Several authors have essayed how the characters of Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra represent different facets of the "New Woman": "We had a lovely walk. Lucy, after a while, was in gay spirits […] We had a capital `severe tea' at Robin Hood's Bay in a sweet little old-fashioned inn, with a bow window right over the seaweed-covered rocks of the strand. I believe we should have shocked the `New Woman' with our appetites." The term "New Woman" was introduced and popularized by British novelist Sarah Grand, connected to her book "The Heavenly Twins" (1893) and her essay "The New Aspect of the Woman Question" (1894), and described an emergent type of independent woman who sought achievement and self-fulfilment beyond marriage and family life.
Nina Auerbach and David J. Skal, on their 1997 edition of "Dracula", define the concept of "New Woman" is used in the novel as a caricature of 1890s feminist women, portrayed as either having forceful personalities and masculine traits, such as ravishing sexual appetites or gluttony, or too meticulous. According to these authors, the concept of the New Woman, in the book, applies to female characters which do not conform to Van Helsing and Dr. Stewart's ideal of the chaste Victorian woman.
However, while Mina Murray is a working class young woman (schoolmistress) whose intellect grows as she is introduced to the new technologies of the time, and is praised as having a "man's brain" and a "woman's heart" by Van Helsing, Lucy Westenra personifies the fears of a growing female sexuality with her three suitors and gluttonous appetite when her fiancé Sir Arthur Holmwood is around ("I have an appetite like a cormorant, I am full of life and sleep well [...] Arthur says I am getting fat"). Both characters are infected by Count Dracula, yet their fates are opposite, as one gets punished (Lucy), and the other (Mina) rewarded by the narrative.
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"I am an appetite. Nothing more."
Phyllis A. Roth (“Suddenly Sexual Women in Bram Stoker’s Dracula”) argues, in the “Dracula” novel, “vampirism... is equivalent to sexuality”, and that its “central anxiety is “the fear of the devouring woman”, concluding the vampire is the personification of the oversexed “New Woman”, and for the men in the novel, the more a female character gave into her sexuality, the more they ought to be destroyed (punished with vampirism and death); which, as Jessica Natinsky notices on her critical review of Roth (“Suddenly Sexual and Strikingly Different”) it’s the main difference between Lucy and Mina’s characters: once Lucy’s degeneration into vampirism is complete, she becomes the dreaded “devouring woman” and only returns to her perceived purity after her destruction by the vampire hunters, while Mina resists Dracula's influence, weaponizes it to help with his demise, and is rewarded by the narrative with a happy marriage and a child with her beloved Jonathan.
Concerning his approach to storytelling, Robert Eggers has explained he kept it 19th century-centric because he's never trying to "make something modern", and is "always trying to keep it based on the worldview of the characters in the film", however the director hopes having the female character as the protagonist makes the story feel more "modern", in a way: "in telling that same kind of story in a modern context, even trying to stay through the lens of the 19th century, we could have potentially some more nuance there, potentially, hopefully."
Count Orlok mirror foil characters: Friedrich Harding and Professor Von Franz
“Nosferatu” (2024) official posters; design by Empire Design
© 2024 Focus Features
In the "Dracula" novel, Professor Van Helsing and Sir Arthur Holmwood are considered Count Dracula's character foils, with opposite qualities to his own (for instance, Van Helsing is the pure good in contrast to Dracula's pure evil; Holmwood represents the good British aristocracy in opposition to Dracula's evil nobility, and Holmwood uses his money to fight against Dracula's evil use of his, etc.). In Robert Eggers' adaptation, Friedrich Harding (Holmwood) and Professor Von Franz (Van Helsing) also serve as foils to Count Orlok (Dracula), in a different way, since they do not serve to merely exhibit opposite traits to his character (like in the novel), but, also, to highlight Orlok's traits and motivations (mirrors), as Eggers uses references to Holmwood in his Orlok, and references to Dracula in Harding. This mirror is also seen in the dichotomy in Count Orlok's "appetite", as both characters reveal its double meaning in the narrative.
Friedrich Harding's passionate love for his wife, Anna, is portrayed as a insatifable hunger, and his sexual appetite for her is depicted using terms associated with gluttony ("I cannot resist her"), which will culminate with Anna, during her "blood fever", saying her third pregnancy is eating her away, as a consequence of her husband's appetite ("I fear little Friedrich is so strong and hungry, he’s eating me weary"), as he'll blame himself and beg for her forgiveness, as he vows never to "sleep again": "Anna, my love. Our son ... our little son ... forgive me."
"I shall never sleep, again. Never."
This appetite places Harding in parallel with Count Orlok's for Ellen, as they are both represented as "can't resist" them ("I cannot resist you, my love"; "He cannot resist her blood"), nor be sated without them ("always hungry, like his father"; "yet, I cannot be sated without you").
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"Ellen, tell me, what is this insufferable darkness?"
And, with both characters, it sets them in a path of self-destruction, culminating with their annihilation, which they fully embrace just to be reunited with them, and having them, in their arms, one last time, on this earth; which comes from the Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights" inspiration for the script and the character of Heathcliff, and his all-consuming, obsessive and self-destructive passion with Cathy Earnshaw, even after her death. As Robert Eggers revealed: "This [Ellen and Orlok] is also a demon-lover story, like Cathy and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. Is Heathcliff really interested in Cathy, or does he want to possess and destroy her?"
"I cannot resist you, my love."
As Robert Eggers explained, on several interviews, his re-tale of "Nosferatu": “it is a scary horror movie with a lot of dread and even some jump scares. But more than that, it is a tale of love and obsession and a Gothic romance." A literary genre which explores the forbidden and transgressive, and darker themes such as madness, sexuality, the supernatural, the complexities of love and desire, and the tension between individual freedom and social constraints. Amidst Victorian society, governed by ideals of morality, modesty and chasity, there was a private fascination with dark and cannibalistic passion, on the side, explored in Gothic romance novels, illustrating the savagery of the heart and the desire to devour, where love and eating weren't so different. This concept was discussed by Bill Skarsgård, when talking about Count Orlok and Ellen's relationship: “Nosferatu” is “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. If it's not love, it's a craving and it's an appetite and it's lust and desire to devour.”
"Gnathobdela. The common leech. Its sole impulse is to feed on what even Mephistopheles calls "the most especial nectar." Look at her drink."
On the other hand, his other character mirror foil, Professor Von Franz, provides the literal meaning for Count Orlok's "appetite" in the narrative, connected to his vampiric cursed nature (Nosferatu) and what he represents as a folk vampire: death and disease. As he tells Friedrich Harding, the vampire, "like every plague, its only desire is to consume all life on earth. It is a force more powerful than evil. It is death itself". As such, Count Orlok, as Nosferatu, is not thinking about sex or any other associated concepts: his sole interest is to feed on the souls of his victims, either by suffocating them in astral form, or drinking their heart's blood.
As Robert Eggers writes on his own essay to "The Guardian", unlike the seductive, introspective and melancholic Anglo literary vampire from John Polidori, Bram Stoker (to a degree), Anne Rice, among others: "the vampire of folklore is not a suave, dinner jacket-wearing seducer. The vampire of folklore is a corpse. An undead corpse. These early vampires are visually closer to a cinematic zombie." This Nosferatu is not interested in seducing, but consuming; and his main goal is to get Ellen's soul, as she's the target of his strigoi haunting, and all the other characters are unfortunate collaterals; as Robert Eggers explained: "here, Orlok is entirely just focused on Lily-Rose Depp’s character, but he leaves a whole lot of destruction in his path in order to get what he wants." Which is the conclusion the Professor will come to after reading Orlok's Solomonari codex of secrets: "she is the way", as he already knew Nosferatu was after Ellen, but he did not know "why" ("this evil, what it is, how it has
been summoned – unleashed – I know not.
But this remarkable child it has chained
itself to is in grave peril"; "Our somnambulist and her husband are in incomparable danger"), nor "who" Nosferatu is.
"She is the way."
On his adaptation, Robert Eggers reframed death and sex into the narrative, encompassing Victorian ideals of female sexuality and love. Ellen is a "figure of the sick woman", fully embodying 1970s Feminist critic analyses of Lucy Westenra's character and the "Dracula" novel, where the tale is interpreted as a metaphor for Victorian sexual anxieties (vampirism as a metaphor for sexual desire), and 19th century moral panic surrounding female sexuality (female sexuality as a contagious disease). As such, the director explored the medicalization and pathologization of Ellen's sexuality and body (also connected to her psychic abilities), through Victorian treatments for Hysteria.
Here, we find inspiration in Sigmund Freud's Eros and Thanatos' theory (or "Drive theory"), from his 1920 book "Beyond the Pleasure Principle", where the individual is ruled by two primary forces: Eros or the Life instinct (sex, hunger, thirst, safety, health, love, etc.) and Thanatos or the Death instinct (destruction, aggression, risk-taking, sadism, etc.). According to Freud, "the goal of all life is death", and it's the constant tension between these two instinctual forces which drive the individual towards survival and reproduction.
As such, it's Ellen who brings thematic "sex" (Eros) into the narrative, and associates it with Count Orlok, who, as Nosferatu, is a representation of death (Thanatos), an appetite, a force of nature. From his part, the sole interest he has on Ellen's body is her heart's blood, where her soul is, and that's what he's seeking, and it's Orlok's soul (and not the rotten corpse Nosferatu) which makes the connection with his other character mirror foil, Friedrich Harding, when the viewer gets rare glimpses of human Orlok. In Robert Eggers' re-interpretation of this story, "Nosferatu" and "Count Orlok" are somewhat different characters, while being the same because Nosferatu is his curse due to the Faustian bargain he made centuries before, and is seeking to escape.
I. Dreams and Aspirations
Years after the prologue, Ellen, now a newly-wed young woman, awakes from a dream, and searches for her husband, quite anxious, as he’s getting ready for the day. The introduction scene to the Hutters combine references to both 1922 and 1979 adaptations of “Nosferatu”, but Ellen’s dream is very different (and she’ll reveal it to Thomas, later on).
It also presents the Hutters, as a couple, to the audience, fresh of their honeymoon. They are a loving couple, and, their love is described as "pure" in the 2023 script. Thomas is shown to be kind and gentle, yet, something appears to be missing for Ellen. Like in the previous versions of this story, underneath the marriage bliss of the couple, Count Orlok/Dracula is lingering in the shadows, haunting Ellen/Lucy.
In the prologue of Werner Herzog’s 1979 “Nosferatu”, Lucy awakes from a nightmare in the middle of the night. She’s been dreaming of a bat flying from a distance towards her window, and nightmares of a bat entering her room will be a recurrent theme in the film, a foreshadowing of her fate. This is a reference to the “Dracula” novel, where Lucy Westenra also hears "boughs or bats or something" "flapping against the windows" of her bedroom at night, when Dracula is feeding on her, at Whitby. Here, Lucy has a premonition of his eminent arrival to Wismar (“I... I see something horrible happening”).
In the original 1922, Ellen also seems consumed with dreams of Count Orlok, as she reveals to her husband, pointing to the house from across the street, purchased by the Count (and where he can be seen at the window). Robert Eggers also paid tribute to this scene when his Ellen reveals to Thomas: “He stalks me in my dreams. All my sleeping thoughts are of him. Every night!”
In the “Dracula” novel, when Count Dracula is feeding on Lucy Westenra, and she begins her degeneration into vampirism, she writes on her diary: “Oh, the terrible struggle that I have had against sleep so often of late; the pain of the sleeplessness, or the pain of the fear of sleep, and with such unknown horror as it has for me! How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads; to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams.” Like her cinematic counterparts, Lucy, in the book, is also plagued by dreadful dreams and nightmares, connected to Count Dracula.
In Robert Eggers' adaptation, these "nightmares" are interpreted, as mentioned above, within the context of Victorian social anxieties when it comes to sex, and, mostly, female sexuality. Ellen's dreams are erotic and passionate, related to Count Orlok ("Your passion is bound to me"; "You could never please me as he could"). And, as Simon McBurney (who plays Herr Knock) has said, it's also connected to Jungian interpretations of dreams: "So the film is both an action film and a horror film, but it’s also a metaphor for the shadow of our souls. So, in our dreams, our dreams are ourselves. You know when you have a dream, and you have the Queen in it or some terrible dark thing, that is not something outside of you, that is you. […] You get to see your shadow in your dreams. And this is kind of, you know, the absolute classic dream, really. Or nightmare." As Ellen asks Professor Von Franz, the "Proto-Jungian" character: "My dreams grow darker. Does evil come from within us, or from beyond?" This topic is further explored in another post, about Ellen's dreams as Count Orlok is on his way to Wisburg.
In the 1979 version, when Lucy awakes from her nightmare, Jonathan comforts her, and joins her in bed, embracing her in her sleep. In Robert Eggers adaptation, like in the 1922 original, Thomas is getting dressed to leave for his day's work, but his reaction is similar to 1979 Jonathan.
“Come here. There is nothing to be afraid of.”
As costume designer Linda Muir has elaborated: "There is a large portion of the story that is told with the character Ellen [played by Lily-Rose Depp] in a nightgown. In the scenes with Ellen in bed initially with Thomas, we wanted a very fragile, diaphanous-looking nightgown in order to kind of tie in with her fragility and her mental state." Ellen is fresh out of her honeymoon; her nightgown reflects intimacy and sex. Futhermore, her sexuality is socially acceptable, as she's a married woman in her husband's company in the privacy of their household.
As Robert Eggers explained: “The story of the demon lover is what connected to me. [...] In this “Nosferatu”, he's [Count Orlok] coming for Ellen. This love triangle that is similar to “Wuthering Heights" the novel, was more compelling to me than any political themes.” And if his Orlok is evocative of Heathcliff, and Ellen of Cathy Earnshaw, Thomas Hutter is Edgar Linton, and the two characters share many similarities.
They are both gentlemen, gentle, polite and well-mannered, embodiments of civilized virtues. Cathy chooses to marry Edgar and be socially acceptable, instead of succumbing to her passion for Heathcliff, which she believes would "degrade" her, and this decision will result in her spiral down into madness, consumed by delirium of her passion for Heathcliff and death, which will, ultimately, lead to her early death. Linton should be everything Cathy was meant to want, but he isn't. Like Heathcliff and Edgar, Count Orlok and Thomas Hutter have opposite symbolism in Ellen's character arc: Thomas is life, society and Victorian love, while Count Orlok is death, nature and passion.
In this scene, we are also introduced to Greta, Ellen's cat; named after Greta Schröder (who played the original Ellen). Ellen/Lucy owns a cat in every "Nosferatu" adaptation, but Robert Eggers explored it further, and even connected cats with Professor Von Franz. Often demonized in religious speech, associated with the Devil and witches, cats were not hated by all; cats were a common pet throughout Middle Ages and Early Modern era in Europe, and even monasteries kept them as pets. Cats were considered a scholar’s favorite pet, and many poems were written in praise of cats as companions.
This appears to be from Renfield's monologue, here subverted into a somewhat different meaning: “Rats, rats, rats! Hundreds, thousands, millions of them, and every one a life. And dogs to eat them, and cats too.” Nosferatu is associated with rats, as such the cat symbolism seems very straightforward. However, Robert Eggers heavily associated his Count Orlok with wolves (Dacian wolf warrior), and the "prince of rats" is the demonic Nosferatu.
In this scene, we also see Thomas rejecting Greta, as he brushes off her hairs from his clothes: "Ellen, I have told you not to let her into bed. I cannot wear anything dark. I’m absolutely covered in it." The cat has another layer of symbolism, as Ellen tells Professor Von Franz later on: "Greta? She has no master nor mistress", yet the cat is with Ellen during her "confinement" in the Hardings guestroom. Ellen projects much of her inner world and desires onto Greta; wish for her husband to stay in bed (sex and passion), and her desire to be free from her medicalization by Victorian society.
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"But Greta loves it here. She wishes you to stay, too."
The cat is associated with the breaking of Nosferatu curse (which only Ellen can do), but it's also connected with the occult, since cats were considered symbols of the Germanic seeresses of Old Pre-Christian Europe (Ellen's true nature). In the Icelandic saga of Eric the Red, the seeress' hat and gloves were lined with cat fur. Norse Goddess Freya's wagon was pulled by two mighty cats. Seeresses were said to use catskins, and cats were, often, their familiars (animal spirits). Cats were sacred to Egyptian Goddess Isis. In Old texts, the great cat Goddess Bastet was said to be the daughter of Isis and Osiris (God of the Dead, Afterlife and Ressurection, very similar to Zalmoxis), while others describe her as the daughter of Ra, the Sun God. Other sources claim Osiris and Ra are facets of the same God, because Solar and Underworld deities were often connected, symbolizing the eternal cycle of life, death and rebirth (the ouroboros on Count Orlok's sigil).
In the “Dracula” novel, cats are associated with Renfield’s character, as he begs Dr. Stewart for a kitten or a full-grown cat, as the doctor recalls: “I can't forget how he prayed with almost equal fervor for a cat, and then tried to tear my throat out with his teeth”. There are other two characters who get compared to a cat by Dr. Stewart in the book: vampire Lucy Westenra, when she approaches the “vampire hunters” in her crypt: “When Lucy, I call the thing that was before us Lucy because it bore her shape, saw us she drew back with an angry snarl, such as a cat gives when taken unawares, then her eyes ranged over us”; and Van Helsing: "Van Helsing stepped, with his soft, cat-like tread, over to the bed".
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The Hutters bedroom is somewhat similar to Lucy and Jonathan’s from the 1979 version, with the separate single beds. Producer designer Craig Lathrop explains: “Hopefully you can see the Hutters’ wealth and aspirations in their furnishings, the way they’ve decorated their little hovel, which is in the older part of town. So it’s a Medieval interior that’s been fixed up to try to be Biedermeier, but without the budget.”
In the same interview, Lathrop says: “It’s a pleasing resonance; the humbleness of the newlyweds’ home, with its pretence as translucent as its veil-like sheer curtains, is part of what sets the story in motion, with estate agent assistant Thomas sent into Orlok’s domain with the promise of great reward – but it also cements the sense that Ellen belongs to an age before all these eminently modern trappings, and so implicitly to the film’s ancient evil. ‘You’re trying to create character with these environments.”
Ellen feels relieved by her husband’s presence after her dream, and then notices “the honeymoon was yet too short”, as she asks him to “take off [his] shoes” and join her in bed, for sex. “One minute more”, she begs of him. Thomas says he really needs to leave, he’s already late to go to work, and “today is of the upmost importance” for them. As he leaves, she has a premonition Herr Knock will send him away: “He has the position, already. He’ll send him away”. As noticed by the clerks at the firm, Thomas arrived a "quarter hour" too late, yet Herr Knock doesn't appear to mind and calls his delay "providence".
This will come full circle at the end of the film, when Thomas is also "too late" to get to Ellen and stop the breaking of Nosferatu curse.
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"Your delay is providential, my boy, providential."
Thomas is sold on the promise of being “handsomely”’ paid by Count Orlok. As he’ll tell Ellen, and similar to 1979 Jonathan ("Oh, then I could get a nicer house for Lucy. She deserves a finer setting.", although he's also eager for adventure in Herzog’s adaptation): “I shall buy us a fine house of our own, with a maidservant”, because Ellen deserves it. As Nicholas Hoult explains Thomas is “very influenced by trying to attain wealth and feel like he can pay back his debts, and also provide better for Ellen”. Hoult calls his character “misguided” and “naive in his idea that getting more money and a better house is going to solve all their problems”.
This is connected with the Victorian husband role as a provider and a protector of his household, and with 19th century "cult of domesticity”, where the "ideal woman" was a wife and a mother, embodying virtues such as modesty, piety, submissiveness, and absolutely devoted to her family and home. During the 19th century, women's household duties and responsibilities were seen as essential to a stable family unit, to social order and the economy; while men participated in the public sphere of work and politics. As such, this is what early 19th century society expects of Thomas, and what he thrives to achieve.
Decor details in the Hutters household ("Film and Furniture") © 2024 Focus Features
Thomas’ aspirations of wealth are visible on the set design of the Hutters home. Craig Lathrop also mentions “pretence”, because the young couple are living above their means, as Thomas often asks his wealthy friend Friedrich Harding for money. “The Hutter home’s furniture, from the embroidered table to the Jacquard stripes on the couch, reflects [his] longing for a life beyond their humble beginnings.”
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[I cannot resist her. And when will you two newlyweds – ?] When I am no longer a pauper. Friedrich, when I have, I mean to say... I shall finally be able to return the monies you loaned me."
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"Hartmann will call you a coach, at my expense – of course."
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"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?
However, and from her part, Ellen doesn’t care for any of this, as she say so, herself. As costume designer, Linda Muir, elaborates: “It's beautifully apparent that she comes from a family of wealth. Yet, when she marries Hutter (played by Nicholas Hoult), she embraces a simpler life, content without an array of elaborate clothing or assistance from maids. Thomas, on the other hand, is the one who desires those luxuries for her.” In another interview, Linda Muir, explains: "when she goes to Thomas, she doesn’t care about the wealth. All she wants is Thomas and to be free." Love and freedom are, therefore, Ellen's aspirations, and that's what she truly wants.
This finds reference in the "Dracula" novel with Lucy Westenra and her connection to "love": "oceans of love and millions of kisses!" In the book, Lucy has three suitors (who propose to her on the same day), and she chooses Sir Arthur Holmwood, not because of his aristocratic background (as she's wealthy, herself), but because: "Oh, Mina, couldn't you guess? I love him. I am blushing as I write, for although I think he loves me, he has not told me so in words. But, oh, Mina, I love him. I love him!" As her book counterpart, love is also what Ellen values the most, and not Thomas' wealth or lack of.
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"We needn’t any of that!"
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Ellen rejecting the "domestic bliss" Thomas is trying to provide for her, speaks of her dissatisfaction with her gender role; she can’t be anything other than a wife, trapped inside the domestic sphere. Futhermore, this also echoes on Ellen as “a woman born in a wrong era”, as Robert Eggers describes her, trying her hardest to fit into a society which has no place for her (unless it's in an asylum, as the narrative will make clear, later on), by repressing her own nature, until it explodes, as Robert Eggers has clarified: “As a 'Victorian movie' we're in this period that is famous for repressed sexuality, and the more you repress something, the more it wants to explode”.
This "dissatisfaction" finds reference in the "Dracula" novel, and aligned with the quotation most Feminist literary critics interpret as the reason for Lucy Westenra being punished by the narrative with death and vampirism: "Here was I almost making fun of this great hearted, true gentleman. I burst into tears, I am afraid, my dear, you will think this a very sloppy letter in more ways than one, and I really felt very badly. Why can't they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble? But this is heresy, and I must not say it." This is a faint whisper of what sweet Lucy will become on her vampire form, the dreaded "devouring woman".
The "pretense" present in the set design of the Hutter home is also visible on Ellen's character, and will be called out by another. And Ellen knows he is right, as Lily-Rose Depp has explained: "She's [Ellen] been struggling her whole life with trying to accept the darkness within and that there is much more to her than just the kind of well-behaved, perfect wife that everybody seems to want to see." In the "Dracula" novel, Lucy Westenra is described as virtuous, sweet and innocent young woman. Her honest heart, pure soul, sensitivity and beauty, are constantly praised, and she’s almost angelic, a paragon of virtue, according to the others characters.
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"You deceive yourself."
While discussing the casting of Lily-Rose Depp, Robert Eggers said: “When Lily first read the script, she immediately brought up Possession,” Eggers recalls. “That was one of the things that made me think she was right for the role.” The director then adds, “I love [Andrzej] Żuławski— Possession, The Devil and The Third Part of the Night were all influences on this film.” On the 2009 DVD audio commentary on "Possession", Andrzej Żuławski described the film as "the story of Possession is the story of my life. It’s the only film I’ve made that is autobiographical. It says something—and this is the reason I wrote it—about my personal problems as a man with a woman I dearly loved. It’s a film about a breaking up, about the end of a relationship, a marriage. I’m a strong believer in the couple, in marriage, in children".
"Possession" is the story of a crumbling marriage, about divorce and the horror of divorce, which is also the case with Ellen and Thomas Hutter in Robert Eggers adaptation of "Nosferatu"; but also of a monster as a manifestation of inner demons and psychological turmoil, like Nosferatu is to Ellen. The cult classic has obsession, madness, identity, rejection, and desire as core themes, as well.
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Andrzej Żuławski, "Possession", 1981
As Ellen foresaw, once Thomas returns home, he brings news of his six-week journey to Transylvania. Here, Robert Eggers included the Hutters introduction scene from the original 1922, as Thomas gifts Ellen a bouquet of lilacs, and she looks at them, with deep melancholy.
This didn't make it to the final 2024 version, but in the 2016 script, Thomas got the lilacs from the front gate of Grünewald Manor (the house Count Orlok will purchase), when he went to see the decrepit medieval house. Nevertheless, it's entirely possible he got them from the manor, all the same, because Professor Von Franz also had to get the lilacs from somewhere, at the end, and he just returned from there, himself.
Like her 1922 counterpart, Robert Eggers’ Ellen also connects the flowers with death (“why have you killed these beautiful flowers?”), yet in the 2024 adaptation, this has been explored further and turned into a visual storytelling device, as costume designer Linda Muir has revealed, the lilacs symbolize the connection between Ellen and Count Orlok, and remind the Count of his (human) life, in the late 16th-century. She demands Thomas to throw the flowers out because they will only die in a few days.
Ellen says she needs to tell Thomas about her dream (the one she had after the prologue). Ellen/Lucy worrying about Thomas/Jonathan's business travel is a part of every adaptation of "Nosferatu", as she perceives something horrible will happen to her husband, to herself and everyone else. As Lucy Westenra shares with Mina: “You must keep it a secret, dear, from every one except, of course, Jonathan. You will tell him, because I would, if I were in your place, certainly tell Arthur. A woman ought to tell her husband everything. Don't you think so, dear? And I must be fair. Men like women, certainly their wives, to be quite as fair as they are. And women, I am afraid, are not always quite as fair as they should be." Ellen, like Lucy Westenra, aspires to be a good Victorian wife to her husband, although there's something lingering in the shadows.
In the “Nosferatu" tale, Ellen/Lucy being represented as more attuned to the supernatural is a also reference to the "Dracula" novel, where Mina Murray describes Lucy Westenra's "sensitive nature": “Lucy is so sweet and sensitive that she feels influences more acutely than other people do. Just now she was quite upset by a little thing which I did not much heed […] I greatly fear that she is of too super sensitive a nature to go through the world without trouble. She will be dreaming of this tonight, I am sure.” Robert Eggers, however, reframed these premonitions into a much ancient context of witchcraft and the seeresses of Pre-Christian Europe.
"Jonathan, I don't want you to go. I have this awful feeling. Don't go. You musn't leave like this, I cannot permit it."
In both 1922 and 1979 adaptations, Ellen/Lucy seek comfort in Thomas/Jonathan, as well, and try to prevent him from leaving, to no avail. He, on the other hand, is eager to go on an adventure. In Werner Herzog’s version, the director makes the connection of the beach with Jonathan (the place where they fell in love); but this is not the case with Robert Eggers’ adaptation, where nature (as a theme) is connected to Count Orlok (while Thomas represents society). Lucy tells Jonathan about her worries, at the beach: “I don’t want you to go… I feel a kind of… dark force… like a nameless deadly fear.” And she connects it with her "feeble unprotected heart".
Robert Eggers, however, went with a somewhat different route, because his Ellen is worried about her marriage (“It portends something awful for us”; she says about her dream of marrying Death), while 1979 Lucy seems haunted by worry and fear for everyone (Jonathan, herself and their town); she perceives something dreadful is about to happen to everyone, as Count Dracula will arrive and bring plague and death with him to Wismar.
“You cannot leave. I need to tell you my dream.”
In all adaptations, Thomas/Jonathan is dismissive of Ellen/Lucy's concerns, Robert Eggers, however, reframed Thomas' dismissiveness with Ellen's "melancholy" and "hysteria", and her medicalization by Victorian society. He worries her "past fancies" might return: "no more of your childhood memories" because the doctors advised them not to talk about it: "Ellen, we have put all of these difficulties behind us". Still, Ellen insists on revealing her dream to him, and, unlike her predecessors, she remembers it with great passion:
“No... It was our wedding… Yet not in chapel walls. Above was an impenetrable thundercloud outstretched beyond the hills. The scent of the lilacs was strong in the rain... and when I reached the altar, you weren't there. Standing before me, all in black... was... Death. But I was so happy, so very happy. We exchanged vows, we embraced, and when we turned round everyone was dead. Father… and… everyone. The stench of their bodies was horrible. And - But I had never been so happy as that moment... as I held hands with Death.”
Similar to Werner Herzog’s Lucy dream at the prologue, in Robert Eggers' adaptation Ellen's dream is also prophetic and foreshadows her fate, as well as the ending of the film.
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"The scent of the lilacs was strong in the rain... and when I reached the altar, you weren't there. Standing before me, all in black... was... Death."
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Thomas is horrified by her words, and so is Ellen, as she, eventually, cries on his arms, seeking his comfort, like 1922 and 1979 Ellen/Lucy. He begs her never to "speak these things aloud" because it's a "trifle", a "foolish dream" like her "past fancies". Like 1922 Hutter, he dismisses her dream, here as a consequence of her "sickness", and tries to reassure Ellen (like 1979 Jonathan): "everything is well".
As Nicholas Hoult explains, Thomas mindset is “Let's not talk about it or think about it. As long as I get this promotion, things are going to be okay, and we'll deal with that down the road." Hoult also describes his character as “slightly naive” and “playing catch-up”, and, as a consequence, “he can't understand what Ellen's going through, [and] he goes off on this mission thinking that more money and a promotion are going to be the things that solve their problems." Thomas’ tragedy, according to Nicholas Hoult, is that “learns too late what Ellen's really been dealing with and he's not equipped at the beginning of the story to understand and care for her in the way that that she needs.”
“Never speak these things aloud. Never. It is a trifle. A foolish dream, just as your past fancies.”
Yet, Thomas will never truly understand the truth of Ellen’s “sickness”, as he goes from thinking it’s melancholia and hysteria (her Victorian diagnose) to “demonic haunting/possession” and everything will be back to normal once Count Orlok is destroyed.
“You cannot leave! I love you too much!”
"Our love was supposed to be sacred!"
Ellen holds on to Thomas as for dear life, itself. And, indeed, that’s quite literal, as Lily-Rose Depp explained: “There's a ghostliness to her [Ellen]. I always saw her as someone who has one foot in the spirit world, if you will, and one on earth. She's desperately trying to cling to life. In that sense, Orlok is the representation of death, and her husband is the representation of life. She's definitely torn between the two.”
II. Introducing the Hardings
As in every "Nosferatu" version, Hutter/Jonathan's wealthy friends agree to guest Ellen/Lucy until his return. In the original 1922, they are Harding, and his sister, Ruth; while in Werner Herzog’s adaptation, they were renamed Schrader, and his sister Mina (as in Mina Murray from the "Dracula" novel).
The Hardings were further explored on Robert Eggers’ adaptation, and are now husband and wife, with two daughters. These characters provide much of the 19th century context around Ellen's "sickness" and how she's medicalized by this society, and according to Robert Eggers: “here you see the downfall of a family, which was something that is not in many versions but I thought would be potentially satisfying and also satisfying to explore.” Here, the Hardings also represent the perfect Victorian family; lead by a patriarch, a submissive and deeply religious wife, who lives entirely for her husband and children. Their wealth is very aspirational to Thomas.
In Robert Eggers' adaptation, Friedrich Harding is sort of a subversion of Sir Arthur Holmwood from the "Dracula" novel: extremely wealthy, but he's no longer an aristocrat. He's still one of the narrative foils to Count Orlok/Dracula, as he is in the book, and, similar to the novel, still employs his wealth to work against him, by financing Ellen's Victorian treatment, and try to put an end to her "trances". His repulse for Ellen parallels Arthur's adversion to Vampire Lucy and the "foul Thing that we had so dreaded and grown to hate". His wife, Anna, takes some of Mina Murray's plots while in Whitby, and her friendship with Ellen is reminiscent of Mina and Lucy's, with Mina/Anna as pragmantic and rational, and Lucy/Ellen as sensitive and emotional. Nevertheless, Anna Harding is more evocative of Mrs. Westenra, Lucy's mother, and has references to this character, as well.
Later that night, Thomas and Ellen head to the Hardings household. Right in the carriage, the viewer sees the couple wearing their finest clothes to dinner. And while the keywords for the Hutters home are “humble” yet “aspirational”, the Harding home, on the contrary, is Biedermeier extravagance, a statement to their wealth and social status, as Friedrich is a rich shipmerchant.
As production designer Craig Lathrop explains: “We wanted it to feel elegant. The cherry wood furniture, the delicate blue damask wallpaper, and the mechanical birds in a cage— they’re all meant to evoke a sense of wealth, but also a slightly unsettling quality […] We designed a lot of the furniture, including pieces like the wooden flower stands and Jacquard-striped chairs. The details might seem like they belong in a well-to-do household, but there’s an undeniable darkness lurking in every room.” The goal was for the polished and refined interiors to foreshadow “the darkness they inadvertently invite into their home”.
The Hardings represent the emergent bourgeoisie social class, as Lathrop elaborates: “The Biedermeier period represents a rejection of the aristocracy coming out of the Napoleonic Wars. All of a sudden it’s thought of as a middle-class style, as opposed to all the styles before that were made for the aristocrats. When you think of the Hardings and what they’re doing, as opposed to this count from the old world – it all sort of fits for me.”
“I envy you. You've truly taken your father's place, now... It's incredible.”
In the Harding household the viewer also sees the strict gender segregation in early 19th century society, as Thomas and Friedrich are drinking and smoking in one room; the “smoking room” was considered an exclusive masculine space, to where men retired after dinner to smoke, drink spirits and discuss business, politics and other topics considered unsuited for women and children (meant to stay in the parlour room or the drawing room, as seen in the film).
In this scene the viewer also sees Thomas’ coveting his wealthy friend Friedrich’s accomplishments, mainly how he followed on his father’s footsteps, and became a patriarch, himself. Friedrich is the type of man Thomas aspires to become, which is of extreme importance to the narrative, moving forward. As Lily-Rose Depp elaborated: “Ellen looks at Anna and thinks, this is the kind of woman that I should be. And I think that Thomas also looks at Friedrich and thinks, this is the kind of man that I want to be.”
“And for your husband’s sake, I pray you learn how to conduct yourself with more deference.”
“No! Please, I’ll be good, I’ll be good, I promise…”
Robert Eggers has named David Lean's "Great Expectations" (1946) as one of his cinematic inspirations for his re-interpretation of "Nosferatu". Considered as one of the most faithful adaptations of the Charles Dickens novel, it deals wih themes of social class and aspirational wealth, and the consequences of ambition and climbing the social ladder.
In this story, the protagonist, Philip Pirrip "Pip", is also greatly in debt by living above his means, and spend the money he does not have in social clubs, fancy clothes, etc. because he wants to become a “gentleman” ("A young gentleman of great expectations!"), due to his ambition to join the upper classes, and to earn the love of wealthy Estella Havisham, who will never love him back, no matter how rich he becomes or appears (although Lean version gave it a different ending). Most literary critics interpret Pip love for Estella as a allegorical representation of his longing for social status; sort of like Thomas Hutter with both Ellen and Friedrich Harding.
Pip, like Thomas Hutter, is a good-natured, kind and sympathetic character, who loses sight of himself due to his immaturity, romantic idealism and ambition to climb the social ladder, and realises all too late how misguided he has been: "In trying to become a gentleman I had succeeded in becoming a snob".
David Lean, "Great Expectations", 1946
This dynamic was something Nicholas Hoult also discussed: "Rob [Eggers] would go in and be like, “Feel that. Feel the type of fabric that you have. This is not as nice as Aaron's character, who's wealthier than you.” So, all the little things like that, like on the pocket watch, being like, “This is your pocket watch. It's nice, but look at Aaron's pocket watch.” [Laughs] So, you feel the disparity between the socio-economic class of those two characters. You understand what it is that's driving him [Thomas] and what he's slightly embarrassed by." Friedrich Harding has a gold pocket watch, and as Aaron Taylor-Johnson explains in one interview; has his wife and children’s names engraved. In the same interview, Hoult said: "one of his [Thomas] driving things in this movie is trying to make money to provide a better life and kind of keep up with the Hardings [...] He really wants a gold watch."
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Disparity of class and aspiration: Thomas Hutter silver and Friedrich Harding's gold pocket watches
Yet, and in spite of the wealth, Anna and the children are Friedrich’s greatest treasure, as costume designer Linda Muir explained: “There is a distinct difference between Ellen and her friend Anna (Corrin), who is the most precious thing to her wealthy husband, Friedrich Harding (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). All of Anna's clothing— and she has many, many outfits— are unique and new. You can see by her outfits how much wealth she has at her disposal. With her, I used a lot of fabrics with gold threads in them. Many of her outfits were finished with a very luxe sheen to them. One reason was to reflect the character back in low lighting but I also wanted to suggest how precious she was to Harding.”
This "preciousness" can find reference in Francis Ford Coppola "Bram Stoker's Dracula", (1992), where Elisabeta, Dracula's wife, is also said to be the most precious thing to him (and he damns his soul because of her, after all): "his bride, Elisabeta, whom he prized above all things on earth". This also finds parallel in Herr Knock saying about Count Orlok breaking their covenant: "he cares only for his pretty bride, and she is his."
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Here, Robert Eggers did a sort of subversion of Werner Herzog’s adaptation, where it’s Jonathan who says “Lucy is the dearest thing in the world to me", and asks Schrader and Mina to take care of her, and treat her like a sister. In Robert Eggers' version, Thomas sets out on his journey motivated to climb the social ladder, and become as wealthy as his friend, Harding, and, as costume designer Linda Muir said, "it's his downfall".
This scene also establishes Friedrich Harding' sexual appetite for his wife, as Thomas calls him a "rutting goat", which is the opposite to his own, and he's waiting to get rich before having children with Ellen (which in a society where contraception wasn't commonly used meant sexual abstinence). As mentioned above, Friedrich's appetite will be further mentioned throughout the film. Friedrich recognizes his own nature in Ellen ("Her dashing young husband is leaving her bedside cold!"), which explains his resentment for her, due to Victorian views of female sexuality.
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"You always were a rutting goat."
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"I am most sensitive to your ardent
nature, and shan’t reprove you further in
this error of judgement."
The Hardings appear like the perfect family, with two precious children, to whom Anna seems entirely devoted to; her introduction scene is all about her children, and so it will be her death. Underneath the wealth and the family bliss, there's already darkness lingering in the Hardings household, as Craig Lathrop has discussed, and their introduction scene (similar to the Hutters) foreshadows their fate in the narrative.
“And my two girls… Two, Tom… I… I love them more than the world. Yet, I… Speak none of this to Ellen, or my Anna, but we another on the way. […] I cannot resist her.”
In "Nosferatu" (2024) narrative, the Harding sisters, Louise and Clara, work in a similar way to Mercy and Jonas from "The VVitch" (2015); Mercy and Jonas had a connection with Black Philip, and talked about "the witch" in affiliation with Thomasin often, here it's with the "monster" associated with Ellen. In this scene, Clara says to her parents she can't go to bed because "There is a monster
in the room!".
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"Papa! Papa! Don’t let her feed me to the monster! Stab him!"
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This dialogue foreshadows Ellen opening the window of the Hardings household for Count Orlok, and giving him entrance/invitation into the house, dooming everyone inside, as a consequence.
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Count Orlok killing the two Harding daughters can find reference in the "Dracula" novel if we take into consideration one interpretation of the "weird sisters" (which pop culture and most cinematic adaptations think of as "Dracula's brides", as his wives, even though these characters are never explicitly described as such in the book). Leonard Wolf in “The Annotated Dracula” (1975), essays the hyphotesis the "fair girl" of the "weird sisters" (which seems to be the "leader" of the three) might be Count Dracula's wife, and the other two their daughters, due to their physical resemblance to the Count ("dark, and had high aquiline noses, like the Count, and great dark, piercing eyes, that seemed to be almost red when contrasted with the pale yellow moon"). Robert Eggers mentioned Wolf's book on his essay to "The Hollywood Reporter": "I had Leonard Wolf’s The Annotated Dracula, which my grandfather had picked up for me at a used bookstore. I devoured it."
Bill Skarsgård revealed in an interview to "The Hollywood Reporter": "the Count had a family and was once married", as Robert Eggers wrote a few-pages novella on his backstory. As in the previous adaptations of "Nosferatu", the Count's victims don't turn into vampires, but rather die of the plague (with Hutter/Jonathan as the exception). With Friedrich Harding as one of his character mirror foils, the Count having two daughters and killing them when he rose from his grave a strigoi (instead of infecting them with vampirism like his book counterpart) is entirely possible, especially since Robert Eggers followed the "weird sisters" attack on Jonathan Harker very closely on his version, and the only way for the "other two" being present at the scene is if Count Orlok already has their souls alongside his own.
"Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep."
Another detail in this scene is the color of these children's hair, which is dark, while Louise and Clara Harding have blonde hair like their mother, Anna. The children are not wearing their night caps, either, and Count Orlok is feeding from the neck, instead of the chest (heart's blood). The viewer knows the children die of the plague, yet Professor Von Franz and Dr. Sievers say it "is present in its most rapidly fatal form, Pestis siderans", a "savage infection of the blood", and Friedrich Harding dies without a second bite. This sequence raises the question: is this "reality" or a nightmare/vision Anna Harding has before her death?
"My sweet ones, it’s time now for bed."
"Anna. Your bed is so dark, so small."
After the Hardings bid them goodnight, Ellen promises Thomas she has put her "fancies" behind her because they have each other. She ravishes him with kisses, as her nails dig into his neck and hurt him, paralleling Count Orlok feeding on him, later:
[I have felt you crawling like a serpent in my body] "It is not me. It is your own nature."
This scene of Ellen kissing Thomas finds reference in Francis Ford Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992), when Mina Murray sits down at the garden to kiss her fiancé Jonathan, as he is about to travel to Transylvania, and, similar to Ellen, nearly climbs his body. The scene transition is also invocative; while in the Coppola adaptation it's a peacock feather, here it's Ellen's braided hair.
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As Herr Knock is performing a Solomonar ceremonial ritual to conjure Count Orlok (inspired by Solomonic and Enochian magic systems), Ellen creates her "maiden's token" in the Hardings guestroom, the place where she'll have her trances and being kept in confinement during her "sickness".
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Ellen creating this token doesn't find reference in any previous "Nosferatu" adaptations nor in the "Dracula" novel. It does, however, find parallel in another book Robert Eggers has cited as one of his major inspirations: "Wuthering Heights" (1847) by Emily Brontë: "It was always clear to me that Nosferatu is a demon lover story, and one of the great demon lover stories of all time is Wuthering Heights, which I returned to a lot while writing this script", comparing Count Orlok with Heathcliff, and Ellen with Catherine Earnshaw.
Cathy’s Necklace and Edgar Linton dignified grief vs. Healthcliff all-consuming and tormented grief in Peter Kosminsky, “Wuthering Heights”, 1992
Ellen opens her silver heart-shaped locket and places a lock of her own hair inside. These sorts of gifts were considered a sign of love and devotion, at the time. Nevertheless, during the Victorian era, keeping locks of hair from deceased loved ones in pieces of jewellery, especially lockets, became fashionable, and part of what was called the “art of mourning”. Hair art originated in 17th Century, in England, as a practice to mourn and commemorate the dead, and by the 19th century, hair jewelry and wreaths were very common, in both Europe and the US.
There's two connections to thematic Death (Count Orlok) in this scene, and Ellen creates this token in front of her window (one of the visual storytelling devices of her connection with Count Orlok). Ellen has premonitions, and she knew Herr Knock would send Thomas away before it happened. Does she knows what her husband's destination is? The tone of this scene is eery and unsettling, and Lily-Rose Depp has talked about how Ellen is "calling the shots the entire time”, and Herr Knock ritual also confirms to the viewer Count Orlok needs to be conjured/invited for communications to happen.
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Ellen creates her "maiden's token" for Thomas' journey she foresaw
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The next morning, Ellen and the Hardings bid Thomas farewell on his journey, as is a part of every "Nosferatu" version. In all of these adaptations, Ellen/Lucy is shown to be distressed and anxious about his leaving.
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In Robert Eggers' adaptation, the small kiss Thomas gives Ellen, per the script, is said not to be enough for her, because she craves more passion from him. She gives him her token, calling it her "upmost faith" and makes Thomas promise to write, every day. He vows and reassures her the journey he's about to take is for them, for their future.
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While the "Last Goodbye" OST (composed by Robin Carolan) between Ellen and Thomas sounds more funeral-esque, in this "Goodbye" the music swells, it's tragic and symphonic, and invokes a farewell of monumental propotions. Ellen watches him leave with great distress, as she feels the weight of her premonition over her. And Thomas won't return the same.
* * *
- Dissecting "Nosferatu" (2024) [Part 1]: Prologue
- Dissecting "Nosferatu" (2024) [Part 3]: Thomas Lost in Nosferatu Shadow (1/3)
- Dissecting "Nosferatu" (2024) [Part 3]: Thomas Lost in Nosferatu Shadow (2/3)
- Dissecting "Nosferatu" (2024) [Part 4]: Dreams Grow Darker
- Dissecting "Nosferatu" (2024) [Part 5]: A Connection Between These Cases
- Dissecting "Nosferatu" (2024) [Part 6]: Thomas Lost in Nosferatu Shadow (3/3)
- Dissecting "Nosferatu" (2024) [Part 7]: The Ending
"Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie des Grauens" screencaps by the author: restoration versions by Photoplay Productions (1997); Eureka/Masters of Cinema (2006) and Kino Classics (2013)
"Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht" (1979) screencaps by the author
"Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992) screencaps by cap-that.com
"Wuthering Heights" (1992) screencaps by FanCaps.net
Set design photos: "The World of Interiors" and "Film and Furniture"
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