JUMP TO:

Ellen Hutter, Her Shadow, and Her Animus Development

Thomas’s Journey

Anna and Friedrich as Eros/Logos

The Meaning Behind Nosferatu

I will attempt to analyze the story of Robert Egger’s “Nosferatu” as both a dream and a myth or fairytale. I am no expert and my approach reflects my current understanding of the works of Carl Jung and Marie von Franz. I would also like to emphasize the need to respect the subjective nature of art; everyone is entitled to their own relationship with a story. Lastly, this analysis serves as an exploration of Jungian themes and is not a film critique.

Symbols in Nosferatu

The visually rich nature of “Nosferatu” overflows with potent symbolism. Symbols act as both a personal and collective language of the unconscious. Armed with a deeper meaning than their superficial appearances convey, symbols act as a visualization or concretization of hidden, invisible, or abstract forces. Symbols contextualize the story and infuse it with layers of signifiance by anchoring the events to relatable themes or forces accessible to all. Symbols may also transform contextually; a vehicle in modern times would likely appear as a carriage in past eras, but the role or purpose remains unchanged.

SHADOWS: Guilt, repressed aspects, disowned traits. Shadows by nature reflect our shape and qualities.

LILACS: First love, remembrance, rebirth.

WATER: The Unconscious. The Ocean represents vast, deep emotions and the Unconscious. A river represents renewal, positive flow of life, and healing.A canal represents a constricted flow of the Unconscious. Rain represents growth, cleansing, and change.

STORM: Emotional upheaval.

CROSSES: Mana, or life power.

WOLVES: Animal instinct, untamed aspects of the psyche.

HORSES: Emotions. Connection to the Unconscious.

FIRE: Transformation.

EARTH/SOIL: Unconscious life force. 

CROSS ROADS: Decisions, tipping points, a boundary between realms.

DRIVERLESS CARRIAGE: Subconscious pulls. The horses represent emotional instincts. The Driver would represent intellect directing those feelings. 

CATS: Feminine instinct (intuition, connection with the astral or supernatural). Spiritual protection.

RATS: Unrealized potential bleeding from the Shadow.

BLOOD: Vitality, life force.

CRYPTS: Passage to the Hidden Aspects/Unconscious.

JUNGIAN ARCHETYPES OR FIGURES IN NOSFERATU

The characters of a story act out the roles of Jungian archetypes or figures, which represent aspects of the individual psyche and the collective. The Jungian figures may be assigned based on the level of development or consciousness of an individual or collective society. The characters can also represent the attitudes of a society. The progression of the story depends on the relationships between the figures. The changes in relationships reflect the changes of development within the psyche or society. 

Archetypes are not static- they may overlap and intermingle to create new figures.

Self

The Self represents the psyche as a whole, or the unification of the unconscious and conscious. It includes the body, mind, and all of the feelings, experiences, and dynamics at play within one’s existence. The psyche includes the ego (conscious mind), personal unconscious, and collective unconscious.

Persona

One’s mask which both reveals an impression and conceals a true nature. Overidentification with a persona hinders development. The persona acts as an accumulation of collective ideals, and its disintegration is required to express the true individual without the weight or demands of societal expectations. A more viable and adaptable Persona is then developed in order to function within society without concealing the true Self.

Shadow

The shadow is an accumulation of repressed instincts, feelings, ideas, weaknesses, and anything else that is rejected and suppressed in order to satisfy societal norms. It represents everything unacceptable to both society and one’s personal values. The shadow often “materializes” as monstrous figures in dreams and is projected onto “Others” (other societies, outcasts, foreigners, rejects, etc).

Animus

The animus is the “inner masculinity” in a woman, or in more updated terms, the intellect, directed will, discernment, and meaning-giving faculties. It is the primordial image of “masculinity” or the judging, competitive, and active mode, initially modeled after the father figure. The state of the animus represents the extent to which a woman can relate to men and how well she can exercise her “masculine” faculties. The animus appears as the judgmental voice of conviction and creates illusions of structure when imbalanced, but offers creativity support, intellectual clarity, and confidence when developed.

Animus development consists of 4 stages:

1. The Man of Power: Man or masculinity is equated to brute strength and animal power. A woman at this stage often dreams or fantasizes about a male figure who can give her physical satisfaction and primal protection. She remains in total feeling and has no independence or creative outlet.

2. The Man of Planned Action: Man or masculinity develops to channel strength into planned, directed action, often to fulfill societal roles, such as a husband, father, and provider. A woman at this stage often craves some sort of independence and a burgeoning creative will, but still expects man to fulfill worldly duties and achievements.

3. The Man of Words: Man or masculinity channels power and judgment into higher learning and virtue, and often appears as a figure of authority such as a professor, clergyman, priest, or scholar. A woman at this stage is able to relate to man on an individual rather than collective level, and she is able to engage in creative work and self reflection.

4. The Man of Spirituality: Man or masculinity channels power into spirituality and transcendence. He appears like Hermes, messenger god and psychopomp who can communicate between the unconscious and conscious. A woman at this stage is able to channel her own raw power or sexuality into spirituality. 

Unintegrated Animus:

The unintegrated Animus acts as an internal tyrant, a voice commanding from within. The lack of internal balance can manifest as anxiety, depression, and bodily symptoms.

Trickster

The Trickster acts as the harbinger of change and is a liminal character that brings chaos, deception, and mischief. Trickster figures can absorb the most extreme traits of the Shadow and exist as animal consciousness or can take on superhuman qualities that inspire creativity, learning, and healing.

Logos

The “masculine” principle of judgment and differentiating consciousness. 

Eros

The “feminine” principle of relatedness and interweaving consciousness.

Ellen Hutter, Her Shadow, and Her Animus Development

“TLDR; Ellen has been shamed into disowning her psychic powers and her strong libido. She lives in a society that offers no outlet to develop her natural gifts and traits. Alone and with no way to direct her creativity/life force/libido, she projects all of her Will onto Count Orlok, who acts as both her Shadow and her primitive Animus. Orlok is animalistic, supernaturally gifted, and extremely possessive of Ellen. Orlok is the only one who can truly understand her as he alone values her extreme libido and strong psychic attunement. 

Ellen attempts to distance herself from Orlok by marrying Thomas, which emboldens Orlok to seek her out in the flesh. Orlok sabotages Thomas into signing away his marriage vows and even uses him as collateral for Ellen’s hand in marriage. Thomas attempts to compete with and defeat Ellen’s Shadow, but it is not his place. Only Ellen can neutralize Orlok by uniting with him.”

Ellen suffered from isolation and loneliness as a child, due to her unchanneled natural gifts and shamed libido and psychic powers. Her father rejected her as her powers became too disturbing, such as predicting her Mother’s passing. He grew to recoil at her very touch. He even threatens to send her away when he stumbles upon her unclothed and self-pleasuring.

As a child, she prays for contact with any celestial being and awakens Count Orlok, a creature who has lay dormant for centuries. She pledges to him and he initially pleases her and gives her bliss, but when she attempts to look at him directly, she screams from terror. So far, Ellen’s relationship with men has been traumatic and isolating. Her father’s disgust and rejection is only matched by Orlok’s desire and obsession. Ellen has essentially summoned the antithesis of her father’s repulsion, yet the opposite is not love. 

Ellen marries Thomas, who she relates to on a very sexual level. She attempts to coax him back into bed at the expense of his career. She also attempts to stop his departure by retelling her dream, in which she marries Death and specifically calls out turning to see the death of her Father. This foreshadows the inevitable union of her and her Shadow, which results in the nullified potency of her father. Thomas must leave, as he wishes to elevate their material status. Ellen does not care about the material, which confirms both her attunement to the hidden aspects of life and her overall stagnation in the material world. Ellen would rather stagnate materially than be left alone.

Ellen’s desire for union is strong, to the point of destruction. At the Hardings’ the night before Thomas’s departure, Ellen digs her nails into his skull as she hungrily initiates. The Harding children scream about a monster killing them from another room. This blatantly equates her libido with the appetite of Count Orlok.

Thomas leaves to fulfill his role as a provider, which forces Ellen to contend with a sense of independence and loneliness. Ellen’s melancholy returns, as she remains dependent on an external figure to direct her will and life force. She begins to suffer severe attacks of somnambulism, and her seizures manifest as excess, unchanneled life force. This sentiment is repeated later on when Sievers notes that she has menstruated heavily as she possesses too much blood, too much undirected vitality. Friedrich resorts to binding Ellen to the bed, restraining her in a corset, and allowing her to be sedated with ether. Her shadow is repressed further by those around her, as they cannot help her channel her instincts.

Ellen passes the time by watching the ships from the shore, an anticipation of contact from the Unconscious. She asks Anna if she has ever felt like she was not a person, “as if you were at the whim of another… like a doll,and someone or something had the power to breathe life into you, to move you?” Ellen is indeed possessed by her Animus and has disowned all of her Will. 

Meanwhile, Friedrich and Sievers recruit the help of von Franz, a once celebrated doctor who was shunned for his obsession with the occult. Only von Franz advocates for Ellen’s true condition, and only he reveres her insights and recognizes her power.

Ellen continues to suffer episodes, often collapsing by a body of water such as the shore or a canal. She is being drawn to face her Unconscious aspects. She begins to proclaim that “He is coming.” The confrontation with her Shadow is inevitable.

On a rainy day, Thomas finally returns, along with the arrival of the plague ship. The Shadow, no longer personal, has migrated into domestic territory and its effects begin to terrorize the collective. Friedrich is the first to be alerted, as the cold rationalists who reject the Supernatural, Shadow, and calls from the Unconscious are usually the first to feel its effects. 

Ellen attempts to find comfort with Anna, who she asks to spend the night with. She plays with the cross around Anna’s neck, which she eventually removes. Ellen watches Anna fall asleep somewhat predatorily. 

In a dream encounter between Ellen and Orlok, Orlok confesses that he is but an appetite. This mirrors Ellen’s strong desire. Despite her supposed disgust, Ellen is magnetized to Orlok, who confesses that she is his affliction or great suffering. This speaks to Orlok’s vulnerability- he is not an all-powerful being who completely dominates Ellen, but a counterpart in their codependence.  Ellen enrages when she claims her hatred, which spurs him to express his enmity as well as his ardor. This reveals Ellen’s hidden rage, which has also been projected onto Orlok. The more she represses and fights against her shadow, the stronger it becomes. Orlok gives Ellen three nights to submit to him, with Thomas’s death used as collateral. 

Ellen awakens to Anna’s cross beside her. On the floor, rats scurry over Anna, who writhes longingly just as Ellen does. Orlok and his rats have feasted on Anna, who was disarmed by Ellen. Still, Anna exhibits the same primal pleasure, which emphasizes Orlok’s existence within the collective. Orlok is not Ellen’s beast alone, although she knows him most intimately.

Ellen continues to speak of Orlok’s coming and the presence of the Supernatural, which Friedrich continues to deny. When Ellen attempts to warn Friedrich, he tells her to leave with Thomas. Ellen throws herself at his feet and grabs his hand to implore his help, which he rejects. Friedrich recoils from her touch and dismisses her just as her father did. Again, Ellen is reduced to an irrational hysteric. 

After being sent back home with Thomas, Ellen is possessed by her animus/Orlok as she lashes out at Thomas for going on a fool’s journey, succumbing to Orlok, and returning with nothing. This exemplifies a typical Animus possession in which a woman’s internal critic dominates and judgment is used to attack the weaknesses of the men around her. She then compares Thomas to Orlok as lovers, which fills Thomas with a raging envy that virilizes him. He proceeds to make love to her, while she uses the act to taunt Orlok and asks Thomas to kiss her heart, the spot where Orlok will eventually feast upon her. Ellen wants Thomas to fulfill her or recognize her to the depth that Orlok can. Thomas cannot; he can accept her but he does not understand her and cannot fully relate to her. The only time he initiates with her is when he feels threatened by Orlok. Thomas makes love to Ellen to compete with Orlok, not to connect with her.

The plague continues to spread. With the encouragement of von Franz, Ellen finally resolves to unite with Orlok to stop his curse and save her husband. Before saying goodbye, von Franz likens Ellen to a priestess of Isis, noting that her powers would have been celebrated in another time and place.

Ellen conspires with von Franz to deceive Thomas so that she may be alone with Orlok and consummate her pledge. She beckons Orlok to feast upon her, surrendering all of her life force and blood to him. Barely alive, she pleads with Orlok to continue. He cannot resist her and continues to feed as the sunlight floods the room, incinerating him into a lifeless corpse.

Ellen’s last act married sexuality with spirituality, signifying the last stage of Animus development. Von Franz acted as a liminal figure, relating to her first as man of Word and higher understanding then as a Hermes-like figure that guided her towards the spiritual union of Shadow and Light.

The Shadow can only be neutralized with the light of Consciousness. The Shadow cannot be defeated, only married and integrated. Dealing with the Shadow required the full extent of Ellen’s vitality, which she sacrificed willingly. Thomas could not save her, as that was not his place or duty. No one outside of the Self can truly contend with the personal shadow, but they can engage with the Collective Shadow. This brings us to Thomas’s journey.

THOMAS’S JOURNEY IN NOSFERATU

Before leaving Ellen in the morning, Thomas notes that he does not like when Greta the cat is allowed in bed, as he can never wear anything dark that reveals the cat hairs. The cat, representing spiritual protection, has so far prevented Thomas from being enveloped in darkness or the Shadow. Still, he must make the journey and initiate contact.

Thomas takes a narrow, ancient-looking street to meet his employer. This mirrors the eventual descent into the crypt and contact with the Unconscious. Menacing laughter meets him as Herr Knock exclaims that his delay is providence. Thomas is fated to be a little too late. Herr Knock congratulates Thomas on his wedding, likening Ellen to a sylph. He hides the occult symbols from Thomas and sends him on his way. Already, Thomas is being initiated into contact with the occult.

Rain, a harbinger of transformation, greets Thomas as he leaves. He runs home with a bouquet of lilacs shielded by his hat, signifying the attempted use of logic to preserve life. Ellen rejects the flowers, claiming that they will only die. Thomas suggests putting the lilacs in water, a nod to the vitalizing effects of honoring the unconscious. 

After leaving Ellen to begin his journey to Count Orlok, Thomas ventures into the unknown and finds himself mocked by townsfolk who attempt to bar him from proceeding. At the inn, an older woman begs him to return home and gifts him with a cross, which he subconsciously holds onto. He then removes it, attempting to distance himself from superstition and his intuition.

He awakens to a crowd led by a virgin on a horse. He is embarrassed by her nudity, or at least his response to it. She has a marked resemblance with Ellen, as they share the same dark hair. He watches them exhume a corpse and yells in terror. He wakes up with the cross once again around his neck and mud on his feet. He finds the town completely empty and his horse gone. He continues to reject the Supernatural or Irrational and his intuition and feeling, and coincidentally he is without a horse, which represents emotional or irrational drives. 

Thomas hikes towards Count Orlok. He finds a shrine of withered crosses and garlic flowers before coming to a crossroads. An empty carriage awaits him, and as if in a dream, he enters. A pack of wolves chase the carriage as he crosses the bridge, essentially crossing a liminal state and descending into the unconscious.

Thomas meets Orlok, who demands that he be addressed as “My Lord.” Thomas acquiesces. The Shadow has claimed its status. Thomas attempts to ask Orlok about the corpse exhumation but Orlok dismisses it as fairytale and forbids him from mentioning it. Thomas is easily silenced by Orlok, not unlike Friedrich silencing him about his loan. Orlok downplays the wisdom of the locals and claims he wishes to live amongst the modern minded, who are unequipped to deal with him.

Thomas begins to suffer from terrifying dreams and awakens to see bite marks on his chest. The Shadow has begun to drain his vitality.

Thomas is deceived into signing Orlok’s contract which is written in a language he cannot fathom. He feels guilty and apprehensive about accepting Orlok’s gold, but he proceeds with the transaction anyways. He also loses Ellen’s locket in the exchange. Although equipped with gold, Thomas cannot truly gain from the Shadow, as anything it promises is riddled with sabotage and deception. Thomas is overpowered by Orlok who preyed on his financial insecurity. Lead by both the duty to provide and a duty to repay Friedrich, Thomas is at the mercy of material gain, which manifests as Orlok’s power over him. 

Trapped within the castle, Thomas eventually descends into Orlok’s crypt. He arms himself with a shovel and opens the coffin, but the last ray of sunshine descends and Orlok awakens. Thomas is terrified and runs away in a trance. He cannot look at Orlok with the true clarity of consciousness. He cannot confront the Shadow.

Thomas hallucinates a naked Ellen above him and succumbs to Orlok again. Orlok feasts upon him, writhing suggestively. The Shadow has seduced him once more.

Thomas awakens, half dead. Wolves chase him onto a ledge where he makes the jump into a river. He has no choice but to delve into the unknown as his last hope. He is saved by an Orthodox nun and taken to a church where he is prayed over. The church is lush, golden, warm, and beautiful. Thomas is saved from the supernatural by the supernatural. He has been forced to accept the irrational aspect of life and has seen both its positive and negative aspects. He has been “baptised” by the waters and initiated with sacred knowledge. The nuns offer him safety so long as he stays within the church, but Thomas refuses and ventures back home.

Thomas returns to Ellen, who has been diagnosed as possessed by von Franz. He recovers at the Hardings and speaks of supernatural horrors which are dismissed as madness.  Barely alive, Thomas is forced to return home with Ellen, where she has another seizure. He re-affirms his commitment to her despite her proclamation that she is unclean. She attacks his weakness, calling him a lily of a woman for succumbing to Orlok and compares them as lovers. Thomas is finally virilized by his envy, not by love. Now Orlok’s shadow animates him. Although he accepts Ellen, he never truly understands or sees her and therefore cannot truly “save” her or help her reclaim her directed will. 

Before rushing Orlok’s estate, Thomas searches for Friedrich. He finds Friedrich deceased and thrust between his dead wife’s arms. Friedrich could not resist his wife even in death, which represents his total commitment to the material. His insatiable hunger caused him to defile his wife.

Thomas arrives at Orlok’s estate and opens the coffin to find Herr Knock, who has completely succumbed to the Shadow and exists in a state of complete lunacy. Thomas realizes that he has been tricked and rushes to Ellen, but it is too late. They share one last loving glance before she passes.

ANNA AND FRIEDRICH AS EXCESSIVE LOGOS/EROS

Anna exists as the perfect wife and mother who is always available to her husband. She even comments about how her developing son is always hungry, like his father. Anna follows Friedrich’s lead and dismisses all supernatural beliefs just as he does. 

Anna exhibits strong Eros, or cooperative traits. She accuses Ellen of being “exasperatingly contrarian”, which goes against Anna’s placating nature. Anna is excessively cooperative; in bed with Ellen, she allows her cross to be removed. Without its protection, she is attacked by plaque rats.

Even in death, Anna must yield. Her husband thrusts himself into her arms, defiling her corpse. 

Friedriech represents the thriving, orderly male of rationality. Powerful in resource and status, he seems generous, but holds his wealth over Ellen’s head when he orders the Hutters’ a carriage “at his expense.” He dislikes Ellen’s ardent nature and fairy ways, and remarks at how the household revolves around Ellen, as opposed to him (we can assume). He also demands that Ellen “stay in her place” and show deference, and refuses to “exchange reproaches.” He views Ellen, and the irrational, as below him. 

His insatiable hunger for his wife leads him to necrophilia. Friedrich shares Orlok’s tyrannical nature but shields it with order and rationale.

HERR KNOCK and VON FRANZ

Herr Knock represents the possession by the shadow. Ruled by greed, gluttony, and rage, Herr Knock descends into madness as he tears a slew of living creatures apart and eats them like a wild animal. He willingly enslaves himself to Orlok, who barely tolerates him. Overidentification with the Shadow dissolves all human faculties.

Von Franz acts as a liminal figure that initiates study of the Shadow but does not succumb to it.

The Meaning Behind Nosferatu

Even within the confines of symbolic and archetypal analysis, there are countless ways of interpreting the ending of “Nosferatu.”  Count Orlok’s death can represent the death of Ellen’s previous state of existence, her relationship with Thomas, or her very life.

The Shadow and its plague can manifest in many forms. Count Orlok can represent various issues with mental health, such as depression and personality disorders. The lack of research and reverence for women’s health is also highlighted, as Ellen is dismissed as sinful and hysterical. Her father even threatens to send her away, to what can be assumed a mental asylum where women were subjected to unthinkable terrors. 

Ultimately, Orlok was a putrefied by-product of undirected life force which decayed into melancholy, rage, and shame. Ellen lived in a society that offered her no outlet or role other than wife, yet the thriving communities of Romanian vampire hunters and Orthodox nuns orbited around spiritual, feminine figures. The personal and collective relationship with the Shadow is shaped by the masks and roles imposed by society. Wisbourg, a society dominated by the rational (Logos) mind, afforded no space for the intuitive, sensual, and ultimately feminine mode of being (Eros). Count Orlok had little power in his decrepit castle as the locals knew how to deal with him; the protected societies understood his power and developed ways of neutralizing him and even “coexisting” with him.