The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy

Words can be very manipulative and persuasive, if used right, they can be used to get people to feel different emotions and make people do things. But also, they can be used to make people do things that they might not have ever done without hearing that speaker say what they said to them. Rhetorical and literary devices are included when people are trying to persuade and manipulate people to more effectively change peoples minds. In certain situations, this can lead to really bad endings and consequences which is why they are so dangerous when used right by the wrong person. Brutus has a persuasive tone during his funeral speech and uses his credibility in order to win the crowd over. Dramatic pause, antithesis, loaded words, and parallelism are all used in order to emphasize this tone. Antithesis is used when he explains to the commoners of Rome that if “Caesar were living [they would] all die slaves [but if] Caesar were dead [they would] live as freeman” (Shakespeare 42). The audience can put a mental note in their heads about what would have happened if Caesar had become king and he were not killed, this is going to induce the citizens that they are safe now. He uses either or fallacy to make the commoners feel like a weight has been lifted off of their chests which makes the tone in this part of the speech uplifting. Having an uplifting tone will help Brutus because the people of Rome will want to be on his side and feel better about themselves…

very last word of Toby’s “opinion” – “wife” (332), Mrs. Shandy mistakenly assumes that she is the topic of the brothers’ communication, as Tristram asserts that such voyeuristic curiosity is the “weak part of the whole sex” (332). One may, at this point, judge that Tristram’s view toward female members (except that for his great aunt Dinah) is rather biased and judgmental compared to that for other male members of the family, as he in the first volume, as well claims that “the females [have] no…

humorous bibliography, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman written by non other than Laurence Stern. Plagued with digressions, this 588 page narrative briefly touches on the actual story of Tristram. This, however, does not seem to bother Shandy stating that his “work is digressive, and it is progressive too,—and at the same time” (Sterne 64). He sees digressions as a critical part of his memoir that helps propel his story forward, not backward. Sterne notes that “digressions…

A maze of digressions and associations characterise Tristram Shandy’s narrative voice. More so than other prominent narrators in literature, Tristram occupies the space between the internal world of the novel and the external world of the reader. Such a narrative now requires the reader to play a more active role in shaping her reading experience, with the responsibility of making judgements and associations so as not to get lost in the irregularity of Tristram’s consciousness. This…