Spalanzani's party and the introduction of Olympia
Spalanzani's party and the introduction of Olympia is the pivotal social event in E. T. A. Hoffmann's 'The Sandman' where the automaton Olympia is presented to the public for the first time, marking the climax of Nathaniel's deluded infatuation and the beginning of his psychological collapse. The event transforms Nathaniel's private obsession into a public spectacle, exposes the mechanical nature of his beloved, and sets in motion the chain of revelations that lead to his madness and death.
Background and Preparation
The party was announced with unusual activity in Spalanzani's ordinarily dark and silent house. Nathaniel, who had been pining for Olympia after she disappeared from view behind drawn curtains and blinds, became aware of noisy goings-on: doors were opened, all kinds of devices were carried in, windows on the first floor were opened wide, and busy housemaids swept and dusted the window boxes with big brooms while carpenters and decorators banged and hammered inside. His friend Siegmund informed him that Spalanzani was going to throw a big party the next day, including a concert and ball, and that half the university was invited. The word was that Spalanzani would let his daughter Olympia, whom he had fearfully kept sheltered from view, appear for the first time in public. Nathaniel received an invitation and presented himself at the Professor's at the appointed hour with a fast-beating heart, as carriages rolled up to the door and lights shimmered in the elegantly decorated rooms.
The Concert and Olympia's Performance
The company was numerous and glamorous. Olympia appeared richly and tastefully attired. Everyone had to admire her finely chiselled face and graceful figure, though the strange stoop of her back and her bone-thin waist appeared to be the consequence of a girdle tied too tight. There was a measured stiffness in her stance and step that some found displeasing, but that was ascribed to the stress of appearing in society. The concert began. Olympia played the grand piano with great skill and likewise brought off a bravura aria with a clear, almost bell-glass-like, pitch-perfect voice. Nathaniel was completely captivated; he stood in the last row and could not clearly make out Olympia's features in the candlelight. Without attracting notice, he therefore pulled out Coppola's looking-glass and gazed through its lens at the lovely Olympia. Through the glass he fathomed how ardently she peered in his direction, how every note only seemed to sound enveloped in a loving look that surged through his burning heart. The artful trills rang out in Nathaniel's ear like the heavenly Hosannas of the spirit transfigured by love; and when at last, following the cadenza, the long trill pierced the air all around him, feeling as though suddenly enveloped by her warm embrace, and no longer able to control himself, he cried out in rapture and pain: 'Olympia!' All heads turned to look at him, some laughing. The cathedral organist's face twisted into an even dourer grimace than before and he merely remarked: 'Well, well!'
The Dance and Nathaniel's Obsession
The concert came to an end, the ball began. Only to dance with her—with her!—was now the object of Nathaniel's deepest desire, all that he strove for. Finding himself all of a sudden standing right there beside Olympia, once the music had already started up and she not yet having been invited to dance, hardly able to stammer a few words, he reached for her hand. Olympia's hand was ice-cold; he felt a terrible deathly frost surge through him; he looked into her eyes, which greeted his gaze with love and longing, and at that very moment it was as if the pulse began to beat in her cold hand and the lifeblood began to glow warm within. Love's longing welled up, glowing hotter and hotter in Nathaniel's breast; he wrapped his arm around lovely Olympia and led her down the rows of dancers. He had always thought himself to be a good dancer, able to hold to the beat; but from the precise rhythmic steadiness of Olympia's step, which often caused him to falter, he soon fathomed the failing of his sense of beat. Yet he no longer wanted to dance with any other woman in the world, and felt as if he would have killed on the spot anyone else who dared approach her to ask for a dance. This happened only twice, and thereafter, to his amazement, Olympia always remained seated between dances and he did not hesitate to reach for her hand and pull her up again and again. Had Nathaniel had eyes for anything but the lovely Olympia, countless tussles and tangles would have been unavoidable; for clearly the quiet, painstakingly muffled laughter that emanated here and there among the groups of young people was directed at the lovely Olympia, whom they followed with the strangest looks—it was hard to say why.
The Private Conversation and Spalanzani's Approval
Fired up by the dance and by the wine of which he had pleasantly partaken, Nathaniel shed his innate shyness. He sat beside Olympia, his hand in hers, and spoke fervently of his love for her in words that neither he nor she understood. But she perhaps grasped their meaning; for she peered without flinching right into his eyes and sighed again and again: 'Oh—Oh—Oh!' Whereupon Nathaniel replied: 'Oh you beautiful, heavenly woman! You ray of hope from the Promised Land of love—you deep spirit in which my entire being is mirrored,' and more of the same. In response to which Olympia kept sighing the same 'Oh, Oh!' Professor Spalanzani walked several times past the blissful pair and smiled with a strange look of satisfaction. Though Nathaniel's spirit hovered elsewhere in another world, all of a sudden it seemed to him as if it grew curiously dark down here below in Professor Spalanzani's house; he looked around and fathomed with a start that the last two lights in the empty hall were burning down to the wick and threatened at any moment to go out. Music and dance had stopped long ago. 'Time to part, time to part,' he cried out in a wild and desperate voice, kissed Olympia's hand and leant forward to kiss her on the mouth with his burning lips, but her lips were ice-cold! And, just as when he had first touched Olympia's cold hand, he felt a shudder run through him, the legend of the dead bride suddenly flashing through his mind; but Olympia pressed him tightly to her, and in that kiss her lips seemed to come alive with warmth. Professor Spalanzani paced slowly through the empty hall; his steps sounded muffled and, ringed by dancing shadows, his figure appeared terrifying and ghostlike. 'Do you love me—do you love me, Olympia? Just that one word! Do you love me?' whispered Nathaniel. But, standing up, Olympia only sighed: 'Oh! Oh!' 'Oh yes, my precious, my beautiful star of love,' said Nathaniel, 'you rose in the firmament of my heart and will evermore light up and transfigure the darkness within!' 'Oh, Oh!' Olympia responded, walking away. Nathaniel followed her; they stood before the Professor. 'You sweet-talked my daughter in a right sprightly manner,' he said with a smile. 'Well then, my dear Mr Nathaniel, if conversing with the simple-minded girl gives you pleasure, you're welcome to visit whenever you like.' Nathaniel staggered off starry-eyed, with all of heaven's splendour bursting from his breast.
Consequences and Aftermath
Spalanzani's party was the talk of the town in the days that followed. Notwithstanding the Professor's great pains to make it a splendid occasion, the chatterboxes nevertheless dwelt on all sorts of unseemly and strange goings-on, saving their sharpest barbs for the stiff and silent Olympia, who, despite her lovely exterior, was saddled by the wagging tongues with a lot of completely nonsensical notions as to her sanity—the reason, it was said, that Spalanzani kept her hidden for so long. Nathaniel was not pleased to learn of this, and he said nothing; what was the point, he reasoned, in proving to these dullards that it was their own nonsense that kept them from recognizing Olympia's profound and beautiful spirit! The party thus established Olympia as a figure of suspicion and ridicule in the public eye, while simultaneously cementing Nathaniel's deluded devotion. It set the stage for his complete abandonment of Clara and his immersion in a relationship with a being whose mechanical nature was already visible to others but invisible to him, a blindness that would culminate in the violent revelation of Olympia as a lifeless doll and Nathaniel's descent into madness.
