The Sandman

“The Sandman” is a strange story in which the reader is left wondering whether the events did or did not actually take place. We have Nathaniel, who seems to be an unreliable character, as we don’t know whether his anecdotes are reality or figments of his mind. He seems to be suffering from posttraumatic stress occurring from the point of his father death in the explosion. And ever since, has associated Coppelius, as the “Sandman” who has an affixation with eyes. Coppelius disappears but comes back into Nathaniel’s life as Coppola, an optician and barometer dealer, which Nathaniel once again becomes obsessive over. Klara is depicted as the more grounded character in the story, and tells Nathaniel to forget about his hatred over Coppelius/Coppola and her letter makes the reader wonder whether or not to believe Nathaniel’s story in his first letter to Lothar. The story takes an uncanny turn, when Nathaniel falls in love with an automaton and soon finds out who was behind its creation, Coppola again, along with his professor, Spalanzani. This makes him turn mad, but also gives further reason to believe that his earlier tale about Coppelius might be true. The ending steers it more towards mere hallucinations, because he attacks Klara and jumps over the rail, killing himself, which no one in the right mind, would have done so.