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Everything, his whole life, had become to him a dream and a foreboding, and he was always saying that man, although he might think himself free, only served for the cruel sport of dark powers.

When Nathaniel returns home after starting his university studies, those closest to him notice that his personality is much different from before his run-in with Coppola. He once took an interest in bright, interesting things, but now he is much grimmer and moodier, to Clara’s great discomfort. While his friends try to lift his spirits, Nathaniel’s words imply that all human beings are automatons, subject to the whims of darker powers that control their actions. Nathaniel himself becomes a puppet of Spalanzani and Coppelius, but in his view, he has little control over his fate.

Nathaniel awakened as from a heavy, frightful dream; as he opened his eyes, he felt an indescribable sensation of pleasure glowing through him with heavenly warmth. He was in bed in his own room, in his father’s house, Clara was stooping over him, and Lothaire and his mother were standing near.

Nathaniel wakes at home following his attack on Spalanzani in a scene almost identical to his awakening after the attack by Coppelius in his boyhood. Hoffmann draws several parallels between that earlier childhood moment and this one. Nathaniel is back in his childhood room where he anxiously kept watch for the Sandman as a boy. As before, a caring woman stands over him, though now it is Clara instead of his mother. Nathaniel’s descent into madness following the fight with Spalanzani is an echo of Coppelius’s attack earlier in the story. The repetition reflects that Nathaniel remains stuck in the childish fears, insecurities, and mental processes.

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