Spatial Form as Narrative Technique in "A Sentimental Journey"

Author(s): Jeffrey R. Smitten

Source: The Journal of Narrative Technique, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Sep., 1975), pp. 208-218
Published by: Journal of Narrative Theory
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 Spatial Form as Narrative Technique
in A Sentimental Journey
Jeffrey R. Smitten

In the first of Berkeley's Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philo-

nous, Philonous uses the following argument to help establish his ideal-
ism:

Philonous. .... Was it not admittedas a good argument,that neither

heat nor cold was in the water, because it seemed warmto one hand,
and cold to the other?
Hylas. It was.
Philonous. Is it not the very same reasoningto conclude, thereis no
extension or figurein an object, because to one eye it shall seem little,
smooth, and round, when at the same time it appears to the other,
great, uneven, and angular?
Hylas. The very same. But doth this latterfact ever happen?
Philonous. You may at any time make the experiment,by looking
with one eye bare, and with the otherthrougha microscope.'

External objects do not present a consistent appearance. Indeed, they

may present simultaneously quite contradictory appearances, leading us
to conclude that we perceive not things themselves but things as they are
conditioned by our organs of perception. Whether or not Laurence Sterne
knew Berkeley's philosophy, he plainly arrived at similar conclusions.
The motto from Epictetus' Encheiridion that he selected as an epigraph
for Tristram Shandy stresses the gap between men's perceptions and the
objects of their perceptions: "It is not things themselves that disturb men,
but their judgment about these things." Likewise, in the "fragment
inedit" published by Paul Stapfer, Sterne exhibits an interest (popularized
by Spectator 94) in the relationship between ideas of time and space and
organs of perception. "By a different conformation of its senses a Crea-
ture might be made to apprehend any given Portion of space, as greater,
or less in any Proportion, than it appears to us. This we are assured of
from Optics. I doubt not also but that by a different conformation of ye
Brain a Creature might be made to apprehend any given portion of time as

208

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 Spatial Form 209

longer or shorter in any proportion than it appears to us."2 Just like

external objects for Philonous, time and space for Sterne do not present
consistent appearances; they change drastically with changes in the
means of perception.
Sterne's narrativetechnique in A SentimentalJourney creates an effect
consonant with his interest in relativity of perception. My argument
briefly is this: the Journey uses a narrativetechnique of juxtaposition so
that contrastingimages, themes, and tones are set side by side to create
comic irony and perplexingambiguity.Moreover,the reader'sperception
of these juxtapositions is fundamentalto his apprehendingthe meaning
and aesthetic form of the work. Sterne's theme, which is realized in his
narrativetechnique,is like Philonous's, but insteadof the shifting,contra-
dictory natureof things, Sterne stresses the shifting,contradictorynature
of humanfeeling.
The moderncriticalterm for Sterne's technique of juxtapositionis spa-
tial form, and the seminal discussion of this concept is Joseph Frank's
famous article "Spatial Form in ModernLiterature"which firstappeared
in 1945and has often been reprinted.3(It should be noted, however, that
ample foreshadowingsof spatialform appearin much eighteenth-century
aesthetic theory and practice.4)Frankargues that modern narrativesat-
tempt to overcome the temporalnatureof languagewith a narrativeor-
ganizationwhich is atemporal.The basis of this organizationis the unit of
reflexive reference, a small segment of narrativewhich is relatedto other
segments not chronologicallybut analogically.Thus, the novelist may use
verbal leitmotifs as did Joyce in Ulysses; he may halt the temporalflow of
narrativeandjuxtapose synchronous events as did Flaubertin the coun-
try fair scene of Madame Bovary; or, he may contrastviews of the same
characterat differenttimes as did Proust. In each case the reader'satten-
tion is not on the temporal flow of narrativebut on these atemporalor
spatial relationships. Of course, the narrativeis still read and therefore
perceived serially, a fact which qualifies considerably one's use of the
word "spatial'"5and which is extremely importantto the Journey. None-
theless, one can and should discriminaterelative emphases in narrative:
in some narrativestemporalplot development governs organizationand
spatialform is secondary; in others temporalplot developmentis second-
ary and spatial form governs organization.A Sentimental Journey falls
into this latter class. To establish this classification, we first need to
examine the question of the Journey's plot development.
The most obvious featureof the Journeyis its apparentlack of plot. The
word "apparent"should be stressed, though,becausethereis some devel-
opment in Yorick's characterwhich gives the book a plot of education,
the kind of plot found in, say, Great Expectations. But, if we define plot
with Norman Friedman as the means by which a completed process of
change in a protagonistis represented,6then the Journey may be said to
have only the kernel of a plot of education, for Yorick's change is partial

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210 The Journal of Narrative Technique

and rudimentary.One persistent theme in the novel is what Yorick calls

the "progress of sociality,"'7and to an extent his personal development
discloses this theme. The two opening encounters with the monk and
Madame de L*** show Yorick to be lacking in courtesy and sophistica-
tion: he insults the monk and his overtures to Madame de L*** are
clumsy. The "Preface in the Desobligeant" shows Yorick's state of mind
duringthese two encounters since he complainsthat travelingoffers little
opportunityfor social improvementand that one is thereforejust as well
off at home. But Yorick learns from his experiences, and his attitude
changes after he leaves Madamede L***: "What a large volume of ad-
ventures may be graspedwithinthis little span of life by him who interests
his heart in every thing . . ." (114).
This attitude dominates the remainderof the book; Yorick has over-
come his initial social roughness and now has adopted a more tolerant,
flexible attitudetowardsocial experience. Yet the subsequentchaptersdo
not extend Yorick's education beyond this point. His openness becomes
merely the occasion for Sterne (and, frequently enough, Yorick himself)
to expose the irony and ambiguitylatent in sentimentfromthe beginning.
Thus, at the end of Volume II, Yorick participatesin a pairof adventures
which echo his first two in VolumeI andgive an indicationof his develop-
ment and its limits. "The Grace" and "The Case of Delicacy" show
Yorick able to respond with courtesy and sophisticationto people and
situations on quite different social levels-something he could not do at
the novel's start. However, the juxtaposition also reveals the comic am-
biguity of Yorick's sensibility which partakessimultaneouslyof the spiri-
tual and the carnal. This ambiguitywas hinted at the start of the novel in
the juxtapositionof the monkand Madamede L***, and was summarized
in Yorick's equivocal motives for the exchange of snuff boxes with the
monk as Madame de L*** looked on. In one sense, then, Yorick has
developed greater "sociality," but in another the basic ambiguityof his
sentimentalcharacteris unchanged.
If this meagerplot of education were our majorsource of aesthetic and
thematic interest, the book would be very thin indeed. However, the
Journey uses spatialform to enrichthis plot. There are, theoretically,two
possible ways Sterne could have used spatial form in his novel. One
would be to link distant portions of narrativethroughechoing of words,
images, or scenes. Frank tells us that Ulysses is so organized: "Joyce
composed his novel of a vast numberof references and cross references
that relate to each other independentlyof the time sequence of the narra-
tive. These references must be connected by the readerand viewed as a
whole before the book fits together into any meaningful pattern"
(Widening Gyre, p. 16).
But Sterne does not use this method. Instead, he uses a second possibil-
ity, directly juxtaposing units of narrative so that any single image, tone,
or theme is immediately qualified by a contrasting one. The reader's sense

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 Spatial Form 211

of complicationin the narrativethus derives not fromhis seeing the novel

as a whole in a moment of time but from his perceivingthe complications
present simultaneouslyin any single event or reflection,or in a brief series
of such events or reflections. The basic compositionalunit in the novel is
the chapter. Accordingly, Sterne both breaks the chapter down into a
series of juxtaposed units of varying size and links adjacent chapters
through contrastingimages, themes, and tones. Let us look first at the
way Sternehandles single chapters.
It will be useful to begin with a single event possessing a significant
temporalorganizationsince we can then gauge the importanceof spatial
in relation to temporal organization.Yorick's trial of virtue with the fair
fille de chambre in "The Temptation"has a coherent Aristotelianstruc-
ture. It begins in temptingisolation, passes througha growingconflict in
Yorick's mind, and concludes equivocally with thefille de chambrebeing
thrown "off her centre." However, this temporalstructureis qualifiedby
a spatial structurewhich Jean Hagstrumhas called "the picture-gallery
method of 'see and respond'".8 Hagstrumfinds this structureillustrated
in Thomson's Seasons and especially in Gray's "Elegy." Passages of
descriptionalternatewith passages of reflectionso the readerexperiences
an effect analogous to a gallery of paintings in which each picture is
accompaniedby an inscription.Such a patternof alternationfrom picture
to reflectionand back again naturallycounteractstemporalflow. In "The
Temptation" we move back and forth between images describing the
seductive setting and the attractivegirl, and Yorick's moralresponse. The
effect produced by this alternationis complex and ironic, for the girl
herself is presented as vulnerableand innocent, while Yorick's responses
are highly erotic. The reader thus perceives the ironic relationship of
cause and effect as a complex whole: beauty and innocence rest side by
side with keen sexual desire. (Ambiguousrelationshipsof innocence and
experience seem endemic to sentiment, for Jean-Baptiste Greuze
achieved very similareffects in his notorious paintingsof Unejeunefille
quipleure la mortde son oiseau [1765]andLa cruche cassee [1773].)
The event breaks rather naturallyinto five units, and each of these
units, except the last, contains an image and Yorick's moral response to
it. The final unit contains only an image, and the reader is left to infer
Yorick's moral response. The initial three units are much alike. In the
first (11. 16-36), Yorick describes the pleasing, suggestive crimsonglow
in the room and then makes a transition to his own half-guilty, half-
virtuous feelings through the idea of blushing. He confesses he feels
"something ... not in strict unison with the lesson of virtue I had given
her [thefille de chambre]the nightbefore," and he accordinglydecides to
flee such temptation. The fille de chambre forces the question in the
second unit (11. 27-46) by coming "close up to the bureau" and offering
him some ink "so sweetly" that he dare not accept it. Again Yorick
decides he shall "perish" if he kisses her, and he begs "she would not

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212 The Journal of Narrative Technique

forget the lesson [he] had given her . .. ." In the third unit (11. 46-53),
the girl gives Yorick both her hands (a gesture of moral "earnestness"
and of sensuous appeal) as a pledge of her following "the lesson of
virtue," and Yorick finds he has "all the battle to fight over again." The
fourth unit (11. 54-74) differs from these three by containingthree rela-
tively strong images and only a hint, after the third image, of Yorick's
continuing moral resistance. The images involve their sitting down sud-
denly on the bed, the Jille de chambre producing her satin purse (and
thereby introducingyet anotherjuxtaposed element-an obscene pun),
and her sewing up the gathersin Yorick's stock. Withtheir close attention
to movement and touch, these images insist on palpable temptation,
though at the same time they possess an almost Chardinesquecharm
appropriateto the girl's character.The kinesthetic appeal of this unit is
shown tellingly when the girl's movements, as she sews up Yorick's
stock, are translatedinto failing moralenergy: "as she passed her hand in
silence across and across my neck in the manoeuvre, I felt the laurels
shake which fancy had wreath'dabout my head." In the last unit (11. 75-
80), we find only an image-Yorick accidentallythrowingthe girl "off her
centre"'-which leaves the whole question of moral virtue literally up in
the air.
Thus, the chaptermoves toward a comic climax, but at the same time,
throughits spatial structureof "see and respond," it calls attentionto the
complexity and ambiguity of what Yorick feels. Both Yorick and the
reader perceive-almost simultaneously-beauty, innocence, and be-
nevolence as well as lust and desire. In "The Conquest" Yorick com-
ments on this complexity and ambiguity:"Whereverthy providenceshall
place me for the trials of my virtue-whatever is my danger-whatever is
my situation-let me feel the movements which rise out of it, and which
belong to me as a man-and if I govern them as a good one-I will trust
the issues to thy justice, for thou made us-and not we ourselves." This
comment indicates that the focus of attentionin "The Temptation"is not
so much on what Yorick will do to the fille de chambre (our previous
experience of his character-with Madame de L***, for in-
stance-strongly suggests that he will do nothing)as on what he feels. The
chapter, in short, rendersa complex state of mindwhich the readershares
sympathetically;the event is the means by which this state of mind is
presented.
In chapters with less temporalcoherence than "The Temptation,"the
role of spatial structureis even more prominent. "The Dwarf," for in-
stance, is a pastiche of anecdotes and observations. It is divided in the
middle (1. 54 of 102lines) between a section concerningdwarfsgenerally
and one presentingthe incident in the theatre. In turn, each of these two
sections is further subdivided into contrastingparts. The first large sec-
tion states the pathetic fact that Paris is full of dwarfs, then discusses the
causes of dwarfishness with allusions to Smollett and Walter Shandy, and

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 Spatial Form 213

finally demonstratesthat for Yorick dwarfs are primarilyobjects of sym-

pathy. The second large section oscillates (in the "see and respond"
pattern) between the tableau of the dwarf blocked by the German,
Yorick's response to it with an allustionto the monk, the German'sinsult
to the dwarf, and the French officer's response and the pleasant note of
harmonywith which he and Yorick cap the scene. Sterne, however, links
these juxtaposed units throughsubtle modulationand contrastof tone and
attitude.
The first large section is comic and humorouslybenevolent, contrasting
tonally with the greaterpathos and sentimentof the second section. Lines
1 to 21 state the patheticfact of dwarfishnesswithout emphasizingeither
comedy or sentiment:dwarfs are sports of nature ("The goddess seems
almost as merry as she is wise"), but they are also melancholyobjects,
particularlywhen they are in some degree handsome. The discussion of
the causes of dwarfs moves in the direction of comedy since dwarfs are
now considered as objects and as partsof personalschemes which Sterne
has elsewhere shown to be ridiculous. AlthoughSmollett's theories are
not humorousin themselves, the fact that they are Smollett's meansthey
are associated with a constant object of satire throughoutthe Journey.
Yorick also cites WalterShandy's more directlycomic remarkthat beget-
ting a dwarf is "getting worse than nothing, when all you have got, after
twenty or five and twenty years of the tenderest care and most nutritious
aliment bestowed upon it, shall not at last be as high as my leg." Yorick,
as well, turns the joke back on Walter: "Now, Mr. Shandy being very
short, there could be nothingmore said upon it." The idea of a dwarfas a
sport of nature has been carried through quite literally, and this comic
subsection is a foil to more serious ones to follow. The third subsection
continues the comic tone but in a morebenevolent manner.WhenYorick
helps the middle-ageddwarf across the gutter, mistakinghim for a little
boy, he combines the jokes about shortness with genuine kindness. On
the basis of this modulationin attitude, Yorick makes a transitionto the
more sentimentalsecond section: "I feel some little principleswithinme,
which incline me to be merciful towards this poor blighted part of my
species, who have neither size nor strength to get on in the world ... ."
The tableau which begins the second major section bridges the gap
between dwarfs considered as comic objects and as pathetic humanbe-
ings. Throughcontemplationof the dwarf's physical dilemmain the tab-
leau, we come to appreciatehis feelings as a man like ourselves; object
becomes charged with personal feeling. Sterne's tableau creates such
sympathy by enabling us to experience the scene from the dwarf's point
of view. Claustrophobiaaffects all readers regardlessof size: "the night
was hot, and he was surroundedby beings two feet and a half higherthan
himself," and "the dwarf mightas well have been placed at the bottom of
the deepest draw-well in Paris . . . ." The German is said to be "near
seven feet high," a fact which makes every reader a dwarf in imagination.

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214 The Journal of Narrative Technique

Finally, the dwarfreaches up to tug at the German'ssleeve, a detail which

suddenly creates a Swiftian change of visual perspective. Such physical
description evokes personal feeling which is amplifiedand varied by the
remainderof the chapter.
Yorick next recalls the monk's courtesy, settingoff the German'srude-
ness and, in subtler fashion, Walter Shandy's and Smollett's comic sys-
tems. The Germanthen insults the dwarf, intensifyingour coming plea-
sure through pain. The climactic exchange between Yorick and the
French officer offers two pleasures. The French officer's request that the
sentinel thrust the Germanback with his musket is emotionallysatisfying,
but decent behaviorhas requiredforce. The finalexchange between Yor-
ick and the officer displays spontaneous and naturalcourtesy. The of-
ficer's comment about Englishtheatresprovokes Yorick's repartee,and a
brief moment of tension ensues only to be dispelledimmediatelywhen the
officer offers his snuff box (echoing the behavior of FatherLorenzo) and
accepts the bon mot. This potentialdifferenceis resolved, as it should be,
before it can become real. The sentiment generated by the tableau is
echoed on a more sophisticatedlevel. The chapter thus presents a tonal
modulation from comedy through pathos to courtesy by moving alter-
nately between juxtaposed units. While a certain complexity of tone and
attitude emerges, the chapter emphasizes sentiment, not ambiguity.But
the sentiment is psychologically more interestingand rich because of the
chapter's shading of comedy and because of the differentjuxtaposed
contexts in which sentimentappears.
The role of spatial structurein the novel is probablymost strikingin the
relationshipsamong chaptersin sequence. Indeed, there are several well-
known instances of suchjuxtaposition. Everyone is familiar,for example,
with the comic triptychbuiltaroundthe old manmourningthe death of his
ass. It is a study of frustrationin three differentmoods: Yorick treats La
Fleur's frustrationwith the bidet coyly througha disquisitionon the three
degrees of swearing in French; then Yorick frustratesthe reader's senti-
mental inclinations with the humorous sentiment of the old man; finally
Yorick himself is frustrated when he ridiculously tries to prolong his
feelings in the coach. Similarly, the episode of the caged starlingis fol-
lowed by "The Captive" to heighten libertariansentiments which are
then undercut by a third chapter on the subsequent treatment of the
starling.
We have previouslymentionedthe finalpairof chaptersjuxtaposingthe
spiritualand the carnal. Contrastis not always Sterne's goal: the episode
of the chevalier sellingpitts is followed by the more intensely sentimen-
tal episode of "The Sword" for the sake of the analogybetween them.9
These instances are relatively simple; what may be less familiarare the
often elaborately detailed linkages which Sterne establishes among
groups of chapters. These linkages proceed in a highly flexible manner,
corresponding roughly to Vernon Lee's notion of adjectival sequences of

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 Spatial Form 215

episodes.10 One chapter extends, qualifies, or modifies the mood of an

immediatelyprecedingchapterin the same way that successive phrasesin
a sentence, or sentences in a paragraph,extend, modify, or qualify one
another. However, a neat, logically organized whole does not emerge
from this structure in the Journey; rather, the novel is a congeries of
modificationswhose sequence could, to a remarkableextent, be changed
without significantlyalteringmeaningor effect.
The five chapters (215-33) devoted to Yorick's securing a passport
from the Count de B***, which are as temporallyincoherent as "The
Dwarf," demonstratethis techniqueclearly. The firstchapterin the series
sounds two closely relatednotes: Yorick's elegant, direct handlingof the
Count, and his sublimationof the Count's faintly off-color remarkabout
"nakedness" into the more lofty sentiment of spying the nakedness of
hearts. Both of these notes will later be echoed in quite differentcontexts,
but this first chapterin itself shows tonal consistency. Yorick declares he
is making a "quiet journey of the heart in pursuitof Nature, and those
affections which rise out of her," and his straightforwardyet tactful ad-
dress to the Count embodiesthis belief. Some chaptersearlierYorick had
worriedabout the various artificeshe could use with the Count, but here,
in accord with his stated aims, spontaneityis his modus operandi.
The second and third chapters of the sequence complicate this tonal
consistency. The second chapter begins with the problem of Yorick's
identity, bringingup associations with Hamlet's gravediggers,death, and
at the same time the more whimsicalblack page of TristramShandy. We
recall that the Count had noticed Yorick's emaciated condition in the
first chapter, and we are thus remindedpoignantlythat Yorick's "quiet
journey" is leading to the final stillness of the grave. Yet this sombertone
is quickly changed as Yorick thrusts at "one of the first of our own
church" who made reference to the sermons written "'by the king of
Denmark'sjester."' Sterne is probablyreferringto Warburton,who, of
course, representedgravity in the form of social and moral respectability
and ecclesiastical preferment-in short, everything which Sterne had of-
fended with TristramShandy and which had eluded his persona Yorick.
Thus, though Yorick is a dying man, he presentshimselfas ajester and so
highlights in retrospect both the allusions to death and a phrase in the
previous chapterwhich may have gone unnoticedamidYorick's deftness
with the Count: "I have come laughing all the way from London to
Paris . .. ." Death, sentiment, andjesting arejuxtaposed, and the reader
perceives them almost simultaneously.
The third chapter begins in a much more explicitly sentimentalvein as
Yorick rhapsodizes on his ability to leave the roughroad of life (perhaps
an allusion to his disappointed hopes of preferment as well as to his
anxieties about his liberty) through sympathy for fictional characters.
Death is now present in the sentimentalpicture of Dido and Aeneas,: "as
I have a clearer idea of the elysian fields than I have of heaven, I force

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216 The Journal of Narrative Technique

myself, like Aeneas into them-I see him meet the pensive shade of his
forsaken Dido-and wish to recognize it-I see the injuredspiritwave her
head, and turn off silent from the authorof her miseries and dishonors-I
lose the feelings for myself in hers-and in those affections which were
wont to make me mourn for her when I was at school." This aesthetic
experience is transmutedinto public morality when Yorick furtherde-
clares that bad sensations can always be defeated by the simultaneous
evocation of good ones. Yet only a few lines later, Yorick makesa satiric
jab at English politicians, indicatingironicallythat moral kindliness can
simultaneouslygenerateits opposite.
All these tones, images, and themes are gathered and echoed more
coarsely in the fourth chapter containing the anecdote of Bevoriskius.
There is a degree of analogy with the third chapter since they both con-
cern books, but the Bevoriskius anecdote comically reduces the senti-
mental Dido and Aeneas to gross symbols of lust-copulating sparrows.
The contrast assumes detail if we recall where Virgil's Aeneas found
Dido:
hic,quosdurusamorcrudelitabeperedit,
secreticelantcalleset myrteacircum
silvategit....
[Herethose whomsternLove has consumedwithcruelwastingare
hiddenin walks withdrawn,emboweredin a myrtlegrove ... .]1
Sterne replaces Dido's and the others' secret shame with a very public
display.
Moreover, the anecdote turns spiritual consumption by love into a
matter of physical prowess: "the cock-sparrow [says Bevoriskius] ...
has actually interruptedme with the reiterationof his caresses three and
twenty times and a half." The theme of refinementis naturallysuggested
in the coarse materialsof the anecdote; Yorickjestingly contradictsthe
delicacy he displayed in the first chapter (his fit of blushinghere is mere
coyness), forcing the reader to see what delicacy excludes. And, since
this jest is said to be at his own expense, Yorickis playingthe fool as well
as being an ironist. Finally, a more macabretone appearsin Bevoriskius'
commentary itself. Sterne is likely referringto a work by Johan van
Beverwyck, Schat der Gesontheyt (Treasury of Health). It concerns the
physical degenerationof manas a resultof his sinfuldisobedienceto God,
ideas reflected in a plate to the commentaryshowing "Death enclosing
Adamand Eve in his net while Eve offers the appleto her spouse."'12
The theme of death, started in connection with Yorick and Hamlet,
thus broadens to include all human life, a point underscored by the
chapter's opening homily on the insufficiency and transience of human
enjoyments: "the greatest [enjoyment]they knew of, terminatedin a gen-
eral way, in little better than a convulsion." Yet, of course, this phraseis
equivocal, so sexual jest and moral earnest are implied simultaneously.

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 Spatial Form 217

In the last chapter, "Character,"we returnto the sophisticatedtone of

the first chapter with an emphasis on what Yorick calls the "progress of
refinements."Yorick is now at his most urbane,producingoriginalobser-
vations on national manners. He makes an importantmoral distinction
between mere politeness and "politesse de coeur, which inclines men
more to human actions, than courteous ones . .. ." The ribaldry of the
Bevoriskius anecdote is juxtaposed ironicallywith a Spectator-likestance
and polish. However, "Character," though the last chapter in our se-
quence, does not have the final word, for reverberationsfrom it appearin
the next chapter, "The Temptation." There Yorick's urbanity and
control are upset by the fille de chambre. Part of the humor of "The
Temptation"(in additionto the ironies we have alreadydescribed)lies in
the contrast of Yorick's unexpected response to very differentlevels of
the social hierarchy: one would expect him to be shaken by the noble
Count, not the child of nature. Further complicatingour view of "The
Temptation"and the passport sequence is the Count's remarkon spying
"nakedness," which, with the fille de chambre, lurks as a possibility.
With "The Conquest" the passport sequence's influenceis broken since
that chaptershifts the focus to "The Temptation"itself.
In the Journey, then, contrastand qualificationfollow associatively one
upon another. And, by this means, the novel acquires a satisfying aes-
thetic complexity. In addition, the implicationsof this skillfully created
aesthetic complexity for the meaningof the Journey are significant.The
novel's narrative technique suggests that the book is not consistently
ironic but that it is designedto reveal the bafflingcomplexity of the human
moral situation. This conclusion accords well with R.F. Brissenden's
very recent study of the theme of sentimentin the Journey. He finds that
Sterne's "vision of man" in the novel includes his "being not only tender
hearted but also naked, shameless and comic ... ."13 Our study of narra-
tive technique shows how closely and carefully woven into the fabric of
the book this vision is. Furthermore,the reader's attitude toward this
baffling complexity-this assumption that everything has multiple and
conflicting aspects-is primarilyamused sympathy, not critical detach-
ment. To be sure, Yorick is often foolish and we are often invited to laugh
at him; but the thrust of the book's narrative technique is away from
precise clarity of moral judgment toward a complicating of emotional
response and, therefore, a complicatingof the reader's ability to make
precise moraljudgments. If we are surrounded,as Tristamsaid, by "rid-
dles and mysteries," then insistance on determinatemoraljudgmentsmay
itself be foolish. We may be wiser and ultimatelymore moralif we accept
the comedy inherentin the humansituationthanif we judge gravely.

Texas Tech University

Lubbock, Texas

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218 The Journal of Narrative Technique

NOTES
1. Works, ed. A.A. Luce and T.E. Jessop (London: Nelson, 1949), II,
189.
2. Laurence Sterne, sa personne et ses ouvrages (Paris:Thorin, 1870),
pp. xxii-xxiv.
3. The fullest version of the article is in Frank's The WideningGyre:
Crisis and Mastery in ModernLiterature (New Brunswick:Rutgers
Univ. Press, 1963),pp. 3-62.
4. See: Ronald Paulson, "Hogarth and the English Garden:Visual and
Verbal Structures," in Encounters:Essays on Literatureand the Vis-
ual Arts, ed. John Dixon Hunt (New York:Norton, 1971),pp. 82-95.
5. For a discussion of sequence and stasis in relationto spatialform, see
WalterSutton, "The LiteraryImageand the Reader:A Consideration
of the Theory of SpatialForm,"JAAC, 16 (1957-58), 112-23.
6. "Forms of the Plot," in The Theoryof the Novel, ed. PhilipStevick
(New York: Free Press, 1967),p. 150.
7. A SentimentalJourney, ed. GardnerD. Stout, Jr. (Berkeley and Los
Angeles: Univ. of Calif. Press, 1967),p. 171.I have insertedall subse-
quent page and line references into the text.
8. The Sister Arts: The Traditionof LiteraryPictorialism and English
Poetryfrom Dryden to Gray (Chicago:Univ. of ChicagoPress, 1958),
p. 256.
9. For further discussion of some of these sequences and a few others
like them (though from a point of view very different from this
paper's), see J.E.P. Thomson, "ContrastingScenes and TheirPartin
the Structureof A SentimentalJourney," AUMLA, 32 (1969), 206-
13.
10. "On Literary Construction," in The Handling of Wordsand Other
Studies in Literary Psychology (London: Lane, 1923), pp. 1-33.
"Vernon Lee" is the pseudonymof Violet Paget.
11. Aeneid, VI, 442-44. Translationby H. Rushton Fairclough in the
Loeb Library(Cambridge,Mass.: HarvardUniv. Press, 1965).
12. Edward W. West, Notes and Queries, 6th ser., 12 (1885), 426. I am
also indebted to Stout's note (349-51) for informationabout Bever-
wyck.
13. Virtuein Distress: Studies in the Novel of Sentimentfrom Richardson
to Sade (London:Macmillan,1974),p. 241. See also pp. 218-42.

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