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the_scent_of_lilacs2025-04-01 06:50 am
bleodswean) wrote in the_scent_of_lilacs2025-04-01 06:50 am
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Wouldst thou like to die deliciously?
Let's talk about Egger's women. Let's discuss the female characters in Nosferatu and how Eggers portrays them, what they represent, and how we should view them in the vampire mythos, Stoker's Dracula, and the legacy of the Nosferatu films that came before.
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Let's start off with Bram Stoker's novel, as it's the prime source for all the adaptions that followed.
***SPOILERS*** ahead!
Stoker's main female characters are Mina, Lucy, and Lucy's mother, Mrs. Westernra. There's also the secondary characters of Dracula's three vampire brides.
Others mentioned are a few background women, mostly servants employed by the Westernras, and a nameless young woman who Dracula spies in the London streets, where he's scoping out new victims. These background characters are just plot devices, and as such, are never fleshed out.
Mina is depicted as the intellectual "new woman" (as feminists were called back in the day), who's devoted to her husband Jonathan and to her best friend Lucy. She's brave, empathetic, and determined, ready to join forces with Van Helsing to defeat Dracula.
Lucy is the sweet and lovely flirt that everyone adores, always kind and caring in her interactions with others. She becomes Dracula's victim by no fault of her own.
Mrs. Westernra is given several scenes, but serves mostly as a source of worry for Lucy and the others, due to her poor health. She's also something of a plot device, as her naive, but well-meaning, "meddling" interferes with Van Helsing's protective devices for her daughter, thus causing more harm than good.
That brings us to Dracula's brides. They serve as antagonists to Jonathan, and are depicted as beautiful sensual monsters. Given no names, they are nevertheless "lovingly" described with regards to physical appearance and wanton behavior, providing wicked titillation for Stoker's Victorian readers.
They're also in stark contrast to Lucy. Though attacked and defiled by Dracula, Lucy maintains her sweet innocence. Even after she becomes undead, she is still depicted with compassion by Stoker. While she does prey on children, none of them die from her attacks. Van Helsing even tells Dr. Seward that since Lucy was made a vampire while she was in a trance, she's essentially still an innocent, at least in her "sleep" mode. When "awake", however, she acts like the brides, evil and wanton (completely unlike her pre-vampire self), although there's speculation from the men that it's an evil that's in the shape of Lucy's body, and that somewhere inside, her innocent soul is trapped (and of course, must be freed by them).
Not surprisingly, Stoker's novel makes ample use of the classic "good girl / bad girl" trope, vividly contrasting the characters of Mina and Lucy with Dracula's brides. Even though Lucy eventually becomes a vampire, and displays behavior like the brides, she's still depicted as being a cut above the other three.
The virtues of Victorian era womanhood are thereby "upheld", despite all of the blood, titillation, and horror that ensues.
No wonder Victorian readers loved Stoker's book. They got to (secretly) revel in all sorts of racy fin-de-siècle subtext, while enjoying a happy (and moral ending) for the heroes.
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Next up: Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922) - Essentially a film adaption of Stoker's book, with certain changes made to characters, names, and the setting. Despite being a copy of Dracula (Mrs. Stoker sued the film makers for copyright violation and won), there are nevertheless significant changes that make Nosferatu stand on its own.
Orlok's backstory is different, with his origins as a sorcerer who sold his soul to the devil. He's all evil appetite, with a grotesque rat-like appearance (symbolizing his plague connection).
There are only two female characters in the film: Ellen Hutter and Ruth, Harding's sister.
Ellen (perhaps meant to be Nosferatu's version of Lucy) is quite different from Stoker's character. She possesses an autonomy and determination that Lucy lacks, discovering on her own how to destroy the villain, and chooses to willingly sacrifice herself to save her husband and the town. No victim, she becomes instead a savior, and a heroic figure in her own right.
That said, Ellen still adheres to early 20th Century standards of being a demure and virtuous female character.
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Skipping over the 1979 Nosferatu, as I haven't seen that version.
So - on to Egger's Nosferatu 2024 with some comparisons to the original 1922 film.
**SPOILERS**
Female characters in the 2024 film are Ellen Hutter and Anna Harding + Anna's young daughters, who seem more plot device than character.
1922 Ellen is psychic. At one point, she has a vision of Thomas being menaced by Orlok, whom she distracts by shouting her husband's name.
In the new version, Ellen has long been deemed a sickly hysteric by family and friends. She's been misunderstood (and under-estimated) her entire life. Dr. Sievers is convinced she suffers from epileptic seizures, but Professor von Franz suspects otherwise. He believes her to be a powerful trance medium, who is under spiritual attack by a demonic being. She later reveals to the professor that she always "knew" things - whether it be the contents of her childhood Christmas presents, or when her mother would die.
While Eggers shows Ellen to be brave and resolute in her own right, I think to some extent, he defines her character through her interactions and relationships with the male characters.
For example: She confesses to von Franz that she only became "normal" when she married Thomas. But that with him away, she has once again been afflicted with strange dreams and trances. The sympathetic von Franz is the first to recognize her hidden power. And it is he, via an ancient book in his possession, who explains to her how Orlok can be destroyed. This is in contrast to 1922's Ellen, who does it all on her own.
The ending of the film can have more than one meaning. On one level, Ellen is in love with death, and like Persephone, she takes Hades / death as her bridegroom.
She's also a classic savior figure, who, after enduring much suffering, heroically sacrifices herself to save others.
One reviewer suggested that the ending showed that women must sometimes destroy themselves, in order to defeat an abuser. I don't care for this explanation.
I thought of another possibility: All Ellen's internal doubts, self-recriminations and sabotage, all those negative voices in her head, coalesce in the nightmare figure of Orlok. He's a shattered aspect of herself, representing all her hidden fears and secret desires. It's significant that he's destroyed by the cleansing light of day, his destruction orchestrated by Ellen herself. And when she dies with him, this symbolizes the death of old ways of being, that she no longer needs. Only thus freed, can she heal and once more become whole.
Next is Anna Harding. Eggers also defines her through a male character - her husband, Friedrich. Happily married, and mother of two little girls, she's portrayed as a typical middle-class woman of her era, kind and considerate, although unimaginative. A contrast to the sensitive, troubled Ellen. Perhaps Anna symbolizes that part of Ellen that secretly yearns to be "normal" and mundane.
That said, Anna and her family are tragic characters in their own right, all suffering horrifying fates because of Orlok.
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I want Ellen to be an autonomous creature, and I think Eggers portrays her as such, despite or inspite of others perceiving her as unhinged, unclean, and even powerful.
Great insights here!
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Like you, I prefer Ellen to be autonomous (and yes, Eggers does show this).
I'm exploring this in my series of stories I'm writing about her and von Franz.
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The 'new woman' is lost in all this. In the book, Mina is smart; she's the one who puts together clippings, news reports etc. In FFC's version, Mina is still crisply curious. Nosferatu 24 has nothing to do with woman as intellect. In the end, this is all about feelings, a reality in which the rational simply means nothing. The nearest we have to scientific involvement is Von Franz, a genius maverick. He's very kind and knowledgeable but given his moment in the burning crypt, it could be argued that he's a bit nuts himself. So it may not be a case of intellect free women, more that of intellect free people when faced with the unfathomable. But I don't know.
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I so agree, and perfectly put.
Every Eggers film I've seen delves deeply into the irrational and the subconscious. Of course, that's why I enjoy his films (one of the reasons, anyway).
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I love that you've connected Anna and Ellen to the Tarot. Each card you chose for them perfectly illustrates their characters, and your description of all is spot-on.
As you say, FFC's depiction of Mina is much closer to the original novel.
And I agree that this film is all about feelings and the subconscious, including psychic visions. I think it's a theme that runs through all of Eggers' films.
As for von Franz - I love the guy (as eccentric intellectual male characters are my jam), but yeah, he's pretty wild in the burning crypt scene.
If I had to pick a Tarot card to represent him, I'd go with The Magician, as his character is knowledgable and creative, always seeking to understand and explain the irrational.
Of course, Orlok would be Death.
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What of the nude young woman astride the white horse?
Another interesting spin on the "Death and The Maiden" motif, and a fore-shadowing of the final scene of the film.
I did a bit of research on this scene. In Eastern European folklore, horses are thought to be sensitive to the supernatural, and thus, if led around a graveyard, would able to sense the presence of a vampire. If the horse jumped over the grave, there was no vampire. But if it refused - then the grave held an undead. And the vampire hunters would pounce.
The presence of a virgin was said to enhance the effect, as a virgin would recoil from evil. Also, the undead would be attracted to the virgin's purity and innocence, and could thus be lured from its grave and destroyed.
As for the young woman's nudity...this is classic Eggers. He uses quite a bit of nudity in his films (male and female), for artistic effect, and I suspect, also for titillation.
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Why does Eggers choose to remove The Brides from his tale?
The original Nosferatu also removed the Brides - likely hoping to avoid any lawsuits (which, of course, they didn't).
I think Eggers left them out for a different reason. His Orlok is a solitary being who claims to feel no love, only appetite. Thus, it makes the plot all the more compelling, that this selfish insular creature becomes utterly obsessed with Ellen.
Ellen, with her terrifying trances and dreams, is a strange ethereal character on her own and the heart of the film. Including the Brides might have taken away from that.
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Agree totally about Orlok.
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Thomas as the Hanged Man certainly fits.
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Very kind of you to encourage me
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What of the nude young woman astride the white horse?
Why does Eggers choose to remove The Brides from his tale?
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Working at the moment, but will return later to discuss all this! Your questions are excellent, by the way.
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I'm listing each of bleodswean's questions, with my response noted right below.
Includes Spoilers.
Trigger Warning: Mention of violence, death, obsession
And what of Clara and Louise? Why are these daughters?
Like Bram Stoker before him, Eggers included child characters as victims, to illustrate the utter depravity of his vampire. They're essentially plot devices, but Eggers does make an effect to flesh them out, and there's a distinct difference between how he and Stoker present them.
In Stoker's novel, the children (all nameless victims) have no personalities to speak of and no specified gender. Their only purpose is to illustrate the evil of Dracula and his Brides, and how far Lucy has fallen in her vampiric state. A former innocent reduced to preying on innocents. There's bitter irony in this.
Eggers, on the other hand, names the children, and their feminine gender is specified. They're beloved by their parents, the family scenes invoking a sense of warmth and empathy. This is further enhanced by setting the story at Christmas, a season usually associated with happiness and love. The attack scene when it finally comes (along with the aftermath when Anna discovers her daughters' fate) is therefore incredibly shocking, and deeply disturbing.
Eggers could have just as well made the children male, but I think he depicted them as female, as an extension of the film's focus on women struggling for understanding and acceptance in a repressive world.
Orlok's predatory attraction to innocence, and his desire to corrupt and destroy that quality in others is also an ongoing theme. This ties in with his obsession for Ellen. She possesses a purity of soul that draws him to her like a moth to flame. And like that flame, she will eventually destroy him in the purifying sunlight, along with herself.
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The virgin on a horse could be an extension of that purity and innocence that seems to be the bane of vampires. I am trying to remember if the horse is white.
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I agree about the virgin symbology. I believe the horse was white.