Time in Tristram Shandy

Aidan Gibson Aspects of the Novel Annabel Davis-Goff December 24, 2014 The History of Tristram Shandy Tristram Shandy was not supposed to last. Not at least according to Dr. Johnson, who wrote of his disapproval not long after the final volume of the novel was published. Tristram Shandy, though, has lasted. Sterne’s novel influenced not only contemporaries, but also writers of the modern era. There are many reasons for Tristram Shandy’s continued notability; there are the Shandean opinions, from both Tristram and his father Walter, the many, many jokes, and the digressions and experimentation with what constitutes a novel. But there is also something else, that brings Tristram Shandy away from its purported muddle: for although Tristram Shandy is hardly a chronological novel, there is a completely accurate historical background, provided by Uncle Toby. This background keeps the novel grounded. Thus, despite all the digressions, and jumping around in time, there is a chronological timeline supporting the novel that keeps it tied together. The age when Tristram Shandy took place was one marked by a large number of long-term conflicts, largely between Great Britain and France, though Spain and Holland were also frequent participants. The end of the 17th century to the beginning of the 19th century was, in effect, the second Hundred Years War, and Tristram Shandy spans the beginning of this period to the end of the 1760s, when Sterne completed the final volume a year before dying. For the novel, the key conflicts are the two earlier wars of the period: The Nine Years’ War (also known as King William’s War), where King William’s England defeated the Jacobites in Ireland, and the War of Spanish Succession, where the Treaty of Utrecht, signed in 1713, ended France’s hopes of becoming the dominant European power, and caused a brief respite in fighting between the European powers, before conflict resumed in 1718, with the War of the Quadruple Alliance, where Britain, France, Austria and the Dutch Republic fought Spain. There is a degree of similarity between the two earlier wars, which Sterne seizes upon. In both wars, the Low Countries region was the principal theatre of action , with decisive battles in both countries occurring just twenty years apart: Namur, in 1695, and the Battle of Ramillies (just north of Namur) in 1706. The primary timeline of Tristram Shandy is not as simple. The plot of the novel is non-linear: for example, Yorick, who dies in the first volume, is still alive in the last volume. Tristram Shandy, whose life and opinions are ostensibly the point of the novel, isn’t born until the third volume. In this sense, Sterne is taking after Jonathan Swift’s Tale of the Tub, which is a story completely lacking in plot. What Sterne does is, as Robert Folkenflik argues in the introduction, to describe the human experience of time. Folkenflik writes that “Sterne’s point...is that time moves inexorably and quickly: his temporal strategy is to extend not nullify it” (xxiii). That Sterne is writing a novel about writing a memoir is important here: Sterne’s argument is that the form the plot takes does not have to be linear or tidy as it is in Fielding’s Tom Jones. Horace would not approve of his method, but as Tristram says, “that gentleman is speaking only of an epic poem or a tragedy”, besides which, “in writing what I have set about, I shall confine myself neither to his rules, nor to any man’s rules that ever lived” (4). There are other factors that give reason to the structure of Tristram Shandy. One of those is Sterne’s worsening health. In the dedication to Mr Pitt, the Prime Minister, Sterne writes of how he lives in “a constant endeavour to fence against the infirmities of ill health, and other evils of life…” Sterne is aware he is dying, and it is thematic in Tristram Shandy. The theme of death affects the function of time, as part of the reason for the novel’s nonlinearity is so that Sterne can outrun death, much as Tristram does in Volume 7. Another factor that is the philosophy of John Locke, which though at times parodied by Sterne, also serves an important function. Locke’s theory of human understanding supports Sterne’s point about time. Locke argues that understanding is gathered from experience, but knowledge is not linear; there are sensations and experiences stored in memory that become complex ideas as more sensations are gained. If there was a line to draw Locke’s theory on knowledge, it would look similar to Tristram’s line in Volume 6. Throughout Tristram Shandy, Sterne plays with the notion of time, down to the very nature of time itself. While waiting for Tristram’s birth, Walter Shandy cries “It is two hours, and ten minutes,--and no more...since Dr. Slop and Obadiah arrived----and I know not how it happens, brother Toby,----but to my imagination it seems almost an age.” The explanation for Walter, given by Toby, is that it owes “entirely...to the succession of our ideas” (146), an idea that he is taking verbatim from Locke even though it’s an idea that he does not completely understand. There are other times when Sterne plays with time; one example being when Tristram says that it should take a specific amount of time to read a chapter. Therefore, the idea that Sterne has humanised time is an accurate one. The concept of memory makes time jump from place to place; if one mapped out one’s own timeline as Tristram does, there would be a series of diversions and digressions. In life, though, there is always something to return to, and so it must be true in the novel as well, otherwise the novel becomes an elongated version of A Tale of a Tub, another cock-and-bull story. There must be something to keep Tristram Shandy grounded throughout, a structure underneath that keeps the novel tied together, rather than a series of loosely-connected digressions. It cannot, though, come only from Tristram. His birth, taking place in the twenty-third chapter of volume 3, means that he is only to become aware of events before his birth by other means. While that is certainly allowable for a narrator, it is not as allowable if Tristram were to provide a linear structure that ties the novel together, for it to start before his birth. This structure is instead provided by Uncle Toby. At one point, Tristram, whose presence as the narrator is very close to authorial, because of the conversational, stream of consciousness style, does talk of Uncle Toby’s death, but by the end of the novel, unlike Yorick, Uncle Toby’s death has not been described. Uncle Toby is, of course, a soldier, which links the novel with the historical background of the period, for Toby has served during the Nine Years’ War and is well-versed in the events of the War of Spanish Succession. Tristram even admits that Toby provides some of the background. While the date of Tristram’s birth, the fifth of November, 1718 (5), is given to the reader early in the novel, the novel begins with his conception, the details of which, and his mother’s untimely interruption, are given by Uncle Toby: “To my uncle Mr. Toby Shandy do I stand indebted for the preceding anecdote, to whom my father...had often, and heavily complain’d of the injury” (3). Yet Tristram Shandy is not always a reliable narrator, and it also seems possible that Tristram became aware of the date of his conception through his father’s pocket-book, and the details through knowledge of his father’s ideal conception, possibly gained from the Tristapedia, especially given the nature of Uncle Toby’s character. However, the precedent of Uncle Toby providing an exact historical background has been set, as has the precedent of Tristram digressing: in the first few chapters of the first volume, Tristram has moved from his conception, to a discussion on the homunculus, as well as a discussion of plot before returning to the details of his conception and then birth, provided by Uncle Toby. Tristram’s birth, however, is not his original formative experience; there are earlier events, told in a digression, and to tie the digression back towards the original point, Uncle Toby must be involved. Uncle Toby’s connection to history is established early in the novel. In Chapter Twenty-One, Tristram begins to explain Toby’s character, in order to explain his feeling about the events on the day of Tristram’s birth. The explanation in itself is a digression from the events, but one that establishes an important detail: Toby’s wound. The wound, gained at the siege of Namur, “struck full upon my uncle Toby’s groin” (50), which will become a running joke. The siege of Namur is also of factual importance. Tristram does not provide the date of the siege, but it would take little research to discover that the date of that battle was 1695. The establishing of these details also enables a predictive element: the effect of Toby’s wound, the story of which “is long and interesting;----but it would be running my history all upon heaps to give it you here” (50). Thus, the battle will be returned to; it is a place in history that is important for the story, and is established in the structure. Its battle’s importance is also because Uncle Toby was wounded at Namur. His wound forms a crucial part of his character; it becomes part of his hobby-horse. Illustrating Uncle Toby’s character leads to the necessity of bringing in Corporal Trim, his servant. Trim is also wounded, as Tristram reveals, at the battle of Landen, two years before the battle of Namur (73). Trim, “by four years occasional attention to his Master’s discourse upon fortified towns, and the advantage of prying and peeping continually into his Master’s plans...was thought to know as much of the nature of strong-holds as my uncle Toby himself” (73). Thus, Trim is very much involved in Uncle Toby’s hobby-horse, that is, ideas of military strategy and fortification, and the carrying out of such ideas and a completely accurate replication of the sieges War of Spanish Succession on Toby’s bowling-green, as neither Toby or Trim were fit for military service. This obsession, carried throughout the War of Spanish Succession, is how Uncle Toby ties the loose ends of the novel together. One of these loose ends is Uncle Toby’s relationship with the widow Wadman. A plot point of the final volumes, Widow Wadman first arises in the third volume. There is again a connection with history: “Tho’ the shock my uncle Toby received the year after the demolition of Dunkirk, in his affair with Widow Wadman, had fixed him in a resolution, never more to think of the sex” (161). During the War of Spanish Succession, Dunkirk was a haven for French privateers, and the demolition of Dunkirk as a base for them was one of the conditions of the Treaty of Utrecht; the conclusion of war removes all distractions for Uncle Toby, who can then begin his “campaign” towards Mrs. Wadman. The story of Uncle Toby’s relationship, though, will come later in the novel. Having established 1713 as a point in history that will necessitate a return, Tristram can leave the story aside, before moving to another moment in history: another fortification designed by Uncle Toby, a draw-bridge. The draw-bridge is broken by Trim as he shows Bridget their fortifications, and a new one is immediately ordered. The new draw-bridge, though, is not “the same model; for cardinal Alberoni’s intrigues at that time being discovered, and my uncle Toby rightly foreseeing that a flame would inevitably break out betwixt Spain and the empire, and that the operations of the ensuing campaign must in all likelihood be either in Naples or Sicily” (164). There are further points drawn from this bridge: Walter disputes his brother’s reasoning, and convinces him that as war between Spain and the Holy Roman Empire would result in England, France and Holland joining the conflict, fighting would again take place in Flanders; thus, the old model of bridge must be used. Toby’s bridge, however, does not work, which is another one of Sterne’s jokes and refers to his wound. Dr. Slop is then thought to help with the design of the bridge, but instead, it is the bridge of Tristram’s nose: “In bringing him into the world with his vile instruments, he has crushed his nose” (166). From the crushing of Tristram’s nose, a line can be drawn to the digression upon noses, and Tristram’s definition of how a nose is “a Nose, and nothing more, or less” (170). Thus, it can be seen how Sterne draws upon a point in history. The actual time in this point of novel is still the birth of Tristram Shandy; but supporting that time is a period in history, all of which is accurate, and provides a chronological basis for the novel’s plot points. The use of present time in Tristram Shandy must also be addressed, as it extends the timeline of the novel. The most common use of present time in Tristram Shandy is when Tristram reveals the date of his writing, or when he refers to the length of time between the publication of volumes. Specific dates of writing, which correspond to dates that Sterne writes (540), happen on three occasions, and all are woven into the details of their respective chapters; the first occasion, Tristram writes of a purpose: “it is no more than a week from this very day, in which I am now writing this book for the edification of the world--which is March 9, 1759” (34). The second occasion talks of how “I am this day (August the 10th 1761) paying part of the price of this man’s reputation” (299). The third time, though, is perhaps the best example of weaving present time into the novel together with past events: “And here I am 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 [father’s] prediction” (486). The timeline is thus extended to the present, for Tristram has inserted his writing self into the story. Present time is also part of the novel elsewhere. It is present perhaps no more strongly than in Volume 7, when Tristram (is it also Sterne?) flees to France to outrun death. Tristram has been to France before, during his Grand Tour, but details of his Grand Tour are only alluded to briefly in one chapter. Instead, Volume 7 is conducted very much in the present. It begins in the present, with Tristram writing “I think, I said, I would write two volumes every year, provided the vile cough which then tormented me, and which to this hour I dread worse than the devil, would be give me leave...I swore it should be kept a going at that rate these forty years if it pleased but the fountain of life to bless me so long with health and good spirits” (383). There is an awareness of the imminence of death; it torments Tristram to the very hour of writing. Tristram then spends Volume 7 travelling through France trying to outrun death; there is not even time to “take an exact survey of the fortifications” of Calais (388) or to relay the history of that town, for Tristram must be off to Boulogne, for as long as Tristram writes of the present, he cannot be overtaken by death.Eventually, though, he has “left Death...far behind me,” and while still pursued, “I fled him cheerfully” (427). Tristram can now proceed at a far more leisurely place, and time is ready to jump back to the past, for Tristram is ready to talk of Uncle Toby’s “amours” (431). Uncle Toby’s love affair has been previously mentioned, and it serves as a strong example in the dual structure of time in Tristram Shandy. The affair begins in 1702, at the beginning of the War of Spanish Succession: Trim and Toby had hurried quickly to Shandy Hall to “open their campaign as early as the rest of the allies” (441), their campaign being, of course, the replication of the war. With Shandy Hall unfurnished, Trim and Toby sleep at the house of Mrs Wadman, where she falls in love with Toby. Uncle Toby’s head, though, “was full of other matters, so that it was not till the demolition of Dunkirk, when all the other civilities of Europe were settled, that he found leisure to return this” (443). That, of course, is in 1713 when the war is over, Toby’s fortifications are destroyed, and he can have time to fall in love. Having fallen in love, Toby makes a plan of attack, a plan which leads to a digression upon Walter’s instructions to Toby, and also sees, in the 9th volume, Sterne skip two chapters and then later include them. Yet there is a continual link to history: even a story, of the king of Bohemia and his seven castles, that does not go anywhere, is supported by Trim’s choice of the year 1712, a year that Toby finds objectionable due to “sad stain upon our history that year” (454), when the Duke of Ormond withdrew British troops from the allied siege of Quesnoi, which Toby must explain, which leads to further digressions. Yet, they are supported by an event in history; so too is the deliberation upon the cut of Mrs. Wadman’s nightshifts, which were in the style of King William’s and Queene Anne’s reigns (442), a date that corresponds with the exact time the War of Spanish Succession begins, and Toby first meets Mrs. Wadman. Sterne’s treatment of time is one of the lasting aspects of Tristram Shandy. There are several functions of how time jumps in the novel, but is constantly supported by a historical background that comes from the characters, notably Uncle Toby. One of these functions is to make the novel episodic: parts of the book can be separated from each other, but remain connected by the thread of history. Although Tristram Shandy is a muddle, there is a pattern to the muddle: throughout the novel, there is a link to this historical background. Until Tristram Shandy, the English novel had been chronological, particularly Tom Jones. The form, too, was chronological. Sterne plays and rejects this notion, and opens up new possibilities for the structure of the novel. The fruit of this can be seen in Ulysses. James Joyce also plays with notions of time, reality and the structure of the novel. Yet in a way that Tristram Shandy was an effort to stave off death by capturing reality, Joyce wrote Ulysses to capture a day of Dublin, so that it could be recreated if the city were to disappear. As with Tristram Shandy, there are several levels of structure. Yet, there is one structure that provides absolute accuracy in detail: the details of the city, down to the winner of the horse race and the time it would to walk between points in the city. So while Ulysses jumps around in time with flashbacks and dreams, the supporting structure, like in Tristram Shandy, means that the novel is tied together. In this way, Tristram Shandy has lasted.