E.T.A. Hoffman's "The Sandman"
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The purpose of this research is to examine E.T.A. Hoffmann's "The Sandman" with reference to elements that demonstrate the literary tradition of German Romanticism. The fantasy tales of E.T.A. Hoffmann have been cited as precursors of modern science fiction and fantasy tales. Nicholls cites "The Sandman" as "an important forerunner of robot and android stories" (Nicholls 289). But when Nicholls says that Hoffmann's stories "express a grotesque Romanticism more effectively than those of any other writer of his time [early nineteenth century]," he hints that elements of metaphysical reality and psychopathology in the stories seem far more compelling attributes for investigation and positioning of the significance of the story. "The Sandman" manifests a Gothic environment in such episodes as Nathanael's first glimpse of Coppelius and Nathanael's attempted murder of Klara. But the heart of Gothic horror in "The Sandman" is derived from the filter of Nathanael's perceptions, wherein pathological fantasy achieves the status of reality until it is exposed as pathology. This is a persistent feature of German Romanticism and the darker side of German idealism. Hofrichter sees Hoffmann's preoccupation with fantasy as outside the development of the realistic mainstream of European literary tradition that has significance chiefly as an exemplar of the darker, destructive side of philosophical, intellectual, and literary tradition (Hofrichter, 407, et passim)
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nor ideals are the ultimate reality [for Kant]; it is man's capacity to experience the world through sensations, thoughts and actions" (Friedrich xxix).
Nathanael embodies the capacity for sensate and sentient experience. But the commonsense commentary of Klara, his betrothed, provide early clues that most of Nathanael's conflict is in his mind and that as a matter of fact he cannot trust his perceptions. His sentient experience misleads him because he misinterprets it.
I will admit straight out [Klara says] that in my opinion all the terrible things you speak of happened only within your own mind and that the outer world had very little part in them. Old Coppelius may well have been a repulsive character, but it was because he hated children that you children developed such an aversion towards him (Hoffmann 10).
She believes that he believes it; that is what the reader must understand and what Hoffmann is exploring about Nathanael's madness. The boy Nathanael remembers being horror-struck by Coppelius's declaration that he and his father have found the eyes. Nathanael believes that Coppelius is going to gouge out his eyes; it turns out of course that Coppelius is referring to the beauty and design of the eyes for the auto
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Approximate Word count = 1497
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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