The Sandman

In “The Sandman,” eyes are a recurring image. They are mentioned many times throughout the story and are often associated with the Sandman, who is depicted as plundering children’s eyes. For example, he is said to throw “handfuls of sand into their eyes; that makes their eyes fill with blood and jump out of their heads” (87). Eyes are thought to represent the soul, as well as the inner self, so the Sandman’s violence towards eyes casts him as not only a villain, but also an evil devilish figure who is not just out to hurt and maim, but also to destroy someone’s soul. When Coppelius tries to extract eyes, it implies a violent erasure of individuality. The loss and replacement of eyes, as seen in the gruesome activities of the sinister advocate, can also be interpreted as the stealing of insight, understanding, and human connection—a metonym for the soul and the essence of being human.

Eyes also represent knowledge, or the ability to tell Reality from Fantasy. Readers are encouraged to question Nathanael’s ability to see clearly, as what he sees is so remarkably different from what others see. For example, Nathanael is enthralled with Olimpia, whereas everyone else at the party is unnerved by her awkward movements and limited speech. Importantly, Nathanael seems to use his eyes in a very limited way with the ocular glass which brings objects closer to him, while focusing the vision to exclude everything other than that object. In this way, eyes are shown to be vulnerable to manipulation, challenging how trustworthy the knowledge they provide is.

Based on European and Scandinavian folklore, the Sandman is a mythical figure who puts a small amount of sand in the eyes of children so that they will go to sleep and have beautiful dreams. The crust in one’s eyes after sleep is said to be proof of the Sandman’s work throughout the night to enable happy dreams. Hans Christian Andersen’s version of the figure, Ole Lukøje, delights in telling sweet stories to children while they sleep.

The Sandman as a symbol in Hoffmann’s tale is a far cry from the benign entity traditionally known to sprinkle sand into children’s eyes to lull them to sleep. In this narrative, he is a malevolent figure who triggers an existential dread, acting as a manifestation of Nathanael’s personal horrors that are deeply rooted in his childhood experiences. Nathanael’s encounters with this terrifying entity unsettle not just him, but also the reader, as such a figure delves into the repressed realms of the human psyche.

In his adult life, Nathanael gets marred by these childhood traumas and his encounters with the Sandman, who seems to have returned in different avatars—be it Coppelius or Coppola. This fear affects his mental stability and casts a shadow over his relationships, especially with Clara, and his embodiment of normalcy and reason. Here, the Sandman’s role shifts from being a mere childhood terror to a symbol of Nathanael’s obsessions and potentially his struggle with mental illness. He becomes the epitome of everything Nathanael fears: the unknown, the irrational, and the uncontrollable aspects of the human mind.

Hoffmann employs the Sandman as a complex symbol, intricately linking him to the overarching themes of loss, distorted perceptions, and the limitations of human senses. The Sandman is also inextricably associated with the idea of vision, a leitmotif running through the text. This connection is immediately evident when considering Nathanael’s father’s disastrous alchemical experiments, which cost him his eyes and eventually his life. The eyes, usually a symbol of enlightenment and clarity, here become tokens of vulnerability and horror. In a broader literary context, the Sandman stands as a symbol of Romanticism’s preoccupation with the darker aspects of human consciousness and emotion. His dreadfulness encapsulates the fascination of Romantic writers with the liminal spaces between sanity and “madness” and between the known and the unknown, highlighting the theme of the uncanny.