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 new-fashioned twist 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 berth of a number with (to my thinking) the heft of a 29 in move of them to be described, and there is (again, to my thinking) so little to show in the way of life of accomplishment for so great a span of time, well, a pest 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 noise of life. Although an acceptance of the randomness of life may seem somewhat frightening at first, with all it portends for the futility of human planning. I think the opposite shift is more frightening still. Personally I would hate t o think that the era of events that have led me to the current state have happened by design. That, assumption me, is the truly frightening thought. Sterne highlights the theme of the randomness of life by exposing the cockamamie extent to which events can be linked by cause and effect. For example, the flattening of Tristrams trespass can be traced back in an almost straight pedigree 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 laic 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 much(prenominal) 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 poke becomes caught in the doctors forceps and is fl attened. Tristram, therefore, sees the weight of the marriage articles as falling directly upon him. This conceit may appear absurd as the connection between the articles and the beak is somewhat tenuous, but I can understand it.