonist, called Tristram Shandy. But in the title it is immediately notable another relevant word: "opinions". It has got a very significant meaning because a word like this compares for the first time in the title of a novel. The word "opinions" means that the writer talks also about somebody's opinions.

The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is an unconventional novel. As a matter of fact there is not a chronological arrangement of the events of the main plot. On the contrary there are a lot of digressions (flashback and flashforward) and writer's comments. The writer decides to use a lot of digressions to anticipate something and to stear the reader's attention. The position of the reader is taken in great consideration and has got an important role.

In the extract you can recognize two parts: in the first one the narrator talks about the way the novel is written. The novelist is more interested in how to tell things (meta-narrative) than in what to tell (narrative). The writer is reflecting on what he is doing while he is writing (metafictional attitude), that is an innovative aspect. In the first part there are a lot of quotations and references (for example to Montaigne or to Horace). The reader is totally involved. As a matter of fact the novelist also jokes with the reader: "But that gentleman is speaking only of an epic poem or a tragedy; - (I forget which) ..." "I can give no better advice, than that they skip over the remaining part of this chapter" "for I declare before hand, ‘tis wrote only for the curious and inquisitive".

All this produces a general comic effect. So in the first part of the extract the writer wants to draw the attention of how novel is created.

In the second part of the text the writer deals with Tristram's conception and the circumstances which led to it. The protagonist speaks about his father's behaviour: he was "one of the most regular men in every thing he did". Therefore he had brought "some other little family concernments to the same period, to get them all out of the way at one time, and be no more plagued and pester'd with them the rest of the month". This is the reason why Tristram Shandy is sure about the day of his conception: in the night between the first Sunday and the first Monday of March. Tristram gives a lot of information and details about this situation creating a general comic/ironic effect.