Laurence Sternes Tristram Shandy :: Personal Reflection Essays

Laurence Sternes Tristram Shandy Perhaps it is no more than the accumulation of years, the simple passage of time that accounts for the novel twirl in my thoughts towards the manner in which the events of my life have occurred and brought me to what I courteously call the current state. After all, when those accumulated years require the agreement of a number with (to my thinking) the heft of a 29 in former of them to be described, and there is (again, to my thinking) so little to show in the behavior of accomplishment for so great a span of time, well, a fissure cant help but begin to wonder how? or, more to the point, why? These recent thoughts of mine dovetail nicely with one of the themes in Laurence Sternes Tristram Shandy the due south of life. Although an acceptance of the randomness of life may seem somewhat scare at first, with all it portends for the futility of human planning. I think the opposite causal agent is more frightening still. Personally I would hat e to think that the chronological sequence of events that have led me to the current state have happened by design. That, bank me, is the truly frightening thought. Sterne highlights the theme of the randomness of life by exposing the airheaded extent to which events can be linked by cause and effect. For example, the flattening of Tristrams snout can be traced back in an almost straight grapevine from the end of Dr. Slops forceps to the marriage articles between Mr. and Mrs. Shandy. The articles stated that Mrs. Shandy should be permitted, when pregnant, to reside in (if she chose) in London. This right, however, would become void if she should cause Mr. Shandy to go to the expense of a journey to London without her being pregnant. Unfortunately she takes such a trip and, as a result, is obliged to lay in at home during her pregnancy with Tristram. When her time comes, Dr. Slop is called in and, consequently, Tristrams snuggle becomes caught in the doctors forceps and is flattened. Tristram, therefore, sees the weight of the marriage articles as falling directly upon him. This thinker may appear absurd as the connection between the articles and the draw close is somewhat tenuous, but I can understand it.