A German Classic: E.T.A. Hoffmann's Der Sandmann
Sophie Callear entered the “Oxford German Network” Classic Essay competition for sixth-form students. Sophie is going on to study German and French at university next year. Sophie spent significant time, reading, researching secondary literature and writing her essay on 'Der Sandmann' by E.T.A. Hoffmann. The judges said that the competition was highly competitive this year and they were very impressed by the overall quality of all the essays, stating they were “as good – and in many cases better! – than the work Oxford University first-year undergraduates produce.” The judges particularly praised Sophie’s well-researched essay and commented, that her “attention to narrative perspective is helpful in establishing whose views are reflected in different elements of Clara’s description. “ Bryony Gutman, Teacher of German Why does Nathanael choose Olimpia over Clara? Discuss the portrayal of femininity in ‘Der Sandmann’, taking account of the interactions between the characters. ‘Der Sandmann’ is a 19th century gothic text which explores the power of the imagination, the role of women in the society of the 1800s and the uncanny through the eyes of Nathanael, a university student who believes he is being pursued by a demon who steals people’s eyes. The characters of Clara and Olimpia are also central to the plot. Clara is Nathanael’s fiancée at the beginning of the novella, however he later falls in love with an automaton, Olimpia, who is a creation of The Sandman. This essay intends to use feminist theory to discuss the characterisation of Olimpia and Clara, why Nathanael chooses Olimpia over Clara and how the characterisation of the women relates to society at the time of the novella’s publication. We are introduced to Clara through her letter to Nathanael in response to his story of The Sandman. She responds with objective and plausible logic, giving him a rational explanation for his strange experiences, expressing her strong conviction that ‘alles Entsetzliche und Schreckliche, wovon du sprichst, nur in deinem Innern vorging’1. From the start, therefore, we are introduced to Clara as a rational, kind and strong-willed character. This reinforces the narrator’s account of her ‘tiefes weiblich zartes Gemüt’1 and her ‘gar hellen scharf sichtenden Verstand’2 . These accounts also give her a more masculine gendering; she is strong willed, logical, and possesses qualities unexpected of women of the time. As H. Bertens states in Literary Theory: The Basics, “Female independence gets a strongly negative connotation, while helplessness and renouncing all ambition and desire are presented as endearing and admirable.”3 Despite the very negative portrayal of Clara through Nathanael’s eyes, the reader is still able to understand that Nathanael is the true narcissist, and that Clara, by contrast, is calm and rational. John M Ellis argues in Clara, Nathanael and the Narrator: Interpreting Hoffmann’s Der Sandmann that Clara is the real narcissist because she ‘cultivates her own Spiegelbild’4 and has an ‘unalterable view of life’56. However, in the novella we see her constantly trying to understand Nathanael’s viewpoint, especially when she analyses his account of the Sandman in order to make sense of Nathanael’s experiences. Whilst she still tries to coerce Nathanael to see her point of view, it is to give a rational explanation in the hopes of helping him to ‘fremdes feindliches Einwirken als solches stets zu erkennen’7 and to move on, not to further her own ego. There is an element of narcissism in the way that Clara wants an undisturbed, happy marital life, however Nathanael appears equally or perhaps even more guilty of pursuing his own ambitions, with little regard to his fiancé’s wishes and needs. However, from this point on, we mostly see Clara through Nathanael’s eyes. If we are to assume that the narrator is unbiased, we would therefore see Nathanael’s descriptions as unreliable at best. Far from the childlike imagination and clear-sighted understanding we have seen in the preceding letters and the narrator’s excursus, the Clara we are introduced to through Nathanael’s eyes seems provocative and almost narcissistic in her determination to realise her vision for life, even to the extent that Nathanael’s death has little to no effect E.T.A Hoffmann, Der Sandmann: p. 20, line 33 E.T.A Hoffmann, Der Sandmann: p. 20, lines 33-34 3 Bertens, Hans. 2004. Literary Theory: The Basics (Cornwall: Taylor and Francis): p. 97 4 Ellis, John M. 1981. Clara, Nathanael and the Narrator: Interpreting Hoffmann’s Der Sandmann. German Quarterly, 54.1: p. 13 5 Ellis, John M. 1981. Clara, Nathanael and the Narrator: Interpreting Hoffmann’s Der Sandmann. German Quarterly, 54.1: p. 13 6 , lines 2-3 7 E.T.A Hoffmann, Der Sandmann: p. 22, lines 3-4 1 2
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