Guy Yedwab

Laura Levine

11/19/2006

Toys And Their Lives

The essay “On The Marionette Theatre” by Heinrich von Kleist, through the character of his

dancer friend, holds that puppets are the ultimate of grace because thought diminishes grace, until

thought becomes all-encompassing and grace returns. The tale of “The Nutcracker and The King of

Mice” by E. T. A. Hoffman is also concerned with the grace and inherent properties of toys. “The

Nutcracker and The King Of Mice” does not, however, completely subscribe to the straightforward

principle in “On The Marionette Theatre.” On the one hand, the beauty and simplicity of the inanimate

characters is examined at great length by Hoffman, but on the other hand, the life which enters the toys

is described with equal grace and beauty. The questions this raises are: Does the text support toys and

puppets as being the most graceful due to their absence of thought, or does life, and the thought that

accompanies it, bestow grace?

Kleist's marionettes are graceful precisely because they lack human thought or emotion, and are

only bound by the laws of gravity. At the beginning of The Nutcracker, the toys are described before

life enters them, with a sense of wonder and joy. When the toys are first revealed, in their lifeless form,

Hoffman very specifically describes the children's reaction to them. “The two children stood speechless

with their eyes fixed on all the beautiful things... Marie, with a sigh, cried 'Oh, how lovely! How

lovely!' and Fritz gave several jumps of delight” (Hoffman 132). The array of toys are before them, and

they are struck with the wonder and beauty of the toys. Clearly, they do not need to have lives of their

own to seem beautiful to Fritz and Marie. The text describes again. “Oh, how many beautiful things

there were! Who, oh who, could describe them all?” (Hoffman 132). Marie certainly believes that there

is grace in her toys. She says to Godpapa Drosselmeier that “if [he] were to be dressed the same as

[her] darling Nutcracker, and had on the same shining boots—who knows whether [he] mightn't look

almost as handsome as [the Nutcracker] does?” (Hoffman 137).

 On the other hand, Marie is equally as enraptured after the toys come to life. When the

Nutcracker appears to her in real life as the young Drosselmeier, she still sees beauty in him. He is

described as “a very small but very handsome young gentleman” (Hoffman 181). Marie “grew red as a

rose at the sight of this charming young gentleman” (Hoffman 181). During the Nutcracker's life as a

living toy, as well, there are emotional moments of grace as well. For instance, when he is offered the

token by the doll of Clara, the Nutcracker declines in a very poetic manner. “'Oh lady! Do not bestow

this mark of your favor upon me; for--' He hesitated, gave a deep sigh, took the ribbon with which

Marie had bound him...pressed it to his lips, [and] put it on as a token” (Hoffman 143). The narrator

passes judgment over these actions, saying, “This good, true-hearted Nutcracker preferred Marie's

much commoner and less pretentious token.” By holding this moment up as a moment of beauty for the

Nutcracker, the text is pointing to some sort of beauty outside of the sheer aesthetic beauty of being

completely moved by gravity. He is behaving as a little gentleman; the idea of a 'gentleman' is not a law

of gravity but rather a law of society, and his ability to act accordingly is just as graceful as his leap to

the bottom shelf.

The contradiction between grace in the inanimate and grace stemming from life and thought

seems to resolve in favor of thought. There is an extremely poignant passage of the text where Godpapa

Drosselmeier gifts Fritz with a small castle filled with toy ladies and gentlemen. Fritz gives several

orders as to what should happen differently, and Godpapa Drosselmeier replies, “'Nonsense, nothing of

that sort can be done... the machinery must work as it's doing now; it can't be altered, you know'”

(Hoffman 134). Fritz replies, “'If your little creatures in the castle there can only always do the same

thing, they're not much worth'” (Hoffman 134). Fritz does not like the fact that he is denied the right to

choose what his toys will do, and that the toys have no spontaneity. Marie seems to agree, as “she was

tired of the promenading and dancing of the puppets in the castle” (Hoffman 134). Despite whatever

aesthetic grace the mechanical dance of the puppets may hold, her interest is not held simply by the

mechanical perfection of it. She is in search of something more: she finds that in the Nutcracker. At

first, it may seem as though her fascination with the Nutcracker supports a lifeless grace, but later the
text relates, “Nutcracker, even before he really came to life, had felt and understood all Marie's

goodness and regard” (Hoffman 143). By using the words “really came to life,” the passage betrays the

intention that the Nutcracker has truly had some life the entire time, even if he is inanimate. The

differences in the descriptions of the Nutcracker's face before he comes to life betrays that the toy is

'feeling' and 'reacting' to Marie's emotions even before he comes to life in the cupboard. It is precisely

because Marie can sense this life that she is fascinated with the toy.

Still, the question remains as to whether grace is connected to life at all, or whether their

appearances are coincidental. Her love of the Nutcracker is present whether or not he is animate; Fritz

loves his toys even though he does not believe in their life. The text speaks more distinctly to the idea

that grace comes neither from mechanical action devoid of thought nor from the beauty of thought and

life, but rather from the perception of the beholder. Marie asks whether her Godpapa could look as

handsome as the Nutcracker, but Godpapa Drosselmeier refers to the Nutcracker in his inanimate state

as “an ugly little fellow.” Fritz is incredibly dismissive of the Nutcracker as well; while he does not

actively dislike the Nutcracker, he does not seem very interested in it at all. The parents certainly don't

find the Nutcracker to be a very fascinating toy; they are much more interested in the Castle, as is

Godpapa Drosselmeier. On the other hand, Fritz and Marie reject the Castle as being mechanical and

uninteresting. Clearly, each character has a different conception of grace and what attains grace; things

are not as universal as the essay “On The Marionette Theatre” seems to believe.