The Sandman

I can't wrap my head around how ghostly and well-written The Sandman is. E.T.A. Hoffmann does an excellent job keeping his audience in suspense while blurring the line between reality and the psychological state of mind of Nathanael, the protagonist. The folklore reference to the Sandman is apparent in this short story, and it is this character that develops Nathanael's large fear for Coppelius (the man whom he believes to be responsible for his father's death).

Klara, Nathanael's sweetheart, presents a logical answer for Nathanael's obsession over Coppelius; she believes, along with her brother Lothar, that Coppelius has become such a demon only because Nathanael has allowed him to. She writes to him, "our mind is firm enough and adequately fortified by the joys of life to be able to recognize alien and hostile influences as such, and to proceed along the path of our own choosing and propensities, then this mysterious power will perish in its futile attempt to assume a shape that is supposed to be a reflection of ourselves" (146).

Hoffmann also utilizes foreshadowing when Nathanael meets Olympia and falls madly in love with her. Every time Olympia's "father," Professor Spalanzini, appears in the scene/text, it is with bad omen. The professor "walked slowly through the empty room, his steps echoing hollowly, and in the flickering light cast by the candles, his figure assumed a sinister and ghostly appearance" (160). The dark tone Hoffmann consistently undertakes when speaking of either Olympia or the professor is foreboding and suggests that things are not what they seem to me and that the audience is in for a dark surprise.

Nathanael ends his life by surrendering to his obsession over Coppelius –– but right before he does so, he lives in a calm and "child-like" state of mind for a good length of time. Does that particular period of time where he appears to be back to his normal self suggest the idea of the "calm before the storm?" It did seem too good to be true for Nathanael to live a life with Klara rid of his fear and obsession of the Sandman...