The treatment of time in Tristram Shandy
Lawrence Sterne’s most famous novel, entled “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy”, a preposterously comic literary creaon, is representave for the category of the realisc novel, the predominant form of literature in the 1th centur century y which which centre centres, s, as a ma!or ma!or featu feature re,, on the rela relaons onship hip "etwe "etween en the indivi individua duall and the social social environment, re#ecng the tensions and con#icts "etween private and individual convicons and ideas, and pu"lic and social norms and convenons$ “Tristram Shandy” can "e considered a non%convenonal novel in what concerns various aspects, such as outloo&, language, structure, narrave strategies and the treatment treatment of identy$ identy$ The enre structure structure of the novel folds on the principle of the spontaneous spontaneous associaon of ideas, e'plained "y the main character character himself himself in the "eginning "eginning of the novel, in contras contrastt to the illusion illusion of linguisc transpare transparency ncy postulated "y the tradional literary wor&s$ Sterne’s novel was o(en called “an%novel”, since its su"stance derives from the fusion of tradional elements and new techni)ues$ * profound understanding of the inner logic of the plot re)uires the ad!ustment of the reading strategy, in order to follow the stream of consciousness, regarding the fact that Tristram is concerned with rendering everything crossing his mind while se+ng out to tell the story of his life, ancipang, for e'ample, irginia -oolf’s -oolf’s later characters$ characters$ .etween the stream of consciousness and the ma/er of me in “Tristram Shandy” can "e drawn a deeply close connecon$ The novel em"odies endless series of digressions from the hard nucleus of the novel 0represented "y the protagonist’s intenon of assem"ling his auto"iography, introduced "y means of relang other stories, conversaons, e'planaons2 conse)uently, the proper movement of the plot is very slow2 for e'ample, the moment of the narrator’s "irth is actually inserted only a(er the reader has covered almost a third of the novel$ Time can "e imagined in “Tristram Shandy” in the form of a !elly%li&e "all, capa"le to e'tend or to diminish according to the narrator’s narrator’s #ash"ac&s, due to which any past moment can "ecome present$ The novel "egins with Tristram’s concepon a"out the way in which a child ought to "e "ego/en and connues with an innocent remar& of Tristram’s mother a"out winding up the cloc&, which upsets the narrator’s father father,, -alter -alter,, and determin determines es him to loose his concentr concentraon aon,, with a discussion discussion on the signi3ca signi3caon on of “the 4omolunculus”, 4omolunculus”, which, in turn, em"roils him in a discussion of his parents’ marriage contract, his uncle To"y To"y,, 5arson 6oric&, oric&, the midwife midwife and 7r$ 7r$ Slop, Slop, all of whom whom contri contri"ut "ute, e, in one way or anothe anotherr, to the develo developme pment nt of the protagoni protagonist’ st’ss life$ life$ 8or Tristram ristram,, as for readers, readers, the concatena concatenaon on of circumst circumstances, ances, the pressur pressure e of a million million impondera"le ideas and events, raises the pro"lem of where his life and opinions really "egin2 only a(er a"out three hundred pages, he decides that it really "egins with the death of his "rother$ "rother$ Laurence Sterne uses not only the techni)ue of #ash"ac&s to render the vastness of his thoughts, "ut even, as an innovaon in prose and in the use of me as an organi9aonal device, #ashforwards, referring to events which have not yet happened, "y using ver"s in past tenses$ .oth #ash"ac&s and #ashforwards o(en turn into digressions, which the narrator claims are actually relevant for the further development of the story$ This way, the story doesn’t follow one singular narrave thread, "ut turns out more and more comple', "ecoming true te'tual em"roidery which re)ue re)uest stss from from the reade readers rs an invol involve ved d lectur lecture, e, some somemes mes di:cult di:cult$$ The narra narrav ve e fasci fascicle cle gushes gushes out in two two direcons direcons;; the 3rst 3rst is the plot se)uence that includes includes Tristram ristramn the 3rst place, the me events ta&e ta&e does not coincide with the narrator’s percepon upon me$ There is a determined disncon "etween "etween measura"le me, whose units are not su"dued to changes, and me conceived as a human e'perience dominated "y relavity$ 8or instance, when -alter Shandy announces that two hours and ten minutes have passed, while loo&ing at his watch, Tristram Tristram confesses that to his imaginaon, it seemed almost an age, transposing "oth the reader and the other characters in an atemporal dimension of imaginaon, which imposes no limitaons$
>n the second place, another feature of the treatment of me in Tristram Shandy is the suspension of me2 the narrator somemes inserts his digressions into a moment of the characters< me, stopping their me while, theorecally at least, providing informaon which furthers the ?main story? of the novel$ >n olume >, =ncle To"y thin&, replied my uncle Toby , ta&ing his pipe from his mouth, and stri&ing the head of it two or three mes upon the nail of his le( thum", as he "egan his sentence,@> thin&, says he$? Two pages later, Tristram returns to To"y without any me having passed in To"yn olume >>, me is "rie#y reversed, and the reader is returned to -alter Shandy’s )ueson, ?-hat can they "e doing, "rotherA? Only then does the reader learn what To"y has to say$ This delay has more profound repercussions in what concerns the details of the story2 in fact, it signals out the lac& of comprehensi"ility "etween the characters, "etween Tristram Shandy’s father and uncle To"y$ Time also constutes one of the devices used in order to arculate the meta3conal scheme of the novel$ >t is "oth a su"!ect Tristram and the other characters speculate a"out and a meta3conal mirror which re#ects two &inds of perspecve made iridescent "y the readers; the 3rst one is represented "y the literal me of the reader, measura"le "y the cloc&, and the second one is the reader si+ng, this 1Bth day of *ugust, 1DCC, in a purple !er&in and yellow pair of slippers, without either wig or cap on’$ Such intrusions of the narrator
