ART - The Lockean Psychology of Tristram Shandy

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The Lockean Psychology of Tristram Shandy

Author(s): Arthur H. CashSource: ELH, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Jun., 1955), pp. 125-135Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press

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THE LOCKEAN PSYCHOLOGY OFTRISTRAM SHANDY

By ARTHUR H. CASH

The problem f structuren Tristram handyhas beencom-plicated by Sterne's erm digressivemethod." For Sternetohave spoken of digression, e must have assumed an under-scanding n thepartofthereaderof the tenorfromwhichhe

digressed. Undoubtedly Sterne used the term because thenormal expectation f his age (as of ours) was that plot, achronologyf events,shall be the scaffoldingf fiction.Yetchronologys not the scaffoldingfTristram handy,and theevents of Shandy Hall are not very eventful. Events areminutiae f" no more eeming onsequence than the removalofa wig with heright andorthe unfortunateallof a chest-nut. And the many divagations rom hoseevents re farmorethansubsidiary losses. " Plot " and " digression appliedto

Tristram Shandy are meaningless. An escape from thisdilemma s offeredn the modern nterpretationf the novelas an organic tructure manatingfrom he mind of the nar-rator,Tristram. All is percolatedthrough he mind of Tris-tram, Tristram'spersonalitydominates the novel, and Tris-tram's avowed purpose s to reveal his character nd " whatkind of a mortal" he iS.2 In this senseTristram handy s thefirst treamof consciousness ovel.3

To considerthe problemof structuren Tristram handy

is to consider he aura of JohnLocke's thought.Not only doesSternemake extensive se ofLocke's doctrines,utheremarked

l This paper is the revised formof a paper read at the meetingof the RockyMlountainM. L. A. at ColoradoState Collegeof Education on October 22, 1954.

2 Tristravnhandy, ed. James A. Work (N. Y., 1940) , pp. 10-11. Subsequentreferencesre to this edition.

This is not to say that the novel is a psychologicalnovel of the modern ort.There is no hint of the unconscious mind in the Freudian sense. The conceptof the unconscious had only just begun in Germanyand had not appeared inEngland. Tristram's sexuality,symbolicalor otherwise, s not the outcropping

of repressed exual desire; it is always frankand oftenfranklybawdy. Nor isthe narrator'sattitude that of a patient undergoing sychoanalysis;by contrastTristram s sonmewhatondescendingnd oftenpedagogic.

125








126 PSYCHOLOGY OF TRISTRAM SHANDY

to Suard that Locke's philosophy verywhere ad temperedhis thoughtand mannerof procedure n TristramShandy.4My contention s that the structure f the novel and thepsychology f Tristramthat gave rise to that structure anbe explainedby the roughlydevelopedpsychologywhich isfundamentalo Locke's epistemology. hat psychologys not,however,Locke's doctrineof the association of ideas. Anuntenable nterpretationas prevailed n the last thirtyyears

thatLocke's associationprinciple, unctioningn the mindofthenarrator,s thestructural rinciple fTristram handy.To understand ightly ocke's conceptofthe associationof

ideas (and we shall see that Sternerightly nderstoodt), weshould remember hat Locke's chapterson association (II,xxxiii)is an ill-developed fterthoughtppendedto thefourthedition ftheEssay Concerning uman Understanding.ocke,thecreator f the term association f ideas," takesno cogni-zance of the longhistory f the conceptunderothernames.5

Although hechapter n association s importantn the histori-cal development f empiricalpsychology,t is not importantinLocke's ownrough, ut fundamental,sychology evelopedin the restof the second book. Nowherebut in Chapter33is associationmentioned.True, Locke elsewhere6 speaks ofthe importance f habit in training he mind,and habit hasan implied mportance n his conceptof judgment (IV, xiv;xvii). Apparently, owever, e did not recognize hesimilarityof habit and association. And he never recognized, s did

Hartley and later thinkers, hat either associationor habitcould explainthe development f mind. NothingLocke sayscould lead one to thinkthat he saw association (or habit)as operative n all thought.Nor did Locke see association,as Sternescholarshave implied,as the principleunderlyingreverie II, xix,1), or suggestion.

Apparently ocke added thechapteron association o point

'Wilbur Cross, The Life and Times of Laurence Sterne (New Haven, 1925),

Vol. 1, p. 9277.5For a concise historysee George Croom Robertson, Philosophic Remains(London, 1894), pp. 102-18. Also see Howard C. Warren,A Historyof the Asso-ciationPsychology(N. Y., Chicago, Boston, 19921).

6 Essay,ed. A. C. Fraser (Oxford: ClarendonPress, 1894), II, xxi,71. Subsequentreferencesre to this edition.








ARTHUR H. CASH 127

out a flaw of thehumanmind. Association s a hindrance othe more natural reason; and since " oppositionto reasondeservesthat name," Locke called it madness. It is a falsi-fying rinciple hat leads to absurdities, onsense, nd error.

Locke deals with two typesof association-" chance and"custom." Associationby custom s the familiar onceptofhabit. When the mindrepeatedly eceivestwo or more con-tiguous ideas, the ideas become firmly ttached. Such con-tiguous deas can originaten the senses or in reflection. utany two or more deas which ppear togethermanytimeswilleventually dhere to one another. One is forced o interpret" chance associationfromLocke's examples: one is led tothink that it results from n experience f contiguous deasunderconditions fextreme leasureor pain. As an instance,Locke tells ofa manwho,seeing friend ie in a certain oom,cannot afterwardseparatethe dea ofthedeath from he deaoftheroom.However,no matter owassociations reacquired,

associated ideas show identical characteristics: ". . . theyalwayskeep in company, nd the one no sooner at any timecomes into the understanding,ut its associate appears withit; and iftheyare more than two which are thusunited, hewhole gang, always inseparable, how themselvestogether"(II, xxxiii, ). The narrowness f Locke's concept s that ittreatsonlyofrevival ssociation, typeofmemory. deas areassociatedas a resultofpreviousexperience f theseideas incontiguity; he advent of one of the ideas evokes the other

automatically nd inevitably.Locke's associationprinciplesnota principle ywhichdeas are synthesized;tcannot, here-fore,ead to new deas ornewrelationshipsmong deas.

A close look at the successionofTristram's deas indicatesthat Tristram handyis not organizeduponLockean associa-tion.7 A case mightbe made that a fewtransitionsre asso-ciational,but they are very few. Indeed, we could hardly

Although Hume and Hartley had elaborated and given philosophicalrespect-

ability to associationismby the time TristramShandy appeared, it is clear thatSternemade no use of their theories. Since he used Locke's narrowassociation,as we shall see below, by way of comic character development, t is unlikelythat he should have used Hume's or Hartley'sbroaderconceptat the same time.I have been unable to find any biographicalor internalevidence that Sternewas influenced y Hume or Hartley.









expectit to be otherwise.Not onlymust the narratorhaveexperienced he ideas previously, ut everyshiftof one ideato anothermust occurbecause those deas werecontiguous ntheprevious xperience. urely custom associationdoesnotwhiskTristram'smind hroughhreehundred nd twelve hap-ters becausemanytimesbeforeTristramhad experienced heideas inthis dentical rder.Norcan he be said to have experi-enced this long sequence of ideas under conditionsof great

pleasureorpain. After ll,most of thestory ookplace beforehis birth. Furthermore,ristram s the veryoppositeof onewho has no self-controln the manner fassociation. His out-'standing haracteristics his intricate nd calculatedmanipu-lation of his story nd of his readerforpurposesof comedy.For instance, e tellshisreaders,

Now norder o clearup themistwhich angsuponthese hreepages, mustendeavour o be as clearas possiblemyself.

Rubyourhands hricecrossyour oreheads-blow ournoses-

cleanseyouremunctories-sneeze, y good people -God blessyou-Nowgivemeall thehelpyoucan. (p. 624)

A narratorwho sends" Madam " back to readmorecarefullythepreviouschapter (p. 56), whomakes digressions romhisstory nlytokeepa " just balance betwixtwisdom nd folly(p. 614), who purposelyomits chapters and insertsthemseveralpages later (pp. 621 and 633), who constantly witshis reader-

WhowasTickletoby's are -Read,read, ead, ead,myunlearnedreader ead . . (p. 226)

-surely is not a man helplessly ntangled n a mass of asso-ciatedideas.

It is clear thatLocke's principle f the associationof ideasis an inadequate explanationof the structure f TristramShandy.8An adequate explanationdoes offertself,however,in Locke's

Essay. Locke is the focal point of the shift n8 Since this paper was deliveredorally (above, note 1), the view that Lockean

associationcannot be theorganizing rinciple as been confirmedyJohnTraugott,TristramShandy's World (Berkeley and Los Angeles: Universityof CaliforniaPress), one ofthe moststimulatingnd importantworkson Tristram handy.








ARTHUR H. CASH 129

Englandfromwhat Whitehead alls the " unbridled ational-ism of the ater MiddleAges to theempiricism f theage ofscience,nd his empiricisms at the rootof Tristramhandy.Certainlywe should not forget hat Sterne'sLocke uniquelycombined his empiricismwith many essential rationalisticviews, hat he considered he existence f God demonstrableand thought hat moralitymight omedaybecomea demon-strative cience ike mathematics.Although ne can see the

vestiges f Locke's rationalism n Sterne,Locke's empiricismis what underlies terne'sartistry.After ll, rationalism snota fruitfulttitudefor a novelist; t may engender hilo-sophic nd theologicalystems, ut not narrative iction.Butempiricism,he view that the raw materialof knowledge sexperience,s an impetus or he artist; oth experiencend itseffect pon the individual end themselves o artisticrepre-sentation.Furthermore,ocke's particular mpirical piste-mologys especially uggestive fthe streamofconsciousness

narrative.All thought,nLocke's system, as twosources, hesensesand reflection. he senses,however, re no direct ndopenpath to knowledge f theontologicalworld (II, viii. 7-8;IV, vi, 14; IV, xii, 10). LT;hey ringus ideas whichare yetsubjective. Both sensation nd reflectionurnish deas, andideas are mind. This view s friendlyo, if not the nspirationfor, hestream fconsciousness arrative,n which xperienceis distilled by the mind and in whichreflections equallyimportant ith ense-derived nowledge.

Furthermore,ockedirects ttention o thedynamics f themind.As a rationalist e resorts o thetraditional tand thatreason s inexplicable IV, xvii, 14). But empiricism emandssomethingmore. If experiences the sourceofknowledge, neis forced o explain theprocessof assimilatingxperience-inshort, ne creates a psychology.The psychologywhich wasengendered y Locke's empirical pistemologyas neverbeennamed. It might e calledthe psychology f thetrain f deas.It is a very simple,naive,and non-restrictiveiew of mind.

And although Locke never set for himself he problem ofdescribinghe mind,he set the problem or hemodernworld.It is thepsychology f thetrainof ideas, rather han Locke'sassociationism, hich onstitutesterne's nquestioned ssump-









tionsabout the nature of mindand whichexplainsthemindofTristram nd the organicnarrative,Tristram handy.

Locke explains that a continualtrain (or chain) of ideaspasses through he mind. This turnover f ideas is incessant,for the mind cannot long retain one idea (II, xiv, 13-15).Furthermore, blank mind is impossible; s long as one isawake, deas willcontinue o revolve n his mind (II, xiv,3).Lastly, at all times one is consciousof these passing ideas

(II, i, 10). Care must be taken not to confuseLocke's psy-chologyof the trainof ideas and his extraneous onceptofassociation. Locke did not attempt o explain n a systematicwayhowone idea comes to follow nother. He simply ssertsthattheydo follow ne anothern a train. The Essay containsnumerous and often oorly eveloped) principleshat accountforthe manner n which deas followone another, ut no oneprinciplend no systematicxplanation.Among uchprinciplesarepassion (II, xxi,12), will (II, xxi,15), uneasiness II, xxi,

39), wit (II, xi,2), compoundingdeas (II, xi,6), comparisontoformdeas ofrelations II, xii,7), remembrance,ontempla-tion, reverie,reasoning, nd judging (It, xix). With theseprinciples emust istLocke's doctrine fassociation. t differsfundamentallyromheothers nthatassociation lwaysresultsfrom revious xperience f the ideas in the associatedorder.The problem fmaking he distinction etweenLocke's asso-ciationdoctrine nd his psychology f the train of ideas iscomplicated ythefactthatseveral ftheseprinciples includ-

ing Locke's narrowassociationconceptand, eventually, heveryfaculty f reflection)werebrought ogether y Hartleyand later men into broader and more complete systemsofpsychology hatwentunder thename" association." Hartleywas the first o attempta complete, ystematic sychology,a fullexplanation fhow ideas succeedone another. He didso by correlatingll thinking nder an expandeddefinitionfassociation. But Locke's problemwas epistemological.Whilehe formulated o system o explain the sequence of ideas, hestronglymphasized heexistence f an incessant rain f deas.Withoutthis concepthis epistemology ould hardlystand:suchfundamentaldeas as duration, ower, nd succession rebornof observing he train of ideas.








ARTHUR H. CASH 131

It is reasonable hatSterne,whounderstoodnd wasenthusi-astic aboutLocke'swork, houldtake seriouslyhe psychologywhich s fundamentalo Locke's epistemology.And thepsy-chologyof the trainof ideas is an adequate explanationofTristram'smind and the " digressive"narrativewhichema-nates fromthat mind. Because Locke did not attemptanaccountof how ideas followone another,his psychologysverybroad. Tristram, ortunately,s bound by no narrow

conceptof the thought rocess (least of all by Locke's verynarrow associationism). Most importantof all, Tristramseveral imesusestheterms train," chain," r" successionof deas to describehis own or others' houghts e. g.,pp. 93,108, 190-91,214, 343, 346-7).9 Tristram lso recognizes heself-consciousatureofmind.10He tellsus, for nstance, hatto inspire ewthoughts e shaveshimself.

. . . forconsider,ir,as everymanchuses o be presentt theshaving f his ownbeard (though here s no rulewithoutn

exception)nd unavoidablyitsoveragainstimselfhewhole imeit is doing,n case he has a handin it-the Situation,ikeallothers,asnotionsf her wnto put nto hebrain.-(p. 616)

Whatis of special nterest o the Sterne cholar s thatthepsychologyf the trainof ideas offersn explanation f the" digressivemethod ofTristram handy. To be sure, closereading fLocke revealsnothing o denythata mancan tella storywithout igression.Nevertheless,terne'sunderstand-

ing ofLocke's notion hatthemind s a constant lux f deas

which annotbe arrested robablyedhimto think hat t wasunnaturalfor his narrator'smind to dwell for ong on onesubject. Hence,the " digressivemethod."

'The terminologylso appears in Sterne's etternumber77, to Hall-Stevenson,dated [June],1761, in Letters, ed. Curtis (Oxford: 1935), p. 139; and in hissermons,. g. " Self-Knowledge,"Works, d. Cross (New York and London: 1904),p. 53 ff. The figure f the trainor chain of ideas found ts way into most laterwriting n association. Its use by associationistsmay have led scholars to thinkthat Sterneused the figure o describe the associationprocess. But Sterne's use

of it on pages 190-91 assuresus that Sternetook the figure romLocke, whosechiefuse of it was in connectionwith what I have describedas the psychologyof the trainof ideas.

10A fundamental ssumption fYorick'ssermon p. 125ff.) s that one is alwaysconsciousof his thoughts. This assumption s even clearer n the sermon" Self-Knowledge (above, note 9).








132 PSYCHOLOGY OF TRIS TRAM SHANDY

Furthermore,hepsychology fthetrainof deas is suitableforbothTristram's elf-controlnd his sensibility.The trainof deas is certainly o deterministicsychology.The twenty-first hapterofBook II makes clearthat Locke thought nehad a great deal ofcontrol ver hisideas,and we have alreadypointedout that calculatedmanipulation f his story s oneofTristram's utstandingharacteristics. ut Tristrams alsotheeminentmanofsensibility.Although terne aluedemotion

more than did the rationalistic ocke, he did not contradictLocke's psychologywhenhe created narratorwhosethoughtswereoftenpromptedby emotions. Locke freely dmitsthat

sometimes boisterous assionhurries urthoughts,sa hurricane oes our bodies,without eavingus the liberty fthinking n other hings . ." (II, xxi,12).

Anoutstanding eature fTristram's arrations thequalityofsuggestivity.A typicalwaggish ransitions this:

It is for hisreason, n' pleaseyourReverences,hat key-holesaretheoccasion fmore inand wickedness,hanall otherholesin thisworldput together.

-which leadsmetomyuncleToby'8 mours. p. 600)

Although uggestions included n laterdefinitionsfassocia-tion, t is not included n Locke's definition.UnlikeLockeanassociation, uggestions a synthesis f deas resultingn a newjuxtaposition fthem; t is nottherecallofan idea whichhadbecomefused o another ecausetheywerecontiguousn some

previousexperience.Suggestiondependsupon the similarityof ideas. It is the centralfeature fLocke's conceptof wit:" For wit lyingmostin the assemblageof ideas, and puttingthose togetherwith quickness and variety,whereincan befound any resemblanceor congruity, herebyto make uppleasant picturesand agreeable visions in the fancy" (II,xi, 2). Wit is but brieflymentionedby Locke; in his loosepsychologyt is one ofthemanymodesof the trainof ideas.We can, however, e certain hat Sternewas fully ware thathis narratorwas a wit in Locke's sense. Sterne'sone disagree-mentwithLocke is over the value of wit. Locke, it will beremembered, ad attackedwit as inimicalto judgment. The" Author'sPreface (insertedntoVolume II, Chapterxx) is








ARTHUR H. CASH 133

Tristram's iolentdefense fthe artistic nd rhetorical se ofwit,a defensewhichspecificallypposesLocke. Had Sternenotrecognized hathis narratorwas such a wit as Locke de-scribed, ewouldhavehad no needto defendwit so violently.

Othershave shownthat Sterne'sgarbleof the chronologyofTristramhandyresulted rom isstudyof Locke's conceptofduration.1The essenceof Locke'sremarks n duration II,xiv) is thatour deaof duration s theawareness f the ntervalbetween artsofthetrainof deas. This awareness nforms sof theduration fourselves, nd consequently,heduration fthe" objective world.For instance, conceivethedurationofthistypewriterecause,between he eventofmyidea ofitwhen sat downto ityesterdaynd theeventofmy dea of tas I sit downtoday,therewas an intervaln whichmymindexperienced longtrain f deas. Since haveendured, t musthave endured.Time,thinks ocke,is theattempt o measureduration, hat is, to conceiveduration s occurringn equal

modicums-minutes, ours,days, and years. But Locke ex-plains n one of themore brilliant assages of theEssay (II,xiv,21) that,becausetheduration fourselves s notmeasur-able, we cannotknowthat any twoperiodsof time are actu-ally equal. Time is a convenientssumption, ot an actuality.The Shandy brothers' iscussionof time,duration, nd thetrain f deas (pp. 188-191) testifieso Sterne'sunderstandingoffheseconcepts. To Sternethe arrangementf the actionsofa novelwithin hemediumoftimewas arbitrarynd un-

real. He chose to reveal action through he medium of asequenceof ideas.Although he psychology f the trainof ideas, central n

Locke'sepistemology,s a more ikely xplanation fTristram'sconsciousnesshan Locke's extraneous ssociationpsychology,Lockean associationyet embellishedTristram handy. Butassociation s no more fundamentaln Sternethan in Locke.Sterne eizedupontheeccentric nddeceitful ature fLockeanassociation s a comicdevice and molded t intosome of his

greatest omicscenesand into his most famouscomic char-11ErnestBaker, The Historyof the EnglishNovel (London: 1930), Vol. IV,

pp. 240-76. See also TheodoreBaird," The Time Schemeof Tristramhandy and aSource,"PMLA, LI (1936), 803-20;KennethMacLean, JohnLocke and EnglishLiterature f the Eighteenth entury New Haven, 1936), pp. 133-35;and others.









acter,Uncle Toby. The playful pening ncident f the novelis unambiguously he product of Lockean association. Mrs.Shandy's ideas associated with the winding of the clock" & vice versa " aredescribeds " unhappy; theyhave" noconnection n nature ; the second idea was "unavoidable"once the firstwas in Mrs. Shandy'shead; they produce" wryactions ; and theyare supportedby the authority f Locke," who certainly nderstood he natureof these thingsbetterthanmostmen." There can be no doubt that Mrs.

Shandys a

victimof the madness Locke called association. Nor can wedoubtthatSternehad readhisLocke well.12

Moreimportant or henovel, hough essexplicitlyockean,is the use of association n the character f Uncle Toby. Al-thoughUncle Toby's kindness,his sincerereligion, nd hisrock-bound ommon ense are not mattersof association,hiscomedy s almostalwaysthe emergence f a mass of associa-tionsconcerning arfare.His career s a soldier ndhishobby

of miniaturefortificationsave made indelibletracks in his" smoak-jack of a brain. Tristram ransmutes ocke's con-ceptof" custom association ntohis ownexplanationofthematter:

. . . myopinion athers, thatthere s somethingn it moreofthe manner felectrifiedodies,-andthatbymeans ftheheatedpartsoftherider,which ome mmediatelyntocontactwith hebackof heHOBBY-HORSE.-Byong ournies ndmuchfriction,tso happens hat thebodyoftheriders at length ill'd s fullofHOBBY-HORSICAL matter as it can hold.... (p. 77)

UncleToby is so fullofHobby-Horsicalmatter hathe cannothear a militaryword withoutts setting ff seriesofmilitaryideas. When he hears n the sermon, '. . . hismindshall tellhimmorethan sevenwatch-menhatsit above upon a toweron high.'-[A towerhas no strength,uoth my uncle Toby,unless tis flank'd] (p. 133). The word" lashes" calls intohis mind the lashes receivedby the innocentgrenadier nMakay's regiment" chance" association;p. 274). And in oneofthemost comicalscenes n fiction, ncle Toby's association

12 The figureof the road worn smooth by the animal spirits n the openingparagraphof Tristramrhandy is unmistakably uggestedby a passage in Locke'schapteron association (II, xxxiii, ).








ARTHUR H. CASH 135

oftheSt. Nicolas Gate and themap in thegarretpreventshis

correctly nderstanding rs. Wadman and, consequently, ro-longshis excruciating mour (p. 638).

Although ocke's associationismervedSternewellas a sub-sidiary omic device, t is not theorganizing rinciple f Tris-tramShandy. Rather, he organic tream f consciousness ar-rativewas engenderedn the atmosphere f Locke's empiricism;and the psychology f the trainof ideas which accompaniesthat empiricism ccounts for the mind of Tristramand the" digressivemethod." Time and the events of the storyare

wrapped n theconsciousness fTristram nd are theproductsof his mind,a mindwhich s self-conscious, acillatory, ndalways delightfully itty.

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ART - The Lockean Psychology of Tristram Shandy

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