The Love Triangle in “Nosferatu” (2024): Thematic Symbolism of Thomas Hutter vs. Count Orlok

In one interview, Robert Eggers said: “the love triangle between Ellen, Thomas and Orlok is at the forefront of any discussion about what this film is.” Lily-Rose Depp was more direct in one layer of the symbolism of Thomas Hutter and Count Orlok to Ellen’s narrative: “There's a ghostliness to her [Ellen]. I always saw [Ellen] 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.”

Robert Eggers has been fascinated with the enigmatic fairytale of “Nosferatu” since he was nine years old, and even played Count Orlok in his own high school production of it, when he was 17 years old. As he revealed in several interviews: “The story of the demon lover is what connected to me”. “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.” As Willem Dafoe elaborated to "Deadline": "I’ve heard Robert describe it as a triangle between Ellen’s husband, who’s a loving guy, he loves her dearly, and he’s conscientious. He wants to be a good husband, but he doesn’t quite see her, and he doesn’t understand what she’s going through. And then on the other hand, you have this demon lover that attracts her, and she doesn’t know why, but somewhere there is a deep understanding there and a deep attraction."

Thomas Hutter and Count Orlok represent different themes in Ellen’s character arc. Having an understanding of what these two characters represent in Ellen's narrative, is also key to understand the narrative itself. But it’s more complex than it appears because there are many references at play in this story, and all of these themes are interwined.

Love vs. Passion

In “Nosferatu” (2024), “love” and “heart” take the central stage throughout the narrative, which is why Robert Eggers says it’s at the forefront of what this film is. The Victorian characters address each other constantly by “my love” or “my lovely”.

“Love”, at a conscious and superficial level, is connected with early 19th century society. And Count Orlok “cannot love” in the present, nor within Victorian society or its standards (a reference to the “Dracula” novel by Bram Stoker: “Yes, I too can love. You yourselves [three sisters] can tell it from the past. Is it not so?”). In order to understand why this is, one must comprehend the historical context and 19th centuries values and morals.

“You cannot love.”

Francis Ford Coppola's “Bram Stoker's Dracula”, 1992

As Robert Eggers has explained in several interviews, his “Nosferatu”, “it is also a love triangle. She has this loving relationship with her husband, but it doesn't have the passion that she has with this demon”; “No one can understand her [Ellen]. She has a very loving relationship with her husband, but he can't see this other side of her. The one person she does find a connection with, who can understand this other side of her is, unfortunately, a vampire. That makes for a very tragic love triangle.” 

Thomas loves Ellen but doesn’t understand her, while Count Orlok could only love in the past, but sees her. Yet, Thomas represents “love”, while Count Orlok represents “passion”. And this has an explanation, rooted in the historical context this story takes place.

“Your passion is bound to me.” 

Count Orlok says as he touches his heart

19th century European society was ruled by a rigid set of social and moral codes. Similar to the Victorian era morals, the Biedermeier period in Central Europe (early 19th century), was marked by bourgeois and middle classes values of domesticity, family, moderation and modesty, deeply rooted in Christian morals. Integrated in the “cult of domesticity”, the “ideal woman” was a mother and wife, absolutely devoted to her family and home, while men were expected to be strong, honorable and protectors/providers of their households.

These morals had a deep impact on romantic love. Marriage was the ultimate goal of love. Pre-marital relationships were watched carefully, and any deviation from the moral code (infidelity, unchastity or divorce) was met with severe social consequences. Marriage was a complex social contract, which served multiple purposes: social order, maintaining social status, ensuring financial stability and upholding family honor. 

“Look, when I return I will make something of myself-- I shall buy us a fine house of our own, with a maidservant […] I wish you to have all you deserve of--”

“Victorian love” was idealized to be chaste, modest and restrained. Aligned with the “cult of domesticity”, Victorian love was also “domesticated”, tempered devotion confined to the household. According to Walter Houghton, “Victorian Frame of Mind”, married love was a sacrament, meant to exclude animalistic impulses. Unrestrained passion and erotism, was not love, but lust, the author said. True love was familial and domestic, and “passion” was considered the opposite of “love”, and corruptive. Victorian love was an alchemy where the wife disappears into her husband’s legal identity, and becomes his property. 

“How should I have earned such a doting wife?”

This is a theme choreographer Marie-Gabrielle Rotie has address in interviews: “your body does not belong to you to a certain extent. It belongs to your husband or to the patriarchies," she says. "For Ellen to find her way through all of that and then to reach her own conclusion was an interesting journey to take with her.” 

Ellen’s sexuality is not her own, it belongs to her husband, as it was believed in the early 19th century; hence her being considered a “doting wife” when she expresses sexuality, or thinks of Count Orlok as a demon possessing her due to her sexual desire, both for him, and as a whole, as a feeling. So, very much historically accurate, this is her answer to Count Orlok saying it’s not him, but her “own nature”:

“No. I love Thomas.”

Marital (heterosexual) sex was the only socially acceptable sexual expression in the 19th century, and everything else (masturbation, homosexuality, prostitution, etc.) was considered deviant, and labeled as “sinful”, “demonic” and “evil”. Sex was considered a marital duty to serve the husband, and often seen as a painful task women had to go through to have children. Women had no property nor money of their own; upon their wedding, all their dowry and inheritance would belong to their husbands. Women were property, themselves.

During this time period, women were also believed to have no sexual desire, whatsoever. And if they did, there was something evil, deviant and demonic about them, or, as Ellen puts it,  using a reference from the “Dracula” novel: “unclean”. The moral panic surronding female sexuality in the 19th century can be seen in the pathologization made by Medicine throughout the century, and present in several essays. The paper “Fearing the passions of women. Female desire and sexuality in the nineteenth century” by Véronique Molinari makes an excellent analysis of this topic. 

“He is my shame. He's my melancholy! He stalks me in my dreams, all my sleeping thoughts are of him, every night--”

This quote by 19th century essayist, William Rathbone Greg, encapsulates how female sexuality was seen at the time: “In men, in general, the sexual desire is inherent and spontaneous... In the other sex, the desire is dormant, if not non-existent... If the passions of women were ready, strong and spontaneous, in a degree even approaching the form they assume in the coarser sex, there can be little doubt that sexual irregularities would reach a height, of which, at present, we have happily no conception.” 

“You could never please me as he could.”

“Keep away from me. I'm unclean!”

This quote provides context for Robert Eggers adaptation of “Nosferatu”, as well. Ellen awakes Count Orlok at the prologue, and he brings plague and death to Wisburg because of her. To Thomas, she says “I brought this evil upon us”. Her “nature” (Sex and death) unleashed a plague upon mankind. It’s the Victorian nightmare come true. And presented to the audience as “demonic” and “evil” because that’s how it was perceived at the time, and Robert Eggers wanted to stay through 19th century lenses.

While Victorian society was governed by ideals of morality and modesty, there was also a private fascination with the forbidden and the transgressive, evident in the popularity of Gothic novels and the exploration of darker themes such as madness, sexuality, the supernatural and the complexities of love and desire, the tension between individual freedom and social constraints. All of these themes are present in “Nosferatu” (2024).

One of the prime examples being “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë, where passion, obsession and tragedy challenge the idealized portrayal of love from earlier literature. Marked by the intense and destructive love between Heathcliff and Catherine, the novel deals with themes of revenge, the destructive power of love and social class.

“Yet, I cannot be sated without you.”

Amidst the domesticated Victorian love, there was dark, fierce and cannibalistic passion on the side, explored in Gothic novels, illustrating the savagery of the heart, the desire to devour, where love and eating weren’t so different, after all. Torn between prudishness and erotism, repression and explosion, the cozy warmth of the home and the sexuality of the streets, domestic sphere and liberation, society and nature.

“Kiss me. Kiss my heart, my heart!”

Society vs. Nature

“Ellen's shame” is connected to her sexuality and sexual desires which, according to 19th century society, she should not have. But it’s much more than that, it’s also her dissatisfaction with her gender role; she can’t be anything else other than a wife, trapped inside of the domestic sphere. This is something Lily-Rose Depp also discussed: “Something I was thinking about a lot when constructing the character emotionally is that she is dealing with kind of an internal war, accepting aspects of herself that the society she's living in has no room for. Coming to terms with the darkness within herself, she's desperately trying to suppress it.”

“It all ended when I first met my Thomas. From our love, I became as normal.”

And this “internal war” has plagued Ellen since her teenage years, according to Lily-Rose Depp: “She's 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 early 19th century, women, on average, weren't allowed to have an education (and not without their fathers or their husbands approval). Women weren't suppose to have nor aspire to seek knowledge outside of the domestic; being a wife and a mother was their destiny. “Biology is woman's destiny” was one of the major themes of the Second-Wave of Feminism in the 1970s, since it was considered one of roots of women's historical oppression.

In her scenes at the beach (nature), Ellen is shown to have curiosity and will to learn about the mysteries of life: “What I wish to say is that you are not truly present nor alive, as if you were at the whim of another... like a doll, and someone or some thing had the power to breathe life into you, to move you. Look at the sky! Look at the sea! Does it never call to you? Urge you? Something is close at hand!” While Anna calls it “God”, Ellen says it’s “destiny”.

When Ellen connects her destiny to nature, she’s setting herself apart from the society she lives in, where a woman's entire life revolved around men: obeying their fathers, preparing for marriage, seeking an husband, and, as wife, living entirely for her husband and children. As a result, Anna dismisses her words as a consequence of her “melancholy”, calling her a “sweet romantic”. Ellen gets distressed and promises: “I’m not mad, Anna.”

Ellen’s repression is also seen in the infantilization she does of herself before these 19th century characters: “Everything I say sounds so childish”, and she often finds excuses to dismiss her gifts, not only because these characters can’t understand her, but she lacks the knowledge to understand herself due to the society she lives in, where she’s constantly being called “melancholic” and “hysteric”. 

As Robert Eggers explained in one interview: “Ellen has always understood and sensed the other, and she's highly tuned into the otherworldly. She's a deep person, but she doesn't have the language to talk about this stuff. As a young woman in this period, she also doesn't have any authority. So she's being called melancholic and crazy, and so forth. And so she's a very misunderstood character. So as much as Orlok is a demon, there is also something that he offers. Until she meets Von Franz, no one else is able to even possibly communicate with her.”

Thomas represents society, as he is her 19th century husband, and aspires to become like Friedrich Harding (the Victorian patriarch ideal). As Lily-Rose Depp has said: “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.” The Hardings are the perfect Victorian family; lead by a patriarch, a submissive and deeply religious wife, who lives entirely for her husband and children.

The strict gender separation in the Hardings household: public (men) vs. domestic sphere (woman)

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

“I envy you. You’ve truly taken your father’s place now... it’s incredible.”

The Hardings are the couple Ellen and Thomas wish to emulate, because that’s what 19th century society expects of them. Thomas wishes and aspires to become like Friedrich; a successful man, with a good and wealthy house, and a devoted and comfortably settled wife, who elevates his social respectability. As Lily-Rose Depp explained: “she [Ellen] wants so badly to be what he [Thomas] needs and what he wants, and I think he so badly wants to be what she wants... [but] she has this side to her that he can't understand, unfortunately, but I think is fulfilled in her pull to Orlok”. And what Thomas thinks Ellen wants is a bigger house and a maid, because she deserves the best domestic experience, as such he's driven to go out and try to conquer these things for her. 

Count Orlok represents nature; not only by the association with the lilacs, the windows (who have to be open to give him entrance/invitation), and he’s a Solomonar, a great sorcerer who commands the winds and sky (nature). Everytime there’s nature in Ellen’s narrative, it’s connected to Count Orlok.

But he’s much more, too, because he’s an enchanter, a ceremonial magician, an alchemist, and (as seen by the library in his castle) a scholar. He represents knowlegde, education, but also the occult and magic; all the things that were off limits to middle-class women in the 19th century. 

Repression vs. Liberation

Repression is at the core of the narrative, as Lily-Rose Depp has said. Robert Eggers also mentioned this, several times: “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”. However, Ellen’s repression isn’t merely sexual: it’s the repression of one's nature, of one's true self, in order to fit social standards and expections, and, especially, gender roles. 

“But Thomas, it was you that gave me the courage to me free from my shame-- you!”

“It is not me. It is your nature.”

This repression is visible throughout the film, as Ellen denies herself, and tries her harder to fit into a society which has no place for her. Or better yet, it has, in a asylum: like her father threatened her with when he found her masturbating (“Sin! Sin, he said… He would have sent me to someplace…”), and Friedrich Harding declared: “Frau Hutter is mad and should have been locked up long ago.” Her fate, in this society, wouldn’t be so different from Herr Knock’s (their narratives parallel each other, after all).

And when Thomas says he’ll fetch Dr. Sievers to deal with Ellen’s trance (her nature), her reaction is breaking it off and vow: “I’ll be good, I’ll be good… I promise”; which makes a chilly callback to what Friedrich Harding told her, earlier: “Find the dignity to display the respect to your caretaker […] and for your husband’s sake, I pray you might learn to conduct yourself with more deference.”

The pathologization of Ellen’s body has been discussed by choreographer Marie-Gabrielle Rotie: “I was really interested in the medicalization of [Ellen's] body. That's why both Rob and I leaned into looking at notions of hysteria and the documentation of hysteria in the 19th century, which tallied extremely well with the period in which [the film] is set. I was thinking about how that body is literally corsetted in. It's repressed, it's controlled, it's laced up, it's buttoned up— and how Lily might work against that and try to find her way out of it in some form.”

“I am disposed to recommend that she sleep in her corset. It encourages the correct posture, calms the womb, and revives circulation. And if her stirring escalates, you can  always tie her to the bed.”

This was also mentioned by costume designer Linda Muir, and how the corset is a representation of Ellen’s repression and control by 19th century society: “one example of costume design serving the plot, as you mentioned, is Ellen's corset. I came across a particular style called a fan-laced corset during my research, which l've also referred to as a "self-tying corset"— though it doesn't actually tie itself! This type of corset can be tightened from the front, allowing the wearer to adjust it independently. For Robert, this design was ideal. When Ellen is in the throes of her supernatural connection with Orlok, the men around her - Sievers and Harding -try to impose control by tightening her corset. Because of the fan-laced design, we can see her anguish and convulsions, as well as the men's oppressive actions, without needing to obscure her face or body by laying her prone.”

Historically, corsets have always been considered an instrument of women's oppression, so it's not surprising to see them having the same meaning in “Nosteratu” (2024). Corsets were restrictive devices that rendered women immobile, passive and prone to fainting, and the Feminist movement of the 20th century saw them as “as one of the quintessential Victorian social horrors”. Recently, there has been a different discourse surrounding corsets (especially on social media) but Ellen is shown to have her corset tighten beyond what would be considered comfortable, even by 19th century standards, and here it appears a part of her medical treatment. 

Corsets were also considered a sign of respectability, because they controlled the body, and, by extension, physical passions. And, indeed, we see Ellen’s corset consume her, to the point she tries to break free from it when she exposes her true nature to Thomas:

As Linda Muir explains, Ellen’s costumes also represent how she’s liberating herself from this society, and provide a justification on why Ellen ends the film naked: “her true nature [takes over] in the end. She liberates herself by ripping herself open, ripping her striped dress open. She liberates herself by wearing the same garment over and over and over again when she's staying at Harding's home. So she's liberated herself in that she doesn't feel the need to dress up completely each and every day. And then she liberates herself completely in the end.”

When Ellen declares to Professor Von Franz “I need no salvation. My entire life I’ve done no ill but heed my nature” it shows how detached from 19th century society she has become. She no longer denies herself, nor thinks of her nature as something shameful. At the funeral, she claims to have no more tears to shed, but she cries when the Professor tells her “in heathen times, you might have been a great priestess of Isis”. She has no more tears for the society that shames and opresses her: she's liberated.

And when the Professor tells her she’s their salvation is not about 19th century society: these are two outcast with no place in said society. He’s talking about Nosferatu, yes, but also about Count Orlok, whose soul is trapped inside the rotting corpse, and Ellen knows what to do to free them both because it's part of her covenant with him.

Life vs. Death

Lily-Rose Depp has made this symbolism very clear in her interview, as does the film. Count Orlok, as the folk vampire, is a representation of death and disease. As Professor Von Franz says when describing Nosferatu: “It is a force more powerful than evil. It's death itself.” And the ending shot, according to Robert Eggers, was inspired by the Renaissance motif “Death and the maiden”: “when you see Lily-Rose looking like a doll and Bill looking like a skull with a mustache, it's a powerful contrast.” Orlok is an empty husk, but so is Ellen, their souls have ascended, together.

Ellen is torn between life (Thomas) and death (Count Orlok), and, at the end, she chooses death. But this is not so straightforward as it appears.

“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.”

As Robert Eggers has explained: “People talk a lot about Lily-Rose Depp's character's sexual desire, which is a massive part of the character, of what she experiences - being shut down, and corseted up, and tied to the bed, and quieted with ether. Misunderstood, misdiagnosed. But it's more than that. She 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. Then she makes the ultimate sacrifice, and she's able to reclaim this power through death.”

“I relinquished him my soul...  I should have been the Prince of Rats – immortal... but he cares only for his pretty bride, and she is his.”

Ellen leaves behind this 19th century life, as she accepts Count Orlok's covenant and breaks his curse. But death is a pathway to another life, and Robert Eggers reframed the human sacrifice into its pre-Christian religious context, connected to the beliefs held by his Count Orlok. As seen by his iconography (his sigil), this Count Orlok is a Pagan enchanter. Robert Eggers adapted the academic thesis which links the folkloric Solomonari to the Dacians and their religion, where their “highest” worship was the God Zalmoxis (of life and death).

“Solomonari. And their codex of secrets.”

According to historian Mircea Eliade, in “Zalmoxis, the Vanishing God”, the mythology around Zalmoxis is related to ecstasy, death, and the peregrinations of the soul (immortality, transmigration, reincarnation), which are also core themes in “Nosferatu”. In religious language, “ecstasy” is not merely sexual pleasure or orgasm, according to Eliade: is “considered a temporary death, for the soul was believed to leave the body”, allowing the priest or priestess to access and communicate with the spiritual world (which is what Ellen does, because she is a seeress). 

Human sacrifices were held in honor of Zalmoxis, but it was believed the sacrificed messenger would earn immortality. Which is what Herr Knock was after, but Count Orlok only cares about Ellen (as he bitterly says), and she's the one who will earn immortality through her sacrifice, freeing him from his curse, and for them to be one with each other, ever-eternally.

These human sacrifices were considered a initiation rite: “an “initiate” into the “Mysteries” established by Zalmoxis.” To the Dacians (and other civilizations with similar pratices): “the journey to heaven is made in “ecstasy,” that is, in the spirit: it is only the shaman’s soul that undertakes the celestial ascent. But according to certain mythological traditions, in the beginning, in ilia tempore the meeting with the god took place in the flesh.” Besides delivering a message to Zalmoxis, the purpose of these human sacrifices was “the assurance of the soul's immortality and bliss” (of the one who’s being sacrificed). This was connected to the “ritual of ecstatic (“shamanic”) ascent to heaven”.

When reading the script early on, [Bill] Skarsgård wrote a note down that the finale was “death and ecstasy,” he says. In his last moments, Orlok is “seeing the sun for the first time in hundreds of years. So he's mesmerized by it and fear and all of these different things. And in a way, maybe that is what Orlok wanted all along.”

In the end, Ellen leaves behind 19th century society, and its repression, but she still chooses life and love. Count Orlok, now free from his curse and the Faustian bargain he was trying to escape, can love Ellen, as he did in the past.