In Robert Eggers's new film Nosferatu (2024), Nosferatu is the dark Count Orlok, whom the socially alienated young Ellen summons as spiritual company, confronting attraction and repulsion. After her mother's death, Ellen sought solace in the count, who appeared in dreams and trances that contemporary doctors labeled as epileptic fits and melancholy. These episodes temporarily subside after her marriage to Thomas Hutter, but during his six-week journey to Transylvania, her fits, dreams, and sleepwalking resumed, creating a sense of danger for her friends.
Set in 1838, Eggers's remake captures the cultural fear surrounding women's sexual desire. Nosferatu and Orlok represent external manifestations of Ellen's so-called nymphomaniac hysteria and onanism. However, Ellen's eventual reclaiming of her sexuality overturns the historical idea that women's sexual desire stems from a lack of will.
During one of Orlok's visits to Ellen in Wisburg, he reveals to her that he represents her own appetite, embodying the sexual desire inherent in her nature.
Doctor Wilhelm Sievers bleeds her and gives her ether to calm her delirious ravings, symbolizing the medical response to women's 'disordered' desires and the societal attempts to regulate female sexuality.
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