Ring of fire

The ring of fire is a central, recurring hallucinatory image in E. T. A. Hoffmann's "The Sandman" that marks the progressive disintegration of Nathaniel's psyche. It first appears as a poetic symbol of demonic punishment in a poem Nathaniel writes about his relationship with Clara, and later erupts as the verbal and visual signature of his full-blown madness after the revelation that Olympia is an automaton. The image fuses Nathaniel's childhood terror of the Sandman with his adult trauma, becoming the fixed expression of his psychotic break.

Origin in Nathaniel's Poem

The ring of fire originates in a poem Nathaniel composes during a period of dark brooding, when he feels impelled to express his premonition that the repulsive Coppelius will disrupt his happy love. In the poem, Nathaniel represents himself and Clara as bound by true love, but a dark fist reaches into their life and rips out every seed of joy. The climax of the poem depicts Nathaniel and Clara standing together at the marriage altar when the terrible Coppelius appears, touches Clara's eyes, and they burst open against his breast like bloody sparks. Coppelius then seizes Nathaniel and flings him into a flaming circle of fire that spins at the speed of lightning and hurls him about in a blue blaze. Through the roar, Nathaniel hears Clara's voice telling him that Coppelius deceived him—those were not her eyes but the glowing drops of his own heart's blood. When Nathaniel peers into Clara's eyes, it is the face of death that smiles back at him with Clara's eyes. Nathaniel is totally appalled when he finishes the poem and cries out, "Whose terrible voice is this?" but soon comes to regard it as a very successful poetic text.

The Ring of Fire as Madness

The ring of fire reappears not as a literary image but as the actual language of Nathaniel's insanity. When Nathaniel bursts into Spalanzani's study and witnesses the struggle between Spalanzani and Coppola over Olympia, Coppola yanks the figure free and flings it over his shoulder, and Nathaniel sees that Olympia's deathly pallid wax face has no eyes—only black hollows. Spalanzani, bleeding from glass shards, flings a pair of bloody eyes at Nathaniel, striking him on the breast. At that moment, madness grabs 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!" He then flings himself at the Professor and tries to strangle him. The ring of fire has become the fixed, repetitive cry of his psychotic state, replacing coherent speech with a mechanical, incantatory phrase.

Final Appearance at the Tower

The ring of fire appears one last time, now as the sole content of Nathaniel's ravings before his death. Months later, seemingly recovered and planning to marry Clara, Nathaniel climbs the town hall tower with her. He mechanically reaches into his coat pocket, finds Coppola's looking-glass, and turns it sideways. Seeing Clara through the lens triggers a spasmodic quiver; he turns deathly pale, sparks of fire flash from his rolling eyes, and he lets out a horrible cry like a hunted animal. He screams: "Turn, little wooden doll, turn!" and grabs Clara, trying to hurl her off the balcony. Lothar rescues Clara, but Nathaniel keeps flailing about on the lookout gallery, jumping high in the air and crying: "Ring of fire, turn! Ring of fire, turn!" When he spots Coppelius below in the crowd, he shrieks "Ha! Eyes a pretty! Eyes a pretty!" and leaps over the parapet, smashing his skull on the cobblestones. The ring of fire, which began as a poetic image of demonic punishment, ends as the final, empty chant of a man whose mind has been destroyed by the very forces he tried to represent in art.