The Sandman - E.T.A. Hoffmann (short story)
Finals are coming. I have decided not to hide but go for it and re-read all the books that I was required to read during the last two years of my senior period, I guess you could call it. Those Germans are crazy.
Nathanael finds himself losing his mind. He has had a very traumatic childhood having lost his father at a very young age. He, like his mother, thinks that the advocat Coppelius is responsible for his father’s death, because he is a very mean character and tried to scare the children away. Nathanael falls in love with a kind of robot and pushes everyone that loves him away from him because of his irrational fear of the ‘sandman’ that wanted to steal his eyes when he was just a small boy sneaking into his father’s office to see what was going on there.
I quite liked the story a little more when I read it a second time. Having learned about all those different types of German literature depending on the century I think I got an even better understanding for this particular period.
It is very interesting how Nathanael loses his sanity and how his character can be interpreted. His girlfriend, Clara, clearly stands for sanity and rationality, while he himself is an abundance of emotions and misconceptions. The story becomes even more dramatic when he meets Coppelius again and when he reveals his true identity Nathanael cannot be saved.
(originally posted March 2016)
Finals are coming. I have decided not to hide but go for it and re-read all the books that I was required to read during the last two years of my senior period, I guess you could call it. Those Germans are crazy.
Nathanael finds himself losing his mind. He has had a very traumatic childhood having lost his father at a very young age. He, like his mother, thinks that the advocat Coppelius is responsible for his father’s death, because he is a very mean character and tried to scare the children away. Nathanael falls in love with a kind of robot and pushes everyone that loves him away from him because of his irrational fear of the ‘sandman’ that wanted to steal his eyes when he was just a small boy sneaking into his father’s office to see what was going on there.
I quite liked the story a little more when I read it a second time. Having learned about all those different types of German literature depending on the century I think I got an even better understanding for this particular period.
It is very interesting how Nathanael loses his sanity and how his character can be interpreted. His girlfriend, Clara, clearly stands for sanity and rationality, while he himself is an abundance of emotions and misconceptions. The story becomes even more dramatic when he meets Coppelius again and when he reveals his true identity Nathanael cannot be saved.
(originally posted March 2016)
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