Story Sandman- a mystical short story by Amadeus Hoffmann. It is not intended for children's reading. It is useful for parents to read the novel in order to understand: you should never frighten children with any monsters, babaykas and other monsters, tell them scary tales before going to bed. From terrible fairy-tale images, children's fears grow, which can destroy the child's psyche.

Fairy tale sandman read

As a child, Nathanael was afraid of the Sandman, with which adults frightened small children so that they would fall asleep faster. The boy associated the image of the Sandman with the lawyer Coppelius, a terrible friend of his father, who came to their house in the evenings. A curious boy spied how his father and a friend were conducting secret alchemy classes. Seeing Nathanael, Coppelius tried to tear out his eyes. The behavior of the night visitor so frightened the child that he was ill for several weeks. After some time, Coppelius again appeared in the evening at their house and closed himself with his father in the study. Hearing the explosion, the boy hurried to the office and found his father dead. Coppelius disappeared from the city. A young man, Nathanael, meets Coppola, a barometer salesman. He believes that this is the vile sorcerer Coppelius, the killer of his father, and wants to get even with him. Nathanael's friends Lothar and Clara are trying to bring the young man back to the real world with their convincing arguments. Nathanael calms down. He even attends the lectures of the famous Professor Spalanzani and is fond of physics. But the dark forces do not let go of Nathanael's consciousness. Seeing the beautiful daughter of the professor, the young man lost his peace. He completely forgot about his beloved Clara and began to look after the professor's daughter, considering her the ideal of female beauty. It turned out that the strange Olympia is a mechanical doll, the creation of the professor and Coppola. Nathanael is losing his mind again. Devoted Clara brought her lover back to life. All traces of insanity vanished. No one reminded Nathanael of his illness. By chance, Nathanael stumbled upon a spyglass bought once from Coppola, pointed it at Clara and lost his mind again. The madman grabbed the girl and tried to throw her out of the tower window. Lothar saved his sister. The people fled to the cries of the insane. In the crowd, Nathanael also noticed Coppelius. With a piercing cry, Nathanael threw himself down. Seeing the disfigured body of a young man on the pavement, the sorcerer disappeared into the crowd. You can read the story online on our website.

Analysis of the fairy tale Sandman

Hoffmann's fantastic short story is a difficult work to perceive. It intrigues the reader from the first lines. The content of the mystical tale is revealed through the characters' letters. Nathanael's letters to a friend are filled with fears that have haunted the young man since childhood: Sandman, Coppelius, Coppola in one and the same person. Clara and Lothar are opposed to the protagonist by prudence and rationalism. They try to help a friend escape from the world of madness, but they fail. What does the fairy tale Sandman teach? She teaches that you should not be led by your fears, but in everything you need to rely on common sense.

Moral of the fairy tale Sandman

We have fears inside. You need to find the strength to fight them, look for ways to overcome them. Children's fears are very dangerous. They can turn into a trail of failures in a person's adult life. This is how you can interpret main idea fairy tales Sandman.

Proverbs, sayings and expressions of a fairy tale

• Fear has big eyes.
• Whoever winks at fear will perish.

One of the most famous novels by E.T.A. Hoffmann was born in November 1815. The first edition of the work was somewhat different from the second, sent on November 24 to the publisher Georg Reimer and included in the collection Night Tales in 1817: in it, the diabolical influence of Coppelius had a more comprehensive, physical nature and concerned not only the main character - Nathanael, but also his beloved - Clara, who at first went blind from the touch of an old lawyer, and then died. Leaving Coppelius to act only on the soul of Nathanael, Hoffmann gave the short story more psychological and, at the same time, an inexplicable mysticism of what is happening.

The title of the work is connected with the Western European folklore sandman image: in the interpretation of Nathanael's mother - this is a beautiful metaphor, with which she explains the process of "closing her eyes" before going to bed; in the understanding of the old nanny, this is a real evil creature that throws sand into the eyes of naughty children so that they become filled with blood, after which it hides them (children) in a bag and takes them to the moon, to an owl's nest, to their offspring, who have crooked beaks completely deprive children of sight. Nathanael takes the old woman's story as truth from her childhood. He begins to get involved in everything wonderful and mysterious. Over time, the hero realizes that the Sandman is not quite what they say about him, and ceases to associate his childhood fears with an unknown character who comes to his father at nine o'clock in the evening.

Growing up Nathanael allows him to go beyond the mystical perception of the world, but shows his unpreparedness to comprehend the real world: at the age of ten, the boy becomes a witness to strange actions carried out by his father and the old lawyer Coppelius, is mortally frightened of the latter and spends several weeks in a fever. The new children's fears are explained (by the hero, author, Clara) by the real rejection of the vile guest, who has both a terrible appearance and terrible manners, one of which is the desire to deliberately touch children's sweets, knowing that after that the kids will not be able to touch them. Actions incomprehensible to Nathaniel (later Clara will find out from a friend of the pharmacist that it was about alchemy) and the transformation of the father during them, in whose face something satanic appears, making him look like Coppelius, are associated in the mind of the protagonist with an attack on him by an old lawyer and death father - everything that can create the most nightmarish life impressions in a person.

From the point of view of psychology, Nathanael, who received a severe psychological trauma, bears its devastating effect throughout his youth (time of study in Georgia). From the standpoint of plot events, everything looks a little different, but, as often happens with Hoffmann, it can have at least two interpretations: fantastic and real.

The second meeting between Nathanael and Coppelius takes place outside the walls of his native home. The old lawyer appears to the hero at the beginning as a seller of barometers, and then as a Piedmontese mechanic Coppola, who sells a variety of optical instruments (lorgnettes, glasses, spyglasses, etc.). Face to face with a diabolical creature, Nathanael is horrified and begins to anticipate his quick death. At first, he holds on thanks to Clara, who considers his fears to be empty nonsense, Lothar, who offers not to let unnecessary emotions into his soul, Professor Spalanzani, who confirms Coppola's Italian origin, and hence the lack of communication between him and the German Coppelius. Nathanael even takes a step towards Coppola, who puts a pocket spyglass in his hands, which has become another bridge on the way to final death.

The rapprochement between Nathanael and Olympia begins with quite real event- a fire that happened in the house where the main character rented a room. What served as the basis for the disaster is not indicated in the short story. It is only known that the student's friends managed to save his books and manuscripts and rent a new room, just opposite Professor Spalanzani's windows. So Nathanael had a wonderful, but explained by a real reason, the opportunity to see the beautiful Olympia. Coppola's spyglass brought the object of interest to the student closer, but, contrary to the real properties of the object, showed an automatic mechanism in the form of a living person. The more Nathanael looked at Olympia through the diabolical device, the more he fell in love with her. For some three days from the heart young man all who were dear to him left - Clara, mother, Lothar. Nathanael even almost had a fight with his best friend Sigmund, who dared to emphasize the mechanical nature of Olympia's behavior - her measured tread, her even, beautiful voice.

Nathanael's passionate love for Olympia is a classic expression of the diabolical blinding of man. Despite the fact that the young man periodically catches himself on the coldness of the hands and lips of his beloved, on her laconicism, on her strange behavior, he still cannot retreat from his feeling, which in fact is nothing more than selfishness. In a sense, Nathanael falls in love with the soulless automaton because of his own nature: he likes to be listened to without interruption; when they are delighted with everything he said; when he sees in a loved one a reflection of his own soul and nothing more.

Cheerful, cheerful, reasonable Clara seems to Nathanael, immersed in mystical moods, cold, soulless, who does not understand him special. As soon as the hero comes to his senses, the real lover again becomes close to his heart. Clara's fate is beautiful: the girl survives the attempt on life, madness and the death of Nathanael, but finds the strength to get married and live in happiness and contentment with her husband and two sons. Main character cannot stand the madness and dies.

Automaton motif, expressed in a terrible conclusion about the indistinguishability of the mechanical / dead from the natural / spiritual, is closely connected in the short story with symbolically the eye, which are a reflection of both the soul of a person and his life. As a child, Nathanael is afraid for his eyes (Sandman, Coppelius); in his youth, he falls in love with Olympia's artificial eyes. Attacks of insanity visit the hero every time there is a danger of loss of vision (Coppelius's threats to tear out his eyes, gouged out the eyes of Olympia, use of Coppola's spyglass).

E. Hoffmann is one of the most prominent representatives of the era of German romanticism. His work is very multifaceted: in addition to literary activity He composed music and painted. At the same time, his writings are distinguished by originality, which makes his fairy tales completely different from the traditional works of romantics of the era under study. Therefore, this writer occupies a special place in the history of world literature.

Briefly about the author

He was born in the family of a simple lawyer and after graduation he chose the same profession for himself. However, study and the subsequent public service weighed heavily on him, and he tried to make a living from art, but without success. The situation improved somewhat after the writer received a small inheritance. Despite the difficulties, he did not stop writing, but his works did not resonate with German critics and readers. At the same time, his works were popular in other Western European countries, in Russia, as well as in the USA.

Creation

Hoffmann's romance is very specific and differs from what the representatives of this trend wrote. Most of the authors approached the depicted objects and characters very seriously, glorifying the idea of ​​absolute freedom. But Ernst Amadeus abandoned these attitudes, introducing elements of sharp satire into his narrative. In addition, the author abandoned the utopian ideals of freedom, concentrating solely on the characters of his characters. Hoffmann's tales are fantastic and with an admixture of horror, but, nevertheless, they do not scare so much as teach. The author's humor is also very specific. The writer in a caustic and very ironic form ridicules the vices of contemporary society, for which, perhaps, his works were not very popular in his homeland. But in our country, he received recognition. Belinsky called him the greatest poet, and Dostoevsky was seriously carried away by his creations, moreover, Hoffmann's tales were reflected in the novelist's writings.

Peculiarities

A characteristic feature of the writer's works was the close interweaving of reality and fantasy. But the latter is not perceived by the author as something out of the ordinary: on the contrary, he portrays it as something taken for granted, as reverse side everyday human existence. His characters seem to live a double life: in the ordinary world and in a fairy-tale setting. An example of such a fairy tale is Hoffmann's short story "The Sandman". This is one of his most popular works, which became calling card author. The work is based on folk legends, but at the same time, it reflects the realities of the era contemporary to the author. The short story proved to be so popular that its motifs are used in popular culture. One of the main storylines even entered integral part in the libretto of the famous French opera.

Composition

Of particular interest is the question of how he built his narrative in the Summary(“The Sandman” in this respect differs from other fairy tales), unfortunately, will not convey all the originality of the structure of the text. And she is very unusual. The author, as if not knowing how to tell this unusual story to his reader, chooses a very interesting form of narration. The tale begins with the main character's correspondence with his friend Lothar and his fiancee Clara. After retelling the content of the letters, the writer went directly to the climax of the action and its denouement. Such a composition allows you to better understand the character of the hero, who fell into madness and ended his life tragically. In the letters, the reader gets acquainted with the complex and extremely contradictory inner world of Nathaniel, who is in terrible turmoil due to childhood trauma: nightmares haunt him, and even all the attempts of the bride to distract him from heavy thoughts turn out to be fruitless. In the second part of the story, the reader sees the hero as if from the outside, already knowing about his mental suffering. But now we see their external terrible manifestation, which leads to tragedy.

tie

In the analyzed work, one of the best masters human psychology Hoffmann showed himself in world literature. Summary (“The Sandman” is distinguished by the dramatic and complex plot, despite the apparent simplicity of the structure), the tale should begin with a mention of the correspondence of friends, from which we learn its background. Nathaniel tells a friend scary story that happened to him in childhood. The nanny frightened him with a fairy tale about a sandman who supposedly punishes those children who do not want to go to bed. The memory of this was so deeply embedded in his memory that the child's imagination was in some way crippled. The final blow to the child's psyche was dealt after one terrible incident, which he witnessed.

In the work under consideration, Hoffmann showed himself to be a master of terrible fiction. The summary (“The Sandman” is a rather gloomy short story) of the work is not able to convey all the intensity of passions and the complex internal struggle of the main character, the text should be read in full. But since we are limited by the scope of the article, we will manage with an abbreviated retelling. Nathaniel witnessed the horrific death of his father, who was experimenting on a strange professor who visited their home. One evening, the boy spied how this stranger was experimenting with his eyes, and after the experiment, his father tragically died. The child is convinced that the professor is the killer and vows revenge.

Plot development

In the analyzed essay, Hoffmann proved his mastery in depicting human psychology. Summary (“The Sandman” is a work with deep philosophical overtones, despite the presence of fantastic elements), the fairy tale is distinguished by dynamism due to the rapid development of events and, at the same time, reliability in the depiction of characters. In the next letter, Nathaniel tells how he met an unusual physics teacher and began to study with him. There he met a mechanic who was very similar to the professor who killed his father. The hero was preparing to take revenge, but the bride, in a response letter, persuaded him to give up gloomy thoughts that could drive him crazy. After some time, the hero reported that he was mistaken: the mechanic just looked like a professor, and in order to somehow appease him, the hero bought a telescope from him, through which he began to observe the daughter of his teacher, Olympia, who turned out to be very beautiful girl. In vain, Nathaniel's friends assured him that she was very strange and resembled a mechanical doll (and it turned out later): the hero did not want to hear anything and, forgetting about his bride, decided to propose to Olympia.

Further developments

Hoffmann was one of the most controversial storytellers. "Sandman", the analysis of which is the subject of this review, - the best of that the confirmation. The gloomy coloring of the work is felt especially strongly as we approach the denouement. The hero was dissatisfied with Clara, who turned out to be a simple and sincere girl, not subject to superstitious fears and false impressions. Nathaniel read her his dark stories, but she did not perceive them, which he took for indifference and stupidity, while Olympia listened to the young man, not being distracted by anything. Deciding to propose to her, the young man came to her father's house, but to his horror he found a terrible picture: a teacher with a terrible professor broke the doll. Nathaniel went mad from what he saw.

The character of the hero and the denouement

The author focuses on the image of the main character, a very impressionable young man who could not get rid of his childhood obsession. Despite his love for Clara, a simple and sincere girl, he nevertheless succumbed to his superstitious fears, which led him to madness. Unfortunately, the good inclinations in him were destroyed by a broken psyche, which neither Clara's love nor the friendship of her brother Lothair could heal. In the finale, the hero returns home and, after a temporary improvement in well-being, spends time with his bride. But one day he looks in again and goes crazy again. Nearly killing Clara, he commits suicide. So, the writer's popular fairy tale is "The Sandman". Hoffman, whose reviews of the book, despite all the tragedy, turned out to be very positive, entered world literature precisely as the creator of works with unusual color and gloomy coloring, but with specific humor, which was noticed by many readers and critics.

The fairy tale short story by Hoffmann The Sandman is the most famous and popular work author. The Sandman story is recommended for adults and children over 14 years of age.

You should not literally take all the arguments of Hoffmann in the face of the main character Nathanael, take a closer look and you will see in them a lot of hidden meaning, living energy; you will be able to feel how childhood mental traumas can become stronger in the mind of a person and haunt him all his life.

Sandman. Summary

The fairy tale short story The Sandman is divided into four parts. The first three are the letters of the protagonist Nathanael to his friend Lothar and the answer of the girl Clara to Nathanael. The fourth part is the story itself.

First letter (Nathanael to Lothar). Summary

In his first letter, Nathanael tells a childhood story about the Sandman, who scared him before going to bed, about the death of his father and about his terrible friend Coppelius, in whom the boy saw evil and the incarnation of the Sandman. A case is also described about a seller of barometers.

Second letter (Clara to Nathanael.) Summary

Nathanael's beloved Clara accidentally read a letter addressed to her brother Lothar, and expresses her point of view on the young man's experiences, showing him that all fears and horrors are not real.

Third letter (Nathanael to Lothar). Summary

Nathanael talks about how he lives, about his physics teacher Spalanzani and about his mysterious daughter Olympia.

After visiting Clara and Lothar, the young man returns to study in the city and sees that his apartment has burned down. Having moved to another house, he is surprised to notice that he lives directly opposite the professor of physics. Having bought a spyglass, he spends whole days watching Olympia and meets her at a holiday at Spalanzani, falling in love with unconsciousness. Nathanael's best friend tries to help, saying that Olympia is very strange and that she has lifeless eyes, but he does not listen, forgetting about Lothar and his bride Clara.

By coincidence, Nathanael ends up at the professor's house at the wrong hour and learns terrible news: Olympia is not a person, but just a doll. The young man is going crazy.

Having been in a lunatic asylum and returning to his homeland, to his mother and friends, he recovers and plans a calm, measured life with Clara. However, this is not destined to come true. The story ends with the suicide of Nathanael, once again obsessed with the Sandman.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sandman, Sower, sand man(English) Sandman, German Sandmannchen) is a folklore character, traditional for modern Western Europe. According to popular beliefs, it pours magical sand into the eyes of children who have played until late, forcing them to fall asleep. The image of the Sandman can have both a positive coloring - this is a kind creature that calms the naughty and brings good dreams - and a negative one - this is an evil, hostile creature that brings nightmares to naughty children.

Image in traditional culture

According to Western European folk tales, the Sandman pours magic sand into the eyes of children to make them fall asleep. There was also a belief that the Sandman could sneak into bed under the covers with poorly wrapped children and take them with him.

The idea of ​​"sand in the eyes" is based on a biological decrease in the activity of the secretory glands before bedtime, including the lacrimal glands - which explains the "burning" in the eyes, sticking of the eyelids, etc. Wet discharge in the eyes of a just woken up person was also correlated with Sand person.

Based on the folklore image of the Sandman, the literary image was found in various works, in particular in E. T. A. Hoffmann and G. K. Andersen. Hoffmann's story "The Sandman" draws a frightening image of the Sandman: "an evil man who comes to children when they do not want to go to bed and throws whole handfuls of sand into their eyes, so that their eyes fill with blood and fall out, and he folds them in a sack and takes it to the moon to feed its children; and they sit there in the nest, and they have such sharp beaks as owls, to peck the eyes of naughty children with them.

The Sandman on German TV

The Sandman is known as a character in a puppet animated film, usually aired in the evenings on the TV channel of the GDR.

Between the years and 1990, there were three different Sandmen who appeared on TV shows in both West and East Germany. With some difference, they still had common features: each time it was a little man with a white beard and in a cap with a tassel. His performance usually preceded or ended a short film for children, after which he poured magic sand from his bag, giving children pleasant dreams.

The idea to put the Sandman on TV first came to Ilse Obrig, a West German television presenter and author, in early 1959. However, her program “Sandmännchens Gruß für Kinder” (“Hello to children from the Sandman”), which was released on December 1, 1959 on the SFB channel, was ahead of colleagues from the East German channel DFF, who released on November 22, 1959 the TV program “Unser Sandmännchen” (“Our Sandman”). man"). On October 29, 1962, The Sandman appeared on the West German channels NDR, SFB and HR. For 30 years, there were two or three Sandmen at the same time (one in the GDR and then two, then three in the FRG).

The first appearance of the Sandman on television in the GDR provoked protests from parents, but numerous letters from children with requests to return him to the screens had an effect. In the summer of 1960, the Sandman appeared in the image in which he will perform all subsequent years. In 1978, the first German cosmonaut, Sigmund Jähn, took a Sandman doll into space with him. His Soviet colleague took the doll Masha, and a “doll wedding” (Puppenhochzeit) was celebrated on board the ship.

In the course of the transformations that followed the reunification of Germany, in 1990 the East German Sandman disappears from the screens, but after the protests of parents and children, he soon returns to television programs. After 1991, only the eastern version of the Sandman has been continuously released - on the channels MDR, RBB and KI.KA, while new characters have appeared in it, including from the West German versions of the program. In winter / years, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the appearance of the Sandman on television, it is planned to release the film "Der Sandmann und der verlorene Traumsand" ("The Sandman and the Lost Sleepy Sand").

It is noteworthy that for most Germans (Western and Eastern, respectively), only their traditional version of the Sandman, fixed respectively by West German and East German television, is acceptable. For the former residents of the GDR, this character has become a symbol of their identity, a kind of symbol of their lost country. The image of the Sandman is used in various products: for example, the lid of one yogurt for children imitates the sandman's hat.

The sand man could also become familiar to the Soviet audience. The program "Good night, kids" planned to make the sandman living in the wall clock the host of the program. To visually reduce a person to the size of a clock door, much more space was needed than in the studio, and the technologies of that time did not allow for the video editing necessary in this situation. The idea of ​​using this character had to be abandoned.

In film and television

• In the science fiction film Logan's Flight (1976), the "sand people" are employees of the special unit for the destruction of the fugitives.
• 1991 - short cartoon "The Sandman" based on the fairy tale by E. Hoffmann.
• "Sandman " / Sleepstalker (1994)
• The Sandman is often mentioned in the German film Good Bye Lenin! ” (Eng. Good bye, Lenin!), Filmed in 2003 and tells how East Germans experience the unification of Germany.
• In the series "Charmed" - 5x14 Sand Francisco Dreamin.
• In the animated series Ghostbusters, a distraught sandman decides to put all people on Earth to sleep for a period of 500 years.
• The Sandman theme is present in the film The Top Hat (1935). Fred Astaire, playing the sandman, dances, sprinkling sand on the floor so that the heroine Ginger Rogers can fall asleep.
• The Sandman is a character from one of the episodes of the American teen TV series Are You Afraid of the Dark?
• The Sandman is also a character in the 2012 cartoon The Keepers of the Dreams by Peter Ramsey, along with Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and Ice Jack.
• "Sandman " / Der Sandmann(2011) - Swiss film about a man who throws sand out of him when he lies. Whoever inhales this sand falls asleep.
• In the television series Sleepy Hollow (season 1, episode 3, Evil triumphs / For the Triumph of Evil ...) Sandman is an evil demon that forces people to commit suicide.
• In the television series Grimm (season 2, episode 15), the Sandman is a creature that feeds on people's tears, making them blind in the process.
• One of the iconic professional wrestlers of the 1990s, Jim Fullington, fought under the pseudonym "Mr. Sandman", and later simply "Sandman".
• In episode 9 of season 9 of the British television series Doctor Who, sand people are creatures from "sleep particles" that form in the eye during sleep.

In contemporary music

• "Mr. Sandman" is a popular song written by Pat Ballard and released in 1954 by The Chordettes.
• "In Dreams" is a famous song by Roy Orbison, the lyrics of which contain one of the variants of the character's folklore image.
• One of the most famous songs of the American band Metallica (album "Metallica", 1991) is called Enter Sandman ("The Sandman Enters"). The image of the Sandman also appears in the video for the song.
• The image of the Sandman is present in the song "Blood Red Sandman" by Lordi from the album The Monsterican Dream (2004).
• The image of the evil sandman is present in the song "Mein Herz brennt" by the German band Rammstein, although the character is not named in the song.
• There is also a Russian rap group from Rostov-on-Don called Sand People.
• The single of the Russian metalcore band The Korea, released in April 2010, was called "Sand Man".
• A song by the Russian horror rock band Haunted House is called "The Sandman".
• The song by the Russian horror punk band Scars 19 is called "Sand Man".
• A song by the German rock band Blind Guardian titled "Mr. Sandman", which is a heavy cover version of The Chordettes hit.
• Song by the German rock band Oomph! called "Sandmann"
• Song by Irish rock band My Bloody Valentine "Sandman Never Sleeps" from the ep "Geek!" 1985
• The song of the rapper Method Man - Mr. sandman.
• Richard Cheese's "Enter Sandman" is a cover version at the same time on Mr. Sandman by The Chordettes and on "Enter Sandman" by Metallica
• The band's name Coppelius is a reference to Ernst Hoffmann's character of the same name, best known from the fairy tale The Sandman.
• One of the songs of Letzte Instanz is Sandmann.
• Song by Hurts - Sandman from the album "Exile".
• The song of the group KALLISA - Sand man.
• Composition by Oak - Sandman.
• The song of the Irish singer Enya - The Song Of The Sandman (Lullaby).
• Song by Swedish rapper Yung Lean - Sandman (2014).

In computer games

• In the games Fallout 3" and " Fallout: New Vegas” you can get the “Sandman” perk, which allows you to kill people in their sleep.
• In Game " Team Fortress 2"There is a weapon that can stun opponents, plunging them into a state of "sleep", which is called The Sandman.
• In Game " Titan Quest: Immortal Throne One of the Dream Magic spells is called "Sands of Dreams", which is also an allusion to the Sandman.
• In Game " Silk Road Online"There is a mob named "Dark Sandman" that, when attacked, can stun the enemy.
• In Maple Story, there is an NPC named Mr. Sandman, who offers to fulfill your dreams (using the word dreams, which also translates as "dreams") and is a reference to the Pat Ballard song.
• The game "Hitman: Absolution" has several tests to neutralize opponents ("Sand man met a blue man", etc.).
• In Game " Far Cry 4" has a special weapon with this name.

In literature

• Ray Bradbury has a short story called "The Unmarked Thing", sometimes called "The Sandman". In it, the stranger takes the form of what it appears in spontaneous perception to the people around him. And the "sandman" is something flowing, changing, something that does not belong to its will, like the dreams of many people.
• E. T. A. Hoffmann has a short story of the same name, The Sandman. In it, a mystical character, namely the sandman, brings the young man to a mental breakdown.
• Alexey Pekhov in the series of books "Kindrat" mentions a creature from the world of death, stealing human eyes, in connection with which Hoffmann's "sand man" is mentioned.

In comics

• Author Neil Gaiman has a series of comics "The Sandman", dedicated to the Sandman, Morpheus, the embodiment of sleep, where he is one of the seven Eternals, higher beings in charge of order in the universe (Fate, Death, Sleep, Crush, Passion, Suffering, Madness). The series consists of 75 issues and is one of the best graphic novels, containing a huge number of different cultural references and interpretations. historical events. As in the legend, he uses sand to put a person to sleep.
• The Sandman is a Marvel Comics character, an enemy of Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. Also highlighted is the Marvel-90214 ("Noir Universe") version of this character, where the Sandman is a mysterious thug who kills people on the orders of a mafia boss in New York by gouging out his eyes (an analogy with the image of the evil Sandman), as well as a probable subsequent skull injury.
• The Sandman is featured as one of permanent characters Nichtlustig comics by German artist Yoshi Sauer.

see also

Write a review on the article "Sandman"

Links

An excerpt characterizing the Sandman

- What? hurts? Tushin asked Rostov in a whisper.
- Hurts.
- Your honor, to the general. Here they are standing in a hut, - said the fireworks, approaching Tushin.
- Now, dove.
Tushin got up and, buttoning his overcoat and recovering, walked away from the fire ...
Not far from the fire of the artillerymen, in a hut prepared for him, Prince Bagration was sitting at dinner, talking with some of the commanders of the units who had gathered at his place. There was an old man with half-closed eyes, greedily nibbling at a mutton bone, and a twenty-two-year-old impeccable general, flushed from a glass of vodka and dinner, and a staff officer with a personalized ring, and Zherkov, uneasily looking around at everyone, and Prince Andrei, pale, with pursed lips and feverishly shining eyes.
In the hut stood a taken French banner leaning in a corner, and the auditor, with a naive face, felt the fabric of the banner and, perplexed, shook his head, perhaps because he was really interested in the appearance of the banner, or maybe because it was hard for him. hungry to look at dinner, for which he did not get the device. In a neighboring hut there was a French colonel taken prisoner by the dragoons. Our officers crowded around him, examining him. Prince Bagration thanked individual commanders and asked about the details of the case and about the losses. The regimental commander, who presented himself near Braunau, reported to the prince that as soon as the case began, he retreated from the forest, gathered woodcutters and, letting them past him, with two battalions hit with bayonets and overturned the French.
- As I saw, Your Excellency, that the first battalion was upset, I stood on the road and thought: “I will let these ones pass and meet with battle fire”; did so.
The regimental commander so wanted to do this, he was so sorry that he did not have time to do this, that it seemed to him that all this had definitely happened. Maybe it even really happened? Was it possible to make out in this confusion what was and what was not?
“Moreover, I must note, Your Excellency,” he continued, recalling Dolokhov’s conversation with Kutuzov and his last meeting with the demoted one, “that the private, demoted Dolokhov, captured a French officer in front of my eyes and especially distinguished himself.
“Here, Your Excellency, I saw the attack of the Pavlogradites,” Zherkov, looking around uneasily, intervened, who did not see the hussars at all that day, but only heard about them from an infantry officer. - They crushed two squares, your excellency.
Some smiled at Zherkov's words, as they always expected a joke from him; but, noticing that what he said was also leaning towards the glory of our weapons and of the present day, they took on a serious expression, although many knew very well that what Zherkov said was a lie, based on nothing. Prince Bagration turned to the old colonel.
- Thank you all, gentlemen, all units acted heroically: infantry, cavalry and artillery. How are two guns left in the center? he asked, looking for someone with his eyes. (Prince Bagration did not ask about the guns on the left flank; he already knew that all the guns were thrown there at the very beginning of the case.) “I think I asked you,” he turned to the staff officer on duty.
- One was hit, - the officer on duty answered, - and the other, I cannot understand; I myself was there all the time and took orders, and I had just left... It was hot, really,' he added modestly.
Someone said that Captain Tushin was standing here near the village itself, and that he had already been sent for.
“Yes, here you were,” said Prince Bagration, turning to Prince Andrei.
“Well, we didn’t get together a bit,” said the officer on duty at the headquarters, smiling pleasantly at Bolkonsky.
“I didn’t have the pleasure of seeing you,” Prince Andrei said coldly and curtly.
Everyone was silent. Tushin appeared on the threshold, timidly making his way from behind the generals. Bypassing the generals in a cramped hut, embarrassed, as always, at the sight of his superiors, Tushin did not see the flagpole and stumbled on it. Several voices laughed.
How was the weapon left? Bagration asked, frowning not so much at the captain as at those laughing, among whom Zherkov's voice was the loudest.
Tushin now only, at the sight of the formidable authorities, in all horror imagined his guilt and shame in the fact that he, having remained alive, had lost two guns. He was so excited that until now he had no time to think about it. The laughter of the officers confused him even more. He stood in front of Bagration with a trembling lower jaw and barely said:
“I don’t know… Your Excellency… There were no people, Your Excellency.”
- You could take it from cover!
That there was no cover, Tushin did not say this, although it was the absolute truth. He was afraid to let the other boss down by this and silently, with fixed eyes, looked straight into Bagration's face, just as a student who has gone astray looks into the examiner's eyes.
The silence was quite long. Prince Bagration, apparently not wanting to be strict, did not have anything to say; the rest did not dare to intervene in the conversation. Prince Andrei looked at Tushin from under his brows, and his fingers moved nervously.
“Your Excellency,” Prince Andrei interrupted the silence with his harsh voice, “you deigned to send me to Captain Tushin’s battery. I was there and found two-thirds of the men and horses killed, two guns mangled, and no cover.
Prince Bagration and Tushin were now equally stubbornly looking at Bolkonsky, who spoke with restraint and excitement.
“And if, Your Excellency, let me express my opinion,” he continued, “the success of the day we owe most of all to the action of this battery and the heroic stamina of Captain Tushin with his company,” said Prince Andrei and, without waiting for an answer, immediately got up and walked away from the table.
Prince Bagration looked at Tushin and, apparently not wanting to show distrust of Bolkonsky's sharp judgment and, at the same time, feeling unable to fully believe him, bowed his head and told Tushin that he could go. Prince Andrew followed him.
“Thank you, you helped me out, my dear,” Tushin told him.
Prince Andrei glanced at Tushin and, without saying anything, walked away from him. Prince Andrei was sad and hard. It was all so strange, so unlike what he had hoped.

"Who are they? Why are they? What do they need? And when will it all end?" thought Rostov, looking at the changing shadows before him. The pain in my arm was getting worse and worse. Sleep became irresistible, red circles jumped in my eyes, and the impression of these voices and these faces and the feeling of loneliness merged with the feeling of pain. It was they, these soldiers, wounded and unwounded, it was they who pressed, and weighed, and twisted the veins, and burned the meat in his broken arm and shoulder. To get rid of them, he closed his eyes.
He forgot himself for one minute, but during this short interval of oblivion he dreamed of an innumerable number of objects: he saw his mother and her big white hand, saw Sonya's thin shoulders, Natasha's eyes and laughter, and Denisov with his voice and mustache, and Telyanin, and all his history with Telyanin and Bogdanych. This whole story was one and the same, that this soldier with a sharp voice, and this and that whole story, and this and that soldier so painfully, relentlessly held, crushed, and all in one direction pulled his hand. He tried to move away from them, but they did not let go of his hair, not even for a second on his shoulder. It wouldn't hurt, it would be great if they didn't pull it; but it was impossible to get rid of them.
He opened his eyes and looked up. The black canopy of night hung a yard above the light of the coals. Powders of falling snow flew in this light. Tushin did not return, the doctor did not come. He was alone, only some kind of soldier was now sitting naked on the other side of the fire and warming his thin yellow body.
"No one wants me! thought Rostov. - No one to help or pity. And I was once at home, strong, cheerful, beloved. He sighed and groaned involuntarily.
- What hurts? - asked the soldier, shaking his shirt over the fire, and without waiting for an answer, grunting, added: - You never know they spoiled the people in a day - passion!
Rostov did not listen to the soldier. He looked at the snowflakes fluttering over the fire and recalled the Russian winter with a warm, bright house, a fluffy fur coat, a fast sleigh, a healthy body, and with all the love and care of the family. "And why did I come here!" he thought.
The next day, the French did not resume their attacks, and the remnant of the Bagration detachment joined Kutuzov's army.

Prince Vasily did not consider his plans. He even less thought to do evil to people in order to gain an advantage. He was only a man of the world who had succeeded in the world and made a habit out of this success. Depending on the circumstances, according to his rapprochement with people, he constantly drew up various plans and considerations, in which he himself did not fully realize, but which constituted the whole interest of his life. Not one or two such plans and considerations happened to him in use, but dozens, of which some were just beginning to appear to him, others were achieved, and still others were destroyed. He did not say to himself, for example: “This man is now in power, I must gain his trust and friendship and through him arrange for a lump-sum allowance,” or he did not say to himself: “Here, Pierre is rich, I must lure him to marry his daughter and borrow the 40,000 I need”; but a man in strength met him, and at that very moment instinct told him that this man could be useful, and Prince Vasily approached him and at the first opportunity, without preparation, instinctively, flattered, became familiar, talked about that, about what was needed.
Pierre was at his fingertips in Moscow, and Prince Vasily arranged for him to be appointed to the Junker Chamber, which then equaled the rank of State Councilor, and insisted that the young man go with him to Petersburg and stay at his house. As if absent-mindedly and at the same time with undoubted confidence that this should be so, Prince Vasily did everything that was necessary in order to marry Pierre to his daughter. If Prince Vasily had thought ahead of his plans, he could not have had such naturalness in his manners and such simplicity and familiarity in dealing with all people placed above and below himself. Something constantly attracted him to people stronger or richer than him, and he was gifted with the rare art of seizing precisely that moment when it was necessary and possible to use people.
Pierre, having suddenly become rich and Count Bezukhy, after recent loneliness and carelessness, felt himself surrounded and busy to such an extent that he only managed to remain alone in bed with himself. He had to sign papers, deal with government offices, the meaning of which he did not have a clear idea, ask the general manager about something, go to an estate near Moscow and receive many people who previously did not even want to know about its existence, but now would be offended and upset if he did not want to see them. All these diverse faces - businessmen, relatives, acquaintances - were all equally well, affectionately disposed towards the young heir; all of them, obviously and undoubtedly, were convinced of the high merits of Pierre. Incessantly he heard the words: “With your extraordinary kindness”, or “with your beautiful heart”, or “you yourself are so pure, count ...”, or “if he were as smart as you”, etc., so he he sincerely began to believe in his extraordinary kindness and his extraordinary mind, all the more so since it always seemed to him, in the depths of his soul, that he was really very kind and very smart. Even people who were previously angry and obviously hostile became tender and loving with him. Such an angry eldest of the princesses, with a long waist, with her hair smoothed like a doll's, came to Pierre's room after the funeral. Lowering her eyes and constantly flashing, she told him that she was very sorry for the misunderstandings that had been between them and that now she did not feel entitled to ask anything, except for permission, after the stroke that had befallen her, to stay for several weeks in the house that she loved so much and where made so many sacrifices. She could not help but cry at these words. Touched by the fact that this statue-like princess could have changed so much, Pierre took her by the hand and asked for forgiveness, without knowing why. From that day on, the princess began to knit a striped scarf for Pierre and completely changed towards him.