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One “When Things Move upon Bad Hinges”
- Fordham University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
This chapter examines the anger caused by malicious objects in Laurence Sterne's novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. It analyzes the disturbances to the bourgeois household in this novel as they relate to questions of the relationship between necessity and contingency, regularity and irregularity, wholeness and interruption, body and soul and investigates how the characters of Tristram, Walter, Uncle Toby, and other members of the Shandy household cope with these vexations, irritations, and aggravations. This chapter suggests that in this novel, language is the medium for creating an image of the good life and a means to control the accidents of everyday existence, while eloquence preserves good temper and creates pleasure in excess of the painful occasion.