"You could never please me as he could": The “Possession Scene” in "Nosferatu" (2024)

The “possession scene” in “Nosferatu” (2024) is marked by Ellen revealing to Thomas her past with Count Orlok, and it culminates with her appearing “possessed” and ends with Thomas vowing to destroy Orlok to protect her.

This scene has been marketed as “visit from a vampire”, and to analyze and understand what’s happening here, we need to look at the build-up: 

"Your Husband is Lost to You": Count Orlok feeds on Thomas Hutter

Count Orlok tricks Thomas into signing the covenant papers (divorce papers), where Hutter forsakes his marriage to Ellen in favor of Orlok, promising her to him. Orlok pays for Ellen’s dowery with a sack of gold. Later, Orlok will reveal this to the audience, when he tells Ellen: “Your husband has signed his name, and covenanted you to my person for but a sack of gold. For gold he did absolve his nuptial bond. And the resignation must be completed by you, freely of thine own will.” Ellen and Thomas are divorced in the physical world ("Your husband is lost to you" = "You are divorced now"), and Orlok needs to annul their marriage spiritually, too, because Ellen and Thomas took a sacrament before God (church wedding). And this is why he attacks Thomas, compels Ellen to dream only of him and dry humps on Thomas. This is ritualistic, a Sex Magick ritual, to break Ellen and Thomas' nuptial bond, and connect Thomas to himself. 

As Orlok compels Ellen to “dream only of him” (for this specific occasion), she begins sleepwalking and mimicking Orlok as he attacks and feeds on Thomas’ soul. Count Orlok is a strigoi from Balkan folklore, he feeds on life energy, on souls (soul in the blood, if you will).  

Orlok is performing a Solomonari Sex Magick ritual, inspired by Aleister Crowley Thelema (every Solomonari ritual in "Nosferatu" (2024) is a Sex Magick ritual). Sex Magick is the pratice of using sexual energy towards magical and spiritual goals: it's ritualistic, and the point it's not sexual pleasure for its own sake, but to harvest the energy of sexual acts to manifest will (focus on the desire outcome, the purpose of the ritual). Crowley believed sex is a sacrament in itself, and sexual energy is transmutated into spiritual energy (energetic transmutation).

This was already Orlok’s plan, because he selected this room for Thomas in advance. And this is also the reason why Orlok made his servant Herr Knock send Thomas to his castle in Transylvania.  This is a bedroom with a double bed, with two pillows. It's a couple's room. And due to the reincarnation theme in this story, and this ritual being connected to Ellen herself, this was hers and Orlok's bedroom in the late 16th century. As we see Orlok feeding on Thomas, Ellen's sleepwalking stops and she drops to the floor, no longer connected to Orlok and Thomas. The ritual was successful. Orlok has annulled their marriage, both in the material and the spiritual worlds. 

Later, when Thomas is rescued by the Orthodox Nuns and brought to their monastery, he’s exorcised, and the physical symptoms of the “blood plague” are stopped, but not the supernatural ones, as he’s, still, weak and drained of his life force, even when he arrives at Wisburg. 

As Orlok is feeding on his victims, he’s gradually trapping their souls inside of Nosferatu (the rotten corpse), alongside his own. This is a sort of reversed “possession”; where the victim becomes part of Nosferatu, taking residence there until Nosferatu is destroyed and the souls are set free (including Orlok’s). As a consequence, Orlok still has influence over Thomas' soul, as we see him compelling Thomas to expell Ellen from the bed, while he's asleep. 

"Get off me. Give me room. I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe... Get off!!!"

"I Will Leave You Three Nights": Ellen and Count Orlok Countdown

"I have felt you like a serpent crawling in my body."

When Orlok arrives at Wisburg, Ellen gives him entrance into the Harding household by opening the window to him, unaware she is dooming everyone inside (because he was no more than a shadow at her window during her teenage years). This is the first time they are meeting "in the flesh"; and Ellen has never seen his physical appearance, before, and there's a misunderstanding happening here:

• Ellen only now has begun to understand her power, thanks to Professor Von Franz, but she now believes Orlok is a demon "possessing" her body. Expect Professor Von Franz talked about spiritual obsession, not "possession" ("The dear young creature is obsessed of some spirit ... perhaps some daemon"), but Ellen, like Robert Eggers tells us in his interviews, doesn't have the knowledge to understand all of this, because Victorian society doesn't give her the language for her to be able to; 
• For his part, Orlok thinks Ellen knows she's the one who has been summoning him to her, this entire time, and that she's fully aware of what she's been doing.

Ellen accuses him of corrupting her innocence and of being a villain (evil), to which he replies he's "an appetite, nothing more", because she bought him back from the dead ("O’er centuries, a loathsome beast I lay within the darkest pit ‘til you did wake me, enchantress, and stirred me from my grave. You are my affliction"). Orlok tells her that Thomas has signed an annulment of their marriage in exchange for a bag of gold, and that Ellen is promised to him, but she needs to accept him of her own free will ("the compact commands she must willingly re-pledge her vow. She cannot be stolen").

Ellen is both attracted and disgusted by him, and claims to hate Orlok, and he accuses her of being false, precisely because she has been summoning him this whole time. Ellen inner conflict is about her own sexuality, and her sexual cravings (all connected to Orlok himself). And so, he vows to prove his hostility, too, giving her three nights (which are, in fact, two) for her to "submit" ("accept") The first night was the present, and she denied herself by denying acknowledging her nature/power, and so Ellen will suffer him, the monster of her own creation, to bring death (her power) to those she loves (the living). And Orlok tells her she will "submit" on the third night, otherwise “he you call your husband shall perish by my hand”. Until she commands him to come to her, “shall you watch the world become as naught”.

Orlok also asks Ellen to: “Remember how once we were? A moment. Remember?” This “once” was centuries ago, because the narrative established it’s impossible for him to be talking about the 19th century.

"It is not me. It is your own nature."

Ellen interprets this threat as Orlok wanting to kill Thomas, only Thomas isn't her husband anymore because their marriage was annulled in both the physical (“divorce papers”) and the spiritual (Sex Magick divorce ritual) worlds. Until Ellen accepts Orlok, she has no husband, she's divorced. "Call" in 16th century English is connected with "summon" or "invitation": "or your summoned husband shall perish by my hand". He's talking about himself because Ellen is the one who "summoned" him, and resurrected him. She's also the reincarnation of his wife.

Even so, Orlok cannot kill Thomas without being given entrance into his house (invited in), and the next morning this threat is rendered empty by Friedrich Harding asking them to leave his house, because Orlok attacks Anna Harding that very night.

Orlok has three purposes with these "three nights" countdown:

1. Force Ellen to confront her own power (death); "I told you, you are not of human kind."
2. Destroy her Victorian self-deception ("You deceive yourself"), to see her power (death) will never be accepted by Victorian society;
3. Compell her to remember "how once they were", their shared dark trauma through the "blood plague" deliriums of Anna and Friedrich Harding (the mirror pair to Ellen and Orlok in this story).

"I Need You Both to Return Home": Friedrich Harding expels Ellen and Thomas from his house

"Frau Hutter, forgive me, but you and Thomas must... I need you both to return home. It is for your own sake. I know not what to... I shall pray for Tom. You know I love you both."

Friedrich Harding (unlike his wife and Thomas) isn't so convinced of Ellen’s innocence and naivety, and he resents her because of what she represents; not only “sickness”, but mostly female sexuality ("the threat of female sexuality" as a contagious disease), and he doesn't want her near his wife and daughters ("I thought it was agreed you were to keep the girls from her. You mustn’t be swept up in her fairy ways"), and reluctantly accepts this friendship between Anna and Ellen out of respect for Thomas. Friedrich recognizes his own nature in Ellen (“rutting goat”; “always hungry”): “her dashing young husband is leaving her bedside cold” as he jokes with Thomas before his departure. And he tells Ellen himself: “I am most sensitive to your ardent nature”. But he's a man, and she's a woman.

"I don’t know myself... I... Ellen, tell me, what is this insufferable darkness?"

This will culminate with Friedrich blaming Ellen for Anna's sickness and demand Thomas and Ellen to return to their own home, even though he loves them both. Friedrich represents the “Victorian patriarch”, while Anna is the “ideal Victorian woman”, a devoted wife and mother, God-fearing and respectable. 

Ellen tries to explain to Friedrich that Professor Von Franz is right, it's a demon. But, Friedrich won't have any of that, because he already made up his mind. Ellen spend the night with Anna and, now, she's sick with a "blood plague": the culprit is Ellen's contagion. And he scolds her for her behavior (nature): “Find the dignity to display the respect for your caretaker” and calls her a "social embarrassment" to Thomas by behaving the way she does: “And for your husband’s sake, I pray you might learn how to conduct yourself with more deference".

"You know nothing of him."

 "How can you be so stupid and cruel?"

Ellen thinks both Orlok and Friedrich Harding are wrong about Thomas; he loves her, and, as such, he doesn't see her as "social embarrassment" nor does he rejects her nature. She tells Orlok: "you know nothing of him" and "you are a deceiver"; and, in Ellen's mind, Harding's words are motivated by his hatred of her ("Why do you hate me? You never liked me. Never."). 

The "Possession scene"

Back at their house, once Thomas awakes, he tells Ellen they must run away and leave town, she's in danger ("Ellen, my love. We must go. We must flee the city. You’re in danger") because a "devil" has come to Wisburg for her ("he is come to Wisburg... for you"). Orlok has fed on Thomas’ soul, and while he was exorcised, a part of his soul is still inside of Nosferatu alongside Orlok’s. Which is why Thomas is absolutely sure of what Orlok wants, as he says to the Nuns after his exorcism: “No! He seeks after Ellen. I know it!” And this is because he had access into Orlok’s soul, and vice-versa. And once he arrives at Wisburg, he tells Ellen: "He hasn’t found you. I... I feared I’d never see you again." He's also taken by delirium (like the "blood plague" victims), ever now and again. As we've seen in the Harding household scene of Orlok compelling Thomas to expell Ellen from the bed, Orlok still has influence over Thomas. As he'll confirm later to the audience: "Yet I fear I am not free of his spell".

“I have never shared my secret with any soul."

Ellen reveals to Thomas her personal history with Orlok because she trusts Thomas, and knows he will understand: "I know him." Like Robert Eggers tells us, Ellen doesn't understand her power because Victorian society doesn't give her the language for her to be able to, and she didn't get the chance to talk to Professor Von Franz like she wanted. As consequence, she believes it was Thomas' love that made her “normal” (and not her stopping conjuring Orlok), and she’s also under the assumption that Orlok took her as his lover in the past; when he was no more than a shadow at her window, in her teenage years. 

Ellen has accepted she was the one who unleashed Orlok ("I have brought this evil upon us") with her prayer ("I called out..."), because she wanted company and tenderness. However, she's completely oblivious to the fact she's the one who keeps summoning Orlok to her, and that she can communicate with the spiritual world as a whole (and not only with Orlok specifically). "At first it was sweet, I had never known such bliss. Yet it turned to torture, it would kill me." What she has been doing during her teenage years was masturbation, until her father caught her. And her sexual energy would conjure Orlok to appear as a shadow at her window, and she either believes that made her his lover, or she has, indeed, memories of her past life (which seems to be the case because of her connection with the lilacs). During the Victorian era, masturbation was considered the “ultimate sin”. It was called “self-pollution” and “self-abuse”, and both a moral and physical evil. Medical manuals adverted against this “evil”, for both men and women. In the early 19th century, female masturbation was considered a “anti-social behavior”, a form of insanity (“lunacy”) and epilepsy, and was believed to increase the risk of hysteria in women. Which is aligned with the Victorian diagnose of Ellen's character.

"But Thomas, it was you that gave me the courage to be free of my shame – you!" Ellen stopped masturbating and conjuring Orlok, in the process. On a symbolic level, her sexuality was now socially acceptable, because she has a husband to own and control it. Ellen withdrew her invitation, and that's why the haunting ceased, but she doesn't know this, yet. Ellen is baffled because Thomas doesn’t understand what she is saying: "Don’t you understand? You cannot understand?" And then Ellen tells Thomas, Orlok is the reason why she's medicalized by Victorian society: "melancholy" ("abnormal beliefs”, hallucinations, delusions) and "shame" (hysteria), because she, now, believes Orlok is like a demon possessing her body. 

Orlok is "Ellen's shame" because she has sexual desire for him; every sexual expression outside of marriage was considered "evil" and "sinful" (especially masturbation), and women weren't supposed to have sexual desire nor cravings, at all, because their sexuality was owned and controlled by their husbands. Orlok also represents hidden knowledge, and he's a pathway to the mysteries of life and death, and the average woman wasn't allowed education (nor without their fathers and husbands approvals).

"He is my shame! He is my melancholy!"

"You are my affliction." 

Ellen says she dreams of Orlok every night, and it’s very shameful to her (which implies these are sex dreams): "He stalks me in my dreams, all my sleeping thoughts are of him, every night–" And this can’t possibly be Orlok compelling her to have “dreams” because he, as a strigoi, can only create nightmares, fear and terror in his victims, and the film itself established this with Thomas himself, and Anna Harding, as they both collapse mentally in horror of the darkness he's dragging them into, because that’s his lore as a strigoi. When Orlok compelled her to “dream only of him” for the "divorce ritual", she sleepwalked but she didn’t see his physical appearance (this was before the first night at the Harding household, when she, in fact, saw him for the first time, ever) and her "dream" was, in fact, a nightmare of her feeding on Thomas. Whatever Ellen has been dreaming about, Orlok himself can’t be the one who’s forcing her to have these erotic dreams of him. They might even be flashbacks of her past life, and of them as lovers then, because the narrative has proven that didn't happen in the 19th century (he has been nothing more than a shadow at her window, until the first night at the Harding household).

"Impossible!"

For his part, Thomas declares what she's talking about to be impossible. Because he had access into Orlok's soul, and vice-versa. He was, indeed, possessed by Orlok. "What do mean by this?" He’s both shocked and confused, because he knows what Ellen is saying can’t possibly have happened (in her present life/incarnation). Then, Thomas will come to the conclusion, Orlok is manipulating Ellen’s dreams to believe these things are real, the same way he is plagued with nightmares because he's still “lost in Orlok’s shadow”. Only Orlok has never fed on Ellen’s blood/soul, like he did with Thomas, and Ellen is talking about an entirely different thing

And while Thomas is still digesting this information, Ellen takes upon herself to show him her true nature, her mediumship, as she starts her communication with the spiritual realm. And given the context, she probably believes Orlok will appear and possess her like a demon, to make Thomas understand. And this is why she talks about what Orlok has told her about Thomas, in the hope of conjuring him in the process. But that's not what happens because the narrative has established it's sexual energy that summons Orlok.

"He told me about you. He told me how foolish you were. How fearful. How like a child. How you fell into his arms as a swooning lily of a woman. He told me how you sold me to him for gold. Our love was supposed to be sacred."

"Your husband has signed his name, and covenanted you to my person for but a sack of gold. For gold he did absolve his nuptial bond."

Ellen starts by weaponizing Thomas ambition against him, because she knows he values money (gold): he wishes to climb the social ladder, being “no longer a pauper” who needs to ask his wealthy friend, Friedrich, for money, drowning himself in debt. As he tells Ellen at the beginning of the film, he aspires to buy them “a fine house” of their own (implying the one they live in, is probably rented), with “a maidservant”. Ellen says she’s doesn’t need any of that, all she needs is his love: and, indeed, she married “down”, because Ellen comes from a wealthy family, and we see the contrast between her family house in the prologue (a manor), and the small apartment she shares with Thomas (with old and damaged wallpaper).

Thomas wants to fulfill his "Victorian husband" gender role: marriage was the institution where Victorian men fully accomplished their male responsibility and privilege: to form a household, provide safety and comfort, and exercise authority over dependents (wife and children) where the trademark of a successful man. This was also connected to their social and professional success, making them respectful in the eyes of other men. A man who couldn’t govern his wife was also seen as unfit, socially, professionally and morally.

“You never listen. Well where is it? Your money? Your promotion? Your house? Where is that which is so precious to you? Have you paid back kind Harding your debt? Have you repaid him with this plague that infects his wife? [I left for us, for our future] For what? For what? For these… things?!”

"Hartmann will call you a coach, at my expense – of course."

Thomas wants to be a "good Victorian husband" (a patriarch like Friedrich Harding), and tells her: "I left for us, for our future. For you!" But Ellen is showing him he's a failure as a "Victorian husband", that he doesn't belong to this society, either, and they are meant for each other. Because she doesn't care about material goods nor being wealthy ("we needn't any of that!"), all that Ellen wants is his love, and to be his greatest treasure, because money doesn't matter, "they are already dead". She doesn't want to be married to a patriarch like Friedrich Harding ("stupid and cruel").

Now, we have to talk about the importance of Ellen's corset to the plot, which was confirmed by costume designer Linda Muir in an interview with "The Art of Costume":

"One example of costume design serving the plot, as you mentioned, is Ellen’s corset. I came across a particular style called a fan-laced corset during my research, which I’ve also referred to as a “self-tying corset”—though it doesn’t actually tie itself! This type of corset can be tightened from the front, allowing the wearer to adjust it independently.

For Robert, this design was ideal. When Ellen is in the throes of her supernatural connection with Orlok, the men around her—Sievers and Harding—try to impose control by tightening her corset. Because of the fan-laced design, we can see her anguish and convulsions, as well as the men’s oppressive actions, without needing to obscure her face or body by laying her prone. This moment is a perfect example of how research and storytelling can come together harmoniously in costume to enhance a scene."

Historically, corsets have always been considered an instrument of women’s oppression, so it’s not surprising to see them having the same meaning in “Nosferatu” (2024). Corsets were restrictive devices that rendered women immobile, passive and prone to fainting, and the Feminist movement of the 20th century saw them as “as one of the quintessential Victorian social horrors”. Corsets were also considered a sign of respectability, because they controlled the body, and, by extension, physical passions. And, indeed, we see Ellen corset consume her, to the point she tries to break free from it during this scene with Thomas, as he begs her to stop it "Ellen, please!"

Ellen is desperate to break free from Victorian society medicalization and expectactions of her. She wants freedom, she wants to be herself in a society which will never accept her, and will always restrain her (metaphorically and literally) not only with drugs and tying her to the bed, but with gender roles of marriage and children, trapped in the domestic sphere. And she shows Thomas her true self, her nature, her mediumship. Because she needs to be sure he accepts her, to prove both Orlok and Harding wrong. And now she has accessed the spiritual realm as a whole, and Orlok has not been summoned to her, not "possessed" her (because he's a strigoi, and can only have access to her soul if he feeds on her blood).

Not knowing how to handle the situation, Thomas does what Victorian society tell him to do: call the doctor to deal with Ellen. "I shall send for Doctor Sievers." A doctor that will contain her with drugs and/or tie her to the bed, who will restrain her nature, and that's the opposite of what she wants. And she breaks off her trance. And in this scene we see that Ellen does have control over her trances, as she snaps out of it, at will.

As she ends her communication with the spiritual realm, she kneels before Thomas, in full submission, and promises to be good: "Please. I’ll be good, I’ll be good." She'll be a good Victorian wife to him, and sees the relief on his face. That's the kind of wife he wants, and Harding's words haunt this scene: "Find the dignity to display the respect for your caretaker. And for your husband’s sake, I pray you might learn how to conduct yourself with more deference."

“Please, have pity. I throw myself at your feet. Why can you not hear me? Listen to me, please!" 

“No! No! Please. I’ll be good, I’ll be good."

But this also parallels another scene, between Herr Knock and Orlok: these two characters pathetically kneel in front of their “masters”, behaving like a dog, and begging to be instructed in how to be “good”; but while Orlok refuses submission ("Silence, dog! Your entreaties grow insolent. You shall crave of me nothing."), Thomas is relieved by it.

"Pray then, instruct me, my Lord. Charge me. Use me."

And this is not coincidentally, because there are parallels to Ellen scene with Orlok at the Hardings household here, as well: 

"Remember how once we were?"

"You could never please me as he could."

Ellen then, seductively, caresses her husband's pubic region, and, as she says he could never please her (sexually) as Orlok could, Thomas demeanor changes entirely. His face looks harsher and darker than usual. Orlok has access to Thomas’ soul and, can influence his behavior (as we saw previously) and so, he possesses him during this scene, as Thomas is acting out-of-character and opposite to the Victorian love (chaste, modest, restrained) he represents in this story: 

• The narrative has established Orlok is conjured by sexual energy; 
• Orlok wants Ellen to remember how they once were (reincarnation theme).

Here, Ellen cries out “Let him see! Let him see our love! Kiss my heart! My heart!” ("I cannot be sated without you"). And, at first glance, it appears she’s talking about her marriage to Thomas ("their love") and taunting Orlok. However: is she, truly? This is left rather ambiguously.  

"No! Orlok!"

Thomas then has a vision of Ellen-Orlok, with blood on her eyes and mouth, like he did at the castle in Transylvania, just before Orlok fed on him. And he recoils, terrified, both by what he saw and by his own actions; the passionate love-making, which is the opposite to Victorian love. True love was familial and domestic, tempered devotion confined to the household, and the sacrament of marriage was meant to repress and contain erotism, passion and "animalistic impulses". Which explains what Ellen says next. And she was also convulsing erotically (like her usual “hysterical fits”), which indicates she was trying to conjure Orlok through her sexual energy to communicate with him. 

"Without you, I'm going to become a demon!"

To Thomas, Ellen convulsions are a consequence of Orlok possessing him, and he believes they are both “lost in his shadow”: “Ellen, it’s me! It’s me!”  And he tries to reassure his wife: “You are safe with me!” Because he’s convinced Ellen is experiencing what he did once he arrived in Transylvania, and everything seemed like a waking dream, or nightmare. Because Thomas is also absolutely convinced he unleashed Orlok into the world, because he sold him a house in Wisburg. Like he tells the Orthodox Nuns: “I came here to sell the count a home in Wisburg. He is bound for Wisburg! He seeks after Ellen. I know it!” The novice also warned him not to leave because he was not well, he was still lost in Orlok's shadow, but Thomas didn't listen to these warnings.

Especially because this is what Orlok wants him to believe, in the first place. “I have use in him.” as he tells Herr Knock when he offers to kill Thomas. Orlok is placing intentions inside of Thomas' head, like the sorcerer he is. And he has been doing so ever since he arrived at Wisburg: 

"It's me!"

Thomas thinks Orlok is already "getting" to Ellen, the same way he did to him once he arrived at Transylvania ("He hasn’t found you. I... I feared I’d never see you again.") He didn’t believe anything Ellen told him about her and Orlok being “lovers” or her being the one who “brought this evil upon” them, because he has access to Orlok’s soul, and vice-versa. He knows it's impossible for her to be talking the truth of the facts (about her present life/incarnation). As a consequence, Thomas now thinks all of these “delusions” (melancholy) and “hysteric fits” are Orlok making Ellen “sick”, plaguing her with nightmares like he did with him at his castle. 

For her part, Ellen, herself, just realised a three things about her power, and her connection to Orlok, in this scene:

1. Her trance mediumship allows her to communicate with the spiritual realm as a whole (not only with Orlok specifically);
2. Orlok isn't "a demon possessing her body", it's all on herself;
3. It’s her who has been summoning Orlok this entire time, which is why she says she'll become a demon without Thomas (without her husband owning and controlling her sexuality) and "I'm unclean!".

"I'm unclean!" is a reference to the "Dracula" novel, after Mina is "infected" with vampirism by Count Dracula. Here, it's connected to Ellen's "sickness" and "contagion", for which she was expelled from the Harding household for "infecting" Anna Harding. And she tells Thomas to step away from her, because, during this scene, she became aware it's not Orlok (a "demon") doing things to her body, it's all on herself ("I'm unclean!"). Because this is what Victorian society tells her about female sexuality: sickness, evil, contagious, a plague in need of containment. 

"I’ll kill him! I will. He shall never harm you again. Never!"

Thomas delirium (from the "blood plague") is about unbearable guilt. He blames himself for everything that has happened: Orlok coming to Wisburg (because he sold him the house), and now because of what he thinks Orlok is doing to Ellen (the same he did to him in Transylvania). And he vows to destroy him. He's now on a vendetta mission against Orlok, driven by desire to avenge Ellen and himself. The next morning, he'll want to avenge the Hardings, too. He wants to drive a spike of cold iron through Orlok (like he saw it done in Transylvania, bringing this story full circle) as revenge. 

But Ellen just realised the opposite; it's not Orlok, it's herself. And Thomas doesn't recognize her supernatural powers, at all. He think it's all on Orlok, he's the responsable for her "medical condition" and once he's destroyed she'll be "normal", then; the perfect Victorian wife to him. Ellen has shown him her mediumship and her desperation in breaking free from her medicalization, but Thomas only sees Orlok tormenting her. And Ellen begins to see it's impossible for Thomas to truly understand her. And he won't ever accept her true self, either. He will always call Victorian doctors to contain her.

Ellen says "He will murder you if I do not go to him"; which is impossible for Orlok to do because he doesn't have entrance into this house (Ellen only gives it to him upon the "third night"). Which indicates she was already planning on going to Orlok ("we can't leave"), to save Thomas ("it was you who gave me the courage to be free of my shame. You.") and/or because she feels guilt over unleashing Orlok into the world ("I have brought this evil upon us"), but that's not what the "compact commands", because "compelled" does not equal "willingly", and Orlok knows this. And this is the scene that changes everything.

Which is what Robert Eggers tells us, in one interview: "Ellen’s husband loves her, but he can’t understand these ‘hysteric’ and ‘melancholic’ feelings she’s experiencing, and he’s dismissive of her." And Willem Dafoe says something similar to “Deadline”: “I’ve heard Robert describe it as a triangle between Ellen’s husband, who’s a loving guy, he loves her dearly, and he’s conscientious. He wants to be a good husband, but he doesn’t quite see her, and he doesn’t understand what she’s going through.”

And, as Ellen realizes that Thomas will never accept her true nature, Orlok, through Ellen’s granting him entrance into the Harding household, kills the “Victorian wife role model” archetype, Anna Harding, and her children; because the roles of wife and mother are deeply intertwined in Victorian society; they are a woman’s destiny. And he also feeds off Friedrich Harding, too, the man Thomas aspires to become. Friedrich Harding delirium will be about  maddening grief, which is also part of the "remember" theme.

"There’s a monster in the room! Papa! Papa! Don’t let her feed me to the monster! Stab him!"

And Ellen realises that Thomas isn't so different from Friedrich Harding. Friedrich is the character Thomas wishes to emulate and become, after all: a successful businessman, with a good and wealthy house, and a devoted and comfortably settled wife, who elevates his social respectability: "I envy you. You’ve truly taken your father’s place now… it’s incredible." Like Harding, Thomas will always medicalize her, like the rest of Victorian society. She showned him her power, and his reaction was to call Dr. Sievers to deal with it, a doctor who will restrain her with drugs, corsets and tie her to the bed. And if Thomas, somehow, manages to destroy Orlok, he can very well have her sent to an asylum in the future, like her father did. Because her power is not her own, at Thomas' eyes. 

Thomas' love for Ellen is no different from Friedrich Harding's, at its core. And it becomes clear: this "Victorian love" is connected to Ellen's medicalization and the containment of her power. Every character who "loves" Ellen in this story has the same course of action: dismiss her supernatural gifts as a consequence of her "sickness", and call the doctors to deal with it. They all see her nature, her true self, as a dangerous disease who needs to be stopped. As female sexuality in the Victorian era was seen as a plague and a monstrosity in need of containment, and "the threat of female sexuality" theme from the "Dracula" novel. This "love" medicalizes and dismisses Ellen, at every turn. This love is melodrama, all appearance and no substance, no connection, no understanding, a love that forces her to hide her true nature just to be socially acceptable, and a love that even considers her a burden, at times. It's a love that silences her because they "love her", but this love does not see her, nor understands her.

And, as Thomas is asleep, Ellen awakes to Orlok's shadow, placing intentions inside of Thomas' head in his sleep. He doesn't have physical access to this house (he has not been given entrance), and he can only reach Thomas. However, Ellen appears to be able to hear him, probably due to her supernatural powers.  

"More blood shall stain thy hands, another night has passed. Tomorrow night, the third, shall be his last."

Orlok is influencing Thomas into killing him; which is why Thomas feels Orlok’s grasp on him that evening ("I feel his hold upon me this night") and he won’t wait until morning to destroy Orlok ("No. I will not wait ‘til morning! We must stop him now."). Orlok had no intention of killing Thomas if Ellen didn’t summoned him on the third night. And he would allow himself to get killed by the vampire hunters.

And this explains Thomas’ behavior during and after the funerals. As Friedrich Harding tries to expel Professor Von Franz (also Ellen, too), Thomas intervenes, and begs for his forgiveness, because he truly believes it’s his fault ("more blood shall stain thy hands"). As he says so himself: "Please, it is my fault! Forgive me my dear, sweet friend!"

"Friedrich! These nightmares do exist! They exist!"

"I will drive a spike of cold iron through him!"

Later, Ellen says to Thomas: "He does not have power over you, Thomas. I place my utter faith in you. I love you." because she's trying to "counter attack" what Orlok is influencing Thomas to do. She's an enchantress herself, she can control reality by the power of her word. Because she wants to accept Orlok's covenant.

Before Ellen summons him, and as the vampire hunters are arriving at the manor, Orlok is just standing in front of his sarcophagus, at the chapel. He even has his back against the door.  He only turns when Ellen calls him. This is not a fighting posture, he’s fully prepared to embrace his destruction. Alongside with the highly symbolic moonlight coming from the rose window, waiting for redemption.

Robert Eggers said his Orlok’s whole motivation is Ellen, and the “Wuthering Heights” inspired love triangle was more appealing to him than any other theme. His Orlok doesn’t care about world domination, nor spreading his plague nor collecting random souls. He takes no joy in doing what he does either, he just doesn’t sugar-coats it (that’s why he says “I’m an appetite, nothing more” when Ellen accuses him of being a villain, evil). He’s a monster, he is what he is. All he cares about is his covenant of being “one ever-eternally” with Ellen ("I should have been the Prince of Rats – immortal… but he broke our covenant… for he cares only for his pretty bride."). Her soul is the only thing he wants. If she rejected him, and didn’t broke his curse, there was no point in him existing anymore.