Tristram Shandy Examining the Narrator's...."Helpfulness"...in Laurence Sterne's Comic Novel Tristram Shandy

Tristram Shandy has earned a very mixed reputation in the several centuries since it was initially published; it is undoubtedly the work of a man with no small intelligence, but whether or not the novel is truly a work of literary greatness or merely an interesting diversion of largely empty wit has been a matter of some debate amongst scholars of many eras. Essentially, this issue comes down to how superficially the text is read and received. On the surface, the protagonist and narrator of this story appears to be little more than a piece of high-society fluff, full of self-importance and an almost charming innocence and naivete regarding the frustrating nature of his lengthy tale. A deeper reading, however, reveals the narrator's somewhat patronizing attitude towards his readers as a symptom of the societal influences that shaped this gentleman narrator in the first place.

The first several "chapters" of the text -- really little more than paragraphs that interrupt each other -- introduce the idea of Tristram Shandy's birth into this world, but this event does not actually occur until the third volume of the book. One thing continually leads to another for the narrator, and in these first chapters mentions of his

This is indicative of the entirely self-centered worldview that Tristram Shandy possesses, and his complete ignorance of the fact that the rest of the world truly does not share this focus is almost endearing, and is evidence of the manner in which this narrator and erstwhile hero was raised and molded by those around him.
This mention of family members by name in a way almost entirely unrelated to the main narrative continues in Volume Two of the novel, which opens with a treatise on knots and another family anecdote, one concerning the narrator's "great uncle Mr. Hammond Shandy, -- a little man, -- but of high fancy" (Volume II, Chapter 2). The sense of lineage and familial influence on the story that comes about as one of the main presenting features of Traistram Shandy's love of himself is meant to lampoon the histories and sense of self-importance attached to the noble -- and even more so, to the emerging merchant -- classes of English society at the time of this novel's publication. The narrator serves as an extreme example of this type of "gentleman," and the proud repetition of familial lore is simply thought by the narrator to be just as interesting for the readers as it is…