Eyes out, eyes out!
The phrase "Eyes out, eyes out!" functions as the story's most concentrated verbal emblem of the violent extraction of sight, identity, and humanity. It first erupts from the mouth of the lawyer Coppelius during Nathaniel's childhood trauma, and later echoes in the climactic revelation of Olympia as an automaton, binding the two scenes across time and linking the theft of eyes to the destruction of the self.
Origin in Childhood Trauma
The cry first sounds in Nathaniel's childhood memory, during the night he spies on his father's secret alchemical work with Coppelius. Hidden behind a curtain in his father's study, Nathaniel watches as Coppelius and his father, both in long black smocks, work over a small hearth where a blue flame flickers. As Coppelius swings red-hot tongs and hammers a bright mass of ore, Nathaniel sees human faces appear all about, but without eyes — dreadful, deep, black hollows where the eyes ought to be. At that moment, Coppelius cries out with a muffled, roaring voice: "Eyes out, eyes out!" Gripped by wild terror, Nathaniel screams and bursts from his hiding place. Coppelius grabs him, hurls him at the hearth so that the flames singe his hair, and whispers, "Now we've got eyes — eyes — a lovely pair of children's eyes," reaching for glowing cinders to strew in Nathaniel's eyes. Only his father's desperate plea — "Master! Master! Let my Nathaniel keep his eyes!" — saves the boy from blinding. The phrase thus originates as a literal command to remove eyes, tied to the horror of seeing eyeless faces and the threat of having one's own eyes torn out.
Repetition and Transformation
The phrase does not remain confined to Nathaniel's childhood. It resurfaces in the story's climactic scene, when Nathaniel bursts into Spalanzani's study to find the Professor and Coppola (Coppelius in disguise) fighting over Olympia. As Coppola yanks the figure free and flees, Spalanzani, bleeding on the floor, cries out: "After him — after him! Coppelius has robbed me of my finest automaton — twenty years' work — life and limb invested — the clockwork — speech — step — all mine — the eyes — the eyes robbed from you." He then picks up a pair of bloody eyes from the floor and flings them at Nathaniel, striking him on the breast. At that moment, madness seizes Nathaniel, and he begins to scream, "Hopla — hopla — hopla! — ring of fire — ring of fire! Spin around, ring of fire — merrily — merrily! — wooden doll, hopla, lovely little wooden doll — turn turn!" The original cry "Eyes out, eyes out!" is not repeated verbatim in this scene, but its content is realized: the eyes are literally removed from Olympia's sockets and thrown at Nathaniel, fulfilling the threat Coppelius had made years before. The phrase's power lies in this transformation from threat to actuality, from childhood nightmare to adult catastrophe.
Thematic Significance
The cry "Eyes out, eyes out!" condenses the story's central obsession with eyes, vision, and the violence done to them. It links Coppelius's two appearances — as the Sandman who threatens to steal children's eyes and as the mechanic who made Olympia's eyes — revealing that the same destructive force operates in both realms. The phrase also connects to the story's broader motif of seeing and being seen: Nathaniel's purchase of Coppola's looking-glass, which lets him see Olympia's face with unnatural clarity, leads directly to his delusion; and his final act, before leaping from the tower, is to spot Coppelius below and shriek "Ha! Eyes a pretty! Eyes a pretty!" — a distorted echo of the original command. The cry thus marks the moments when vision becomes a source of terror rather than knowledge, when the act of looking leads not to understanding but to madness and death.
