Enduring the pain of giving birth is unimaginable. The pain is beyond the imagination to be able to picture how painful it is for women to go through birth labor. In The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentlemen by Laurence Sterne, Sterne creates the illusion to the reader of being a “witness” to Tristram’s birth in the first chapter. In the first two volumes, the reader is introduced to Tristram in the first 2 chapters just to realize he has yet to be born. In the footnotes, according to Julius Cesar, he argues that “This incision… no purpose to propose: Elizabeth Shandy might well have turned pale at the idea of undergoing a Caesarean section without anaesthetic but Sterne is once more satirizing John Burton, a rare example of contemporary obstetrician not wholly opposed to section, and who mentions some 18th century Irish examples of Caesarean births where both mother and child survived”.

Throughout the film we’re learning about Tristram’s life from the very start as a short comedy before his conception. Everything that occurred to him as a child was a mistake. During his parents’ sexual intercourse, the failure to rewind the clock chore before every sexual intercourse hints that his mother conceived him mistakenly. The rewinding of the clock to 12 every night connected with the sexual activity that drove both of Tristram’s parents making their sexual activity a lot more enjoyable. Forgetting to rewind the clock before his conception suggests that it was not meant to happen. Moreover, the mistake of being named Tristram, mistakenly circumcised after the window collapses on his closes shut on Tristram’s penis as he urinates out the window.

During Elizabeth’s birth labor, Walter insisted on having a doctor deliver the baby using a specific tool that he believed was the right path to delivering his son. He objected the idea of midwife delivering his baby. This holds true to the Cesar’s idea hence we learn that Walter is a philosopher that had high expectations of his unborn son. However, being delivered by doctor resulted in Tristram’s nose breaking. While his father looked upon it as a sign of being a successful person; it can be interpreted as another mistake or technically his second mistake. This proposes had the midwife deliver the baby, Tristram’s nose wouldn’t be broken. It also promotes the idea of his life being based off of a mistake. Or could it be looked upon as a sin from his early childhood. Thus, Julius’ argues that maybe had she had Elizabeth undergo a caesarean section this would had never happened.

At the very beginning of “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman,” readers may guess that many philosophical aspects will be mentioned and described in the novel. And one of them [philosophical aspects] I would like to discuss now. When Tristram starts his life story, he is not born yet.

At the very beginning of the novel we see his parents being busy in bed (readers easily guess what is going on), when his mother suddenly interrupts her husband by asking him a question, “Pray, my dear, have you not forgot to wind up the clock?”  This moment makes Tristram fall into a long discussion of the process of conception and he uses a very strange (at least to me) word H O M U N C U L U S, “It was a very unseasonable question . . . because it scattered and dispersed the animal spirits, whose business it was to have escorted and gone hand-in-hand with the HOMUNCULUS, and con- ducted him safe to the place destined for his reception.”

According to the explanatory notes, HOMUNCULUS is used here to refer to the miniature figure which early microscopists believed they saw in a spermatozoon. The explanation did not give me a whole picture of the phenomenon so I did some extra research in it. But the most interesting thing about homunculus is that the first time homunculus was mentioned in alchemical writings (approximately XVI century). There was even a special method how to create homunculus. But why was this mention in the chapter?

I analyzed the character (Tristram Shandy) and made some conclusions and connections. First of all, Tristram blames his parents for all his imperfections. Even his mother’s question seems to be so irrelevant at that moment that it impacts his [Tristram’s] personality in the future (let’s assume that his mother is like an alchemist who is working on creating her homunculus). So she adds something from her to this “unborn creature”. Moreover, I can say that her illogical question makes Tristram illogical as well: just look how hard it is for him to describe his life, he always starts speaking about irrelevant things and has to come back to his narrative. Later we read about his father [Walter] and I can say that Walter is also an alchemist and, as a result, there are two “scientist” trying to make a human being.

I think that the footnote is extremely useful and important in this case because it help understand the character, his thoughts and the WAY of thinking in general. Moreover, after reading the definition of homunculus and some articles on it, I could finally understand why Trisrtam is so talkative and, frankly speaking, talks sometimes about things that do not have to be mentioned at all. The reason is the almost-interrupted-process of creating a homunculus. If it had not happened, the spermatozoon would not have lost all the “animal spirits” and, who knows, maybe Tristram would have been an absolutely different person in the future (and his novel would have been much shorter and concrete)?

 

In volume 1 of  Laurence Sterne’s, The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy, Gentleman, there is a reference towards the end of chapter one to Copernicus. It starts off with Tristram saying “My Father, as I told you, was a philosopher in grain,- speculative, systematical;- and my aunt Dinah’s affair was a matter of as much consequence to him, as the retro gradation of the planets to Copernicus(8): the backslidings of Venus in her orbit fortified the Copernican system, call’d the Shandean System, after his.” These references in the story are not really that easy to get on the first try but thanks to the footnotes, it made a little more sense. For starters the footnotes explain the retrogradtion, or apparent retrogressive movement, of the planets was attributed by Nicolaus Copernicus (1473- 1543) to the earth’s daily rotation on its axis and annual revolution around the sun in his de Hypothesibus Motuum Coelestium a Se Constitutes Commentariolus, a manuscript containing the earliest formulation of his  heliocentric universe.” Through the footnote I understood that he’s comparing his father to Nicolaus Copernicus in a similar fashion, because his at the Copernicus was the one for thinking that the world revolved around the Sun. This is a heliocentric theory, were the sun is the center of the universe and everything revolves around it, which was developed after geocentric theory, the idea that the earth is the center of the universe. He compares his aunt Dinah’s as in the one that started Geocentric and compares his dad the one who figures out the truth just like Copernicus did. I understood this reference to mean that he was sarcastically complimenting his father. Especially since after watching the movie it made me picture reading the book more of him just not taking anything so serious and just casual talking about things like it’s no big deal. Even when he talks about tragedies, for example when he talks about his dad calling him a curse, it felt like he doesn’t seem to care; almost like he telling a sad story to be funny and not tragic.

The reason why I picked this reference was because I took an astronomy class and I learned a lot about him. For example he was the one who started the theory of the sun is the center of the universe and not the earth. But because he thought people would think he’s crazy for thinking that everything revolved around the Sun he never really told anyone but he later wrote a book but died before publishing it. For that reason he never got the real credit for starting it until much later on in when he died; instead it was given to Galileo. I also like the reference that he does with the Shandean system; just like how Copernicus made his own thing. It’s kind of funny when you think about it. He kind makes it sound like his father probably makes stuff up just because he’s a genius.

 

Cite Page 55 and footnote 550

 

In a short description about the conditions of his life, Tristram Shandy writes briefly about a Duchess named Fortune, more specifically, he tells us: “… That in every stage of my life, and at every turn and corner where she could get fairly at me, the ungracious Duchess has pelted me with a set of as pitiful misadventures and cross accidents as ever small HERO sustained”  (Sterne, 10)

With an already slight understanding of what Tristram is alluding to in this passage, I turn to the footnote for it on page 542. Here we learn that the Romans had a goddess for luck named Fortune (as pictured to the right), and that Sterne is using her as a means to distinguish between the pagan concept of luck (or fortune) and the Christian belief of providence. Unfamiliar of exactly what providence means, I refer to the OED definition for it, and entry 2 states: “The foreknowing and protective care of God (or nature, etc.); divine direction, control, or guidance.” Using this definition, we can now understand why Fortune is being distinguished from providence in the idea that while Fortune may bring feast, she might also bring famine, which is entirely subject to either her whims or what might simply be the random chance of outcome inherent in all events, something we commonly refer to as luck. Yet, providence captures an almost antithesis to our beautiful lady Fortune, encapsulated in the idea that God, with an astounding clairvoyance and a genuine concern for protection, twists events using the divine in the favor of mortals.

So, it is very apt for Tristram to attribute his perceived misfortunes in his life to the account of the Duchess Fortune. Yet, he also chooses to lay blame on her in a very respectful manner, as if to acknowledge her responsibility in the events that have pelted him, but also excuse her of blame by saying she has played her part in the shaping of these events most fairly. Tristram also believes that although Fortune’s influence may not have been kind to him, he would be wrong to believe that he felt any great evil or malice from her. Tristram creates an almost reoccurring theme within the beginning of his novel of how his life is filled with misfortune and calamity because of the actions of others. From even the first page, we read that Tristram lays blame on his parents’ poorly executed night of his conception, and here, Tristram even goes as far as to bring in supernatural and spiritual forces as the reason for his woe. But, the marked difference that can be found from the blame he lays on his parents and the blame he places on Fortune, is his vindication and perhaps even forgiveness towards Fortune for whatever role she might have played, something I didn’t see articulated for his parents. And with the footnote to make one final observation, Tristram might simply be using the idea of Fortune as a means to create a comparison for the belief that he would have much rather seen providence shape his life and the events within, than a capricious Roman goddess.

As a child I owned a hobby-horse that my father bought me for Christmas in the year of 1995. I remember the racket the springs made as I imagined I was a sheriff chasing down the railroad bandits. I was obsessed and played on the horse every day. The noise would drive my parents crazy, but they knew that was what I did every day. A child with a wild imagination such as myself became one with my made up characters during play time, in my mind I was that cowboy sheriff every minute of every day. When Tristram speaks about toby and hobby-horses in his retrospect narrative, he identifies them as two things in one, a pair. “A man and his HOBBY-HORSE, tho’ I cannot say that they act and re-act exactly after the same manner in which the soul and body do upon each other: Yet doubtless there is a communication between them of some kind … so that if you are able to give but a clear description of the nature of the one, you may form a pretty exact notion of the genius and character of the other” (Sterne, 61). These hobby-horses are what define characters in this novel, for instance in Tristram’s example of Uncle Toby. He is totally obsessed with re-enacting the battle where his manhood was fatally wounded. Toby has gone so deep into war fortifications that it has become who he is and what he is known for. Psychologically there is a link between this life changing event where he lost his penis and who it has made him become, but nonetheless it is his identity. There is also the example of Walter Shandy who has his own Hobby-horse throughout the text but essentially his is planning and arguing. There are an abundance of examples throughout the text reflecting this characteristic of Mr. Shandy, it’s referenced as a characteristic because it is a part of his being, not just a mood or passing behavior. His contract with his wife over the location of the delivery of his son was quite odd. It was of such importance that he may have his way, and have his way planned out on a legal form. This may sound ridiculous to one but again this is Mr. Shandy’s Hobby-horse and his identity. This footnote is originally found on page ten, but it is a reoccurring topic throughout volume 1 thus cannot be fully assessed from just one reference. In this primary reference Tristram is essentially establishing is that a person may have a hobby-horse and it is totally acceptable “so long as a man rides his HOBBY-HORSE peaceably and quietly along the king’s highway, and neither compels you or me to get up behind him” (Sterne, 10) This statement is upheld later in the novel because a major theme is the acceptance of who someone really is; the acceptance of a person and their hobby horse as one. All of Mr. Shandy’s desires in life for his son Tristram will not shape or create the person who he is suppose to be but rather Tristam finds who he is despite his father intentions and rides his own hobby horse.

Works Cited

Sterne, Laurence, and Ian Campbell. Ross. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2009. Print.

 

This is very similar to the hobby horse that I used to play as a child. I found this on Ebay.com for sale….It is tempting but I’m sure I’ll break it.

“On the fifth day of November… was I Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, brought fourth into this scurvy and disastrous world of ours” (9). This reference to the fifth of November serves to further describe the complexities of Tristram Shandy’s life. His inclusion of this reference into the text is a good reminder that Tristram truly believes he was destined to live a life full of incongruities. As explained in the notes toward the back of the book, the fifth of November held double significance at the time this novel was written and published; one being the anniversary of Guy Fawkes’s failed gunpowder plot in 1605 and the other being the anniversary of the landing of prince William III on route to claim the British and Irish crowns in 1688. Both of these events hold very controversial significance in British politics.

Guy Fawkes was a citizen of Catholic Spain who fought in the Eighty Years’ War against Protestant forces. In 1688 he partook in a plot to place a Catholic monarch on the British throne by killing King James I, but his plans were spoiled when the authorities were informed of the plot. The fifth of November began with his capture, which was followed by his torture, confession, and eventually his sentence to death. King William III served as king of England and fought against Louis XIV, a Catholic king of France, alongside Protestant and Catholic powers in Europe. Both of these individuals fought for what they believed to be the best faith but were each on completely opposing sides of the battles, one pro-Protestant and the other anti-Protestant, one loved by the people of England and the other hated.

These two individuals, and their ties to the fifth of November, are a good metaphor for the incongruities of Tristram Shandy’s life story. On one hand, we have a revolutionary who fought against powers larger than himself, and on the other we have a leader who fought to protect his land and his people. By using the fifth of November as the date of Tristram Shandy’s birth, we are being prepared for the increasingly incongruous story of his life. This life, which he makes sure to remind us will be far from normal, begins on a date that is itself far from normal. The fact that he shares his birthday with the anniversaries of two such controversial events serves to further validate his theory that the complexities of his life had been determined before his birth.

Learning of the significance that the date of his birth holds ushers us as readers to begin to believe his theory that the bizarre and obscure events that he is forced to life through are an unavoidable part of his fate. If the reader is aware of these two references, which early readers of the novel surely were, it becomes easier to believe the otherwise unbelievable occurrences that surround his birth. The reader may now more easily suspend their disbelief in what is happening, accepting the ironic comedy that the novel exhibits. Upon shift in mindset by the reader, we find it plausible, at least with respects to this fictional novel, that the incongruities that occurred during his conception truly did rattle his “animal spirits”.

 

Mr. Shandy is both a Christian and a philosopher. His love for obscure and complicated rational argumentation has led him to ridiculous phony scientific theories. For example, his knowledge of the mind and soul is often argued by him to be closely related. A passage from Volume II gives us an idea of Mr. Shandy’s argument “that all souls were by nature equal, —and that the great difference between the most acute and the most obtuse understanding, —was from no original sharpness or bluntness of one thinking substance above or below another, —but arose merely from the lucky or unlucky organization of the body, in that part where the soul principally took up her residence, —he had made it the subject of his enquiry to find out the identical place” (117). In this quote Mr. Shandy may be referring to the soul as source of one’s thinking due to “lucky or unlock” occurrences to the body. For example, Uncle Toby suffered damage to his groin in battle, this occurrence led him to retire and caused a focus into the science of military strategies.

Following the above information, I would like to refer to the footnote 4. Des Cartes (558) in chapter nineteen, Volume II. This footnote explains the philosophical views of René Descartes that was a French philosopher, scientist and mathematician. The Treatise on the Passions (1649) is referring to the real book René Descartes had written which is called The Passions of the Soul. I am not sure, but this may be Sterne’s way of mocking René Descartes, most likely due to a conflicted theoretical view and Mr. Shandy’s philosophical view may be Sterne’s point of view on this particular topic of the mind, body and soul.

René Descartes speaks of the pineal gland as a small gland in the center of the head which was argued to be the location of the soul where all thoughts were formed. Referring back to the passage on page 117 that starts from “Now, from the best accounts he had been able to get of this matter….”, this passage is a direct disagreement with René Descartes philosophical view of the soul.

In the near passage Tristram speaks of his father’s viewpoint and states that “If Death, said my father, reasoning with himself, is nothing but the separation of the soul from the body; —and if it is true that people can walk about and do their business without brains, —then certes the soul does not inhabit there” (118). This is clearly tied directly to the birth of Tristram and the reference made to René Descartes is important in this passage as we try to understand Mr. Shandy’s thoughts. He believes that if death is the separation of the soul from the body then the soul should reside elsewhere. However, after much conversing and thinking Mr. Shandy settled that the soul lies in the cerebellum or pineal gland. These thoughts are tied to the birth of Tristram Shandy as he fears that the contractions of the uterus will crush an infant’s head and his soul as well.

 (https://www.wdl.org/en/item/14786/)

This image is the book René Descartes had written in 1649, The Passions of the Soul. I found it on the World Digital Library that features novels from ancient history  and information from reputable institutions.

Why so serious?

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole is considered a work of camp by Clara Reeve. She argues that the degree of exaggeration is intended to please the reader comically rather than be taken at face value. “a man shall admire and almost adore the epic poems of the ancients” (Reeves 1) Stories of exaggeration are not a strange concept to human, there has been tall-tails since the ancient times. What Walpole does is completely change the idea of a novel during his time and make something new. The Gothic novel starts off with the perfect example “he beheld his child dashed to pieces, and almost buried under an enormous helmet” (Walpole 7). Obviously an event like this most likely could ever happen, an enormous helmet falling out of the sky and killing the groom is funny since he was about to start his new life with another. Walpole uses this supernatural event to grab the reader from the beginning. It was not meant to question whether if this could be even possible but rather it provides Walpole the platform to introduce the over-the-top supernatural element. This imaginative part of the novel is what intrigues the reader since the book is now combining the supernatural with romance. Combining the supernatural in a novel with romantic events and Gothic culture would be different to the status-quo during its release, thus making it different and almost a parody of how serious novels where at this time.

 

I choose this because the joker has a sense of humor which differs from everyone else and this is what Walpole accomplished in his The Castle of Otranto.

I found the image on the internet

“The Helmet! The Helmet,” is what the volley of voices shouted in the beginning of The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. In this moment, Manfred’s only hope to extend his family line and to procure an heir to maintain his family’s name in the Castle of Otranto was eliminated faster than anyone would have thought to imagine while reading this gothic novel. The thought of a huge helmet crushing someone may be funny to some who is reading this tale, however, it is Manfred’s fear that is expressed deeply in the moments directly after discovering his sons body crushed beneath this helmet. It is Manfred’s fear that his only option to gain an heir is now void and this eventually conjures this idea to get married to Isabella, who was set to marry Manfred’s, now, dead son Conrad. This fear is a good example of terror as a sublime.

 

In Edmund Burkes “A philosophical enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful,” he defines sublime in the context of terror. He states “No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.” This excerpt means that fear is in fact the emotion that robs the mind of its power of acting and reasoning. Manfred’s fear of not having an heir is terrorizing him to the point where he would do anything to ensure that his future is secure, even if it means leaving his wife and marrying his son’s fiancé. Moreover, it is the same fear that has lead to his undoing. The prophecy that “the castle and lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it” is also something that increased Manfred’s fear. The thought that his son’s death was the beginning of the end of his family’s line instilled fears that clouded his judgment and robbed Manfred of appropriate reasoning.