Module: EN330 the Eighteenth Century
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Module: EN330 The Eighteenth Century
Lecturers: Dr Christina Lupton and Dr David Taylor
Essay Topic:
John Cleland described Tristram Shandy as an outrageously bawdy book. In what ways can it be seen as more so than Fanny Hill?
Student ID: u1429675
Date: 13/01/2014
Word length: 3230 u1429675
Considering that eighteenth-century literature witnessed the publication of an abundance of erotic fiction, John Cleland’s description of Laurence Sterne’s novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman1 as ‘outrageously bawdy’ necessarily evokes the question of what exactly made the novel stand out from other works. The case seems even more interesting since Cleland’s own novel Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure2 was condemned as “infamous” by his contemporaries and denounced by Cleland himself as “a Book I disdain to defend, and wish, from my Soul, buried and forgot” (quoted in: Cleland, back cover). Paradoxically, the publication history of the two novels in question conveys a very different picture: The first edition of John Cleland’s book was published in 1748-9 and, although it can be counted among the most frequently reprinted of all English novels, it was condemned by readers and authorities alike so that the book has not been legally available in America until 1963 and in England until 1970 (cf. ibid. vii). John Cleland himself as well as his publisher were arrested for the “publication of an obscene work” in 1749 (ibid. x). The publication of the first two volumes of Tristram Shandy in 1759 was received very differently. Its author had “hospitality and flattery lavished on him” and the publication of the following volumes was much awaited (Sterne xiv). Against the background of these details the following essay aims to examine in what ways Tristram Shandy can be seen as a much bawdier book than Fanny Hill. The analysis is going to approach the question from two different angles. The first of these is going to focus on the primary definition of bawdy as given by the Oxford English Dictionary as “[s]oiled, dirty, [or] filthy” (OED, n.p.). In this part, the essay is going to focus on the role of the reader that is assumed in each of the novels and how this role contributes to an evaluation of the novel as obscene. The second point of interest will take the definition of bawdy as “[v]ile, [or] abominable” as a basis for the analysis (OED, n.p.). It is going to examine the way in which the depiction of sexuality in Fanny Hill reinforces the accepted gender relations in the eighteenth century and how Tristram Shandy subverts these and could thus be regarded as bawdy. At first sight, Laurence Sterne’s novel seems a lot less ‘dirty’ than Fanny Hill. Since Cleland’s work describes the development of a young country girl into a prostitute and finally into a woman of considerable wealth who marries her ‘true love’, sexuality is not only pervasive throughout the novel but the major topic of it. Throughout the book, Fanny describes her various sexual encounters and although Cleland never names male and female
1 In the following, the novel will be referred to as Tristram Shandy.
2 In the following, the novel will be referred to by its popular title Fanny Hill.
2 u1429675 sexual parts by their names and instead invents “over 50 metaphorical variations for the penis” and almost equally as much for vagina, it is obvious what he means (Cleland xix). Among the metaphors for penis are “affair”, “engine of love-assaults” and “formidable machine” whereas the ones for vagina include “main spot”, “open-mouth’d gap” and “center of all . . . senses” (ibid. 26; 40; 77; 11; 24; 25). However, what takes the edge out of the obscenity of the content is the frequently stressed innocence with which Fanny ‘stumbles’ into most of the “scandalous stages of . . . [her] life” (ibid. 1). The very first description Fanny gives of herself reveals her inexperience in life: My education, till past fourteen, was no better than very vulgar; . . . and then all my foundation in virtue was no other than a total ignorance of vice, and the shy timidity general to our sex, in the tender stage of life, when objects alarm, or frighten more by their novelty, than anything else: but then this is a fear too often cured at the expense of innocence . . . . (ibid. 2)
By this passage the reader is introduced into Fanny’s view of the world and even though they might have a broader knowledge about life and suspect that the heroine’s innocence will cause trouble, this potential threat is never brought up. Thus, the reader shares the innocent world-view of Fanny and since innocence can never be bawdy, the book can in this regard not be accused of obscenity. This point of view is maintained throughout the whole novel and Fanny’s “little head” and “innocence” are frequently turned around and seduced by the offerings made to her, at first by Esther Davis and then by Mrs Brown (ibid. 3; cf. ibid. 7). As Fanny herself says: “. . . I was, no doubt, too natural, too artless . . . . (ibid. 14) The sexual encounters Fanny engages in are constructed in the same manner. When she makes her first sexual experiences with Phoebe at Mrs Brown’s brothel, Cleland’s heroine is surprised by the advances that she thinks were “new . . . [and] odd” (ibid. 10). However, “imputing it to nothing but pure kindness . . . [she] was determin’d not to be behind-hand with her, and returned her the kiss and embrace, with all the fervor that perfect innocence knew” (ibid. 10). Here, the reader definitely knows that Pheobe’s behavior can be classified as sexual abuse. But again, that possibility does not occur to Fanny and is not mentioned in the novel at all. Fanny’s following sexual encounters with men happen in very similar ways. When she meets her beloved Charles, she is immediately struck by “prodigious love” for him and decides to be entirely at “his disposal, let it be good or bad” (ibid. 36). Accordingly, she does not object when he wants to sleep with her although it puts her in pain (cf. ibid. 39 ff.). Fanny’s love for Charles in this case functions as a justification for her sleeping with him although they are not married or have known each other for some time and the reader can, if not agree with, at least understand her action which derives from her will to please Charles. In the following course
3 u1429675 of Cleland’s novel, Fanny’s affairs with other men are equally explained by either her innocent stumbling into the situation as it is the case with the first encounter with Mr H or her will to please, may it be the man or another person, such as Mrs Cole whom she wants to thank for everything (cf. Cleland 63 ff.; 143 ff.). As can be seen, Cleland’s novel can insofar not be accused of bawdiness as all ‘obscene situations’ occur due to the innocence of the heroine which is assumed to be shared by the reader of the novel. In Tristram Shandy, the case is very different. As the novel claims, the book is supposed to narrate the life and opinions of Tristram in which case sexuality does not seem to constitute the most important part of the novel. In the end however, although it depicts his opinions, Sterne’s book does not reveal too much of Tristram’s life. Surprisingly, what it does is to make sexuality and also the scatological a major theme that is present everywhere in the book through continual innuendos. However, as Ian Watt said, the book needs a reader with a “normally contaminated mind” in order to make the bawdy humor work (quoted in: Brady 41). This type of reader understands at least most of Sterne’s innuendos and if they do not get some of the obscene implications of the text, it is not a big problem (cf. Brady 41). In contrast, a completely innocent reader would miss the double entendres that are present in almost every part of Tristram Shandy and thus most of the underlying meanings of the text (cf. ibid. 41). But it is the narrator Tristram himself who ensures that this does not happen by addressing the reader directly at various stages throughout the novel. One time, he contemplates about the correct way of how to read a book and as an answer to his fictitious reader “Madam” who missed an important implication of Tristram’s narrative he writes: 'Tis to rebuke a vicious taste which has crept into thousands besides herself, - of reading straight forwards, more in quest of the adventures, than of the deep erudition and knowledge which a book of this cast, if read over as it should be, would infallibly impart with them. - The mind should be accustomed to make wise reflections, and draw curious conclusions as it goes along . . . . (Sterne 52)
In this passage it becomes evident that readers of Tristram Shandy should not only read the book carefully, but that they also have to draw their own conclusions on what is being narrated. The quote thus invites the reader to actively engage in the reading process. Tristram makes this requirement even clearer when he announces that his book is written “only . . . for the curious and inquisitive” (ibid. 8). Keeping this announcement in mind, the frequent sexual innuendos become more obvious. One of Sterne’s strategies of invoking sexual connotations lies in deploying various meanings of one word. An important example for this usage is the term “hobby-horse”. In the eighteenth century, “hobby-horse” was a slang expression for “whore” and the underlying sexual innuendo is thus present from the beginning of the novel
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(cf. Brady 41). The strategy can also be seen in the following sentence where Tristram explains his Uncle Toby’s outcry: “. . . but the true cause of his exclamation lay at least a yard below” (Sterne 286). “Yard”, in this case, is a slang term for “penis” (cf. Harris 113). However, if the reader does not get the double meanings, the jokes are lost so that the effectiveness of the strategy depends on the reader’s participation. Another strategy consists in establishing metaphorical connections between things that normally have nothing to do with sexuality and exactly this connotation. As Elizabeth Harris observes “almost any paragraph can make us think of sex, genitalia, male and female organs” and “noses, whiskers, buttonholes, hobby-horses, crevices in the wall, slits in petticoats, old cock’d hats, green petticoats . . ., even ‘things’ can have more than one meaning” (ibid. 111). Exemplary for this strategy is the word nose which plays an important role in the novel since Tristram’s own nose was “crush’d . . . as flat as a pancake to his face” in the process of his birth (Sterne 193). A little later, this passage is followed by a definition of what a nose is: “For by the word Nose, throughout all this long chapter of noses, and in every other part of my work, where the word Nose occurs, - I declare, by that word I mean a Nose, and nothing more, or less.” (ibid. 197) Through this specification the reader, rather than being assured that Tristram is indeed just talking about noses, begins to think at least now about allusions that could be made by the word. Just as the word “nose”, the word “pen” is used as a metaphor for penis as well. This can be seen in various passages, for example in Vol. III, Ch. 28 where Tristram “last dipp’d . . . [his] pen into . . . [his] ink” and finally “spurt[s] thy ink about thy table and thy books” (ibid. 194). The “naive reader . . . [is thus made aware of] the principles of the symbolism which is essential to his effort to communicate with us in Tristram Shandy” (Anderson 972). Additionally to being taught how to interpret double meanings correctly, the reader is also forced into participating in the creation of the meaning of the novel. This is the case insofar as there are various parts of the novel which are left blank and which are supposed to be completed by the reader. Asterisks indicate either certain words which must be inferred or whole sentences whose meaning has to be deducted from the context. Although Sterne avoids the accusation of bawdiness through this technique, the now sufficiently ‘educated’ reader may easily guess the sexual or scatological meanings of the passages (cf. Whittaker 28). Besides many other examples, the following quote constitutes a sample of this technique: “The chamber-maid had left no ****** *** under the bed: - Cannot you contrive, master, quoth Susannah, lifting up the sash with one hand, as she spoke, and helping me up into the window seat with the other, - cannot you manage, my dear, for a single time, to **** *** **
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*** ******?” (Sterne 339) As Ruth Whittaker suggests, the asterisks might substitute for the words “chamber pot” and “piss out of the window” (35). The obscenity of Laurence Sterne’s novel in this sense lies in the narrator forcing the reader to imagining ‘dirty’ things in order to make sense of the novel. In this respect, Tristram Shandy can be seen as bawdier than Cleland’s novel because it relies on the reader’s imagination and their ability to establish connections between topics and things that are normally unrelated to sexuality or the scatological to exactly these themes. Hence, the effectiveness of the continual sexual innuendo relies on a complicity of the reader with Tristram’s ‘dirty imagination’ and it is in fact an important objective of the novel to teach the reader how to understand the bawdy humor. In Fanny Hill, in contrast, sexuality is necessarily the main topic and it is thus obvious that descriptions of sexual encounters have to be part of the book. However, rather than sharing in some dirty jokes the reader is complicit in Fanny’s innocence and the novel does thus not encourage the reader to develop a sensitivity for sexual innuendos.
As introductorily mentioned the second aspect that shall be examined is the way in which the depiction of sexuality in Fanny Hill reinforces the accepted power structures regarding men and women in the eighteenth century and how Tristram Shandy subverts these and could thus be regarded as bawdy. This analysis of the two novels takes the socio- historical context into consideration and thus relies on the second definition of the term “bawdiness” since it can also mean “indignance” or “outrage”. As has already been mentioned above, Fanny’s life is mostly determined by her innocence and hence, the kind of sexuality depicted in Fanny Hill cannot be obscene. The nature of Fanny’s sexual encounters is always, as even the title of Cleland’s work suggests, determined by pleasure. This can especially be seen in her relationship with Charles. Although it is presented as an act of her liberty, Fanny always subordinates to the wishes of the man (cf. Mitchell 308): “I presently drown’d all sense of pain in the pleasure of seeing him, of thinking that I belong’d to him, he who now was the absolute disposer of my happiness, and in one word, my fate” (Cleland 41). Her other sexual encounters with men are presented in the same way. One of the few scenes that could be regarded as bawdy even from the eighteenth century point of view is Fanny’s intercourse with Mr Barvile who introduces her to sadomasochistic practices. However, even this experience turns out to be “much more to . . . [her] satisfaction than . . . [she] had bespoke the nature of it to turn out” when she subordinates to the will of the man (ibid. 152). The underlying strategy is, as Margaret Mitchell argues, “intended to have a very particular effect on a specifically male audience: Fanny Hill is, obviously, a male fantasy” (Mitchell 308). In
6 u1429675 this respect, Fanny’s innocent decisions propagate heterosexual relationships in which the woman is subordinate to the man. The focus on ‘heterosexual’ relationships is also important since there is one scene in the novel in which homosexuality amongst men is depicted as being something unnatural, even immoral: “All this, so criminal a scene, I had the patience to see to an end . . . .” (Cleland 159) The mentioned examples, along with Fanny’s reunion with her beloved Charles at the end of the novel support the image of sexuality that could be regarded as the accepted one in the eighteenth century. Opposed to that, Sterne’s novel often depicts a deeply dysfunctional. The theme of impotence pursues most of the male characters. It pursues Tristram, since the already mentioned crushing of his nose which is a metaphor for penis leaves the reader in doubt about his sexuality. At one point, the narrator himself makes his anxiety about his virility very clear: - Do, my dear Jenny, tell the world for me, how I behaved under one, the most oppressive of its kind which could befall me as a man, proud, as he ought to be, of his manhood – ‘Tis enough, said’st thou, coming close up to me, as I stood with my garters in my hand, reflecting upon what had not pass’d – ‘Tis enough, Tristram, and I am satisfied, said’st thou, whispering these words in my ear, **** ** **** *** ******; - **** ** **** - any other man would have sunk down to the center –” (Sterne 466)
Equally, Walter Shandy as well as uncle Toby are far from having normal sexual lives. Whereas Walter is not really interested in sex and even finds the appointed time for intercourse once a month too much, Toby’s virility is questioned because of the war wound he has in his groin (cf. ibid. 558 f.). The ultimate questioning of virility can be found at the very end of the last chapter of volume nine when the bull of the Shandy’s is suspected of being impotent. This continual display of male impotence could be seen as representing a potential threat to the gender relations of the eighteenth century since it displays the men in situations of absolute power loss. In this respect, Tristram Shandy can be regarded as the “exact opposite of a book like Fanny Hill, which . . . represents the new bourgeois ethics, in the sense that it arouses male hetero-lust, tries to remove feelings of guilt about that in a discursive manner, and idealizes sex between lovers and in marriage at the same time” (Bosch 266). As has been shown, Tristram Shandy can be seen as bawdier than Fanny Hill in several ways. First of all, the novel does not only heavily rely on the reader to make the sexual innuendos work but also forces the reader to actively engage in the process of constructing the obscene humor itself. Contrastingly, in Fanny Hill the reader shares the heroine’s point of view and innocence and can relate the nature of her sexual encounters to her inexperience.
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The second way in which Tristram Shandy can be seen as bawdier than Fanny Hill is the way in which the novel questions the gender relations of the eighteenth century. Sterne’s novel depicts a dysfunctional male sexuality which can be seen as outrageous from an eighteenth- century point of view insofar as it threatened to undermine the power relations between men and women. Fanny Hill in contrast celebrates an image of sexuality that was assumed to be the ‘correct’ one in the eighteenth century and can at least in this respect not be seen as outrageous.
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Bibliography Primary Sources Cleland, John. Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. Oxford et al.: Oxford UP, 1985. Sterne, Laurence. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. London et al.: Penguin Books, 2003.
Secondary Sources Allen, Dennis W. “Sexuality/ Textuality in Tristram Shandy.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 25.3 (1985): 651-670. Anderson, Howard. “Tristram Shandy and the Reader’s Imagination.” PMLA 86.5 (1971): 966-973. “Bawdy.” Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. n.d.
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