What Do Raoul Duke and Tristram Shandy Have in Common? Essay

Introduction

This essay will compare the protagonists of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. In each story, the protagonist is a teaser. Although being under the influence of drugs and alcohol, the main character of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas—who is based on author Hunter S. Thompson’s real-life experience—manages to retain an outward appearance of control even when events take a random turn. The form of personal narration in the book is very similar to that of the Laurence Sterne novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Both works use the same first-person narrative style to depict the bizarre events that have taken place in the lives of their protagonists, Raoul Duke and Tristram Shandy. This paper will analyze the main characters in both stories and compare their authors’ writing styles, such as gonzo journalism and digression.

Raoul Duke

Raoul Duke is the main character in Hunter S. Thompson’s autobiographical novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Portrayed as a cranky yet likable hedonist, he often serves as the voice of the author’s own opinions—opinions that would get Thompson in trouble if he dared to express them himself. By employing a literary technique known as an author surrogate, Thompson is also able to give an account of some of his own despicable actions without having to admit it was actually he who committed them.

Raoul Duke takes an extreme delight in living life on impulse, especially indulging in alcohol and recreational drugs. Being heavily intoxicated throughout the whole novel and showcasing the resulting erratic and bizarre behavior (at one point he considers a purchase of a monkey for unspecified reasons), Duke is nonetheless able to closely observe his environment. Whether he’s at a casino, a hotel, or a bar, his paranoia-compounded wit and sardonic humor illuminate the environment with a laser-sharp precision.

The drug-crazed persona of Raoul Duke provides the reader with more than a second-hand glimpse into the torrid entrails of Las Vegas and the short shadow of American dream; it allows us as an audience to have a close look at the disillusioned yet idealistic soul of the author himself.

Tristram Shandy

A legitimate child of Mr. and Mrs. Shandy, Tristram is a character whom we as an audience experience mainly through the actions or reactions of other characters in the humorous novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne. Although Shandy is almost absent throughout the whole book, he familiarizes readers with fascinating and dirty accounts of the lives of other characters while remaining in the background. Shandy is a sly trickster, and his absence makes it difficult for the reader to gain any real insight into his personality. He even manages to disappear from the unfortunate event of his circumcision, calling it on more than one occasion a “Susannah’s accident” (Sterne 390).

Even though the story of Tristram Shandy is supposed to be about his life and opinions, readers are often instead presented with an explanation of what caused the hero to become who he is now. However, with the novel’s constant shift in tone and narration, it is hard to discern all of the hidden personality traits of the narrator. Instead of providing Tristram with a clear identity, Sterne endows him with a kind of collective personality whose thoughts and feelings serve as an indirect explanation for character’s motivations.

Characters Comparison

In light of Tristram’s father’s theory about the influence of person’s name on their fate and character, the eccentric persona of Raoul Duke, whose name was inspired by revolutionary Cuban politician Raul Castro and the nickname of the charismatic American actor John Wayne, gains more depth and significance. Just like Tristram, whose character—although being tightly wrapped around his close relationships—gives us little understanding of his inner thoughts and motivations, Duke is portrayed as a somewhat two-dimensional personality. In the words of John Hellmann, he is “not what E.M. Forster would call a ‘round’ or ‘realistic’ character” (54). His motivation, as well as back story, is almost entirely unknown to the reader. Similarly, although Tristram Shandy intends to tell a broad story that spans from his birth to the point of narration, he fails to provide us with any real meaningful insight into his identity. That being said, the reader does become familiar with Tristram’s witty, sentimental, erudite, good-humored, slightly sorrowful, and rather ridiculous personality only through vicarious experiences of others.

Both Duke and Tristram are tricksters who manage to hide themselves from the reader throughout the whole story, one behind the curtain of his familial relationships and the other behind a thick, drug-induced haze. It is worth mentioning that the whole persona of the drug-crazed journalist not only serves as a disguise for the author’s own opinions and thoughts but is also “in part a narrative device which can be used to distort the surfaces of realism in order to reveal their underlying truth” (Hellmann 69). Thompson imparts his alter ego with such uncanny characteristics that the whole story, even though it is apparently a depiction of actual events, loses its realism and seems like a warped anecdote of a deluded mind. On the other hand, Tristram’s narrative—although being weird, whimsical, and totally fictional—provides the reader with a deep understanding of the main character’s social milieu, providing a sense of reality. The narrative also gives the audience hints of minor changes in the hero’s motivations and personality as the story progresses, thus making him a more substantial and well-rounded character.

Writing Styles Comparison

Having been written as a subjective mix of real events and fiction known as gonzo journalism, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas has a very similar writing style to that of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Both novels employ a first-person narrative and a chaotic story structure rife with digressions. While progressing through their plot-driven stories, the two protagonists are trying their best to depict events taking place in their lives in the most candid manner. Ironically, both Raoul Duke and Tristram Shandy fail to deliver an objective account of their lives. Discoursing at length on a wide range of subjects such as noses, insults, sexual habits, and warfare, Tristram constantly digresses from the story of his life. Similarly, Raoul Duke is unable to fulfill his journalistic duties because of the constant distractions and numerous misfortunes caused by his excessive drug use and erratic behavior.

Conclusion

While the two main characters of these novels are very different, they nonetheless have a lot in common. Both Raoul Duke and Tristram Shandy go through the bizarre events of their life with a good portion of humor and wit, which helps them accept its randomness.

References

Hellmann, John. Fables of Fact: The New Journalism as New Fiction. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1981. Print.

Sterne, Laurence and Howard Anderson. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. New York: Norton, 1980. Print.

Thompson, Hunter S. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. New York: Vintage Books, 1998. Print.