"Our spirits are one, ever-eternally": Ellen and Count Orlok in “Nosferatu” (2024)

“Nosferatu” (2024) is filled with unreliable narrators, including Ellen herself. As Robert Eggers tells us in several interviews, Ellen “has an innate understanding about the shadow side of the world that we live in that she doesn’t have language for. This gift and power that she has isn’t in an environment where it’s being cultivated, to put it mildly. It’s pretty tragic”. Robert Eggers tries "to stay in the worldview of [his] characters” in every way; time period, beliefs, behavior and way of thinking. The dialogue doesn't reflect the "true" story (exposition), but what his characters believe to be the truth. Which means: while Ellen possesses this gift (mediumship; enchantress), she lacks the language (and consequently the knowledge) to understand her power, and who she truly is. As a consequence, Ellen is confused, filled with inner conflict and a deep identity crisis.

What Ellen says about her connection with Orlok, during the first and the second act of the film, it's what she believes to be the truth (what Victorian society tells her): because she doesn’t understand herself, nor her own power, and the Victorian characters keep gaslighting her, as well. Like Robert Eggers tells us, Victorian society doesn’t provide her with the answers nor the knowledge she needs in order to fully know herself, because she keeps "being shut down, and corseted up, and tied to the bed, and quieted with ether. Misunderstood, misdiagnosed"; and "she's isolated [...] and people consider her melancholic and hysterical [...] a woman who's a victim of 19th-century society". Which is why it’s a character outside of this society (outcast) and versed on older wisdom (Alchemy, mystic philosophy, the occult), Professor Von Franz, who begins to unravel the mystery around her “sickness”, and provides her with the language she needs. 

The other character who also gives Ellen this “language” is Count Orlok himself, because he’s a representation of hidden knowledge and ancient truth. And as such, he’s the only truthful character in this entire story, he's the character who tells the audience the true story, and, as a ancient Pagan force, he’s demonized by Christian organized religion as a "devil worshipper". He recognizes Ellen for what she truly is: an enchantress, a necromancer, who can command the elements with the power of her voice. He gives her this knowledge before she’s ready to hear it because he wants to trigger her spiritual transformation and liberation, and for her to accept her true power (death). But more on this later. 

Orlok's Shadow

The first and second acts of the story are all about Orlok’s shadow. At the prologue, he appears at Ellen’s window as a shadow (asking for entrance); the Transylvanian characters warn Thomas about Orlok’s shadow, Thomas feels the heaviness of Orlok’s shadow before even arriving at Castle Orlok, and then he’s lost in Orlok shadow even after being exorcised by the Orthodox Nuns. His hand is a shadow accross Wisburg. He appears at Ellen's window as a shadow, twice. And even in the third act, he’s a shadow walking through Ellen and Thomas apartment when Ellen herself gives him entrance into the house. This “shadow” isn’t aesthetic; this has deep meaning in the narrative.  

Orlok's shadow

This is connected with Orlok being a strigoi from Balkan folklore (with origins in Dacian mythology). In some legends, strigoi possess astral projection powers, being able to appear as shadows or ghosts. This is Orlok’s case in “Nosferatu” (2024), as he haunts Ellen, because strigoi don’t haunt places or communities (as a whole), but one particular person (and others as unfortunate collaterals); after she resurrects him at the prologue, and curses him to become a strigoi (a fact confirmed four times in the film; twice by Orlok, and twice by Ellen herself).

At the prologue, Ellen is in her teenage years, she's 15-years-old (confirmed by composer Robin Carolan in an online interview, alongside Robert Eggers), and, through her prayer, she commands “a guardian angel, a spirit of any celestial sphere, anything” to come to her (enchantress). She unconsciously brings Orlok back from the dead (necromancer). There’s an immediate recognition from Orlok’s part: he not only knows what she is, but who she is (reincarnation theme: strigoi haunt the one they loved the most in their life).

Next, we see Ellen walking outside of her family manor, and, in garden of lilacs, she starts to moan, in obvious sexual pleasure, as she swears to be one with Orlok ever-eternally. However, he’s not touching her in anyway, because when he does touch her, she has a violent seizure. He grabs her neck, and almost suffocates her in the process. This scene isn't merely symbolic of sexual awakening (sex), but her power (death) has awoken, as well; both through Orlok.

Robert Eggers established several things at the prologue of "Nosferatu": 

1. Orlok and Ellen's communications are telepathic (he talks to her inside of her mind);
2. Ellen was masturbating;
3. If Orlok does touch her during their spiritual communications she almost dies (which is something we never see happening again in the film);
4. Ellen didn't gave Orlok entrance (invitation) into her family manor (Orlok having to be invited in is very-well established in the narrative).

While on his way to Wisburg, Orlok says to Ellen: “Soon I will be no more a shadow to you. Your spirit was never enough. Soon our flesh shall embrace and we shall be as one”. This is the confirmation to the audience Orlok was no more than a shadow at Ellen’s window during her teenage years (because she never gave him entrance into her family manor, which will be confirmed later in the narrative). This is also connected to the "Wuthering Heights" inspiration behind this story: like Catherine's ghost to Heathcliff, Orlok was also a shadow, a ghost, at Ellen's window.

Conjuring and Communicating with Orlok

Fast forward a few years, Ellen is married to Thomas Hutter, and Victorian doctors have diagnosed her as “melancholic” and “hysterical” during her teenage years; she was a sleepwalker, had “epilepsies” and “nightmares”. Everything went away when she met and married Thomas, to the point she believes it was their love that made her “normal”, and she’s also under the assumption that Orlok “took her as his lover” in the past. 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 her and Orlok were, indeed, lovers, but 300 years in the past (late 16th century), not in the 19th century (and maybe she does have memories of this).

• “Melancholia” was a fairly common medical diagnosis in the late 18th and 19th centuries. In this time period, “melancholia” wasn’t connected with depression or depressive episodes as we know it today. In the 19th century, the diagnose “melancholia” was used to describe “abnormal beliefs”, such as hallucinations and delusions. Which is what Dr. Sievers tells Professor Von Franz after his examination of Ellen: “I have myself seen women of nervous constitutions invent any manor of delusion.” And why every Victorian character dismisses everything Ellen says as “fancies” or “foolish dreams” (delusions, things of her imagination, not real);
• During the Victorian era, “hysteria” was an umbrella diagnosis, which was used to label almost every single female "medical disorder” of the mind; and it could go from faintness, nervousness, insomnia, muscle spasms, irritability, loss of appetite to a “tendency to cause trouble”. Hysteria was a mental disorder and was exclusive to women, and was believed to be caused by a “wandering womb” (connection to female sexuality). 

In the first act of the film, Herr Knock (Orlok’s fanatical servant) performs a Solomonar Sex Magick ritual (masturbation) to conjure and communicate with Orlok, and inform him that Thomas is on his way to Transylvania. This scene gives the audience two bits of information: 

1. It’s sexual energy that conjures/summons Orlok; 
2. Orlok has to be summoned (invited) for these communications to happen. 

And now we have the answer to what Ellen has been doing in her teenage years: she was masturbating, and Orlok’s shadow would appear at her window (because he's summoned by sexual energy). He was a haunting, and he might (or not) have talked to her on occasion, telepathically, inside of her mind. This is a spiritual connection, not a physical one. 

And her father caught her masturbating and shouted “sin!” and threatened to have her institutionalized because masturbation was considered the “ultimate sin” in Victorian society. 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.

Which is what Ellen says to Professor Von Franz: “At last Papa found me once laying... unclothed, I was... my body... my flesh... my.. Sin, sin, he said... He would have sent me to someplace... I shan’t go... I –” She uses the term “Papa” here (after previously addressing her father as “father”) because she wants to project an image of innocence and naivety, as she’s discussing sexual matters in front of men; and in the early 19th century women weren’t supposed to know about such things, nor have sexual pleasure/desire at all. 

Ellen, unconsciously, giving Orlok entrance into Wisburg (by sea): she has this “hysterical fit” after seeing Friedrich and Anna kissing and displaying sexual desire in public; and she’s summoning Orlok to her (Friedrich and Anna Harding are also the mirror couple to Ellen and Orlok)

 

Ellen’s communications with Orlok are very sexual in nature because, as the narrative has established, it’s sexual energy that conjures him. And so, when Ellen is having sexualized body spasms ("hysteria"), she’s channeling her sexual energy to summon Orlok to her, and talk with him. She’s the one who controls their entire connection through her spiritual power, and she calls out to him, always. Because Orlok needs an invitation (summoning) to reach others (unless he feeds on their blood/soul like he did with Thomas). It was Ellen's spiritual power that put an end to their communications; she stopped masturbating and conjuring him when she met Thomas, and that's why the "haunting" ceased.

The “maiden’s token” she sent with Thomas was meant for Orlok, and an invitation for him to haunt her again. Ellen has premonitions (she had a dream just after the prologue); and she knows Thomas will be sent to Orlok. She does this token in front of her symbolic window, and the next scene after this is Herr Knock’s conjuring Orlok.  

When Thomas is already in Orlok’s castle in Transylvania, the count notices his “maiden token”, and asks to see it. As he opens it, and smells it, he immediately notices the scent of lilacs on Ellen’s hair. To Orlok, this is a confirmation that Ellen remembers their past life together, because like costume designer Linda Muir tells us, lilacs remind Orlok "from when he was alive” and in connection with Ellen. His passion and desire to merge souls with her is the only humanizing trait he was able to keep in his cursed strigoi self (who stripped him of all his best human qualities).

“You are fortunate in your love.”

Orlok keeps the locket for himself, because he knows it’s meant for him. And this interpretation is also supported by the “Wuthering Heights” inspiration behind this story: after Catherine’s premature death, Heathcliff goes to the chapel to see her coffin. He places a strand of his hair inside of her necklace-locket, for her ghost to haunt him. 

Orlok, then, uses this token to perform his Sex Magick ritual to divorce Ellen and Thomas in the spiritual realm; he already tricked Thomas into signing the covenant papers (divorce papers, where Thomas forsakes Ellen to Orlok), and Orlok pays for Ellen dowery by giving him a sack of gold; they are divorced in the physical world. And he compels Ellen to “dream only of" him, for this specific occasion, in order to perform the ritual, which is why we see her sleepwalking and having visions of herself as Orlok. 

"Your husband is lost to you." = "You are divorced now"

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

Like any “regular vampire”, Orlok has to be invited into places, he has to be given entrance, and the film establishes this with all the windows, and the narrative itself.  

• At the prologue, Orlok appears at Ellen’s window: asking for entrance;
• The Orthodox Nuns tell Thomas “remain here. His evil cannot enter this house of God” (it has nothing to do with God, but with Orlok not be giving entrance, because, he keeps his sarcophagus in the chapel of Grünewald Manor, to symbolize his yearning for higher spiritual realms and his desire in breaking free from his Nosferatu curse);
•  Ellen opens a window at Hardings household for Orlok to enter (she also gives him entrance into the city);
• Thomas tells Ellen at the carriage scene (when she asks to go with them): “Of course not, Ellen. You must be kept safe away" because Orlok does not have entrance into their apartament;
•  After finding Harding dead, Dr. Sievers says to Von Franz and Thomas: “But Orlok... Will he not have already risen? Should we not return to our homes?” Where he can’t enter and they are safe from him;
•  Ellen opens the window of her own house at the end, asking Orlok to come to her and giving him entrance.

However, when Ellen gives Orlok entrance into the Harding household, she doesn’t know this; and opens the window to him, unaware of what this implies (dooming everyone inside). And this is, yet, another confirmation of how Orlok was nothing more than a shadow at her window during her teenage years. And this entire scene also proves how oblivious of her own power (nature) Ellen truly is, because Professor Von Franz has only now recognized her mediumship, her ability to communicate with the spiritual realm.

Ellen believes these communications only happen with Orlok specifically (and not with the spiritual world as a whole). And, now, she thinks he possesses her like a "demon", even though Professor Von Franz talked about her being "obsessed" of some spirit (spiritual obsession), called Orlok a "daemon" (not a "demon"): Pagan elemental entities or spirits; from the Greek "daímôn", usually connected with fate or will-power, and they can be good, evil or morally ambiguous. 

This is the first time they are meeting "in the flesh", and Ellen appears to have never seen his physical appearance before, as she uses the term “feel”. She says, in a both sexual and accusing tone: “I have felt you like a serpent crawling in my body”, meaning, she believes Orlok, like a demon, has been possessing her this whole time and forcing her to have sexualized body spasms ("hysteria"). And she accuses him of corrupting her innocence ("I was but an innocent child –"): Ellen calls herself "child" in this context because the concept of "teenager" or "adolescence" didn't exist in the 19th century (only created after World War II); people would go from "childhood" into "adulthood" with no phase in-between). All of this is connected with Victorian views of female sexuality; in the early 19th century, women were believed to have no sexual desire whatsoever, and their sexuality was owned and controlled by their husbands, which is why she refutes Orlok (“It is your own nature”) with “No, I love Thomas”.

Ellen doesn’t understand her own power and Victorian society tells her she doesn't have sexual desire (or if she does it's evil and demonic), and, as a consequence, she can't take accountability it is her whom has been summoning Orlok to her this entire time. Which is why Orlok asks her: “And thought you I would not return? Thought you I would not? Your passion is bound to me.” For his part, he is under the impression Ellen knows what she's been doing, because she keeps conjuring him to her, and her hair smells of lilacs. Which is why he accuses her of being false when she claims to hate him ("l abhor you"). 

It’s worth noticing that Orlok speaks late 16th century English, and many of his dialogue has different meaning to Modern English. 

Ellen also accuses him of being a "villain" ("evil"), to which he replies "I am an appetite, nothing more", denying being the villain she claims him to be. He’s a strigoi who has to feed on blood/souls in order to sustain his wrecked existence, but he takes no joy, nor pleasure, in this. An existence she cursed him with, as he’ll elaborate next:

"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."

During this scene, Orlok gives Ellen hidden knowledge about her true nature (power): “I told you, you are not of human kind.” He calls her an “enchantress” (or “incantrix”); a practitioner of feminine magic (a witch), who uses words, incantations, songs, spells and prayer to shape reality, gifted with magic power and authority to command the elements by the power of her word. He also discloses her being a necromancer, who brough him back from the dead (“you did wake me, enchantress, and stirred from my grave”), and cursed him to be a strigoi in the process (“you are my affliction”). “Affliction” as in “sickness”; “disease”, “plague”.  

The reincarnation theme is introduced in this scene, as Orlok looks at Ellen’s hair (perfume of lilacs), and says: “Yet I cannot be sated without you. Remember how once we were? A moment. Remember?” 

In 16th century English, the term "sated" is connected to the verb “sit”, as in “rest” or “lie”. Which translates to: “I cannot rest without you”. Which explain their covenant of being together ever-eternally. He can’t find peace in death without Ellen's spirit at this side. Which is probably the reason why his soul was in the “darkest pit”, a place for torment spirits, unable to ascend or move on to his next reincarnation (like Ellen did). 

This scene culminates with Orlok giving Ellen a “three nights countdown”. This was the first night where she denied herself, because she denied taking ownership or even acknowledging her power/nature (death), and, as consequence, she will suffer him, the monster of her own creation, to bring death (her power) to those she loves (the living; Victorian society). 

If Ellen doesn’t submit to her power (death) on the third night, Orlok will kill Thomas, the Victorian husband. He attacks Anna Harding, first, to show Ellen how she gave him entrance into the house. On a symbolic level, Anna Harding is the perfect “Victorian woman ideal” (God-fearing, devoted wife and mother, living exclusively for and by her husband and children). Orlok's true purpose with this threat is to destroy Ellen's Victorian self-deception ("you deceive yourself"), and force her to see what he told her twice already (“you are not for the living, you are not of human kind”). He wants her to see that her nature (power) will never be accepted by Victorian society. And these "three nights" are also associated with animal symbolism in this film (swine, dogs, cats, serpents and roosters).

Orlok driving home the point it was Ellen who gave him entrance into the Harding household

"Another night has passed..."

The next morning, Friedrich Harding (the “Victorian patriarch”) expels both Thomas and Ellen from his household, because he blames Ellen for Anna’s sickness. Anna is the “Victorian woman ideal”, and she spent the night with Ellen (the "hysteric melancholic"), and now she’s “sick”: Ellen’s contagion is the one to blame. Without realizing it, Friedrich is saving Thomas’ life, because Orlok doesn’t have entrance into the apartment he and Ellen share, but he does have an invitation into the Harding household. However, Ellen tries to reason with Friedrich to let them stay. She also mentions Professor Von Franz, which indicates her desire to speak to him, and get advice from the Professor (but this won't happen until the next day).

Friedrich Harding scolds Ellen for her behavior (nature): “Find the dignity to display the respect for your caretaker” and calls her a social embarrassment to Thomas because of it: “And for your husband’s sake, I pray you might learn how to conduct yourself with more deference".

At home with Thomas, Ellen pulls off the "possession scene", because she wants to prove to herself both Orlok and Friedrich are wrong; Thomas loves her, and, as such, he doesn't see her as social embarrassment nor does he rejects her nature (power). 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.").

In the "possession scene", Ellen reveals to Thomas her personal history with Orlok (“I know him”), and she has accepted she was the one who unleashed him into the world ("I have brought this evil upon us") with her prayer ("I called out..."), because she wanted company and tenderness. However, and since she didn't got the opportunity to talk with Professor Von Franz, Ellen doesn’t understand her power, and she still thinks of Orlok as a demon possessing her, and that it was Thomas’ love that drove Orlok away, and not her withdrawing her invitation of him.

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 even Anna Harding, as they both collapsed mentally in Orlok's presence in absolute horror because that’s his lore as a strigoi. More: when Orlok compelled her to “dream only of him”, she sleepwalked but she didn’t see his physical appearance (because this was before the first night at the Harding household, when she actually saw him for the first time ever) and her "dream" was, in fact, a nightmare of her feeding on Thomas because of the "divorce ritual".

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).

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

"You are my affliction."

The importance of this scene to Ellen’s character arc is that, at the end, she realizes three things about her own power:

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!".

Concerning Thomas, Ellen is now aware that he doesn’t recognize her power (nature), and will never accept it. He will always call the doctors to deal with her, and if he manages to destroy Orlok, he might even have her institutionalized like her father. Before, Thomas saw Ellen’s power as a consequence of her “melancholy” and “hysteria” (Victorian diagnose), now he believes it’s Orlok who’s making his wife “sick”, and once he gets destroyed everything will be back to normal, and she will be the perfect Victorian wife to him, then: "I’ll kill him! I will. He shall never harm you again. Never!" But Ellen just realized it's not Orlok, it's her own nature (power), and that he was right about everything he told her, but she's still conflicted. Nevertheless, she says she must go to Orlok, and even uses his threat of him killing Thomas for her husband to allow it.

"Pray then, instruct me, my Lord. Charge me. Use me. Yet my Lord, I beg thee."

Robert Eggers gave us the parallel of two characters pathetically kneeling in front of their “masters”, behaving like a dog, and begging to be instructed in how to be “good”; while Orlok refuses submission, Thomas is relieved by it. 

And just as Ellen vows and fails to embody the “Victorian wife ideal”, Orlok kills this archetype in the narrative: Anna, and also the children, which are deeply connected with women’s identity in the Victorian era (marriage and motherhood as a woman's destiny). Ellen gave him access into the Harding household, and, now, he’ll destroy the archetype Ellen doesn’t want to be. He also feeds on Friedrich; the Victorian patriarch Ellen doesn’t want to be married to, but Thomas aspires to be. This is the beginning of the end of Ellen and Thomas' marriage.

What does Count Olrok want?

In an interview to Robert Ebert, Robert Eggers revealed: “I think that what ultimately rose to the top, as the theme or trope that was most compelling to me, was that of the demon-lover. In “Dracula,” the book by Bram Stoker, the vampire is coming to England, seemingly, for world domination. Lucy and Mina are just convenient throats that happen to be around. But in this “Nosferatu,” he’s coming for Ellen. This love triangle that is similar to “Wuthering Heights,” the novel, was more compelling to me than any political themes."

In "Nosferatu” (2024), Count Orlok, like Robert Eggers says, isn’t interested in world domination or spreading his plague, he wants Ellen’s soul by his side for all eternity. For her to “be one with [him], ever-eternally". And he also wants her to break the curse of Nosferatu she put on him at the prologue of the film. Which is what Professor Von Franz discovers when he finds the Solomonari codex of secrets in Herr Knock’s office; codex (a book of laws), and Orlok's final assignment at the Solomonărie school to become a Solomonar, and this is his "book of wisdom"; the source of his power, according to Romanian folklore.

"The compact commands she must willingly re-pledge her vow. She cannot be stolen.", Orlok tells Herr Knock when he offers himself to kidnap Ellen.

"And so the maiden fair did offer up her love unto the beast, and with him lay in close embrace until first cock crow, her willing sacrifice thus broke the curse and freed them from the plague of Nosferatu.”

In this context, the "compact" Orlok talks about is the brief text (instructions; rules; laws) from the Solomonari codex of secrets where the word "willing" is also mentioned, marked, and written in it's Latin form "voluerunt", because codex were usually written in Latin. The root for “volontario” (Italian); “volontaire” (French), “voluntario” (Spanish); “voluntário” (Portuguese); and “voluntariat” (Romanian). In English, “voluntary”, or “willing” as it is used in the film.

Orlok also has his sarcophagus at the chapel of Grünewald Manor, beneath a rose window; while he's resting on his sarcophagus during the day, he’s bathing in sun light from the heavens. Which symbolizes his desire for his spirit to be set free from the Nosferatu curse, and the rotten corpse it's trapped in, and to ascend spiritualy (yearning for higher spiritual realms; which aren't a monopoly of Christianity): "Deliverance." as Herr Knock final words, or Professor Von Franz: “Go forward Thomas, set the daemon’s spirit free!” when they enter the chapel and see the sarcophagus.

“When the sun’s pure light shall break upon the dawn: Redemption! The plague shall be lifted! Redemption!”

"Behold the third night."

The next day, Ellen wants to speak to Professor Von Franz, because she seeks his counsel. She has accepted several things about her power (nature), but she’s still conflicted about whenever accepting Orlok covenant, or not. But not before Friedrich Harding attempts to expel Von Franz (and possibly Ellen, too), from Anna and the children’s funerals, driving home how neither of them has a place within Victorian society. Von Franz is seen as a laughingstock and a charlatan, and Ellen as a “melancholic hysterical” who should be institutionalized. And Thomas intervenes and proves, once again, how he doesn't recognize Ellen's power nor what she told him the night before, as he says to Harding: "Please, it is my fault! Forgive me my dear, sweet friend!"

Visual separation: Professor Von Franz and Ellen, the outcasts of Victorian society

In the meantime, Von Franz already knows what Orlok wants, and as the Victorian characters come together to devise a plan to destroy Orlok, Ellen grows restless. She has yet not had a chance to speak to Professor Von Franz, and she offers to come along with them, which Thomas, obviously, declines because she must stay home, where Orlok does not have entrance and she’s safe from him. Thomas says he'll "drive a spike of cold iron through him" like he saw it done in Transylvania. And this is how a strigoi is killed in Romanian folklore, but the Solomonari codex of secrets speaks about "freeing", breaking the curse of Nosferatu. And when confronted with Orlok's destruction is when Ellen intervenes, as she tells Professor Von Franz: "Professor, allow me to walk you to your door" but her voice sounds different. We can't forget she's an enchantress, after all, she has the power of commanding the elements with her voice. And, Professor Von Franz, the man who “saw things in this world that would make Isaac Newton crawl back to his mother’s womb”, actually looks scared of Ellen here:

As she walks Professor Von Franz to his home, Ellen says she must be the one to do it, because she wants to accept Orlok's covenant and she wants the Professor to take Thomas out of the house. Von Franz never told her nor anyone about the instructions on the Solomonar codex of secrets ("Do not reveal what is sacred to dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine"). And he tells Ellen she was born into the occult, and it’s a rare gift. And Ellen feels comfortable sharing her attraction (pull) to Orlok with him, because he recognizes and respects her power (nature). But she’s conflicted about it, still: “yet my spirit cannot be evil as his”. 

And Professor Von Franz finally gives her the answer to her question when they first met (“Does evil come from within us or from beyond?"): “We must know evil to be able to destroy it, we must discover it within ourselves. And when we have, we must crucify the evil within us, or there is no salvation.” And this sparks something in Ellen because she says “I need no salvation” (and she doesn’t need to crucify any evil within herself either), because “my entire life I have done no ill but heed my nature”. And her "nature" is dual, she's both good and evil, a Pagan elemental spirit, like Orlok himself.

And Professor Von Franz doesn't talk about "destruction", anymore. But redemption, because he knows what Orlok seeks (to be free from his curse): "I believe only you have the faculty to redeem us." Von Franz is an alchemist; in Alchemy “redemption" is connected to the “Philosopher’s Stone”, the “Stone of the Wise”, the “Magnum Opus” of transformation and enlightenment: “gold-making”, Chrysopoeia, transmuting common metals into gold; which was what Von Franz himself was attempting when we, the audience, are introduced to him: "I had nearly unlocked the final key of the Mysteriorum Libri Quinque. [...] No... no matter. I miscalculated the stars. Hermes will not render my black sulfur gold this evening."

And what this means it's that Professor Von Franz is telling Ellen only her can transmute black sulfur into gold, only her can redeem Orlok (break his curse), and himself (because he's seen as a charlatan and a fraud). All she needs to do in order to accomplish this is be faithful to her nature, her power, fully embrace herself. And this is no coincidence, because Orlok has the alchemist symbol for blood on his personal sigil, which indicates he was an alchemist himself in the late 16th century, and Von Franz recognized him as such, after reading the Solomonari codex of secrets. The Professor also diagnosed Ellen with having "too much blood" (sanguine temperament) and the cure is bloodletting, being drained of the excessive blood; Ellen and Orlok's are each others' cures.

"In heathen times you might have been a great priestess of Isis."

Von Franz is not only giving Ellen her agency back in this scene, but also validating her power (nature), one for which she has been medicalized her entire life and one she has been trying to understand this entire story, like Robert Eggers tells us in one interview: “She's an outsider. She has this understanding about the shadow side of life that is very deep, but she doesn't have language for that. She's totally misunderstood and no one can see her [...] this demon lover, this vampire [Orlok] who is the one being who can connect with that side of her." 

And Professor Von Franz confirms what Orlok has told her twice already ("You are not for the living. You are not for human kind"), by telling her that in Pagan times she could have been a great priestess of Isis, Queen of the Underworld (whose "myth of Isis and Osiris" finds reference in Ellen and Orlok's story). Her power is death (necromancer, mediumship). Neither Ellen nor Professor Von Franz has a place within Victory society, they are both “relics” of a different time, a different place, with a different way of believing, thinking and behaving. In Pagan times, they would have been respected as priestess (Ellen) and physician (Von Franz), but in the modern world they are demonized. And the same is true for Orlok himself; who’s the personification of demonized Pagan beliefs, and wants to be free from his curse. Still, she's their salvation.

Professor Von Franz vows to keep Thomas at bay for the night as they'll go on their fake "vampire hunt", but Ellen is still worried that he might return and stop her from breaking Nosferatu curse, as she also makes him promise: “You promise you shan't return to me ‘til he is no more? Promise you won’t return.” She knows the “vampire hunters” are set on destroying Orlok, and are armed with spikes of cold iron. If they arrived at the house before dawn, they would destroy Orlok and prevent her from breaking the curse and be one with him, ever-eternally. Which is why Ellen has a “fiery reckoning” in her eyes at dawn; the "vampire hunters" didn't arrive in time to stop her. And they sure tried. She won. 

Orlok symbolizes everything Ellen, as a Victorian woman, isn’t suppose to desire nor have. He’s not merely passion, erotism and sex, he’s also hidden knowledge and education, as a Solomonar who studied at the Solomonărie (germanization Scholomance). All the things that were off limits to the average woman in the early 19th century, who should confide herself to the domestic and whose destiny was marriage and motherhood (Thomas). Passion is not the only thing Orlok has to offer; he’s a pathway to Ellen’s true nature and destiny as enchantress, Pagan priestess to Underworld deities, the secrets of life and death, and immortality. Which is why she accepts him; he also represents her freedom and liberation. Which is why Robert Eggers calls Ellen a "dark, chthonic female heroine" who "makes the ultimate sacrifice, and she’s able to reclaim this power through death". "Chthonic" is related to spirits and entities from the Underworld.

Breaking the Curse of Nosferatu

As Lily-Rose Depp reveals in one interview, the point of the final scene is: "she’s [Ellen] doing a good deed and she’s breaking the curse”. The goal is to break the curse of Nosferatu Orlok has on himself for his spirit to be set free. And Ellen herself has to die, as well, because that's the only way to break the curse and for them to be "one [...] ever-eternally". And, as Bill Skarsgård, stealthily confirms in the same interview: "maybe that is what Orlok wanted all along.”

To Robert Eggers, "it was always clear to me that Nosferatu is a demon lover story” and "a tale of love and obsession and a Gothic romance". Ellen is "totally misunderstood and no one can see her […] this demon lover, this vampire, who is the one being who can connect with that side of her" and “the only person who can understand and fulfill a part of Ellen”. Bill Skarsgård calls Orlok "the romantic lead" and describes this story as "a very heightened fairy tale/dark story, but also it’s two people potentially falling in love. It isn’t love, it’s something else, but love is maybe the closest thing to it that you can kind of relate to."

The breaking of the curse is a Solomonar Sex Magick ritual: “with him lay in close embrace until first cockcrow” indicates sex (which is what we see happening in the actual scene, because the first penetration can be heard in the sound design, so the audience has no doubts about what’s happening). Orlok drink Ellen’s blood (soul), as their spirits are merging together inside of his rotten corpse (strigoi myth). Orlok is a psychic vampire, it's souls he feeds on (soul trapped in the blood; life force), and that's what sustains him (which is why Thomas had to be exorcised, and he said to Ellen "I will drink upon thy soul" in the first night). At dawn, when the rotten vessel (Nosferatu) is destroyed, their united souls are set free as the blood comes out of it (“freed them from the plague of Nosferatu”). The "willing sacrifice" is Ellen allowing Orlok to kill her, obviously. 

"You are mine."

What breaks the curse is sexual energy, and that’s the power Ellen and Orlok are harvesting to manifest their will into being (break the curse). Near the end of the ritual, Ellen has an orgasm as the dawn begins to remove the decay from Orlok’s face, and he starts to resemble his human-self, indicating the Nosferatu curse on him is being broken. At the end, the ritual is confirmed to have been successful (according to the Solomonari instructions), by Professor Von Franz, as he places their symbolic lilacs around their bodies. And that "last look of love" with Thomas is, in fact, a post-mortem contraction (cadaveric spasm), because Ellen was already dead (and we can even hear it in the OST). And Orlok is now an empty shell, because his and Ellen's souls have been liberated into the Afterlife. Their souls were separated by death, and are now united by death, forever.

The final scene between Ellen and Orlok, at dawn, parallels Ellen and Thomas' at the beginning of the film. 

The first scene after the prologue, it’s Ellen trying to bring Thomas back to bed, and to stay with her “one minute more” because “the honeymoon was yet too short”, and she wants him to take off his shoes. But he says he can’t stay because he needs to go to work, because “today is of the utmost importance for us” as he’s after a position at the firm (he already was). Ellen is displeased because she’s not yet satisfied (sexually).

Thomas asks “How should I have earned such a doting wife?” In Victorian context, a “doting wife” means a “excessively submissive wife”. Ellen’s sexuality isn’t hers, it belongs to her husband. Thomas interprets her begging, in this scene, as Ellen fulfilling her role of a Victorian wife, of pleasing him. Because women were believed to have no sexual pleasure nor cravings at all, in the early 19th century. And so, Thomas leaves for his day work.

Near dawn, Orlok is already engorge of blood, and he wants to stop. But Ellen begs of him “more… more…”, and he indulges her desire because he cannot resist her. And he does this for her, for her own sexual pleasure, not for his. Because Orlok is not merely drinking her blood/soul in this scene, he's having penetrative sex with her, as well. Her soul is already his, and she's going to die soon either way ("willing sacrifice") but he satisfies her craving, all the same. Orlok is willing to give her the pleasure she wants and needs, even if he, himself, is already fulfilled: Orlok pursues her satisfation, and won't stop until she, too, is fully satisfied.