"You are my Affliction": Becoming Nosferatu and a Faustian Bargain Gone Wrong

"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."

A laughter haunts the narrative of "Nosferatu" (2024). Herr Knock laughs after saying Ellen “truly is beautiful. A nonpareil. Almost… a sylph” (and a few more times throughout the film); the Romani laugh at Thomas once he arrives at Transylvania; Anna laughs during her "Blood plague" delirium, and Ellen laughs when Thomas recoils from her during the “demonic sex scene” and says “Without you, I’m to become a demon”. The official trailer is also haunted by this laughter.

All of these laughs return to one character, who also laughs in the extended version, after telling Thomas about the traditions and beliefs of Saint Andrew’s Eve in Transylvania, and how "every nightmare freely treads upon this earth, ascendent from the torturous grave": Count Orlok. In the script, this laugh is described as a "Mephistophelian Laugh".

This is a reference to Mephistopheles' laugh, from the 1859 opera “Faust” by French composer, Charles Gounod, considered one of the world’s most popular operas from the mid-19th century until World War II. Adapted from the play “Faust et Marguerite” by Michel Carré, loosely inspired by 1808 “Faust: A Tragedy” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The “Mephistophelian Laugh” is a famous expression of demonic mockery, conveying power and malice, like the demon Mephistopheles throughout Gounod's “Faust” opera, when he has his way, and is closer to get Faust’s soul. 

Ary Scheffer, “Faust in his Study”, c.1840

Goethe’s “Faust” tells the tragic tale of an old scholar who becomes depressed and thinks of ending his life. The character of “Faust” is based on the legends surrounding 16th century German alchemist and magician Johann Georg Faust. Enter the demon Mephistopheles (or Mephisto), who wagers a bet with God that he can tempt Faust to commit evil acts, and gain his soul and service for all eternity. 

Mephistopheles appears to Faust during his existential crisis, and the old scholar accepts to sell his soul. In Gounod's Faust, Mephistopheles promises him youth and the love of the beautiful Marguerite. In Goethe’s version, Mephistopheles promises to give Faust bliss that he shall never want to leave, and on the day that bliss happens, Faust’s soul shall be his to spend eternity in Hell, as a demon, himself. Transformed into a young man, Faust earns Marguerite’s love and gets her pregnant, yet, influenced by Mephistopheles’ tricks, leaves her, which causes her to kill their child and end up in prison. At the end, Faust manages to escape eternal damnation in Hell because of love and grace, and Mephistopheles doesn’t get his soul.

There are several versions of this story, but it always follow the same formula: a scholar sells his soul to Mephistopheles in exchange for unlimited knowledge and/or worldly pleasures. The demon helps him seduce a beautiful and innocent young woman (usually called Marguerite or Gretchen), whose life is destroyed when she gives birth to Faust's illegitimate son. She dies at the end, but her soul is saved, and often Faust’s soul is saved because of her, too. In other versions, Faust can’t trick Mephistopheles and the demon gets his soul. 

There’s an older version of this story, by 16th century Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe; “The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus”. Similar to Goethe’s Faust, the protagonist is also a scholar. But in this play, he conjures a demon from the Underworld seeking to master Necromancy. 

Mephistopheles appears and warns him about the horrors of Hell, and how he serves Lucifer. Nevertheless, Faustus ignores the demon’s warnings and signs a contract in his own blood: Mephistopheles will serve him for twenty-four years, after which Lucifer will claim Faustus, body and soul. Through the years, he almost repents and turns to God, but Lucifer shows him the Seven Deadly Sins (pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth). At the end of the play, the twenty-four years are up, and Lucifer arrives to reclaim Faustus soul, who is damned to Hell, for eternity.

“Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror” (1922)

F. W. Murnau, the director of the original “Nosferatu”, also directed a Faust adaptation in 1926: “Faust – A German Folktale”. Influenced by older legends and by Goethe’s “Faust”, the plot is somewhat similar to other versions. At the end, however, Gretchen is to be burned at the stake. Faust wishes he had never asked for his youth back, and Mephisto returns him to his old self. As Gretchen is about to be executed, Faust jumps into the fire to die alongside her. Even though he’s an old man, she sees him as the young man she loves, and they kiss, as the fire consumes them together. At the end, their souls rise to heaven. Mephisto doesn’t get Faust’s soul because love has triumphed.

“Faust - A German Folktale” (1926)

I. A Faustian Bargain

This reference is present in Robert Eggers adaptation of “Nosferatu” because, and according to Bill Skarsgård, Count Orlok made a “Faustian bargain”, which he regrets and is trying to trick, escape from: “Can you escape death? That's the bargain Orlok took, and he's not very happy about it, but it's a Faustian bargain. Can you trick it?” Which is what Professor Von Franz discovers when he finds Orlok's "Solomonari Codex of Secrets" in Herr Knock's office, and uncovers the Count's intentions with Ellen, as he declares "she is the way" (for the Professor to unlock the final key to Dr. John Dee’s “Mysteriorum Libri Quinque”, and create the Philosopher’s Stone).

In the original 1922 film, it is said Nosferatu is a spawn of the Goetic demon Belial (aligned with the Solomonic Magic inspiration in this tale) and, while in the “Dracula” novel it’s never explicitly said how Count Dracula became a vampire, Van Helsing believes it was due to his sorcery and black magic learnings at the Scholomance. In both cases, it seems a Faustian bargain also happened; 1922 Count Orlok with the demon Belial, and Count Dracula with the Devil, most likely to earn immortality, ending damned as a result (although it’s unclear in both cases if these characters are unhappy with their respective deals).  

"A black enchanter he was in life. Solomonar. The Devil preserved his soul that his corpse may walk again in blasphemy."

“In the name of Jehovah, and by the power and dignity of these Three names, Tetragrammaton, Anaphaxeton and Primeumaton, cast thee, O thou disobedient Spirit Nosferatu, into the Lake of Fire, there to remain until the Day of Doom, and not to be remembered before the face of God who shall come to judge the quick and the dead and the world with fire.”

Professor Von Franz makes use of the Triangle of Solomon when casting out the "disobedient Spirit Nosferatu" into the "Lake of Fire" (in the film the second name was replaced by "Anexhexeton", which is common when cinema deals with the occult). In the grimoires of the "Key of Solomon" (like the "Solomonari codex of secrets") the "magic triangle" was often used as a part of the invocation to curse Goetic demons into the bottomless abyss, or back to Hell. In the Kabbalah, there are ten "divisions" (Sephirah) of Hell, as there are of Heaven.

Documents on Professor Von Franz's office: The Kabbalistic Tree of Life (Ten Sephirot), with the Tree of Death (Qliphoth) on the left; while each Sephirah on the Tree of Life represent aspects of the Divine (wisdom, compassion, justice, etc.), its shadow side on the Qliphoth symbolizes the realms of chaos, darkness and unholiness.

In the Kabbalah, the Tree of Life and the Tree of Death are not separate, but conjoined. Each Sephirot on the Tree of Life, has a shadow correspondent in the Qliphoth. The Kabbalistic purpose is not to destroy the Tree of Death, but redeem and reintegrate it to achieve wholeness, in a process very similar to Carl Jung's integration of shadow. But that's a topic for another post.

"I should have been the "prince of rats", immortal [...] I am blasphemy."

When the Professor stabs Herr Knock, he says: "Die you accursèd mis-birth of Hell!", which provides the context for the "Lake of Fire" he mentioned earlier. Herr Knock was after the "secret" to become the "prince of rats" (Nosferatu), after all; which Count Orlok never shared with him, and dismisses him; similar to 1979 "Nosferatu", where Renfield calls Count Dracula the "master of rats". In both adaptations, Count Orlok/Dracula sends Knock/Renfield away as soon as they arrived at Wisburg/Wismar.

"Silence, dog! Your entreaties grow insolent. You shall crave of me nothing."

"Go north... to Riga. The army of rats and the Black Death will beseech you."

However, the use of the term "prince" (instead of "master") is relevant, because all clues in Robert Eggers' adaptation also point towards a Goetic demon, and Belial is often considered one of the "four princes of Hell", associated, among other things, with death, chaos, disease and famine. He is said to demand blood sacrifice for truthful answers (which fits the vampire, and reframes Knock's behavior as offerings to this demonic entity), yet, he is known for being extremely deceitful. Depending on the source, Belial is often associated with Satan, and sometimes they are said to be one of the same, while others propose they are opposites.

Both Belial and Satan are said to appear as a beautiful man, and, in theological writtings, to use beauty for deceptive purposes. Herr Knock mentions Ellen's beauty three times in the film, and twice he laughs like Mephistopheles; when he compares her to a sylph, and when he's talking about Orlok's desire for Ellen, almost in mockery ("’Twas I that was chosen to serve Him for I know what He covets"). The third time, he bitterly says Orlok broke their covenant because "he cares only for his pretty bride".

"She is a pretty one. His Lordship loves the pretty ones best." 

Robert Eggers' fans have noticed a similitarity between the "Handsome Roma man" of "Nosferatu" (2024) and Black Philip from "The VVitch" (2015), as their appareance and costume are somewhat alike; long dark hair and beard, a black hat, and a dark cape. These are different actors, yet the resemblance between the two characters is significant. The "Handsome Roma man" also laughs like Mephistopheles when Thomas Hutter arrives at Transylvania. 

"Black Philip" (Satan) in "The VVitch" (2015), as Thomasin signs his book and sells her soul to him

The Handsome Roma Man stares into Thomas Hutter's soul in “Nosferatu” (2024)

In the "Dracula" novel, the Romani are associated with Count Dracula, being his faithful servants, and, as described by Jonathan Harker, assisting him in transporting his coffin and boxes of earth to the harbour, and fighting the "vampire hunters" at the end of the book, as Dracula is trying to make it back to his castle. 

"A band of Szgany have come to the castle, and are encamped in the courtyard. These are gipsies. I have notes of them in my book. They are peculiar to this part of the world, though allied to the ordinary gipsies all the world over. There are thousands of them in Hungary and Transylvania, who are almost outside all law. They attach themselves as a rule to some great noble or boyar, and call themselves by his name. They are fearless and without religion, save superstition, and they talk only their own varieties of the Romany tongue."

Thomas Hutter and three "spikes of cold iron"

However, the "Handsome Roma man" not only tells Thomas to return home once he arrives, but he also shows him the folk method to destroy a vampire; with a "spike of cold iron" through the heart. Which Thomas will attempt to do twice, later on: when he finds Count Orlok on his sarcophagus, and at the end, when he accidentally stabs Herr Knock (both in reference to the "Dracula" novel).

When Thomas discovers the crypt of the castle, the stone floor near Orlok's sarcophagus was removed, the soil dig out and a pick-axe was left behind. According to production designer Craig Lathrop, this is part of a backstory, which can only be based on the "Dracula" novel, which returns us to the Romani, and to the "Handsome Roma man". The soil was removed and used to fill the sarcophagus because Count Orlok is about to travel to Wisburg, and he needs to rest on the earth where he was buried during the day. And an object that can truly destroy Count Orlok, is conveniently left behind for Thomas by a mysterious character that laughed like Mephistopheles and resembles the Devil from "The VVitch" (2015).

The instructions on the "Solomonari codex of secrets" are not about destroying Count Orlok. As Lily-Rose Depp has said, their purpose is "breaking the curse" of Nosferatu Orlok has on himself, caused by a Faustain bargain he regrets and is trying to escape from, via the instructions on his codex. And Ellen, like Professor Von Franz said, "is the way". Without her to break the curse of Nosferatu, Orlok will become a demon, because either Belial or the Devil will, finally, get his soul and, like the classic Faustian tale, damn him to Hell for all eternity. And, like in every Faustian story, Mephistopheles will work his tricks to prevent Faust (in this case, Orlok) from escaping their bargain.

"Redemption!"

II. "You Are My Affliction"

As Bill Skarsgård said, Count Orlok sold his soul to "escape death". Yet, this is not so simple as it appears. While Count Dracula most likely sold his soul in exchange for immortality, and 1922 Count Orlok probably did, as well, Robert Eggers adapted the academic thesis which links the folkloric Solomonari with Zalmoxis religion, and the Solomonar, in this story, are Pagan enchanters, followers of Zalmoxis (the Dacian God of Life and Death) who taught immortality to his disciples. 

This Count Orlok already had the secrets to immortality (of the soul) and did not fear death, on the contrary, he welcomed it, as it’s part of Zalmoxis religious beliefs, related to ecstasy, death and the peregrinations of the soul (out-of-body experiences, transmigration and reincarnation). Human sacrifices were made to Zalmoxis, where the sacrificed was believed to earn immortality (the meaning of the sacrifice in this interpretation). As a consequence, this cannot be what Orlok was after when he sold his soul, either to a demon or to the Devil, because no one sells their soul in exchange for a knowledge they already possess. No, his purpose had to be something else.

“Very often, folk vampires didn’t drink blood,” [Robert] Eggers tells "Bloody Disgusting". “They would sometimes suffocate people. They would sometimes return to their widows and fornicate with their widows until they died from being oversexed. But these early folk vampires, if they did drink blood, they would often drink it from the chest. For this film that is both a scary horror movie but also a tale of obsession, a love triangle, a Gothic romance, there’s something poetic about drinking heart blood. I also think it comes from Old Hag syndrome; sleep paralysis where you’re having a waking dream, and you feel the pressure on your chest. So that’s where it comes from.”

According to Adrien Cremene in his “La Mythologie du vampire en Roumanie”, the strigoi myth dates back to the Dacians. Strigoi are creatures of Dacian mythology, troubled or evil souls, the spirits of the dead whose actions made them unworthy of entering the kingdom of Zalmoxis. 

Count Orlok is a strigoi, an early folk vampire, as confirmed by both the film and Robert Eggers in interviews: "I think, for a long time, Romanian folklorists weren’t willing to call strigoi — which is their word for vampires — vampires. They were saying that a vampire is an Anglo literary invention, and their strigoi was another thing altogether. Also, the conflation with Vlad the Impaler/Vlad Tepes [is] complicated. Even though he was cruel, he is, in some ways, a national hero. Aside from Mihai the Brave, he was one of the few rulers who united all of the Romanian states as one. So, they weren’t into it very much, but they know that it’s a good tourist attraction. But I think in the past 10 or 20 years, more folklorists are cool with calling strigoi vampires, [which includes] Florin Lazarescu, who’s Romanian screenwriter, poet, and novelist who worked with us on the Romanian dialect and creating the ancient language that Orlok uses for his magical spells, and general vampire lore."

“Dau cu ustoroi de strigoi. Dau cu ustoroi de strigoi”

In another interview, Robert Eggers said: "My influences are all very clear, and Nosferatu is a remake, after all,” Eggers says, yet he plays with the canon, with expectations and clichés – “hopefully subverting them to do something unexpected." 

It appears this is one of those subversions, a new angle to cheat/escape death, not his own, but someone else’s. An unacceptance of death, all the same. This would mean renouncing his Solomonar teachings, and Zalmoxis, himself. Which, after all, is not so far from “Dracula” themes of forsaking God in favor of the Devil. 

Francis Ford Coppola, "Bram Stoker's Dracula", 1992

There are Necromancy themes in “Nosferatu” (2024); with Ellen awakening Count Orlok from his slumber at the prologue. She says “I brought this evil upon us” because she “called out”, seeking tenderness, comfort and company. And, indeed, she caused Count Orlok to stir from his grave due to her prayer, which is aligned with Necromancy and resurrecting the dead.

According to production designer Craig Lathrop, Count Orlok self-entombed himself hundred years before the events of the film, and only came out of his sarcophagus when Ellen called out to him, at the prologue: "It [the castle] needed to feel like Orlok has gone in his sarcophagus a hundred years ago, and he’s decided not to come out again until Ellen awakens him.”

It seems, the Count was already cursed, but made the decision to lock himself on his grave and go into deep slumber, instead of spreading death and disease all around him. Which is very unusual as "vampire nature" is concerned (and Dracula stories go), but speaks of his motivation in this tale. According to Robert Eggers, his Count Orlok's, unlike his book counterpart, Count Dracula, isn't interested in "world domination" of spreading vampirism/death: “In this “Nosferatu”, he's coming for Ellen". As Herr Knock bitterly says: "he cares only for his pretty bride". His first words to her are "you", which suggest he not only knows what she is (seeress), but who she is. And it's almost as if he was waiting for her... return? The "return of the dead" is also a core belief in the Daco-Thracian religion of Zalmoxis, after all.

“I have crossed oceans of time to find you.” 

(Francis Ford Coppola’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”, 1992)

"You are not for the living. You are not for human kind."

In an interview, Robert Eggers said about Count Orlok and Ellen on his version: "They're together, he disappears, and then he returns to destroy her, but 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". However, Orlok tries to "destroy" (kill) Ellen right at the prologue, and when one begins to unravel the narrative of "Nosferatu", it's clear Ellen and Count Orlok were never "together"... in Ellen's current incarnation, and he was no more than a shadow at her window, or a presence in her dreams. The director also mentioned the Slavic and Balkan folklore of the strigoi raising from their graves to return to their widows, several times, because strigoi haunt their living relatives.

Count Orlok calls Ellen “his affliction” (disease, suffering) after revealing he was a “loathsome beast” in the “darkest pit” for centuries, until she awoke him “from an eternity of darkness”. This choice of words highly suggests she’s somehow connected to the reason for him being cursed. And if I'm being honest with the reader, when I saw this film for the first time (and before reading the interviews), I thought Ellen was the one who cursed him with her prayer, since he calls her “enchantress” (to his “enchanter”). 

Recognition

Perhaps, we have a similar situation to Christopher Marlowe’s “Faustus”, with Count Orlok selling his soul in exchange for the secrets of Necromancy (considered the darkest form of Black Magic) to raise someone from the grave; which, after all, is against everything Zalmoxis teaches about the immortality of the soul and the Afterlife. 

This hypothesis aligns with every inspiration we have in this story:  

1. It would make Count Orlok unworthy of entering Zalmoxis blessing kingdom after his physical death, which would turn him into a strigoi;  
2. Like Count Dracula, it would include his learnings at the Scholomance, connected to Solomonic magic of conjuring and binding demons; 
3. It would make Nosferatu a demonic creation as in the original 1922 film;
4. The Orthodox Nuns would be correct in saying “the Devil preserved his soul that his corpse may walk again in blasphemy". They are only partially wrong about the Solomonar being “black enchanters” as a whole.

But, as usual with Faustian bargains tales, Count Orlok did not get what he was after, and ended cursed, instead. In a way, he did got it (since he raised from his own death as a strigoi), just not how he wanted, because that’s the cautionary tale of these stories. 

Count Dracula's devilish laugh in Francis Ford Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula", 1992

In the "Dracula" novel, a chilling laughter is associated with three characters Jonathan Harker calls the "three sisters" or "weird sisters". In pop culture, they became known as "brides of Dracula" and that's how they are represented in most adaptations, but they are never described as such in the book. F.W. Murnau "replaced" the "three sisters" with Count Orlok, himself, and Robert Eggers included the "Fair girl" of the "three sisters" on his own adaptation, but this is a topic to explore in another post.

In 1997, a printer’s copy of “Dracula”, titled “The Un-Dead”, was found on a farm in Pennsylvania, and scholars were allowed to study it. Robert Eighteen-Bissang included a new passage from Jonathan Harker’s diary (June 29; the date of his last letter), where it seems Bram Stoker was inspired by the “three witches” of Macbeth to create the “three sisters”: “I dared not wait to see him [Dracula] return, for I feared to see those weird sisters. How right was Shakespeare, no one would believe that after three hundred years one should see in this fastness of Europe the counterpart of the witches of Macbeth.”

The “three witches” of Macbeth (also called the “weird sisters”) are prophetesses devoted to the Goddess Hecate who lead to Macbeth demise and hold a striking resemblance to the three Fates of classical mythology, and represent darkness, chaos, and conflict in the play. Curious enough, Lady Macbeth also sleepwalks in the play, like Lucy Westenra.

The identity of these three women is unclear in the novel, as they are always referred to as “sisters” (although so are Lucy Westenra and Mina Murray, and they are not actual sisters). The “fair girl” is described as such because of her beauty: “fair, as fair as can be, with great masses of golden hair and eyes like pale sapphires” (Jonathan Harker) and “she lay in her Vampire sleep, so full of life and voluptuous beauty that I shudder as though I have come to do murder […] the beautiful eyes of the fair woman open and look love, and the voluptuous mouth present to a kiss, and the man is weak” (Van Helsing).

The “Fair girl” seems to be "higher" in hierarchy than the other two (who are described as “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”), as they say to her, before feeding on Jonathan: “Yours' is the right to begin”. This has led many authors (like Leonard Wolf, “The Annotated Dracula”, 1975) to speculate the “Fair girl” might be the Countess, Dracula’s wife, while the other two are their daughters (due to their physical resemblance to the Count), cursed to vampirism by him. 

"You cannot love."

"Fair Girl" of the "three sisters" in Francis Ford Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula", 1992

The fair girl, with a laugh of ribald coquetry, turned to answer him: "You yourself never loved. You never love!" 

Then the Count turned, after looking at my face attentively, and said in a soft whisper, "Yes, I too can love. You yourselves can tell it from the past. Is it not so?"

"I cannot. Yet, I cannot be sated without you. Remember how once we were? A moment. Remember?"

Jonathan Harker describes the "three sisters" "horrible laugh" several times: "such a silvery, musical laugh, but as hard as though the sound never could have come through the softness of human lips. It was like the intolerable, tingling sweetness of waterglasses when played on by a cunning hand"; "such a mirthless, hard, soulless laughter rang through the room that it almost made me faint to hear. It seemed like the pleasure of fiends"; "low, sweet ripple of laughter, and in a rage I threw open the door, and saw without the three terrible women licking their lips. As I appeared, they all joined in a horrible laugh, and ran away".

In "Nosferatu", there are two female characters who laugh, as well: Anna Harding during her "blood plague" delirium ("fever") as she talks about her pregnancy eating her away; and Ellen, after saying "Let him see! Let him see our love!", followed by "Without you, I'm to become a demon!"

"I fear little Friedrich is so strong and hungry, he’s eating me weary."

In Robert Eggers' "Nosferatu" there was a Countess, as Bill Skarsgård revealed in an interview to "The Hollywood Reporter": "the Count had a family and was once married". And her presence is visible in the set design of Castle Orlok.

When discussing strigoi hauntings that inspired him, Robert Eggers talked about "dark trauma", twice. To "Vanity Fair", he said: “You wonder what is the dark trauma that doesn't die when someone dies. […] [So you suspect something terrible happened between them in real life and that this story was a way of grappling with that?] That's my hypothesis." In this interview, the director mentions a real case that happened in Romania in 2004 where a woman claimed she was being visited by the corpse of her deceased uncle, which culminated with his corpse being defiled and the family arrested and sentenced to six-months in prison. 

On his own essay to "The Guardian" about his re-interpretation of "Nosferatu", Robert Eggers wonders: "What are we to make of stories like this? What kind of trauma, pain and violence is so great that even death cannot stop it? It’s a heartbreaking notion. The folk vampire embodies disease, death, and sex in a base, brutal and unforgiving way." It seems, in "Nosferatu", this "dark trauma" Count Orlok has to justify his strigoi haunting of Ellen must connect death, disease and sex, as well. She is "his affliction", after all. "Disease", but also "suffering", "pain" and "torment". The dark trauma that made him become Nosferatu.