Throughout history, indigenous people have recognized the power of a woman's blood. Though I wasn't raised within a system that honored the rites of passage into Womanhood, I did grow up around hymns that spoke the blood truth. "Power in the Blood" was ostensibly about the power of Christ's blood but it illustrated a larger point.

Blood washes away things that no longer serve you. What remains is a purer version of yourself, a more honed, focused, intentional being ready to re-enter the world with all systems go.

Here I am again

An addict with a pen

My enemies are slain

with the words on a page

I am not a writer

I am the avenger of a new age

" Come on Anna, it'll be fun. You can come to the club and see my band play." His voice pleads through the phone.

"I don't know, I have heard you sing."

"well then I will have you know that I don't sing. I play the guitar. Luca sings."

"Luca? What happened to Izzy?"

"He quit." Gabe shrugs "Chalk it up to creative differences."

"More like sibling rivalry."

"It doesn't matter anyway. Luca sings better than Rayne any day."

"That bad huh?"

"What?"

"The fight. I haven't heard you call him Rayne in a long time."

"Well it is his name."

"No his name is Isadore."

"Yeah, he would kill anyone who tried calling him that. Well anyone that isn't you or maybe Nana."

"No I am pretty sure he would kill me too. That's why I call him Izzy"

"Yeah well he hates that too."

"Really? He has never said anything to me about it."

"Yeah well that's because you're you."

"What's that supposed to mean."

"Oh God Anna. You know what it means, so don't make me say it."

"I don't know so spill it."

"My brother is infatuated with you."

Anna busted out laughing. "Uh-huh. Right. That joke was bad even for you."

"I'm serious Anna. That boy has been crazy about you since the second grade."

"Gabe just stop. Let's be serious. Iz doesn't love me. He avoids me like the plague. Besides, think about all of the mean things he used to do to me."

"Of course he was mean to you. That's what boys do when they love a girl. They put snakes on their pillows while they sleep and such."

"Oh my God I had forgotten about that. I didn't sleep for days. I was terrified"

"I know. That's why you slept in my bed. I guess that one backfired on him."

"I'm still not buying what you are selling."

"You don't have to. It's the truth. My stupid brother loves you. Well, and of course I do too. Now if only you had a prettier face and bigger boobs....."

"Gabriel Alexander St. Clair!"

"Oh now I am in trouble. So I guess you'll have to get on a plane and punish me"

"I can't."

"Why won't you come?"

"First of all, you know how I get when I fly."

"They make motion sickness pills you know."

"Yeah, but those just make me pass out. And the last thing I need to do is pass out on a plane and have some dirty pervert feel me up."

"I don't think that would be a problem."

"Gabe, not all men require a double Ds to turn them on."

"Don't they?"

"No!"

"But it doesn't hurt. What's the real reason Anna?"

"I have three job interviews scheduled already"

"So cancel them"

"Gabriel. You know I can't."

"Anna, come on. You spent the last three years rushing yourself though college. The least you can do is let me show you all the fun you missed when you had your nose stuck in all those books. You dork."

"I can't"

"No you won't there is a difference. Seriously Anna, come. The jobs will be there in the fall as well"

"No they won't"

"Right, every job will be gone"

"The good ones will be. Besides your roommate will think I am weird."

"You are weird. And he already knows all about you. "

"Everything?"

" well not everything but enough. Trust me Anna you will love him too. He is smart, and funny, and he can sing, and all the girls love him. You know what on second thought maybe you should just stay home and find a job. I can't have you falling for my friends."

She laughs "Oh please, you know I only have eyes for you." The sarcasm rolling from her lips.

"Well if that is the case, you have to come. Please?"

“Ray I don’t think you understand what you’re asking me to do… He’s my father. My own flesh and blood. I can’t kill him. I won’t kill him,” Reid’s eyes searched my face, hoping to find some sign of understanding or sympathy, but they found nothing. I knew Myran was his father. I knew what I was asking him to do was murder the man who raised him. However it had to be done. The war had to be ended, whatever the cost. Reid’s father had to die. I starred back into Reids’ pleading eyes. I did not say a word, but my message was clear.

It is in the unknown future that we hold our fears, and with that, we find that today slowly drifts into yesterday.  It is in these times that the end of days seems to be so close. It is in these times that we embrace the religion we were so quick to denounce in better times. It is in these minutes so thoughtfully wasted we remember those precious memories that we have cherished above material wealth; our thoughts on our loved ones and all those we hold close to our hearts.

It is in this time we plug into our radios and televisions and await the reports of conflict, disaster, strife, and loss. We hear our officials, in the early stages, attempt to quell the public's fear with their prestigious lullaby. We hear our officials, during the trouble, report that everything is in hand, and that help is on the way.

We hear our officials, after losing hope, say that our efforts put forth will not be enough, and that nothing more can be afforded. They will hide amongst their civilized comrades, these heads of state, and watch as their empire crumbles and falls to ruin as the distressed citizens await with hands stretched out for relief and salvation.

These lambs, stricken with an incurable disease, are forced to survive on their own means. It is when the flock is torn asunder by these lambs, which have become ravenous wolves, willing to kill for what they believe is right. They separate and begin their unholy destruction of what civility is left among those they transformed from. They abuse and neglect those not strong enough to fight back, those who know better, and in turn warping their souls and making them into creatures far from those they once were.

Days turn into months, months turn into years, and those years turn into centuries of corruption and vile transformation. These centuries of destruction and chaos create a massive shift in the human perspective, numbing the general masses to murder, hate, greed, and lust. Mass murder, torturing, orgies, gladiatorial death matches, all these become the general public's entertainment, and no man is held above being put in the arena full of wild beasts, drug driven savages, and the most sinister weapons created by the twisted minds of The Order of the Beast.

The youth of the masses are taken from their parents at the age of three to go to schools created by The Order. These schools teach the children to hate all that oppose their beliefs, and kill those that will not bend to the will of The Order, even their own parents. These parental exterminations are closely researched and studied by the children, and are highly encouraged by their school masters to do so if they have any doubt in their parent's loyalty to The Order and its rules.

Technology has perverted into a sick and twisted form so far from what our forefathers in the early 20th century had envisioned for their future. The science of war and torture has far outpaced that of the science of peace. The Order created ziggurats of science and technology to research and develop improved ways to break down and destroy human life all across the habitable world. These ziggurats are full of prisoners destined to become the test subjects for the atrocious acts committed by the priests of knowledge. They conduct their research during all hours of the day, ensuring that they have full knowledge of any and all effects upon the human body and spirit by their weapons and tactics. Sleep deprivation, starvation, water torture, and isolation have become so intensified that it can even be fully grasped by any sane man. They have indeed perfected the art of war and torture to such a level that nothing is left of the human spirit, leaving the body a hollow vessel in which the brain has no control of.

This is the world that Frank Gelland lives in. Frank is a low level data entry technician at the Vault of Research in the outskirts of the capital city of Dysterin. Frank has worked at the Vault since his graduation from Basic Education seven years ago.  He hasn't been in much of a valued position, even in BE, where he never received high scores in any field that he attended. Frank has always been looked upon as a lower form, almost not even human in some cases by some of his peers. He has been chided all throughout his life, but never paid much mind to it since he always seemed to disregard anything they said about him, and continued his work. Not much of a thinker, he never aspired to become anything more than what his superiors put him in charge of; which wasn't much.

Continuing his work day after day, and never tiring of the monotony of paper and computer screen, logging and re-logging entries that were cited by his superiors for extended entry, Frank pushed through his minimal existence with minimal drive. He went home to a small apartment allotted by the Vault, where he lived and commuted with fellow peons day after day. Sparsely furnished and monotone, the apartment has no windows, and a single door. The rooms are separated with sliding curtains; the only light in each room is a single bulb, hanging from the center of each area. The kitchen is a small corner with a microwave on top of a refrigerator full of frozen meals and assorted bottled beverages.

Let's talk about some of the things that Wilber claims to know, or at least believe, as a result of his integral method. One of the things is a spectrum of consciousness – which means that “sensation” and “matter” are only two wavelengths of this spectrum, and other, deeper wavelengths include “heart,” “mind,” “soul,” and “awareness,” among many frequencies of conscious vibration. For someone who believes that “matter is all that exists,” this spectrum-of-consciousness theory seemingly enters the territory of “New Age hocus-pocus” because, let's face it, Cartesian “dualism” or chakra activation or remote viewing or visiting the Other Side or extraterrestrial sighting or levitation or telekinesis – sound like crazy and impossible realities to the naked mind.

Wilber is right though. These things are real. I don't mean “real” from a “pseudo-scientific” standpoint. I mean it from a hard scientific standpoint. The aforementioned paranormal phenomena are straight-up fact. The evidence is overwhelming. It is both sad and ridiculous that a pseudo-intellectual like James Randi is convinced otherwise, because, for example, Chinese medicine is proof of chi and chakras, nei kung is proof of supernatural powers, Thrive is proof of extraterrestrial visitation, the United States military and Monroe Institute are proof of remote viewing and astral travel. Before you object to these claims, do your homework. Step up to the plate. Devour as much information as you can on these subjects. You will find that such “New Agey” claims and phenomena are real – scientifically real.

Ken Wilber's Integral Theory of Everything is good and true in theory/principle and in practice/experience. As mentioned at the beginning of this paper, the only thing that any genius or intellectual or scholar can criticize Wilber of not justifying sufficiently regards his take on evolution and God. The nondual and the paranormal are fact. But is God? – is ultimate meaning and purpose?

So what if integrience and Integral Theory is legitimate and so what if fantastical, magical things such as psychic and supernatural abilities are real? – even if these things are the case, this does not prove the ultimate question/claim: whether/that life, as a whole, has an ultimate meaning and purpose – whether/that there “is” such “thing” as an Ultimate Being, a Being than Which nothing is or can be greater. God.

God is indeed the ultimate question. It's a scary one, too, because if God is real, then God is GOD. “God,” meaning a being/reality/subject that is Infinitely Intelligent, Infinitely Powerful, Infinitely Good, Infinitely Aware, etc. Magic could be real, and that would be unbelievably epic and fantastical – but magic could be real and God still could not be. God is more than magic. God is Infinite Magic. God is so much more than “Infiniteness/Brahman” that language simply cannot do it any justice. But language can still lead the mind and soul in a right direction.

...

His room was not comfortable. Granted, sharing a bed with a gaggle of older brothers was ALSO not comfortable, but at least there he knew where he was and what to expect. Waking up to fart sounds, spiders on your pillow, wet willies. That sort of thing. Unfortunately for Alex, there's something especially intimidating about big stone walls, itty bitty windows, and a ceiling that arches up high yet still manages to look like it's going to crush you.

His bed was also trying to swallow him. It was comfortable as sin, yes, but he wasn't used to having quite so much all to himself. His eyes continually darted to the corners, waiting to see claws coming up over the thick quilt and red eyes blinking at him greedily. Weren't there supposed to be secret passages in castles? The dark, creepy kind where bugs grew to twenty times their size so they could wriggle out and feast on your fingers while you slept?

Those windows had no glass in them. They were just barely wide enough to emit some small amount of moonlight. It filtered down in choppy streams, and instead of brightening the place, the light seemed to be breaking its own rule and only making the black parts even blacker. Alexander alternatively widened and narrowed his eyes, but his night vision didn't improve near enough to pierce it.

Not that he could have slept anyway. Something about being locked into eternal servitude gave a boy terrible insomnia. Quite frankly he wasn't even sure what it would entail. He wasn't built to be a guard, and no way would King William let his precious daughter be guarded by a scrawny fish bone. He could throw himself over her like a meat shield and he wouldn't even manage to cover a third of her. So, short of that, what could he do exactly? Take care of her royal(y unfortunate) horse? Tidy her room? Help her dress? Gods forbid, clean her chamber pot?

Suddenly being eaten by monsters in the dark seemed like the better alternative.

Casting the blanket aside, Alexander stood and paced. The stone floor was freezing, and he wished again that he were back home. With that many bodies in one room, it was certainly never cold.

His chest was sitting in the corner of the room. Closed, it too felt cold to him now. Before it had been his benefit, but now it was his undoing. What was his salvation was now his damnation. And he'd certainly never pictured hell to be quite this unforgiving.

A thought flickered to life in the back of his mulling mind. His toe skidded over the stone, and he locked eyes with the chest again, biting his lip. A fourth of that loot would still be enough to get him admitted. Still be enough to pay for room and board. It would even still be enough for him to have a nice chunk of money set aside atop all of that.

If the dragon was willing to give him his life for half, what would he be willing to do for just a bit more?

Listening in the silence, Alex stood frozen for a few more moments, before bursting into action. His ears stayed tuned for the sound of footsteps beyond his door, but he was careful as he worked. He took the sheet from the bed and tore it, grimacing at the noise it made, before darting back to the chest and beginning to unload the gold into the fabric. One knot and it was done. A crude little napsack, but effective. Pausing, he thought better of it and went to the pillow, ripping it open and stuffing the feathery down amidst the jingling gold pieces and gemstones.

That would make it quieter, at least.

The tricky part would be getting himself out of the blasted castle. He was only one floor up, but scrawny though he was there was no way he was fitting through any of those windows. Tangling his fingers in his makeshift bag, Alex closed his eyes and imagined the passage he'd walked through to get there. If he recalled correctly, there'd been a far larger window in the hall. Curtains were drawn over it to keep the bugs out, but if the positioning were correct from the outside, there was a moat beneath it. A deep one, to make up for the vulnerability of having such a large gap in the stone masonry.

He could jump.

Immediately goosepimples rose on his arms. No, it wasn't nearly as high as the mountain, but at last when climbing that his feet had never had to leave the ground. Jumping out of a castle...

A little voice in his head whispered menacingly, “chamber pooooootsssss.”

It was decided. He would have to use something to lower the bag though, there was no way he'd be able to get that much gold out of the water without drowning. Grunting, he hefted the thing up and walked over to the bed, setting it down and observing the canopy over it. Gaudy material, and the pattern made it look like some grotesque face was staring down at him. He felt along and discovered rope through the edges of it, poking out in the form of golden tassels. It wasn't easy to work it out, but when he was finished, he had what he needed. He might even be able to make straps to carry the sack with once he was free.

Alexander had no idea how long he stood with his ear pressed to the door. That familiar sensation of a noose around his neck flared again when he realized what the punishment would be for this affront. After all, King William would doubtlessly be enraged to see how his generosity was being so flippantly shirked.

With one final glance at the room, Alex stepped out. He had no idea where his clothing was, so he'd had to don the foppish stuff they'd stuck him in. If he were lucky, it would send the dragon into a laughing fit and make him more malleable to suggestion.

The window was close. Closer than he'd remembered. Parting the curtains, he looked down, and had to keep himself from shouting 'hoorah!' as he realized his theory was right. There was the moat, all murky and green and disgustingly beautiful.

And hopefully not crawling with alligators.

The gold was first. After all, that was his bargaining chip. Without it he was just hopping out of the frying pan and right into the dragon fire. Lowering it wasn't easy, and as he did he almost heard his back screaming in protest. The fact that he had to carry this up the mountain again made him certain he'd have a crooked spine way before his time.

With a satisfying thud, the gold landed just short of the water, pinned between it and the base of the castle. Now it was his turn. Hopefully he could aim himself just right in order to-

“Oh FREDERICK! You know we'll get in trouble if they catch us!”

Alex hissed. The voice was near, maybe around the corner, though he couldn't see anyone yet. Climbing up onto the sill, he fixed his eyes downwards and began trying to work up his nerve.

“You KNOW how inappropriate this is!”

Still needed more nerve.

“I'm a married woman, Frederick! And my husband would not approve of such flirting!”

Bile in his throat, but more nerve was needed. The voices drew closer.

“Alright, alright.” The sound of giggling, high pitched. “Just this one time, Freddy-poo! Really quick-like!”

It was at that point Alexander decided a broken leg was preferable to hearing the conclusion of the conversation. He jumped.

The Ruby county has few landmarks.The county in itself is unique enough to be it's own attraction. The town and markets are not bustling with the common, but rather the tall and pompous glance briefly about themselves before purchasing only what they came for and walking briskly back to their homes in the cooling winds. These homes are not as magnificent as their people, but are almost as unique. A colony of smaller village houses give shelter to the rich, and the middle class wandered elsewhere with the poor. The few structures that stand out are home to the elite and influential. The gap between the economic statuses shows in the architecture of the town. Shops rest on small hills wherever they could lay cobble for paths. Homes take up most of the center and east side of the county, with wealth determining your homestead-- the border of the shops were homes that might have been built for a king, but towards the east were crumbling, rotting frames of shacks and single rooms.

The westward homes are split by a graveled path that leads to another feature-- a bell. A bell tower taller than the tallest building, made from red bricks and white plaster. a small door led to the only interior space, a rounded, tiny room with a rope hanging from the silver bell above. Locked but for Meisters, who held their own keys, it was used for the purpose of sending out a message. When the bell rings, every Meister has an ordained courier that delivers the message back to the castle. Generally, the message is nothing important-- just an announcement of a ball or an arrest of a criminal-- but still, when the bell rings, farmers working their plots and families in their homes pause and wonder.

While the county is almost exclusively populated by sights easily deemed incredible, only one structure can truly call itself a landmark-- the castle of Talvar. Talvar had been in the land since the beginning, the tallest mountain in the whole of the country. It had been said it was once so rich with ruby ore you could see little glints of red from between the blades grass-- so it was only fit to build the castle there, the castle that housed the Meister herself.

The planet Almikaval has two moons. They are both normally grey in color but every now and then they fester with cosmic energy. The moons were called Enya and Talek. Enya was a small moon with a cloudy atmosphere, dimming the night sky as it circled clockwise around the purple planet. Talek was a large, light grey moon that circled the planet counterclockwise. Every fifty years, the moons would emit their cosmic energies. Enya emits a bright blue energy, which casts a freezing blue shadow with its rays. Talek emits a scarlet red energy which casts a burning red shadow. Every 200 years, Talek and Enya align exactly, casting a warming violet glow upon the planet, a phenomena called the Violet Eclipse. It was found that when young warriors were placed amongst the rays, they received an energy to control. Some would control wind, others would control water, and still others would control fire. These select few warriors were prophesied to bring peace and harmony for the planet until the next young warriors came along. A disturbing prophecy is revealed on the dawn of the 4th Violet Eclipse to a village oracle, "The 5th Violet Eclipse will bestow five warriors instead of three. The two powers that will be revealed are immense, and will bring terror unimaginable before peace will be restored." Many years pass and the prophecy is forgotten. The 5th Violet Eclipse descends upon Almikaval with every passing moon.

The Demon Forever Trapped In Nathaniel’s Subconscious: The Sandman’s First Attempt To Strip A Child of His Eyes and His Agency In E.T.A Hoffmann’s “The Sandman” by Elena M. Fleggas

In E.T.A. Hoffmann’s tale “The Sandman,” Nathaniel relives an unforgettable and traumatizing childhood memory well into adulthood. In the memory, a lawyer named Coppelius is driven by the desire to strip Nathaniel of his ability to grasp concepts and ideas by stealing his eyes. When Nathaniel’s father pleads for Coppelius to let Nathaniel keep his sight, Coppelius then longs to steal the child’s hands and feet. In this essay, I will closely analyze this attack and converse with the ideas of scholars to argue that during their first encounter, Coppelius becomes an image to Nathaniel that, through a Freudian lens, is familiar, frightened, and uncanny. Furthermore, I will draw from the ideas of others to argue that Coppelius tries to remove Nathaniel’s organ of sight to deprive him of his most valuable form of agency: his childlike ability to learn from the situations and people around him. The disturbing power struggle I will analyze between Coppelius, Nathaniel, and his father where Coppelius first attempts to rob Nathaniel of his ability to learn is told from Nathaniel’s point of view and reads:

I seemed to see human faces appearing all around, but without eyes—instead of eyes there were hideous black cavities. “Eyes, bring eyes!” Coppelius cried in a dull hollow voice. Gripped by wild terror, I screamed aloud and fell out of my hiding-place on to the floor. Coppelius seized me. “Little beast! Little beast!” he bleated, showing his teeth...“Now we have eyes—eyes—a lovely pair of children’s eyes!”…But my father raised his hands imploringly and cried: “Master! Master! Let my Nathaniel keep his eyes—let him keep them!” Coppelius laughed shrilly and cried: “The boy can have his eyes then, and keep the use of them. But now let us observe the mechanism of the hands and feet.” (Hoffmann 91)

Nathaniel begins this passage by admitting, “I seemed to see human faces appearing all around” (Hoffmann 91). Here, Nathaniel refers to himself as “I,” or a person identical with oneself and as one conscious of itself as thinking, feeling, and willing or in touch with his ego. In an intriguing discussion of “The Sandman” that acknowledges Nathaniel is in touch with his ego, “The Ego, The Ocular, and The Uncanny: Why are Metaphors of Vision Central in Accounts of the Uncanny?,” Sadeq Rahimi validly notes that the founding father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, interprets the main force in the encounter of the uncanny as being “associated with the process of ego-formation” (454). In other words, Freud views one of the most important forces during one’s meeting face to face with the uncanny as the development of his or her ego.

Freud’s argument that the uncanny brings out and enhances one’s ego is easily tied into Hoffman’s story. For instance, as Nathaniel encounters the uncanny in his memory—the uncanny which I define in this scene as not only Coppelius, his father’s frequent visitor who he has long been afraid of, but also as the human faces which are obviously familiar, yet, in this overwhelming and unusual form, alien and frightening to him—he clearly possesses a strong sense of his ego, or self. His childhood memory of uncanny images—the wicked and powerful lawyer and the hollow human faces—bring him to be aware of and in touch with his ego, or his self-importance or self-esteem and to acknowledge himself as his own person. When once faced with the uncanny in the presence of Coppelius, however, young Nathaniel had no confidence at all. Nonetheless, he trusts his thoughts and feelings regarding his reflection of the terrifying attack that evoked dread (Freud 123) in him years prior.

Confident in his ego as he grasps the chronology of the attack, Nathaniel admits that he “seemed to see,” or appeared to have become conscious of by perceiving with his eyes, “human faces appearing all around, but without eyes.” Nathaniel remembers and envisions faces of human character and quality; however, the human faces Nathaniel is confident he saw and that he sees in his imagination are not wholly of human character. In his consciousness, the faces lack a key human feature, the organ of sight. In contrast, Nathaniel still possesses his vision that permits him to grasp ideas and concepts in a way that these faces cannot and in a way that Coppelius hopes to take from him. Without his eyes during this attack, Nathaniel would not even be able to process and learn from it, and as Nathaniel tries to process and learn from it as an adult, he is also attempting to gain agency over it.

Coppelius is undoubtedly aware that children gain agency in situations they can visually process and learn from, and I argue this awareness is what drives his undying motive to tear out young Nathaniel’s eyes, a motive that Freud validly defines as “the true source of the uncanny” (Rahimi 461) in the story. Coppelius and his desire to steal Nathaniel’s eyes is an uncanny concept to Nathaniel because it has long been familiar to him, “involved in the evocation of an old childhood fear” (Haughton 8); Nathaniel first grows scared of the Sandman Coppelius resembles as a child. Nathaniel’s nursemaid described the Sandman to him in detail, telling him the Sandman throws sand in children’s eyes when they refuse to go to bed “so that their eyes jump out of their heads, all bleeding” (Freud 136).

The nursemaid also claimed the Sandman proceeds to put children’s eyes in a bag to feed to his children, providing Nathaniel with the knowledge that makes Coppelius that much more strange and frightening to him upon their first encounter, especially considering that he is surrounded by faces that mirror and allow him to tangibly grasp what he knows Coppelius hopes to do to him.

In The Psychopathology of the Gothic Romance: Perversion, Neuroses and Psychosis in Early Works of the Genre, Ed Cameron also reflects on young Nathaniel’s fear of the faces that surround him, but instead of acknowledging that Nathaniel tangibly grasps their meaning, he argues he merely experiences “a common enough youthful confusion between the literal and the figurative, between imagination and reality” (45). I take issue with this argument because “youthful confusion” is nothing more than a social construction. Nathaniel’s status as a child does not lead him to become confused or troubled by the faces that surround him; he seems aware both during this scene and in his thought process as he relives it that these faces are figurative representations of Coppelieus’ literal longing to rob him of his power. Although he is reasonably mortified in the presence of what his psyche perceives as uncanny, he is not written as a character who is the slightest bit confused or troubled. It is because Nathaniel knows exactly what the Sandman hopes to do to him that he responds to this scene with fear and dread in the presence of his uncanny. His organs of sight grant him the power to accurately process these events as he learns from them and therefore, feel fear and dread from them as opposed to “confusion” (Cameron 45).

Another reason I suggest the child in this scene is not confused, but instead, due to his knowledge of the Sandman, frightening, is, as Elizabeth Wright points out in Psychoanalytic Reappraisal, “Freud produces an explanation for the uncanny in experience, as a resurgence of an infantile complex” (133, emphasis Wright’s). I argue that Nathaniel’s perception of Coppelius as the Sandman reflects his infantile, familiar belief that the lawyer is a repulsive person, which further reflects how Nathaniel is not confused during Coppelius’ first attack. After all, throughout his entire life, Nathaniel feels strange about the lawyer and finds him revolting. Nathaniel’s fear of the lawyer as his uncanny also appears to have been “intended to remain secret, hidden away,” but from viewing the Coppelius, his fears have “come into the open” (Freud 132). Unable to repress his fear of Coppelius and the Sandman any longer when he is faced with his presence, Nathaniel is forced to face the fears that his psyche stored away in his unconscious since his conscious mind found them too terrifying to handle. Nathaniel is reminded of Coppelius’ craving that has long haunted his imagination in sight of these human faces that are, in some ways, not quite human.

Instead of eyes that grant them Nathaniel’s sense of power, the faces display “hideous black cavities” or frightful, dreadful, and horribly unpleasing and ugly holes in their faces. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the color “black” as “small hole[s] in…hollow object[s],” which is a definition that may easily be run parallel to that of “cavities,” or void, empty spaces within a solid body. Within their solid bodies, these haunting faces are void of the empowering organ Coppelius hopes for Nathaniel to soon lack, which is extremely important to point out since when Nathaniel encounters them as a child, he only knows they reflect Coppelius’ evil desire to deprive him of his eyes. In her book The Freudian Reading: Analytical and Fictional Constructions, Lis Møller also analyzes Nathaniel’s first power struggle with the Sandman, mainly highlighting that “The faces with empty sockets that the child Nathaniel believes to see in his father’s study prefigure the eyeless Olympia” (115) who appears later in the story. I would like to explore her idea a little further and build off of it to argue that Møller fails to consider that these faces with empty sockets hold immense significant meaning during the actual childhood attack itself—they mirror Nathaniel’s uncanny both during it and in his memory.

I in no way deny that these faces prefigure the automan Olympia who Nathaniel views and falls in love with, and it is key to note that the emotions Nathaniel experiences from viewing the hollow faces in the first attack indeed foreshadow the fear he feels later in the story as he interacts with Olympia. For instance, when Nathaniel thinks he has fallen in love with a woman, he actually learns he has been deceived; he has not fallen in love with a real person – Olympia is an automaton in which his uncanny, Coppelius, “has set the eyes” (Freud 137). This jarring reality makes Nathaniel’s false love experience in itself uncanny; it is familiar to Nathaniel since it leads him to yet another encounter with Coppelius—but it is horrifying since he is faced with his uncanny when he thinks he is faced with love.

This experience undoubtedly evokes dread in him, but as a child, Nathaniel has no way of knowing that these faces prefigure the eyeless Olympia he lusts after in adulthood. Therefore, I suggest what matters most about Nathaniel’s encounter and what Møller fails to highlight about it is Nathaniel’s awareness that these faces remind him of the Sandman’s hope to rob him of his agency that in turn robs him of the eye, which Møller gives an accurate definition of a bit earlier in her text: “the medium through which one reads—or misreads—the outside world…the medium through which one recognizes—or believes to recognize—the soul or inner world of” others (115). Since the eye allows one to process the world, the thought of losing the eye, as “we know from psychoanalytic experience…especially in children…persists throughout maturity” (Cameron 46). Møller and I agree that organs of sight are perhaps one of the most powerful considering that they allow individuals to interpret and form ideas about the world surrounding them. Nonetheless, her analysis of Nathaniel’s childhood encounter would be stronger if she had coupled it with her knowledge of the intellectual ability and power of the eye and explored Nathaniel’s childhood understanding of eyes and his fear of losing them as a child and “throughout maturity” (Cameron 46) in her analysis.

Nathaniel’s knowledge of the eye provides him with the power to realize the faces he is surrounded by are horrifying and deformed. As Nathaniel reflects on the horror he felt in their deformed presence, his memory is interrupted by Coppelius’ demand, “Eyes, bring eyes!” Coppelius proceeds to ask Nathaniel to yield his eyes to him in a “dull” tone, or a tone that lacks in intelligence or mental perception or that is not witty and that reveals he wants to attain wit. The form of wit Coppelius seeks to maintain is likely one he sees in young Nathaniel. Aside from lacking wittiness, Nathaniel recalls Coppelius’ tone as one that does not resonate with him. While Coppelius’ tone of voice does not resonate with Nathaniel as powerful or intelligent in his mind, his violent demeanor does—it was not Coppelius’ tone that horrified Nathaniel, but the way he presented himself.

The Sandman’s intimidating demeanor is evident because s a child when he was faced with Coppelius’ orders, he was “Gripped by wild terror.” In other words, as a child face to face with Coppelius and his dialogue, Nathaniel was mentally and intellectually held by unrestricted fear and dread. His fear and dread again, stems from “nothing new or alien, but something which is familiar and old established in [his] mind that has only become strange through the process of repression” (Cameron 47): the figure of the Sandman. As terror took hold of Nathaniel’s mind and body as he met face to face with Coppelius who he knows mirrors the Sandman and makes him therefore, unable to repress his malicious desires and figure, he admits, “I screamed aloud and fell out of my hiding-place on the floor.” Nathaniel’s use of the personal pronoun “I” reveals that as he relives this point of his memory, he is still in touch with his ego and his sense of self-worth. While Nathaniel seems confident in himself, he remembers that during his childhood encounter he nearly surrendered himself to Coppelius. For instance, Nathaniel then “screamed,” or uttered a shrill and piercing cry indicative of alarm, pain, or other sudden emotion. Nathaniel’s shriek is indicative of how Coppelius’ threat alone has intimidated him. After shrieking, Nathaniel falls at a distance from his place in which he conceals himself.

No longer concealed or hidden from the monstrous Coppelius, Nathaniel remembers himself on a leveled space where he is no longer safe. Nathaniel then notes, “Coppelius seized me.” “Coppelius” is likely a name that stems from the theory of Linguistics called Copula. Copula refers to linking verbs that connect the subject and predicate of a proposition. In other words, Copula, or “Coppelius,” serves as a word that links who the sentences of this passage are about, Nathaniel, to the verb or action of the part of this speech in which the subject to be treated is set fourth, or to the verb or actions of Coppelius that Nathaniel is exposed to.

Since this is a theory that refers to the linking of a “a subject with the complement of a sentence” (Audioenglish.org), Coppelius is, in some ways, inevitably linked to the fears and thoughts of the subject of this passage, Nathaniel himself. While I have explored the ways Nathaniel is afraid of his uncanny, it is also possible that the dark side of Coppelius reflects the wicked side of Nathaniel that Nathaniel’s partner, Clara, states everyone has. As Rahimi validly notes, “anyone who has read ‘The Sandman’ would readily agree that it is a text specifically replete with references to eyes and other ocular metaphors” (468-469). Furthermore, while the presence and threat of the Sandman’s longing to rob Nathaniel and other children of their eyes is blatant in the text, Rahimi points out a point I failed to consider in my first reading of the story—the names of the story’s main characters “make direct references to eyes and vision” (468), including Clara. The name Clara actually means clear and bright, meaning that she herself serves as a symbol of the eye, or a metaphor “of the specular experiences associated with a moment of unspeakable terror” (Rahimi 468). If Clara is read as the eye herself, she also serves as a credible depiction of knowledge and therefore, of what may happen to Nathaniel in the presence of his uncanny and of their power dynamics.

Clara uses her reliable knowledge to analyze Nathaniel’s interactions with the Sandman, referring to his dark side as “a mirror image of ” (Hoffmann 97) himself with “influence over [his] heart” and “the power to cast us into Hell or transport us to Heaven, but that is because” Coppelius is a phantom of his own ego (Hoffmann 97). Furthermore, Clara refers to these phantoms as having “no power over you; only a belief that they have such a power can bestow it upon them” (Hoffmann 97). The symbol of one who can see clearly in the story appears aware that Nathaniel seems to have power over his memory of his first encounter with Coppelius who is possibly the phantom of his dark side, he seems powerless in his actions when this event occurred. The possible phantom of Nathaniel’s ego was once in power and as Nathaniel relives this childhood memory as an adult, Nathaniel seems to be doing his best to take Clara’s advice, to attain power over a moment where he once had none.

Continuing his attempt to gain power over his childhood memory, Nathaniel relives how Coppelius referred to him as “Little beast! Little beast!” This description is notably peculiar; Coppelius refers to the child as small in size, yet juxtaposes this description with a term that indicates he perceives Nathaniel as small but also as possessing “the animal nature (in humans)”. In other words, although Nathaniel is little in size, Coppelius perceives him as “a living organism other than a human being” (OED), which may insinuate that Coppelius views Nathaniel as being able to attain an inherit trait that Coppelius cannot yet or does not, but that he longs to. Coppelius “bleated,” or uttered words resembling “the cry of a sheep, goat, or calf or a sound resembling such a cry” (Dictionary.com). While Coppelius’ tone of voice reflects his desire to attain traits that are animal-like and not human, most significant are the descriptions Coppelius recites, “Little beast! Little beast!,” which indicates his longing to attain the powerful animalistic qualities he sees in Nathaniel that likely go hand in hand with the child’s organ of sight that Coppelius wishes to steal. Similar to a defensive animal snarling, ready to attack its prey or its threat, Coppelius then “showed his teeth,” or displayed his “weapons of attack or defense” (OED). Coppelius’ instinct to defend himself in the presence of such a defenseless child reveals the child likely attains power and an intimidating sense of agency from the one thing Coppelius initially wishes to steal, his eyes.

Still in tact with his eyes, however, Nathaniel then recalls Coppelius’ claim, “Now we have eyes.” Here, Coppelius refers to his possession of Nathaniel’s eyes not by saying “I” have eyes, but by saying “we,” or he and one or more other people have Nathaniel’s eyes. Since Nathaniel’s father is the only other character aside from him in this scene, Coppelius appears to link his longing to strip Nathaniel of his agency to Nathaniel’s father, which may indicate that this scene reflects Coppelius is nothing more than a symbol of his father’s alter ego, or “A person regarded and treated as another version of oneself; an intimate and trusted friend” (OED). While an argument may be made that Coppelius is Nathaniel’s father’s alter ego or the phantom of Nathaniel’s dark side, since Nathaniel and his father are linked together or related by blood, I read Coppelius as both. After all, Coppelius ends up killing Nathaniel’s father in the story, which may reveal that his father’s alter ego ultimately leads to his destruction.

In a similar attempt to figure out the roles that Nathaniel’s father and Coppelius play in the story, Rahimi notes that Freud associates all of the Sandman’s guises with a fatherly figure. For instance, aside from “the actual father, we encounter ‘The Sandman’ whose job is to make children abide by the rules and go to bed as they should; another whose association with the Law is explicit in his job as a lawyer and accountant” (468). Whether Coppelius is meant to reflect Nathaniel’s own dark side, his father’s dark side, or neither, all three of these figures find common ground in that they ultimately serve the same purpose in the story: to control and suppress children. Rahimi also validly interprets these three characters’ roles from a Lacanian approach, arguing that Lacan “would find a number of ideal metaphors in these alternating symbols which seem to magically represent the two central concepts of his developmental account, namely the Symbolic register (represented by law and order, the Sandman who enforces order in the name of the father, the lawyer/accountant who establishes law and order for the father) and the Imaginary register (represented by all the multitudes of references to the visual, the Sandman who attempts to blind Nathaniel)” (Rahimi 468). There are indeed many ideal metaphors that these three characters could be read as—the Symbolic reading accurately reflects the way that the figure of the Sandman attempts to gain control over not only Nathaniel but over his father as well, and the Imaginary register is evident when considering all the references Hoffman makes to the power of the eye and the Sandman’s attempt to rob Nathaniel of his vision and therefore, his agency and ability to learn.

Whether Coppelius is Nathaniel’s father’s alter ego, a symbol of Nathaniel’s evil impulses or both, he goes on to state that he and one or more individuals possess Nathaniel’s eyes as property. He goes on to refer to Nathaniel’s eyes as “—eyes—a lovely pair of children’s eyes!” Here, Coppelius calls Nathaniel’s eyes an organ worthy of admiration or love. Aside from noting that Nathaniel’s two individual eyes are worthy of affection, Coppelius mentions that he is drawn to a lovely set of children’s eyes. Children are young people below the age of puberty. Coppelius may be drawn to Nathaniel’s eyes before he reaches sexual maturity and becomes capable of reproduction because they allow him to see the world with a sense of innocence or, if not innocence, the ability to grasp ideas in a way that many adults no longer can, one that is not greatly tainted by the rules and regulations of society.

After remembering Coppelius’ focus on his eyes, Nathaniel remembers his father’s interjection, noting, “But my father raised his hands imploringly and cried: “Master! Master! Let my Nathaniel keep his eyes—let him keep them!” Here, one who practices protecting care like that of a father saves Nathaniel. His father takes on a paternal role when he follows his instinct to protect Nathaniel by holding up his hands piteously and begging Coppelius to let Nathaniel keep his eyes. Nathaniel’s father appears to shield his power to Coppelius when he weakly refers to him as “Master,” or an individual who holds authority or control. Aware that Nathaniel’s father has let him strip him of his power in the same way that Nathaniel did, Coppelius then laughs in a piercing and high-pitched manner and cries, “The boy can have his eyes then, and keep the use of them. But now let us observe the mechanism of the hands and feet.”

Coppelius refers to Nathaniel as “boy,” once again emphasizing his youth, the fact that he is a male child, and likely a young man without maturity and judgment. After acknowledging Nathaniel’s youth once again, Coppelius caves into Nathaniel’s father’s plea to let his son keep his eyes and the purpose of them. While it seems at first that Nathaniel is no longer endangered by Coppelius, he goes on to state that he wants everyone in this scene to now notice the assembly and function of “the hands and feet.” Here, Coppelius refers to Nathaniel as “the” as opposed to “his,” which distances his perception of his body parts from belonging to him. Coppelius also now longs to strip Nathaniel of a new sense of agency, one that comes from tangibly feeling things and from possibly defending himself and one that comes from being able to move around.

If Coppelius were able to steal Nathaniel’s hands and feet, the child would still not be nearly as defenseless and stagnant in the presence of Coppelius as he would be if his eyes had been removed. As Dorothy Burlingham notes in The Psychoanalytic Study of The Child, the loss of one’s eyes is detrimental to one’s personality since “[i]t is shown that the characteristic withdrawal and apparent lack of interest are often forms of listening in the blind child” (63). In other words, as a blind child, Nathaniel’s perception of the world may become withdrawn and aloof. With his organ of sight Nathaniel can grasp ideas, concepts, and events in a fascinated way that the faces who haunt him in this memory cannot. Without his hands and feet the child would be unprotected in a different way than he would be from the loss of his eyes in the presence of who is likely the phantom of his ego that haunts him for the rest of his life—he would be unable to move or physically fight back against him, but he would still be able to visually process the attack with intrigue.

After considering Coppelius’ first attack through a Freudian lens, it is evident that if Coppelius is read as an optical illusion of Nathaniel’s self-image, Nathaniel appears unable to grapple with the dark or evil side of himself until his death. In contrast, if Coppelius is seen as another version of his father, “The Sandman” becomes a story about a father’s inability to cope with his dark side that longs to strip his son of his agency. In an attempt to gain control over his first encounter with the demon who haunts him forever, Nathaniel relives his initial memory of his uncanny trying to strip him of his childlike ability to learn well into adulthood, likely in an attempt to gain control over a situation where he was once stripped of his courage and confidence. The Sandman dictates Nathaniel’s thought processes and longing to gain control over a situation from the past. Ultimately, Nathaniel is never able to escape the Sandman for good—as he attempts to gain control over his evil side, his father’s alter ego, or both, Coppelius becomes the demon forever trapped in Nathaniel’s subconscious.

Works Cited

Cameron, Ed. The Psychopathology of the Gothic Romance: Perversion, Neuroses and Psychosis in Early Works of the Genre. Jefferson, NC: McFarland &, 2010. Print.

"Copula (Copulae)." What Does Copula Mean? Definition and Meaning (Free English Language Dictionary). N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2014.

Freud, Sigmund, David McLintock, and Hugh Haughton. The Uncanny. New York: Penguin, 2003. Print.

Freud, Sigmund. "The Uncanny." (2003): 123-62. Sigmund Freud: The Uncanny. University of Pennsylvania. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.

Hoffmann, E. T. A. Tales of Hoffmann. London: National Institute for the Blind, 1937. Print.

Møller, Lis. The Freudian Reading: Analytical and Fictional Constructions. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania, 1991. Print.

Rahimi, Sadeq. "The Ego, the Ocular, and the Uncanny: Why Are Metaphors of Vision Central in Accounts of the Uncanny?" The International Journal of Psychoanalysis 94.3 (2013): 453-76. Print.

Solnit, Albert J., Peter B. Neubauer, Samuel Abrams, and A. Scott. Dowling. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child. New Haven: Yale UP, 1996. Print.

Wright, Elizabeth. Psychoanalytic Criticism: A Reappraisal. New York: Routledge, 1998. Print.