Genre
Fiction
Setting and Context
Britain, 1700s; Rural
Narrator and Point of View
First-Person Limited; written as an autobiography
Tone and Mood
Tone- Didactic, affectionate
Mood- Bemused
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist - Tristram, his uncle, and parents; Antagonist - the circumstances of his birth
Major Conflict
Tristram is drawn to write his autobiography, but his name and physical bearing leave him with a defeat to his sense of self that he cannot easily overcome
Climax
During a flashback, when Tristram's mother gives birth to him
Foreshadowing
Shandy foreshadows the elements of himself that are considered to be unfortunate before they are fully introduced
Understatement
Tristram routinely uses understatement to enhance the scene he depicts; an example of this is Yorick's sermon
Allusions
The novel alludes to classical pieces of Latin and Greek, at some points including unedited paragraphs or pages
Imagery
Sterne uses imagery of ideas, imagery of Tristram's nose and birth, and imagery of Tristram's parents' rituals, particularly one involving winding their clock
Paradox
Tristram writes his life, but he spends so much time writing that more of his life is lived and must be written
Parallelism
The plot before Yorick's death has many parallels with the later plot of the novel, which is written in flashback. One of these is the similarity in path of Tristram's parents' relationship
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Metonymy - Toby uses metonymy throughout his rhapsodies of war to describe troops and troop movements
Synecdoche - noses as part of individuals
Personification
Because of Shandy's chatty tone, many objects throughout the text are personified.
"Triumph swam in my father's eyes, at the repartee--the Attic salt brought water into them--and so Obadiah heard no more about it" (284).