The mood in A Sentimental Journey is lighthearted and whimsical. Though often humorous and occasionally absurd, Sterne's portrayal of his characters' emotions is always earnest—even when these emotions verge into the melodramatic, as when poor Yorick is berated by his emotions in Volume 1:
Every dirty passion, and bad propensity in my nature, took the alarm, as I stated the proposition—It will oblige you to have a third horse, said AVARICE, which will put twenty livres out of your pocket.— You know not who she is, said CAUTION —or what scrapes the affair may draw you into, whisper’d COWARDICE — Depend upon it, Yorick! said DISCRETION, ’twill be said you went off with a mistress, and came by assignation to Calais for that purpose—
Though the emotions that berate Yorick may not be particularly funny in themselves, the over-the-top presentation of them—the fact that they spring to life in order to torment Yorick—shows just how deeply sentimental Yorick can be. This unflinching representation of Yorick's emotional turbulence is the primary source of Sterne's satire in A Sentimental Journey. Rather than adding side commentary or the thoughts of an omniscient narrator, Sterne lets Yorick's emotions speak for themselves—and sometimes quite literally.
