Marisa Blackledge

Lynn Daigle

Emily Harelson

Kurt Breithaupt

05/16/03

The movie Nosferatu, directed by F.W. Murnau, is a 1922 silent film version of Bram Stokers Dracula. It is also the first film version of Dracula that was produced. Nosferatu follows the main plot of the novel, but there are some details, both small and large, that the German director decided to omit or alter. Murnau basically uses the novel as an outline for a movie, rather than a detailed script.

The movie revolves around Jonathon Harker and his wife, Nina. One day, Harker goes to work and talks with his supervisor, Renfield. Renfield tells Harker that Count Graf Orlok wants to buy a house in Bremen, Germany. Harker agrees to go to Romania. Nina is rather upset at this because she is afraid that Harker will be gone for an extended amount of time. To ease her worries, Harker sends Nina to stay with their friends, Westenra and his wife, Lucy.

Harker begins his travel to Nosferatus castle. As he is passing through the Carpathian Mountains, he stops at a local inn. Seeing as he is already late, he tells the locals, I should be at Count Orlocs castle. The owner of the tavern comes up to him and warns him that the demons become all-powerful at night and not to travel during the night. When in his room, Harker finds a book entitled, The Book of the Vampires, which details all the facts about vampires. The next day, Harker takes a carriage to the outskirts of Transylvania. Harker is forced to leave the carriage when they reach the Land of Phantoms. As Harker crosses the bridge the first carriage stopped on, another carriage comes to great him. The coachman appears to be none other than Nosferatu himself. When the carriage reaches the castle, Harker enters and is met by Nosferatu standing at the front door.

As Nosferatu is going over the paperwork for the new house, they being to chat until Harker falls asleep in a chair. At dawn, Harker awakes and begins to stretch, but as he does so, he realizes that his neck is rather stiff. He picks up a mirror and sees that there are two small pin-sized holes on his neck. Harker laughs this off and proceeds outside to the gazebo, where he writes a letter to Nina, telling her about the unusual bite-like marks on his neck.

In the evening, Harker and Nosferatu go over the legal papers for purchasing Nosferatus new house. Nosferatu notices Harkers cameo of Nina. Upon seeing Ninas picture, Nosferatu comments, Is this your wife? What a lovely throat. When business is finished, Harker goes back to his room and reads more from the Book of the Vampires. The clock strikes midnight, and Harker opens the bedroom door. Standing in the shadows is Nosferatu. Harker closes the door and runs to hide under the sheets. While Harker is hiding pitifully from a vampire under his sheets, his wife Nina falls into a trance. She begins to sleepwalk onto the balcony. Westenra hears her walking and goes to the balcony just in time to save her from falling off.

In the morning, Harker rushes down to the crypt area of the castle. There he sees Nosferatus menacing face through the top of a coffin and runs back up to his room. He looks out of a window and watches Nosferatu loading coffins filled with dirt onto a carriage, then climbs into one of them. The carriage then drives itself off. Harker realizes that Nosferatu is not only a vampire, but he is on his way to Nina. Harker proceeds to escape from the castle by using a makeshift rope. He falls sown the castle because the rope was too short and ends up at a church where he is taken care of by nuns.

Nosferatu by then has left on the ship, Demeter, headed for Bremen. He kills of each of the crewmen. When the first mate sees Nosferatu, he jumps overboard. The captain chains himself to the helm, but to no avail. When the ship arrives on land, no one is alive.

Back at Westenras house, Nina is looking out over the balcony, waiting for Harker. Both Nosferatu and Harker arrive in Bremen, but when Nosferatu arrives, a plague ravages the city. This plague is Nosferatu, and so many people die that there are constant parades of people carrying coffins down the streets. Nina learns from The Book of Vampires, which Harker forbad her to read, that only a woman pure in heart can destroy the vampire. While sewing, Nina falls asleep, and she is compelled by Nosferatu to open the window. She convinces Harker to leave the room, and Nosferatu enters. She offers her blood freely to him, which makes him lose track of time. Suddenly, the cock crows and the sun rises. The sunlight pouring through the same window he entered kills him. Nosferatu is reduced to a mere puff of smoke in a matter of moments.

In the book Dracula by Bram Stoker, a young lawyer, Jonathan Harker, is asked to go to Transylvania to sell a house to Count Dracula. On his way to the castle, many peasants give him charms to protect against evil and warm him of "vampires." Harker doesn't see anything suspicious for the first view days of his stay, but after awhile, he learns that he is a prisoner in this castle. After almost being attacked by three women vampires one night, he decides he has to escape and tries to scale down the wall.

Meanwhile, Harker's fianc©e, Mina learns that her friend Lucy has accepted a proposal from Quincy Morris. She goes to visit Lucy. One night, she finds Lucy has sleepwalked down to the cemetery. Mina goes after her and saves her. The only mark on Lucy's body is two unexplainable marks on her neck. After this, Lucy becomes very sick. She begins to get well for a short time with the help of garlic that has been placed in her room by Dr. Van Helsing. But, her mother, unknowing why the garlic is there, removes it. One night, a wolf breaks into their home and the shock kills Lucy's mother. The wolf attacks Lucy and kills her.

Van Helsing, Holmwood, Seward, and Quincy Morris come to the conclusion that Lucy is part of the "un-dead" after seeing her prey on a child. They decide to kill her using the ritual required to kill a vampire. They stab a stake into her heart, cut off her head, and stuff her mouth with garlic. They then vow to kill Dracula.

Harker has finally returned from Transylvania and he and Mina are married. Mina collects the letters and journals and then tries to piece together a way to find the Count. They eventually find him by tracking down the boxes of earth that were shipped from Dracula's castle. One night, one of Dracula's friends, Renfield, lets Dracula into the asylum where they are all staying, and he seduces Mina.

Mina begins to turn into a vampire. They sterilize the earth brought from Transylvania and force Dracula to return home. Through Minas connection with the Count, they follow him to Transylvania and kill the women vampires. Then, Jonathan and Mr. Morris kill Dracula by Jonathan cutting his head off and Mr. Morris stabbing him in the heart. Draculas body then turned to dust. Mina was free of the curse and didnt become a vampire. Quincy Morris died of wounds from the fight before killing Dracula. Bram Stoker's Dracula could be one in the same story. Instead of Joseph and Mina fighting Count Dracula, in Nosferatu Thomas and Ellen fight Nosferatu, the Undead.

Thomas, much like Joseph, is a solicitor sent to a far away place to sell a mysterious man a piece of real estate in London. He leaves behind a fianc©e in search of his first real assignment for work. Ellen and Mina are both picture-perfect Victorian women. Both are portrayed as pure and innocent, and incredibly feminine. Each of these characters is almost unreal, like the 18^th century males fantasy woman. And, of course, it is only by the strength of men supported by a pure and virtuous woman that the evil of Nosferatu and/or Dracula can be defeated.

There are many other similarities between Nosferatu and Dracula, also. For instance, both stories have a man in an insane asylum. This man has fascinated his doctors because of his need to consume living creatures: flies, spiders, and so on. He believes that by consuming their life force, he extends and strengthens his own. He is seen as a curiosity because he only consumes living animals. Nosferatu and Dracula are viewed as evil beasts because they prey on people to sustain their need for physical immortality.

These stories are most similar in their basic concept, the battle between good and evil. Each is a tale of somewhat unexpected heroes and heroines, all pure in heart, put up against an unfathomable evil. But in each story, by a fortunate twist of fate, or perhaps divine intervention, good eventually and ultimately prevails over evil.

In Nosferatu, though the main ideas from the novel remain, several key plot points and characters were omitted. Many of these changes are because of the limitations of the genre and silent film production, and because the film takes place in Germany instead of England.

The most obvious change F.W. Murnau makes is translating the characters names from English to German because the movie is a German production. There are other changes made to the characters as well. Arthur Holmwoods name is not only changed, but it is changed to his wifes last name, Westenra.

Some of the minor characters are cut, like Draculas wives, Quincy Morris and Mrs. Westenra. Without the use of dialogue, silent movies can be limited to how many characters there can be. This film that the movie is shot in is 8mm film, so the picture itself is very small, thereby limiting the amount of characters that can be in a frame at the same time as well.

Some of the subplots are also cut as well because it is difficult to build a subplot without dialogue and because of the omitted characters. Lucys adventures with her suitors and all of the marriage proposals are cut, and so is her wedding. Murnau does not include the part where Lucy is eating a baby, either. The entire sexual overtone of the novel is eradicated, also. Lucy is shown as pure from the beginning, and Mina never becomes sexual. In the movie she saves everyone because she is so pure in heart.

Some of the main plot points that were cut contained too much of a sexual overtone to be in a 1922 silent film. Dracula never infects Mina, even after she is bitten. The movie ends in Minas bedroom where Dracula dies, unlike the novel that takes the characters back to Draculas castle. She never becomes sexual and she never tries to infect anyone else. The idea that good can and will overcome evil shines in this movie.

Another of the main differences in the movie is the symbolism used for evil. It is hard to use lighting or color in a black and white movie, so the cues must be something very visual. Instead of using wolves like the novel, Murnau uses rats and hyenas to signal Draculas evil presence. One reason the rats were used instead of wolves is because of the diseases that rats can carry. In Europe, rats were a more evil existence than wolves could ever be because of things like the Plague.

While the two works may have some differences, they both convey the same terror. By reading Dracula more detail is given; therefore the reader is entranced by the graphic detail. When watching Nosferatu, the audience has the ugliness of evil thrust into their faces. Both Nosferatu and Dracula accomplish what their creators wanted, the face of evil to be seen.

Other web sites of interest:

A Synopsis of the 1931 Movie Dracula with a Biography of Star Bela Lugosi and Producer Tod Browning