: Filling the Canvas: Tristram Shandy's Portrait of John Locke

Filling the Canvas:

Tristram Shandy's Portrait of John Locke

The development of thoughts in a human brain are formulated through sparks in the brain; the clashing of cells. The concept of our mind making connections to other connections, was developed by philosopher John Locke in his, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. In this essay Locke discusses the theory that people are born as blank slates, than they slowly pick up concepts from others. People therefore are a product of people. John believed that, “Since it is the understanding that sets man above the rest of sensible beings, and gives him all the advantage and dominion which he has over them; it is certainly a subject, even for its nobleness, worth our labor to inquire into.” (Locke 2). Which is to say that one should analyze the process of their own thoughts. Locke goes on to say, “The understanding, like the eye, whilst it makes us see and perceive all other things, takes no notice of itself; and it requires and art and pains to set it at a distance and make it its own object. But whatever be the difficulties that lie in the way of this inquiry; whatever it be that keeps us so much in the dark to ourselves; sure I am that all the light we can let in upon our minds, all the acquaintance we can make with our own understandings, will not only be very pleasant, but bring us great advantage, in directing our thoughts in the search of other things.” (Locke 2). The process of this understanding is entwined in the novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, by Laurence Sterne. In the novel, a man recounts his life whilst deferring to seemingly insignificant tales of the people in it. Although the narrator has claimed the work to be a biography, he does not speak ofte...

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...tellect is,—that the mind is fitted to receive the impressions made on it...” Tristram may try to fight against it, but he is also a prime example of the theory in practice. He tells the obscure tales because they affect him in some way. Without him realizing it, they have influenced his thinking. Locke's theories are embodied in the characters Laurence Sterne created.

Works Cited

1. Locke, John. An Essay concerning Human Understanding. New York: Dover Publications, 1959. Print.

2. Sterne, Laurence. Tristram Shandy. New York: Modern Library, 1928. Print.

3. Briggs, Peter M. "Locke's "Essay" and the Tentativeness of "Tristram Shandy"" Studies in Philology. University of North Carolina Press, 1985. N. pag. JSTOR. Web.

4. Cash, Arthur H. "The Lockean Psychology of Tristram Shandy." ELH. N.p.: Johns Hopkins UP, 1955. N. pag. JSTOR. Web.