History Literature / TheSandman1816

* TheSandman: In the story, Nathanael not only believes that the story of the Sandman is real, but also that Coppelius is the Sandman. Part of the conflict is Nathaneal's inability to realize there is no real Sandman.

** For that matter, the telescope which Nathanael buys from Coppola (who is later revealed to be Coppelius' alter ego) seems to warp his perception to an uncanny degree. He has little interest in Olimpia before he buys the telescope, but he becomes fixated with watching her after buying it and his infatuation grows to the point that he’s willing to leave Clara for her, [[spoiler: unaware that Olimpia is actually an automaton.]] At the end of the story, when he watches Clara through the same telescope, he suddenly becomes convinced that [[spoiler:she is an automaton as well and tries to throw her off a building]]. Are these events merely the result of his mental instability or is the telescope cursed?

* UncannyValley: [[invoked]] In-universe, Nathaneal's friends notice that there's something off about Olimpia, telling him: "We find your Olimpia quite uncanny, and prefer to have nothing to do with her. She seems to act like a living being, and yet has some strange peculiarity of her own."

In 1870 it was adapted into the LighterAndSofter ballet ''Theatre/{{Coppelia}}'' by Léo Delibes, and in 1881 it became the source for the "Olympia" act of Music/JacquesOffenbach's opera ''Theatre/TheTalesOfHoffmann''. It also served as inspiration for the 2007 PointAndClick AdventureGame ''[[https://archive.org/details/What_Makes_You_Tick What Makes You Tick]]'' by Matthias Kempke, who subsequently worked on ''VideoGame/TheNightOfTheRabbit'' and ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarryWetDreamsDryTwice''. It was adapted into a 1991 animated short, ''WesternAnimation/TheSandman''.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The main conflict between Nathanael and Clara comes down to the fact that the former blames Coppelius, whom he believes to be some kind of demon or bogeyman, for all his misfortunes whereas the latter believes that there is a rational explanation for everything and that Nathanael is merely imagining things. While Nathanael is clearly mentally unstable and therefore not the most reliable source of information, there are some aspects of the story that cannot that cannot be easily explained in a rational manner:

** For that matter, the telescope which Nathanael buys from Coppola (who is later revealed to be Coppelius' alter ego) seems to warp his perception to an uncanny degree. While he’s already interested in Olimpia before he buys the telescope, he becomes fixated with watching her after buying it and his infatuation grows to the point that he’s willing to leave Clara for her, [[spoiler: unaware that Olimpia is actually an automaton.]] At the end of the story, when he watches Clara through the same telescope, he suddenly becomes convinced that [[spoiler:she is an automaton as well and tries to throw her off a building]]. Are these events merely the result of his mental instability or is the telescope cursed?

In 1870 it was adapted into the LighterAndSofter ballet ''Theatre/{{Coppelia}}'' by Léo Delibes, and in 1881 it became the source for the "Olympia" act of Music/JacquesOffenbach's opera ''Theatre/TheTalesOfHoffmann''. It also served as inspiration for the 2007 PointAndClick AdventureGame ''[[https://archive.org/details/What_Makes_You_Tick What Makes You Tick]]'' by Matthias Kempke, who subsequently worked on ''VideoGame/TheNightOfTheRabbit'' and ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarryWetDreamsDryTwice''.

** For that matter, the telescope which Nathanael buys from Coppola (who is later revealed to be Coppelius' alter ego) seems to warp his perception to an uncanny degree. He has little interest in Olimpia before he buys the telescope, but he becomes fixated with watching her after buying it and his infatuation grows to the point that he’s willing to leave Clara for her, [[spoiler: unaware that Olimpia is actually an automaton.]] At the end of the story, when he watches Clara through the same telescope, he suddenly becomes convinced that [[spoiler:she is an automaton as well and tries to throw her off a building]]. Are these events merely the result of his mental instability or is the telescope cursed?

* DuelToTheDeath: After Nathanael insults Clara, he gets into a fight with Lothair and they agree on a duel with swords. Clara stops them by stepping between them and saying that if they want to kill each other, they should kill her first. Nathanael then has a HeelRealization, asks for Clara and Lothair's forgiveness and they reconcile.

** For that matter, the telescope which Nathanael buys from Coppola (who is later revealed to be Coppelius' alter ego) seems to warp his perception to an uncanny degree. While he’s already interested in Olimpia by the time he buys the telescope, he becomes fixated with watching her after buying it and his infatuation grows to the point that he’s willing to leave Clara for her, [[spoiler: unaware that Olimpia is actually an automaton.]] At the end of the story, when he watches Clara through the same telescope, he suddenly becomes convinced that [[spoiler:she is an automaton as well and tries to throw her off a building]]. Are these events merely the result of his mental instability or is the telescope cursed?

** For that matter, the telescope which Nathanael buys from Coppola (who is later revealed to be Coppelius' alter ego) seems to warp his perception to an uncanny degree. He has no interest in Ophelia, until he sees her through its lens; then he immediately becomes so infatuated with her that he is willing to leave Clara for her, completely unaware that she is [[spoiler:an automaton]]. At the end of the story, when he watches Clara through the same telescope, he suddenly becomes convinced that [[spoiler:she is an automaton as well and tries to throw her off a building]]. Are these events merely the result of his mental instability or is the telescope cursed?

In 1870 it was adapted into the LighterAndSofter ballet ''Theatre/{{Coppelia}}'' by Léo Delibes, and in 1881 it became the source for the "Olympia" act of Music/JacquesOffenbach's opera ''Theatre/TheTalesOfHoffmann''.

* DuelToTheDeath: After Nathanael insults Clara, he gets into a fight with Lothair and they agree on a duel with swords. Clara stops them by stepping between them and saying that if they want to kill each other, they should kill her first.

** For that matter, the telescope which Nathanael buys from Coppola (who is later revealed to be Coppelius' alter ego) seems to warp his perception to an uncanny degree. When he sees Olimpia through its lens, he immediately becomes so infatuated with her that he is willing to leave Clara for her, completely unaware that she is [[spoiler:an automaton]]. At the end of the story, when he watches Clara through the same telescope, he suddenly becomes convinced that [[spoiler:she is an automaton as well and tries to throw her off a building]]. Are these events merely the result of his mental instability or is the telescope cursed?

* DefiniteArticleTitle: The novel is called "The Sandman".

Can be read online [[http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Der_Sandmann in German]] or translated by [[https://germanstories.vcu.edu/hoffmann/sand_e.html J. Oxenford]] or [[http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/h/hoffmann/eta/sand/ J. T. Bealby]].