Death of Nathaniel's father
The death of Nathaniel's father is the catastrophic climax of Nathaniel's childhood trauma, the moment when the childhood bogeyman Coppelius becomes a real agent of destruction, killing Nathaniel's father in a violent explosion and leaving an indelible scar on Nathaniel's psyche that will resurface years later.
Background and Buildup
A year after Nathaniel's traumatic eavesdropping and assault by Coppelius, the family had settled into a fragile normalcy. Coppelius had stopped visiting, and the family was told he had left town. One evening, the family gathered at the round table for their customary routine. Nathaniel's father was unusually cheerful, entertaining the children with delightful stories from his youth. But at the strike of nine, the familiar sound returned: the front door hinges creaked, and slow, leaden steps thumped through the hallway and up the stairs. Nathaniel's mother, going pale, identified the visitor: "It's Coppelius." Nathaniel's father confirmed with a weak and broken voice, "Yes! It is Coppelius." Tears streamed from the mother's eyes as she pleaded, "But father, father! Must it be so?" He replied, "This one last time, it's the last time he comes here, I promise you. Just go, go with the children! Go! Go to bed! Goodnight!"
The Fatal Night
Nathaniel felt as if pressed into cold, heavy stone, his breath standing still. His mother grabbed his arm and led him to his room, urging him to sleep. But Nathaniel, torn by inner fear and turmoil, could not close an eye. The image of Coppelius stood sniggering at him with sparkling eyes. Around midnight, a terrible boom went off, as if a cannon had been fired. The whole house rumbled, rattled, and roared past Nathaniel's door, and the front door slammed shut with a mighty clatter. Crying out "That's Coppelius!" in terror, Nathaniel leapt from his bed. A piercing shriek and wretched wail followed, and he rushed to his father's room. The door stood open, a suffocating steam hitting his face. The chambermaid cried out, "Oh, the master! The master!"
Aftermath and Consequences
In front of the steaming hearth, Nathaniel's father lay dead on the floor, his terribly contorted face burnt black. His sisters howled and whined around him, and his mother lay unconscious at his side. Nathaniel cried out, "Coppelius, you cursed Satan, you killed my father!" before losing consciousness. Two days later, when they laid his father in his coffin, his expression was once again mild and gentle as it had been in life, offering some comfort that his pact with that devilish Coppelius could not have condemned him to eternal damnation. The explosion awakened the neighbors, and the incident seemed suspicious to them. They informed the authorities, who issued a warrant for Coppelius' arrest, but he had disappeared without a trace. The event left Nathaniel with a high fever and weeks of illness, and his first clear words upon recovery were "Is the Sandman still here?" The death also cemented the family's secrecy: everything having to do with Coppelius was kept from Nathaniel's mother, for she, like Nathaniel, blamed him for her husband's death.
Narrative and Thematic Significance
The death of Nathaniel's father is the foundational trauma that shapes Nathaniel's entire adult life. It transforms Coppelius from a childhood bogeyman into a real, murderous figure, and establishes the pattern of Nathaniel's psychological vulnerability. The event is narrated by Nathaniel in his letter to Lothar, making it a flashback within the main narrative, and it reveals key facts: that Coppelius is capable of murder, that Nathaniel's father was involved in secret alchemical experiments with Coppelius, and that Nathaniel's mother shares the blame of Coppelius for the death. The explosion and the burnt, contorted face of the father prefigure the later revelation of Olympia as a lifeless automaton, and the motif of eyes—Coppelius' earlier cry of "Eyes out, eyes out!" during Nathaniel's childhood assault—finds its echo in the later scene where Spalanzani flings a pair of bloody eyes at Nathaniel. The death also establishes the unresolved antagonism between Nathaniel and Coppelius that will drive the plot forward, as Nathaniel later resolves to confront Coppelius and avenge his father's death.
