The Sandman (1816) by E.T.A. Hoffmann

The fantastic stories of E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822) were very influential during the whole 19th c., being adapted into such ballets as Coppelia and The Nutknacker, as well as Schumann's piano work Kreisleriana - and not to forget the opera The Tales of Hoffmann by Offenbach. Hoffmann (1776-1822) was one of the major authors of the Romantic movement. Besides a writer of fantastic stories, he also was a composer (he has left us an excellent symphony, piano sonatas, an opera, etc.), a music critic, a painter, and in daily life a jurist. Born in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia), Hoffmann served in the Prussian bureaucracy in the Polish provinces until the defeat of Prussia by Napoleon in 1806. He then turned to his chief interest, music, and held positions as a music director, conductor and critic in Bamberg and Dresden. It was around this time that he changed his third baptismal name Wilhelm into "Amadeus" out of respect for Mozart. In 1814 he was appointed to the court of appeal in Berlin, and he became a Councillor in 1816. 

[E.T.A. Hoffmann]

It is in his later years that Hoffmann was mainly active as a writer, publishing two novels and about 50 stories. Hoffmann combined fantastic elements with realistic descriptions and examinations of character and psychology. He showed both the tragic and grotesque sides of human nature with great irony. The contrast between Hoffmann's daily life as a bureaucrat and the ideal world of his art forms the object of several stories as well.

"The Sandman" is one of the eight stories included in Nachtstücke ("Night Pieces," translated as Hoffmann’s Strange Stories or Weird Tales) from 1817. "The Sandman" not only introduces the horrific titular character, but also brings a woman who is in reality an automatic doll on stage. It was one of the core texts studied by Freud in his essay "Das Unheimliche" (The Uncanny).

Nathanael, the protagonist, is warned as a child about the Sandman, who throws sand in the eyes of children who will not go to sleep, so that the eyes fall out and can be collected by the Sandman. The sinister Coppelius comes to conduct experiments with Nathanael's father; Nathanael sees Coppelius and associates him with the Sandman. Nathanael is discovered as he observes Coppelius and his father conducting alchemical experiments; Coppelius wants to burn his eyes out, but the father saves him. Nathanael's father is later killed by an explosion during one of Coppelius's visits - there is a suggestion that Coppelius was responsible for the sudden death of the father.

[Illustration by Hoffmann for "The Sandman"]

Later in the story, when Nathanael is living as a student in rooms in a different city than his hometown, Coppelius reappears in the guise of Coppola, an Italian trader in lenses. Coppola calls to sell his wares, and offers "pretty eyes," which reawakens Nathanael's childish fear of the Sandman. However, it turns out that Coppola has lenses and spectacles to sell, and also small telescopes, and Nathanael buys one of these from him.

Nathanael lives opposite the house of Spalanzani, his physics professor, who has a daughter, Olimpia. Only a brief glimpse of the young woman is enough to make a strong impression on Nathanael. Nathanael becomes obsessed by watching Olimpia through his telescope, although her fixed gaze and motionless stance disconcert him.

Olimpia has been created by Spalanzani (a double of the father) and Coppola (the double of Coppelius). Spallanzani gives a big party at which his daughter is presented in public for the first time. Nathanael is invited, and becomes enraptured by Olimpia, who plays the harpsichord, sings and dances. Her stiffness of movement and coldness of touch appear strange to many of the company. But Nathanael repeatedly dances with her, impressed by her perfect rhythm, and eventually tells her of his passion for her, to which Olimpia replies only "Ah, ah!"

Eventually Nathanael determines to propose to Olimpia, but when he arrives at her rooms he finds an argument in progress between Spallanzani and Coppola, who are fighting over the body of Olimpia and arguing over who made the eyes and who made the clockwork. This fight between the two "fathers" repeats the fight that Coppelius and Nathanael's father had over Nathanael himself, when he was discovered spying on their experiments. Coppola wins the struggle, and makes off with the lifeless and eyeless body, while the injured Spallanzani urges Nathanael to chase after him and recover the automaton to which he has devoted so many years of his life. The sight of Olimpia's eyes lying on the ground drives Nathanael mad, and he flies at the professor to strangle him. He is pulled away by others and, in a state of insanity, is taken to an asylum.

Nathanael recovers, and he is about to marry his fiancee Clara, the sister of his friend Lothar, who has been corresponding with him while waiting patiently. They ascend the tower of the town hall in their hometown to enjoy the view of the surrounding countryside. Nathanael pulls out his spy glass, and he sees Clara through the lens. Used to seeing Olimpia through the spyglass, madness strikes Nathanael again, and he tries to hurl Clara from the steeple. She is saved by her brother Lothar, but in the crowd that gathers below the sinister Coppelius appears, and upon seeing him Nathanael cries "pretty eyes!" and leaps over the railing to his death.

The spy-glass is a kind of symbol for the revelation of a hidden secret, a tool that reveals the uncanny. It allows Nathanael to gain access to the repressed parts of his own past.

Because for Freud, the source of the uncanny is tied to the idea of being robbed of one's eyes (loss of the eyes = fear of castration). In "The Sandman," Coppelius, the "bad" father, interferes with all love relationships. He is the powerful, castrating father who supplants (kills) the good father who first protects Nathanael's "eyes."

The fear of the loss of the eyes in the story re-invokes the castration complex as part of infantile sexuality. What is uncanny here is the return of something in psycho-sexual history that has been overcome and forgotten. The uncanny arises due to the return of repressed infantile material.

Hoffmann also works with doubles, as we saw. The double (doppelganger) finds its source in the narcissism of the child, its self-love. In early childhood this produces projections of multiple selves. By doing this the child insures its immortality. But when it is encountered later in life, after childhood narcissism has been overcome, the double invokes a sensation of the uncanny - a return to a primitive state.

Freud also mentions alternative meanings for the double: it represents everything that is unacceptable to the ego, all its negative traits that have been suppressed; and on the other hand, it also embodies all those utopian dreams, wishes, hopes that are suppressed by the reality principle, by the encounter with society.

[Repliee Q2, an uncannily lifelike robot,
developed by Osaka University]

Of course the doll Olimpia, which so eerily resembles a human being, is also a double - a double and therefore a false reflection of humanity. The more dolls and robots resemble us humans, or in other words the more realistic they are, the more uncanny they become. The article about the uncanny in Wikipedia is illustrated with a photo of Repliee Q2, a surprisingly lifelike robot developed by Osaka University.

Nathanael struggles his whole life against post-traumatic stress which comes from a traumatic episode with the Sandman in his childhood experience. Until the end of the story it remains open whether this experience was real, or just a dream of the young Nathanael. Hoffman consciously leaves the reader uncertain.

All in all, "The Sandman" is a seminal work not only in German literature, but much wider in Western culture and psychology. Why is this great writer, E.T.A. Hoffmann, almost unknown in the anglophone world?

"Der Sandman" is our of copyright; see here for the English translation by J. T. Bealby published in 1885. The ideas about Freud in the last part of my article were inspired by Lecture Notes: Freud, "The Uncanny" .