How does Tristram Shandy explore the relationship between time and memory?

In Tristram Shandy, Laurence Sterne explores the relationship between time and memory by highlighting the discrepancy between objective clock time and subjective, lived experience. The narrator, Tristram, finds that the act of recounting his life is an impossible task because the time required to tell his story inevitably exceeds the time it takes to live it, ensuring he can never fully "catch up" to himself.1

The novel is heavily influenced by Lockean psychology, specifically the principle of the association of ideas, which governs how memories and thoughts digress and intersect. Because events are presented out of chronological order and interrupted by endless anecdotes, the narrative reflects the way the past constantly impinges upon the present.21

Ultimately, the work serves as a meditation on the limitations of language and the isolation of the individual. By mythologizing their own lives and struggling to communicate, the characters demonstrate how memory and identity are constructed, even as they face the inexorable passage of time leading toward death.21