Previous Next

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Eyes

Eyes, both natural and artificial, are an important recurring motif at every point in the story. The original sandman story focuses on children’s eyes closing when they get tired. The nursemaid tells Nathaniel a gruesome version, describing in vivid detail how the Sandman causes children’s eyes to pop out of their heads so he can feed them to his children. Coppelius regularly shouts that he must have eyes, and he tries to rip out young Nathaniel’s eyes before Nathaniel’s father intervenes. Artificial eyes also appear in different forms, such as eyeglasses, telescopes, spyglasses, and Olympia’s own glass eyes. Coppola arrives at Nathaniel’s door carrying an array of glass items like spectacles, eyeglasses, and telescopes, which he calls “pretty eyes.”

Coppola, himself, is an optician, someone who specializes in the care of the eyes, and the selling of instruments to aid in sight. The sight of Olympia’s glass eyes lying on the floor sends Nathaniel into a state of madness. Finally, at the story’s climax, the artificial eye, the telescope, leads to Nathaniel’s final, literal descent. 

Broken Glass

When used correctly, glass can be used to make things that aid someone’s sight, like a telescope or a pair of glasses, but it can also shatter and injure. Fragile and easily broken, glass represents vulnerability. The glass implements of Spalanzani’s work fall to the floor when Spalanzani crashes into his worktable. The beakers and bottles smash to pieces when they hit the floor, and Spalanzani is badly cut by the shards. While the beakers and test tubes represented his work in academia, the destruction of those implements mirrors the collapse of Spalanzani’s career at the university. His reputation as a professor has been shattered. Breaking glass symbolizes the destruction of preconceived notions. Nathaniel’s intense infatuation with Olympia shatters when he realizes she is a doll. With the breaking of the fantasy and the realization that Olympia is merely an oversized puppet, Nathaniel shatters, harming others around him. Nathaniel is, in a sense, made of glass as well.

Previous section Themes Next section Symbols

Take a Study Break