so you dislike thomas enough to imply he sort of abused his wife yet u ignore the fact that orlock RAPES ellen? lol get out
I’ve long wanted to introduce a series called “Ranking the Most Idiot Nosferatu Theories.”
Well, today my inbox has kindly provided the material.
Before us is a strong contender for the top spot: “He raped her.” A theory whose sheer stupidity can only really be rivaled by “Orlok represents Ellen’s father.” It so stubbornly at odds with the film that I don’t even want to refute it — I want to dissect it.
First of all, the intercourse between Orlok and Ellen is so ethical even by modern standards that there is verbal consent.
But what if the wicked Orlok really did blackmail poor Ellen into giving her consent?
I know, I know. Some viewers seem to suffer from vision problems so severe that they somehow failed to notice the extraordinary chemistry between the characters. So let’s take a look at the script.
Anon, is this really what you think rape looks like? Do you even know what that word means?
We have, quite literally, a woman’s verbal consent — and we have the fact that she is enjoying. Perhaps, for someone especially slow on the uptake, that still won’t be enough. What if I forged the script?People who have no understanding of rape might even say that Ellen experienced pleasure “accidentally” — you know, just incidentally, along the way.
(Anon, do you have any idea what a person being raped actually feels?Do you genuinely think they are “bursting with rapture” and “in ecstasy”?!!!)
For the apologists of the “accidental orgasm” and “she actually hated him” theories, we should, of course, bring up the classic interviews with the director and the team. My followers, the followers of the esteemed @nosferatu-roberteggers, and everyone even remotely familiar with Nosferatu have already seen them a million times. But fans of primitive interpretations are a special audience, so I’ll repeat myself.
Willem Dafoe: “it’s all about beyond bodily death. Maybe this isn’t such a bad thing, right? Maybe this obsession, this passion, you’ve got the husband that loves her but doesn’t see her. And then you have this toxic monster that he’s into and she’s into him.”
“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.”
(I could find more, but my followers are already getting bored. You don’t really think, Anon, that I value you more than my followers, do you?If, even after all this, you still have no doubts about your idiotic rape theory, I have bad news for you).
What else non-obvious could I bring up? Well, at least this excerpt from Eggers’ own audio commentary.
Anon, do you really think that what “we” were waiting for throughout the entire film was rape? Do you really think a modern director could say something like that and not be cancelled within hours?
I’ll say a few more words about the idea that Ellen could have simply waited until the vampire hunters staked Orlok while he lay defenseless in his sarcophagus during the day. Then she would have survived. Except your fantasy of a long and happy life with Thomas would hardly have become Ellen’s reality. She would have ended up being sent to an asylum. That is what nineteenth-century society did to women who failed to fit the image of the “angel in the house.”
I understand, Anon, that one cannot expect too much from you. Pop culture has spent years training you in the simplest possible formulas: films where you don’t have to think at all.
But the truth is, Anon, that this film has nothing to do with modern TikTok therapy, nor with whatever agenda happens to be fashionable to discuss right now. This is a film about a woman who was caught masturbating as a child — at a time when something like that could get you sent to an asylum. Pre-Victorian and Victorian society demonized sexuality, and so Ellen came to hate herself for her natural impulses. It does not even really matter here whether the monster is real or not. Her love and hatred for Orlok are her love and hatred for herself. And at the end of the film, she accepts herself — and death is her only way out of a society where there is no place for her.
I guess, now you can get out, poor little thing. You're welcome with new idiot theories!
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