In love with machines: a comparison between Hoffmann’s “Der Sandmann“ and the film “Her” by Spike Jonze

In love with machines: a comparison between Hoffmann’s “Der Sandmann“ and the film “Her” by Spike Jonze

In Hoffmann’s Text the male protagonist Nathanael falls in love with Olimpia, a puppet made of wood, programmed to sing and dance and sigh but has no conscience or mind of her own. However, his imagination turns her into perfection. Not knowing that she is a puppet, he interprets her silence as deep understanding and even calls her “a good listener”. When he finally finds out what she really is, he goes insane.

The film “Her” addresses a similar issue. Here the male protagonist Theodore Twombly falls in love with an artificial intelligence – his operating system, in short OS, that calls itself Samantha. It is designed to function like a human, to have intuition, feelings and to grow with experience. When installing it, it gets personalised to its user, so in this case to Twombly, who is portrayed as a quite melancholic character, due to his ongoing divorce.    

            Comparing the two male protagonists, they don’t seem to have much in common. In the beginning of the story Nathanael is in a happy relationship, and turns more and more melancholic through the course of the plot. Theodore starts as a melancholic character, but becomes through his love to Samantha livelier. Yet, what both of them share is a vivid imagination. Twombly develops feelings for Samantha while just hearing her voice, while Nathanael imagines a whole character in the puppet. Both find in their women exactly what they need: a good listener.

            Similarly, if we compare Samantha to Olimpia, only few common features can be found at first. Olimpia has a beautiful body and face, but no intellect and no feelings. Samantha on the other hand, has no body, yet a mind of her own. She has her own opinions, is excited about exploring the world and can even have feelings like embarrassment and love. Still, both their characters are created through the minds and characters of the male protagonists. Without them, they would not exist in the way they do to them.

            Still, even though all the protagonists are very different, the issue remains the same. In both cases the men fall in love with an artificially created machine/program in which they see perfection. But, while Nathanael goes insane after discovering that the subject of his love is not an alive being, Theodore simply decides to not care. He is self-reflective enough to question his character and to wonder, whether he might emotionally not be able to have a relationship with a real human being, but eventually concludes that it doesn’t matter, as long as he is happy.

            Both narratives focus on the same subject, yet, both have a very different outcome. “Der Sandmann” shows the negative sides and dangers of imagination, while “Her” focusses on the joys it can bring to life.