Symbolism in Nosferatu (2024)

"Does evil come from within us, or from beyond?"

In Robert Eggers’ picturesque 2024 interpretation of the classic vampire film, a rich tapestry of symbolism, foreshadowing, occult knowledge, social commentary, and historical fidelity craft a memorable viewing experience.

Gorgeous cinematography, powerful soundscapes, and dramatic performances by Depp, Skarsgård, Hoult, and Dafoe produced a magnificent fever dream set in a complex world of repression, aspiration, mystery, and constantly lurking darkness.

I appreciated the dualistic imagery - a juxtaposition of cool, blue, shadowy imagery and warm, orange, illuminated imagery.

The following is a collection of musings on the symbolism I perceived in my two viewings of the film thus far.

† If you have not yet seen it, I would recommend waiting until you have watched the film to read any further, to avoid spoilers.

Lilac

Thomas gives a bouquet of Lilacs to Ellen not long before he departs for Orlok’s castle. In Victorian times, this flower was given as a sign of love and devotion. It makes sense that a husband would give his wife such a gift before leaving for a trip.

I believe there are other intended connotations, the first being mourning. It was not uncommon for widows in this era to be given lilacs as a symbol of remembrance.

The bouquet was probably a foreshadowing of Thomas signing a contract effectively severing his marriage bond with Ellen, in some sense “dying” as her spouse.

“The dead fed you

Amid the slant stones of graveyards.

Pale ghosts who planted you

Came in the nighttime

And let their thin hair blow through your clustered stems.

You are of the green sea,

And of the stone hills which reach a long distance.”

-Amy Lowell

The ancient Celts thought the plant to have magical properties, and the purple lilac in particular has connotations with spirituality.

“When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d,

And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,

I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.”

- Walt Whitman

Because the lilac blooms in early Springtime, it is associated with renewal and new life. It also can be a symbol of longevity, since many lilac shrubs can live for 100 years.

Cross

Many crosses appear in the film - on walls, in graveyards, and even implied in window panes. It’s a symbol of Christianity, but it is also a much older symbol, with other associations. In esoteric terms, the cross represents matter itself, earthly existence - the conditions on the planet, and the physical body. One easily imagines associations to the four corners of the earth, the four seasons, and the four elements.

“A Giant Hand Roaming Through the Dark Streets of London, People and Rats Try to Escape Its Grasp; Representing Bubonic Plague” by Richard Tennant Cooper, circa 1912

Shadow

Visually and symbolically, this is probably the most significant element in the entire film.

Count Orlok could be described as an image of the collective shadow of Thomas and Ellen’s world. From their Christian, Victorian, and Western cultural perspective, an Easterner with occult associations is a perfect “other” upon which to project fear, revulsion, and rejection.

Perhaps more significant is that what seemingly binds together Orlok and Ellen is that he is an embodiment of her shadow, and she the expression of his anima.

Although Ellen herself seems to view her apparent psychic faculty as a weakness or illness, Orlok likely perceives it as a gift of great power. If Orlok has long studied the occult to develop his powers (we will explore that later), he would likely admire Ellen for possessing a natural, untrained attunement. Perhaps the anima of a learnéd wizard is a natural-born witch, so to speak.

To the point about shadows, anima-animus, and mirror images, I believe it’s significant that Ellen’s husband is named Thomas.

Thomas

Greek form of the Aramaic name תְּאוֹמָא (Teʾoma) meaning "twin".

In the New Testament this is the name of an apostle. When he heard that Jesus had risen from the dead he initially doubted the story, until Jesus appeared before him and he examined his wounds himself.

- behindthename.com

Interestingly, Lily-Rose Depp was born under the sign of Gemini, the Twins, with the Sun placed in the 8th house of the chart. The ancients referred to the 8th as the house of death, a dark and hidden place where we hide our secrets (essentially, the Shadow). With the natural sign of the 8th, Scorpio, presiding over her Ascendant and Moon, there is plenty of Hades-Persephone energy in this actress’ birth chart. (Perhaps I’ll do a deep dive on her chart sometime. Feel free to leave a comment if that’s something you’d like to see!)

Saint Helena by Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano, 1495

I believe the main character is named Ellen for particular reasons.

Ellen - Medieval English form of Helen.

English form of the Greek Ἑλένη (Helene), probably from Greek ἑλένη (helene) meaning "torch" or "corposant", or possibly related to σελήνη (selene) meaning "moon".

The name was borne by the 4th-century Saint Helena, mother of the Roman emperor Constantine, who supposedly found the True Cross during a trip to Jerusalem.

-behindthename.com

• This name has clear associations with Christianity, and the cross in particular.

• Why a name meaning “torch”? As a source of light, a torch is a means by which a shadow is seen. It is an answer to darkness, illuminating the hidden. The tarot reader in me associates the image of a torch with the suit of wands, indeed connected to the element of fire, symbolic of the spirit.

• The word “corposant” comes from the Portuguese corpo-santo, which literally means "holy body", related to the Latin term corpus sanctum. The word corposant is a noun that means “Saint Elmo's fire", a ball of fire that can sometimes be seen around a ship during a storm. The word was first used around 1595.

-vocabulary.com

• The Moon reflects the light of the Sun. Symbolically, the Moon represents the feminine principle, the id, and the physical body. The creation of new life, or new consciousness, is a matter of union between the Solar Masculine principle and the Lunar Feminine principle. This may indeed be relevant to the final scene in the film.

Fire

In alchemy, fire is the means by which a substance is transmuted. It conjures the image of the phoenix. It can also be seen as a symbol of purification from a Christian standpoint.

I can recall at least one significant scene in the film, in which Thomas stands at a crossroads and has a strange experience.

Crossroads

may represent a location "between the worlds" and, as such, a site where supernatural spirits can be contacted and paranormal events can take place. Symbolically, it can mean a locality where two realms touch and therefore represents liminality, a place literally "neither here nor there", "betwixt and between". - Wikipedia

“The Abduction of Proserpina” by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1621-1622

Hades and Persephone

A Chthonic being seeks union with a terrestrial young woman. Persephone’s associations with springtime tie nicely in with the lilac bouquet in the film. Orlok smells the fragrance of the lilac on Ellen’s locket - the deathly being is attracted to the aroma of blooming life, and indeed wishes to possess it.

The Eleusinian Mysteries were a series of sacred rites and festivals in ancient Greece that honored the goddesses Demeter and Persephone - more on that later when we explore the sigil of Orlok…

Astrologically, Hades would correspond to Pluto, the planet ruling the power of transformation - including rebirth. The hypnotic pull Orlok has on Ellen is very Plutonic, and so is their psychic bond in general.

This scene in the castle evokes the image of the alchemical squared circle. Foreshadowing?

Squared Circle

In alchemy, a "squared circle" represents the ultimate goal of the alchemical process, the "philosopher's stone," symbolizing the unification of the spiritual and material realms, often depicted as a circle inscribed within a square, signifying the integration of the four elements (earth, air, fire, water) into a perfect state.

Notice the uniting of the Masculine-Solar and Feminine-Lunar figures.

The sigil of Count Orlok

Zalmoxis

The Cyrillic letters around the star in the sigil spell out the name of the Dacian God who has been compared to Jesus in that he was resurrected after three days.

Some claim that the name "Zalmoxis" comes from zamol, meaning "earth."

It was said that he disappeared and was presumed dead, but returned from his subterranean chamber after three years. Interesting that Orlok tells Ellen that her answer will change on the third day.

Zalmoxis had lived among the wisest of Greeks, such as Pythagoras, and had been initiated into Ionian life and the Eleusinian Mysteries. - Wikipedia

Scholomance/Solomonărie

A fabled school of black magic in Romania, especially in the region of Transylvania. It was run by the Devil, according to folkloric accounts. Courses taught included the speech of animals and magic spells.

The school lay underground, and the students remained unexposed to sunlight for the seven-year duration of their study." -Wikipedia

Dual Ouroboros

Two snake-like creatures devouring one another. In alchemy, this was a symbol of volatility - being prone to changing form, more or less.

In alchemy, the ouroboros is a purifying sigil that represents the spirit of Mercury (the substance that permeates all matter) and symbolizes continuous renewal, the cycle of life and death, and harmony of opposites. It keeps the cosmic waters under control, and is symbolic of the cyclical nature of alchemical work. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung saw the ourobouros as an archetype and the basic mandala of alchemy. Jung also defined the relationship of the ouroboros to alchemy:

“The alchemists, who in their own way knew more about the nature of the individuation process than we moderns do, expressed this paradox through the symbol of the uroboros, the snake that eats its own tail. ouroboros, has been said to have a meaning of infinity or wholeness. In the age-old image of the uroboros lies the thought of devouring oneself and turning oneself into a circulatory process, for it was clear to the more astute alchemists that the prima materia of the art was man himself. The uroboros is a dramatic symbol for the integration and assimilation of the opposite, i.e. of the shadow. This 'feed-back' process is at the same time a symbol of immortality, since it is said of the uroboros that he slays himself and brings himself to life, fertilises himself and gives birth to himself. He symbolises the One, who proceeds from the clash of opposites, and he therefore constitutes the secret of the prima materia which [...] unquestionably stems from man's unconscious.” - Monstropedia.org

• The serpentine creatures appear to have the heads of wolves, which would track regarding the lupine associations to Zalmoxis, and relate to the Dacian Draco, a heraldic symbol.

Septagram

The seven-pointed star. Various associations could exist here, one being a representation of the seven classical planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) which were referenced in Alchemy (along with corresponding metals) and used on the seven talismans in Enochian Magic. According to some, there were seven stages in the alchemical process.

The seventh of the classical planets is Saturn, described as a god of time, generation, dissolution, abundance, wealth, agriculture, periodic renewal and liberation.

As stated above, students of Scholomance were said to be underground without exposure to sunlight for their seven years of black magic study.

Finally, the seven-pointed star could relate to the seventh sephiroth of the Kabbalah, Netzach.

“The word netzach denotes both "victory" and "eternity," it can be said that the ultimate victory of netzach is that over death itself.” - inner.org

Earth Symbol

The element associated with the mundane, sensual, physical aspects of existence. Could be connected to Orlok’s carnal inclinations, or the fact that he has resurrected his body, as a vampire in Romanian lore is a reanimated corpse.

The Zalmoxis myth had to do with going underground or being buried beneath the earth and later returning to the surface.

• There’s a dot in the center of the symbol in the middle of the Orlok sigil, and I think it may reference the Sun…

Solar Symbol

The Sun represents the creator, the seed of creation in all life. Astrologically, it is the core Self, the ego consciousness. One’s very being and vitality.

Having the solar symbol encased in the Earth symbol could signify mundane, corporeal existence having some kind of dominion over the divine, or perhaps it merely signifies new life/creation coming from the Cthonic realm.

The Sun rises at a critical point, late in the film.

Death and the Maiden, Niklaus Manuel Deutsch (1517)

Death and the Maiden

A common trope in bubonic plague era art, especially German. These works explored the intrinsic relationship between desire and mortality in a grotesque yet compelling manner. The phrase le petit mort comes to mind… Well, if you saw the film, you know what I mean.

Nosferatu surely incorporated more occult and spiritual meaning than most films I have recently seen, to the point that I am certain I haven’t covered all the many details and layers in it. But I hope this was interesting or illuminating to you, and I appreciate you for reading my thoughts!