Tristram Shandy and Language

Author(s): Robert J. Griffin

Source: College English , Nov., 1961, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Nov., 1961), pp. 108-112
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/372959

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 108 COLLEGE ENGLISH

There is no doubt, however,

thetic understanding with amused and th
Austen is more successful
critical analysis. in cr
victorious but Thatstill
the Gardinersengaging
appear with them
Pamela's virtuous in the final paragraph is a significant
victory seems
tify in her an tributeinsufferable
to both Elizabeth and Darcy, for sm
Her pious moralizing, as Mark Schorer indicatesher
in "Pride Un-
conde
to the adoring prejudiced"
servants, (Keyon Review,her 18, Winter
coy
ance of the adulation of Mr. B and his 1956), they have the kind of humanity
aristocratic friends-all these prove "which
her transcends class without seeking
to escape it." It is this kind of humanity
victory to be complete but rather offen-
sive. When her father arrives to share that taught Elizabeth and Darcy to rise
her happiness, she paints a typicallyabove
sen- their society at least long enough
timental picture of herself with him toand
form a happy union. But the gay,
perceptive
Mr. B, sitting "in the happiest place I and victorious Elizabeth
was ever blest with, between two ofmakes
the no pretensions to smugness or per-
dearest men in the world to me, each fection. Perhaps this is because she has
holding one of my hands.. ." (264). learned that the "truth universally ac-
Elizabeth's victory, on the other hand, knowledged" of Miss Austen's opening
makes her neither perfect nor perfectly sentence includes everyone, even herself,
happy. The painfully honest ridicule of in its irony. She has been victorious, it
Darcy by Mr. Bennet; the constant is true, in convincing an aristocratic
potential mortification of Elizabeth by man "in possession of a good fortune"
the vulgarity of her relatives; the brazen that she is the wife he wants. But the
request that Lydia makes for money; the very fortune which Darcy possesses will
always keep her from smugness and
condescension of Lady Catherine's visits
to Pemberley in spite of the way its pride, for even she will never fully
shades have been "polluted"-all of these know how much it and the whole aristo-
limit Elizabeth's happiness and demand cratic world it represents helped Darcy
of her a continual blending of sympa- to win a victory over her.

Tristram Shandy and Language

ROBERT J. GRIFFIN

... when I first began this discourse of the of signification were first well observed,
understanding, and a good while after, I had there could be very little said clearly and
not the least thought that any consideration pertinently concerning knowledge: which,
of words was at all necessary to it. But being conversant about truth, had constantly
when, having passed over the original and to do with propositions. And though it ter-
composition of our ideas, I began to examine minated in things, yet it was for the most
the extent and certainty of our knowledge,
I found it had so near a connection with part so much by the intervention of words,
words, that, unless their force and manner that they seemed scarce separable from our
general knowledge. At least they interpose
themselves so much between our under-
With an undergraduate degree in philosophy
from the George Washington University standings
and and the truth which it would con-
a master's in English from the Universitytemplate
of and apprehend, that, like the
medium
Florida, Mr. Griffin is presently a graduate fel- through which visible objects pass,
the obscurity and disorder do not, seldom
low in English at the University of California,
Berkeley. cast a mist before our eyes, and impose

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 TRISTRAM SHANDY AND LANGUAGE 109

upon our understandings.-John

he believes in the Locke,
"magic bias" of Chris-
Essay Concerning Human Understanding'
tian names, with an especially contemp-
tuous opinion
It has been observed often enoughof the name
thatTristram (TS,
Laurence Stern's novel, see 52 & 57). The
Tristram suggestion here is
Shandy,
is a fictional treatmentthat
of words
many are notofonly
theproducts of
(human) nature
same epistemological problems but also
that potent deter-
John
minants. There
Locke was concerned with. John is similarly
Trau-a playful
gott has presented probably the most power of
suggestion of an incantatory
words, as in
comprehensive development ofTristram's
this in-tale of the two
French words
terpretation of the novel that move horses (and
in Tristram
profanePhilosophical
Shandy's World: Sterne's oaths can purge men's spleens).
How can Tristram atten-
Rhetoric, which pays particular explain the paradox
of his
tion to Sterne's handling of Uncle
theToby's being muddle-headed
materials
of Locke's Essay." Thesewhilenotes
no fool? He finds in "the
focus on unsteady
uses of words" that "fertile source of
one important aspect of this epistemo-
obscurity" ramifica-
logical concern (and certain and confusion which led
tions thereof), one onToby astray (TS,
which 87). Toby thus pro-
Tristram
explicitly responds tovides a poignant
Locke, example of the dis-
namely,
orderingproblem
the aspect of language-the of human experience
of and
human communication as reflected in
discourse from building systems on ap-
parently
the uses, abuses, and imperfections of precise terms; "his life was put
words. in jeopardy by words" (TS, 88). There
"We live in a world beset on all sides is a sort of tyranny of words: they can
bind us and lead us. They are at least
with mysteries and riddles," says Trist-
ram.3 And one of the chief sources and partly responsible for a man's giving
himself up to his preoccupation or
manifestations of these mysteries is that
human phenomenon, language. Through- "Hobby-Horse," to the extent that he
out his Life and Opinions Tristram ex-must bid "farewell [to] cool reason and
fair discretion!" (TS, 93) In Book III
hibits a conscious preoccupation with
the workings of words. Often, for in- of his Essay Locke declares that words
stand
stance, he offers language parallels or for nothing but the ideas of him
metaphors for nonlinguistic phenomena,who uses them (L, 204), and may not
as when he speaks of Parson Yorick's excite the same ideas in others (L, 206).
Proof positive of this is furnished in the
being "as heteroclite a creature in all
his declensions" (TS, 27). His father,wondrous associative power of words,
as Toby always relates terms otherwise
Walter Shandy, is also a language addict:
intended to their peculiar use within the
framework of his military Hobby-Horse:
1Pp. 241-242. The edition of the Essay used
here is the Everyman's Library, No. 984,train
ed. of ideas suggests a train of artillery,
a bridge for a nose suggests a draw-
Raymond Wilburn (New York, 1948). Sub-
bridge, the metaphorical use of "siege"
sequent references will be indicated by page
numbers with the symbol "L." suggests ("like a talismanic power")
2Traugott's valuable study (Berkeley, 1954)
battle strategy, etc. Not that Toby is
contains many observations similar to those
herein, though generally my examples are
the only victim of word-association;
Tristram as author often plays coyly
gleaned from my own marginalia and compar-
isons of Sterne's text with Locke's. with the malady (TS, see, e.g., 519,
3Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinionswhere
of "gay" leads to "spleen"). And
Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (New York,
Walter Shandy shares his brother's sub-
1950)-Modern Library College Editions, p. 652.
jection to systems, which is to say to
Subsequent references indicated by page num-
bers with the symbol "TS." totalitarian linguistic frameworks. Walter

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 110 COLLEGE ENGLISH

builds his prove it, via by

systems the widely divergent reac-
tight philo
verbalizing, as
tions in his
to the news enquiry
of Bobby's death. More-
exact locus ofover the
as one word soul (TS,
may excite many ideas, 15
Once one formulates
so may many words an hypothe
stand for one thing:
"having half a dozen words
assimiliates everything to for the same
itself."
sult is apt to thing"
beis blamed
a complex
for Toby's being the de
meaningful content-or in
last to learn of his incipient amours with suc
the Widow
cialized area as legal Wadman (TS, 562). Tris-
discourse,
tram supplies manymay
yrinthine intricacies addenda to Locke's
result
a conclusion as "That the mother is not notes on the imperfection of words per
of kin to her child" (TS, 339). Of se, and sees, as Locke apparently did not,
course such "subtleties of learned dis- that words alone do not a language make.
courses" cannot suffice to satisfy man, "Now there are such an infinitude of
even so devoted a logic-chopper as tunes, cants, chants, airs, looks,
notes,
and accents with which [a word] may
Walter Shandy (TS, 343). In a chapter
on "The Abuse of Words" (i.e., "wilful
be pronounced..,. every one of 'em im-
faults and neglects" in discourse), John
pressing a sense and meaning as different
from the other, as dirt from cleanliness"
Locke had noted that logic and dispute
(TS,
contribute greatly to the affected ob-662).
scurity of using old words for new
Tristram sees (or, as author moqueur,
notions, or new and ambiguous terms professes to see) the constant necessity
without definition (L, 243). This, of explication and elucidation-he prom-
coupled with the Lockean sin of in- ises to add an illustrative map to his
constancy, is neatly exemplified in the volumes. He speaks of the necessity of
novel's chapter on Whiskers: "the worddivagations and narrative complexity in
was ruined"; and Tristram concludes, order to get across his true and affective
"The best word, in the best language ofstory, for experience and meaningful
the best world, must have suffered under
discourse naturally work that way:
such combinations" (TS, 361). "there is no end of it;-for my own part,
I declare
Locke also had a chapter on "The I have been at it these six
weeks, making all the speed I possibly
Imperfection of Words," i.e., the doubt-
fulness and uncertainty of words' sig- could,-and am not yet born" (TS, 37).
nification, which has its cause in theHe would use tropes or figures of lan-
guage to try to accommodate more
ideas they stand for (L, 236-words stand
for ideas of things rather than things meaning than mere logical or straight
themselves). Locke observed that thescientific discourse (TS, see, e.g., 85).
ideas stood for must be learned and re- He would use illustration to "clarify the
understanding" (TS. 198). The perfect
tained by those who would "exchange
example of this is his use of "the two
thoughts," and that this is hardest to be
done where (1) the ideas stood for are knobs on the top of the back" of a chair
very complex, (2) the ideas stood for to illustrate the necessary conjoining of
have no certain connection in nature, Shandean wit with Lockean judgment
(3) the signification is referred to a (TS, 205 ff.). He recognizes that one can
standard not easy to be known, or (4) become so tangled up in his own use of
the signification of the word and thelanguage and its devices that "now you
see, I am lost myself!" (TS, 483) Yet
"real essence" of the thing are not exactly
the same (L, 236 f.). Tristram says,he maintains the need to allow a free
"Well might Locke write a chapter uponflow of language in writing, as in talk
the imperfections of words," and writes (if only with oneself), in order to give
a chapter of his own (Bk. V, Ch. 7) to an accurate picture of life-a sense of

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 TRISTRAM SHANDY AND LANGUAGE 111

of the
felt rather than artificially long Nose tangent (TS, 224 ff.),
formulated
experience (TS, 560). And because
and denies of in the attempts to
it outright
explicate
the associative power of words, "love"
one (TS, see, e.g., 487 ff.).
keeps
beginning again to try to Even attempts at careful listing of char-
communicate
acteristics
a full story, as Toby's man, Trim,may only confuse rather than
begins
five times the never finished
elucidate, King
as in the of
alphabet game of love
Bohemia tale. Because of (TS,
the572 f.). Locke tried to define "love"
imperfec-
tions and abuses of words, simply
one needs(maybe con-
naively would be apter)
stantly to translate andasre-translate:
a reflection on the delight an object
"This requires a second translation:-it
may produce (L, 108). Tristram, delving
shows what little knowledge ismatter
into the got byof Toby's courtship,
mere words-we must go up knewtobetter.
theHe contended: ". . . that I
first
springs" (TS, 650). am not obliged to set out with a defini-
Now the problem of getting tion of what love is; and so long as I can
knowl-
edge by words is clearly the problem go on with my story
of intelligibly, with
inter-human communication. the help of the word itself, without any
According
to Locke, man is a sociableother idea to it,
creature and than what I have in
has therefore language as "the great in- of the world, why
common with the rest
should I differ from it at a moment be-
strument and common tie of society";
words serve as marks for one's ideas fore the time?" (TS, 488-89)
Tristram did not have to accept
"whereby they might be made known
to" other men (L, 201). But Locke Locke's solution because he saw that
realized that language was far from per- Locke had simultaneously oversimplified
fect-this realization was the very cause and exaggerated the problem of com-
of his writing the book "Of Words"- munication. He saw, that is, that men do
and in his second chapter points out that not communicate just by words, or even
man has quite a "great variety of thoughts primarily by words. Men communicate
[which] are all within his own breast, best through rapport, instinctive ap-
invisible and hidden from others" and preciation, inarticulable sensings-sym-
which cannot all be adequately com- pathy and sentiment; these are the com-
municated because of the noted imper-mon tie of society; men communicate by
action and reaction more than words.
factions and abuses (L, 203). Tristram
Shandy shares Locke's realization. In-Walter and Toby have no considerable
deed, it is this inability to see within
"intellectual correspondence"; they have
others' breasts through "Momus's glass"almost "absolute sympathetic correspond-
that dictates the autobiographer's de- ence."' Author Tristram recognizes the
pending on digressions, gestures, piling
need for imaginative power to convey
up of apparent trivia in the effort to get
this felt side of experience (TS, see, e.g.,
654 ff.), and pleads that all be allowed to
at the truth (TS, 74 ff.). Locke thought
that the obstacles to communication "tell their stories their own way" (TS,
659). Tristram's own way includes em-
could best be surmounted by using words
precisely to refer to clear and determinatephasizing the communicative importance
ideas, and especially by careful definition
of gesture-Toby's tapping his pipe or
of terms ("declare the meaning") (L,whistling Lillabullero, Trim's flourish
246). Tristram sometimes pays lip service
with his stick, and Toby's wishing he
to this panacea of definition: "Doctor were asleep on hearing of Le Fever's
Slop was the worst man alive at defini-plight, as well as his famous tolerance of
tions; and so Mrs. Wadman could get nothe fly. And Tristram plays with visual
knowledge" (TS, 663). But he parodies
Locke's faith in defining, at the beginning 'The phrases are Traugott's-see pp. 8-14,

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 112 COLLEGE ENGLISH

gestures within the

require, "hemmed pages
in on every side" (TS, of h
the pictorial 565). Men cannot avoid saying foolish
illustrations of
epitaph, the marbled things. Yet the wily authorpage,can say his the
finger, and line foolish things to a purpose. Shandy (or
diagrams of th
progress. These we might as all to
well speak of Sterne asshow
the h
linguistic phenomena true author) is not really so much at the
can com
or show more than mere words. Fre- mercy of his words, because he is fully
quently when Tristram is explicitly aware con- of their potential imperfections
cerned with words, he treats them andasabuses (and-this is the flavor of the
novel-he can make profit from these
sophistic devices, as in his father's notions
about auxiliary verbs (permitting argu- potentialities). He deals explicitly with
mentation without content, as it were) facets of language-art: pointing to
(TS, 421 ff.); or he will show how one's rhetorical figures, brandishing his devices
language can belie one's conduct, as likehis
Jack Homer's plum.
father discourses at length about but This self-conscious or admitted-to-the-
never does anything about the squeaking reader rhetoric should afford evidence
door hinge-"his rhetoric and conduct enough that Sterne was not overly dis-
were at perpetual handy-cuffs" (TS, mayed by Locke's treatment of (linguis-
209). tic) communication. If any further proof
There is involved throughout The Life is needed of a conviction that rational
and Opinions of Tristram Shandy a sense manipulation and control of language is
of language as both a cause and a result practicable, it is surely available in the
of the (apparently unavoidable) frustra- constant confident play on or with
tion of reason, with a moral that we words. Take, for example, the name of
might translate as something like "reason Tristram Shandy with its suggestion of
is insufficient, must be accompanied by melancholy jester, plus whatever else we
feeling. . . ." That propositions which might Empsonize if we had the time and
seem illogical are nonetheless true "shews
patience. Amphiboly is skillfully ex-
the weakness and imbecility of human
ploited, and puns aplenty. There is much
reason" (TS, 563). And even a wily
author may become entangled or vic- "metaphysical" development of meta-
timized by his own language; once he phorical conceits. And there is that final
has set various notions into words, he is sport with "A Cock and a Bull," which
at their mercy and must proceed as they will bear no comment here.

Liberalism and Hazlitt's Tragic View

WV. P. ALBRECHT

The Romantic Period, it has frequently that became basic in the liberal, demo-
been pointed out, was unfavorable to the cratic faith" defined a non-tragic world.'
writing of tragedy because-as Herbert "The old haunting fear and mystery,"
J. Muller puts it-"the faith in progress writes Richard B. Sewall, "the sense of
paradox and dilemma at the very center
Chairman of the Department of English at of man's nature, had been replaced-at
the University of Kansas, Professor Albrecht
has published William Hazlitt and the Malthusi- least officially-by a new and confident
an Controversy (1950) and numerous articles,
principally on Hazlitt and Thomas Wolfe. 'The Spirit of Tragedy, pp. 242, 252.

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