The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

The narrator, Tristram Shandy, begins the story of his life by describing his own conception. While his mother and father are having sex, his mother unexpectedly asks whether her husband “forgot to wind up the clock” (5). This interruption, Tristram speculates, may have influenced his conception. He criticizes his parents for being so careless at such an important moment. If they had focused on the task at hand, he suggests, then their son might not have grown up riddled with a “thousand weaknesses” of the body and mind. He discusses different theories of human conception, which he explains afterward were his father’s theories. Tristram promises to provide a more detailed explanation of his birth soon, but he wants to inform the audience about his “opinions” first. He knows that he is an unconventional narrator, but he asks for the audience’s patience, which will allow him to tell his own story in his own way.

Tristram tells the long, rambling story of the local midwife. She has a license to practice, and Tristram satirizes the language used in the document. Next, he introduces Pastor Yorick. He compares Yorick to his namesake in Hamlet as well as the title character in Don Quixote. Yorick follows his wife’s suggestion and agrees to fund the midwife’s training on behalf of the local community. He has a selfish motivation, as many of the local people borrow his fine horses when a woman is about to give birth, as the nearest doctor is seven miles away. To avoid any suggestion that he is acting for his own benefit, Yorick resolves to ride only a “lean, sorry, jack-ass of a horse” when traveling around town (16). Yorick is a fiercely witty and scathing man; his comments do not make him many friends. This lack of popularity will contribute to his early death. To commemorate Yorick’s death, Tristram fills two pages with black squares.

Amid his satire of legal documents and his description of Yorick, Tristram discusses “hobby-horses.” This is the phrase he uses to describe the esoteric obsessions that preoccupy people’s minds. He notes that hobbyhorses are benign and admits that he has his own. Tristram also punctuates his recollections with a dedication and a brief aside in which he predicts that his novel will make him famous. He understands that, as a narrator, he makes frequent digressions. However, he promises the audience that he plans to publish two volumes of his autobiography right up until he dies.

Tristram’s parents have a clause in their marriage agreement that allows Tristram’s mother, Elizabeth, to give birth to her children in London because she can find better medical care there. Because his father, Walter, dislikes London, the agreement also stipulates that if she travels to London but does not give birth, she must stay in the country the next time she feels labor approaching. When Tristram was born, his mother was in the country for this reason. Tristram believes that the clause is fair, even though it has punished him more than anyone. This, he says, is yet another example of his bad luck. During his birth, he explains, he suffered from a flattened nose (he does not yet explain how this injury occurred). Elizabeth, separated from her London doctor, sends for the midwife. Tristram wonders whether her request was an example of peevishness, as his father believed that calling the local country doctor, Dr. Slop, would have been better. Eventually, Tristram’s parents pay Dr. Slop to sit and drink a bottle of wine with Walter and Toby in case of an emergency while the midwife delivers Tristram.

Tristram’s father believes that a “strange kind of magick bias” is associated with the naming of people (43). A name affects a person’s character and conduct, he believes, and in his opinion, the name Tristram brings the worst luck of all. Since he is not yet born in the story, Tristram says, he cannot yet explain how he was given such an unlucky name. He believes there should be a proper order to such things. While Elizabeth gives birth to Tristram, Walter waits downstairs with his brother, Toby. Tristram interrupts the scene to describe his uncle. Toby is a very modest man. This modesty stems from a wound to the groin that he received at the Siege of Namur, a 1695 battle in the Nine Years’ War. Tristram, as ever, promises to give more details later. This digression prompts a further digression on the nature of digressions. As well as digressive, Tristram claims, his narration is also “progressive.” Despite all these regular asides, he says, the narrative is definitively moving forward. Tristram explains Uncle Toby’s character via Toby’s hobbyhorse: the retelling of the story of how he received his wound. Tristram promises that further details will be provided in the next volume.