Three Literary Paradigms: Pygmalion, The Sandman and The Future Eve

Abstract

This chapter looks at three works of literature, namely the myth of Pygmalion, as related by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, E.T.A. Hoffmann’s short story The Sandman and Villiers de l’Isle Adam’s novel The Future Eve, which are all literary paradigms for the paradoxical idea that a doll or machine, which is unconscious and unfeeling and in this sense does not have a soul, is in fact the truly soulful, whereas real human lovers, who do have a mind of their own and who do feel and do care, appear to be lacking a “soul”. This renders them less desirable as a lover than a machine, which although unfeeling, may appear to be feeling more than they.