Barometer salesman

The barometer salesman is a seemingly minor figure whose appearances in E. T. A. Hoffmann's "The Sandman" trigger the story's central crisis and ultimately seal the protagonist's fate. He first enters Nathaniel's life on 30 October at twelve noon, when he steps into the student's room offering his wares. Nathaniel, recognizing in the peddler's face the hated features of the old lawyer Coppelius—the man he believes murdered his father—buys nothing and threatens to throw him down the stairs, whereupon the salesman leaves of his own accord. This encounter, which Nathaniel describes in his letter to Lothar as "the terrible thing that happened to me," reawakens the childhood trauma of the Sandman and sets the entire plot in motion.

Identity and Disguise

The barometer salesman is not a separate character but a disguise adopted by Coppelius, the sinister lawyer who terrorized Nathaniel as a child and whom Nathaniel holds responsible for his father's death. Although Coppelius has changed his appearance and now calls himself Giuseppe Coppola, a Piedmontese mechanic, Nathaniel immediately recognizes his physique and facial features, which are "too deeply engraved in my memory for me to mistake him for another." The name change is minimal—Coppelius to Coppola—and the profession of barometer peddler provides a plausible cover for his movements. Nathaniel's friend, Professor Spalanzani, vouches for Coppola's identity as a genuine Italian lens grinder, creating a confusion that mirrors the story's central ambiguity between reality and delusion.

The Looking-Glass Transaction

Coppola's second major appearance occurs when he visits Nathaniel's new lodgings, which face Spalanzani's house. Initially, Nathaniel is terrified, but remembering Clara's advice to dismiss the Sandman as a figment of his imagination, he steels himself and tries to send the peddler away. Coppola, however, ignores the refusal and produces not barometers but spectacles and eyeglasses, crying out in his hoarse voice: "A pair o' lovely peepers!" The sight of the lenses—"a thousand eyes peeped and twitched and stared at Nathaniel"—drives him to the brink of frenzy. But when Coppola replaces the eyeglasses with telescopes and field glasses, Nathaniel calms down and, to make amends for his earlier rudeness, decides to buy something. He selects a small, finely crafted pocket looking-glass, which brings distant objects into startlingly clear focus. Through this lens, he sees Olympia for the first time with vivid clarity, and her eyes seem to come alive, sparking an obsessive love that will destroy him.

The Revelation of the Automaton

Coppola's final appearance is the most violent and revelatory. When Nathaniel arrives at Spalanzani's house to propose marriage to Olympia, he hears a terrible din from the study—the voices of Spalanzani and Coppola screaming and cursing. Bursting in, he finds the two men fighting over Olympia's body, each claiming credit for her creation. Coppola, gripping the figure by the feet, yanks her free from Spalanzani's hands and, swinging her, strikes Nathaniel with such force that he tumbles backward over a work table. Then, with a repulsive, shrill laugh, Coppola flings the figure over his shoulder and races down the steps, her wooden feet banging with a thud and thump on the stairs. Nathaniel sees that Olympia's wax face has no eyes—only black hollows—and realizes she is a lifeless doll. Spalanzani, bleeding on the floor, cries out that Coppola has robbed him of his finest automaton, and that the eyes—"the eyes robbed from you"—lie on the floor. He flings a pair of bloody eyes at Nathaniel, striking him on the breast, and this final shock drives Nathaniel into madness.

The Final Appearance and Nathaniel's Death

Coppola reappears at the story's climax, having come to town and made straight for the market square. As Nathaniel, in a renewed fit of madness, seizes Clara on the tower balcony and tries to hurl her off, a crowd gathers below. When some people attempt to climb the tower to capture the madman, Coppola laughs and says, "Ha ha, just be patient, he'll be down shortly on his own initiative!" Nathaniel, suddenly stopping, spots Coppelius below and shrieks, "Ha! Eyes a pretty! Eyes a pretty!" before leaping over the parapet to his death. As Nathaniel's skull smashes on the cobblestones, Coppelius disappears into the crowd, having completed his destructive work. The barometer salesman, who began as a trigger for memory, ends as the catalyst for the protagonist's final, fatal act.