The Sandman, as drawn by E.T.A. Hoffmann himself
It is often mentioned that Freud’s Psychoanalytical theory has influenced literature very considerably. Regarding stories that aspire to cause dread, his article on the Uncanny in Literature provides good insight – particularly his interpretation of “The Sandman”, E.T.A. Hoffmann’s bleak and magical story of fiery circles, monsters and doppelgangers, is worth mentioning...
The Sandman, the eponymous fiend of this story, is both a magical entity (a flying beaked demon that abducts little children and uses their eyes so as to feed his own offspring) and a dyad of mysterious men: an ominously looking old lawyer, Coppelius, and a merchant of eyeglasses, called Giuseppe Coppola. Both names etymologically are derived from the Italian word for “eye”, and their links to the monstrous Sandman of legend do not stop there.
The Lawyer Coppelius
Coppelius is a very unpleasant-looking man, who seems to despise children. The protagonist of the story, the student Nathaniel, recalls how he hated and feared Coppelius ever since he was a boy. While at first the antipathy was caused by disgust at how the old man looked, as well as due to the antagonistic attitude he consistently demonstrated when invited to Nathaniel's family home by his father, later on Nathaniel comes to regard Coppelius as the actual murderer of his father – whose death took place during a chemical, possibly alchemy-related, experiment.
Coppelius had already been fused in Nathaniel's mind with the mythical Sandman – the child’s governess was reckless enough to fill his mind with tales of horror, and it should be noted that she was the one who first suggested that his father’s night-time guest was the Sandman. Nathaniel always loved stories of mystery and the macabre, so the repugnant and terrifying figure of the winged and beaked Sandman soon assumed a central position in his personal pantheon of ghouls.
Coppelius manages to escape after the apparent accident that killed Nathaniel's father, and Nathaniel will only see him again – or at any rate believe he saw him – years later, while studying far away from his home city.
The optometrist Giuseppe Coppola
Coppola first appears to the student Nathaniel wishing to sell him some of his wares –
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If so, what would the reaction have been to someone with syphilis? Since it doesn't seem that a faithful couple would succumb to it, were their any tracts written, blamming those with syphilis for their decadence and sin? Are there any letters from significant others of those who caught it?
Ao vê-la há pouco nO Globo Online fiquei pensando: ela está sempre ao lado da Lula ou da Dilma ou é favorecida pelos jornais.
Ou minha impressão de presença constante é errada?
> Brett Brown was asked about the Markelle Fultz coaching comments: “He didn’t mean that. And I spoke back and forth, but he didn’t mean that. He’s a good kid, he’s a good young man and truly we wish him well.”
This was in response to that time Fultz said he was happy to have 'a coach that's going to push you to be better'
Rich Hofmann covers the 76ers and Eagles for The Athletic Philadelphia. For last three years, Rich wrote about the 76ers and all other Philly sports at PhillyVoice.
