Irony of Autobiography
Tristram acknowledges this irony throughout the novel, even as he continues the ironic behavior. This usually might disqualify the style of irony, but Tristram gets so carried away with himself that this method of irony remains as such; Sterne deliberately adjusts the style of the novel when Tristram notices that his autobiography centers on other people. Moreover, Tristram never sees how the plot of his novel gradually adjusts itself using flashback to become a narrative of Tristram's Uncle Toby.
The novel is narrated by Tristram, a precocious gentleman who is eager to preserve his own life; in demonstrating this eagerness, he ironically captures very little about it.
Irony of Birth Name
The full name of Tristram Shandy is The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, without the comma when typeset. He endeavors to put forth his opinions yet cannot move beyond the opinions of others. Rather than seeing this concept as an un-ironic statement on how society affects us all, the reader witnesses how the opinions of those around him infringe upon Tristram's ability to have original opinions. He accepts his father's negative perception of Tristram's name and bearing to such an extent that he begins the novel with the wish that the center of his being might be changed.
The irony of "Tristram Shandy" is that this name roots the novel and often brings Tristram's narration back to himself, yet these words emblematize the entirety of the plot which Tristram neglects to provide otherwise.
Dramatic Irony of Yorick's Death
Laurence Sterne places the death of the character Yorick relatively early in the novel, but the characters progress through the rest of it in a flashback, unaware of his future demise. The presentation of Yorick's headstone develops the dramatic irony that allows Tristram's narrative to center even more sharply on Uncle Toby.
Verbal Irony of Shandy's Self-Perception
Tristram Shandy continually grapples with the fact his writing is abnormal, and his tone ranges from bashful to giddy as he reminds the reader what he requires that they experience through his words. The result of this is a web of verbal irony that enmeshes over- with understatement and demonstrates the perceived lack of control in narration which, in moments without irony, Tristram fully understands. The purpose of the irony is to divorce the recognition that the book shies away from the narrative techniques that were used at the time from the sense of mastery over the novel's plot through rereading which accompanied many other 18th-century novels.
Situational Irony
The birthing technique used to bring Tristram into the world leaves his body damaged, and this ruins the pristine strength of a son his father had desired. Tristram's mother, as a woman in the 1700s, delivered Tristram in an atmosphere of danger, and the convoluted wishes of Tristram's parents vis-a-vis birthing procedures lead to a discrepancy between what could have gone wrong - the mutual death of Tristram and his parents - and the defect which instead results, causing the most extant sign of marred being to Tristram.
