Editing Nosferatu (section)

==Themes==
===The Other===
''Nosferatu'' has been noted for its themes regarding fear of [[Other (philosophy)|the Other]], as well as for possible [[antisemitic]] undertones,<ref name=BrentonFilm /> both of which may have been partially derived from the [[Bram Stoker]] novel ''[[Dracula]]'', upon which the film was based.<ref name="Giesen 109">[[#Giesen|Giesen 2019 page 109]]</ref> The physical appearance of Count Orlok, with his [[aquiline nose|hooked nose]], long claw-like fingernails, and large bald head, has been compared to [[Stereotypes of Jews|stereotypical caricatures of Jewish people]] from the time in which ''Nosferatu'' was produced.<ref name="Giesen 108">[[#Giesen|Giesen 2019 page 108]]</ref> His features have also been compared to those of a rat or a mouse, the former of which Jews were often equated with.<ref name="Giesen 108–109">[[#Giesen|Giesen 2019 pages 108–109]]</ref><ref name="Magistrale 25–26">[[#Magistrale|Magistrale 2005 page 25–26]]</ref> Orlok's interest in acquiring property in the German town of Wisburg, a shift in locale from the Stoker novel's [[London]], has also been analyzed as preying on the fears and anxieties of the German public at the time.<ref name="Magistrale 25">[[#Magistrale|Magistrale 2005 page 25]]</ref> Professor [[Tony Magistrale]] wrote that the film's depiction of an "invasion of the [[Weimar Republic|German homeland]] by an outside force [...] poses disquieting parallels to the anti-Semitic atmosphere festering in [[Northern Europe]] in 1922."<ref name="Magistrale 25" />

When the foreign Orlok arrives in Wisburg by ship, he brings with him a swarm of rats which, in a deviation from the source novel, spread the [[Plague (disease)|plague]] throughout the town.<ref name="Magistrale 25–26" /><ref name="Joslin 15">[[#Joslin|Joslin 2017 page 15]]</ref> This plot element further associates Orlok with rodents and the idea of the "Jew as disease-causing agent".<ref name="Giesen 108" /><ref name="Magistrale 25–26" /> It is also notable that Orlok's accomplice in conspiracy Knock is a Jewish realtor, who acts as the vampire's [[fifth column]] in the [[Biedermeier]] town of Wisburg.<ref>''Golem, Caligari, Nosferatu – A Chronicle of German Film Fantasy'' (2022) by Rolf Giesen</ref>

There were other views – writer [[Kevin Jackson (writer)|Kevin Jackson]] has noted that director [[F. W. Murnau]] "was friendly with and protective of a number of Jewish men and women" throughout his life, including Jewish actor [[Alexander Granach]], who plays Knock in ''Nosferatu''.<ref name="Jackson 20">[[#Jackson|Jackson 2013 page 20]]</ref> Additionally, Magistrale wrote that Murnau, being a [[Gay men|homosexual]], would have been "presumably more sensitive to the persecution of a subgroup inside the larger German society".<ref name="Magistrale 25–26" /> As such, it has been said that perceived associations between Orlok and antisemitic stereotypes are unlikely to have been conscious decisions on the part of Murnau.<ref name="Magistrale 25–26" /><ref name="Jackson 20" />

===Occultism===
[[File:Nosferatu (1922) Knock-Orlok contract.jpg|thumb|A contract between Orlok and Knock]]
Murnau and Grau gave Orlok in the film a demonic lineage and an occult origin: Orlok is the creation of [[Belial]], one of the Satanic [[archdemon]]s. Belial in [[Psalm 41|Psalm]] 41:8–10 is also associated with pestilence, with Orlok in film being a manifestation of contagion, rats pouring out of his coffins onto the streets of Wisburg, spreading [[Plague (disease)|Black Death]]. Orlok's link to Belial is also significant because Belial is "one of the demons traditionally summoned by [[Goetic]] magicians" – making Orlok someone who practiced [[Black magic|dark sorcery]] before becoming a vampire.<ref name="annwnjones">Annwn Jones, David (2023), ''Vampires on the Silent Screen: Cinema’s First Age of Vampires 1897–1922'', pp. 169, 184</ref>

Orlok and his servant Knock are communicating in occult language – the documents between Orlok and Knock are written in [[Enochian]], a constructed language said to be that of the angels, which was recorded in the private journals of English occultist [[John Dee]] and his colleague English [[Alchemy|alchemist]] [[Edward Kelley]] in late 16th-century [[Elizabethan era|Elizabethan]] England.<ref name="annwnjones"/><ref name="Movie Magick 2018 p. 52">''Movie Magick: The Occult in Film'' (2018) by David Huckvale, p. 52</ref>

The character of Professor Bulwer in the film is named in reference to English occult novelist [[Edward Bulwer-Lytton]].<ref name="Movie Magick 2018 p. 52"/> The idea of astral entities, arising from the dark thoughts of human beings, responsible for epidemics that call for blood sacrifices in order to prevent them, is also closely linked to that of the alchemist [[Paracelsus]], whose figure is partly embodied in the film in the character of Professor Bulwer (who is mentioned in the film to be [[Paracelsianism|Paracelsian]] himself). This is made concrete in the film in the plague epidemic that spreads through the town of Wisburg, which cannot be remedied by scientific methods, but by the blood sacrifice of a woman, thus destroying forever the dark being responsible for this catastrophic situation.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://elhype.com/en/nosferatu-esotericism-and-terror/ |title='Nosferatu': A Century of Esotericism and Terror |date=30 October 2022 }}</ref>

===World War I===
The idea for making this vampire film saw its genesis in the war-time experience of producer Albin Grau. Grau served in the German army during [[World War I]] on the [[Serbian campaign|Serbian front]]. While in Serbia, Grau encountered a local farmer who told him of his father, who the farmer believed had become an undead vampire. F. W. Murnau, director of the film, also saw considerable action in World War I – not only as a company commander in the trenches of the [[Eastern Front (World War I)|Eastern Front]], but also later in the air after he transferred to the [[Luftstreitkräfte|German air service]]. He survived at least eight crashes. [[Max Schreck]] who portrayed Count Orlok also served in the trenches with the German army. Little is known of his war-time experience, but there are some signs he may have dealt with some form of [[post-traumatic stress disorder]]. Colleagues commented that he preferred to keep to himself. He was known to take long walks in the forest alone, oftentimes disappearing for hours at a time. He once stated that he lived in "a remote and incorporeal world". Thus it is considered that the turmoil of 1920s Germany and the war-time experiences of those who produced the film left their marks on the production of the film.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://alexanderandsonsrestorations.com/vampires-great-war/ |title=Of Vampires and the Great War |date=30 October 2014 |access-date=2 January 2024 |archive-date=12 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231212104436/https://alexanderandsonsrestorations.com/vampires-great-war/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

As [[Lotte H. Eisner|Lotte Eisner]], a dedicated occultist, wrote: "Mysticism and magic, the dark forces to which Germans have always been more than willing to commit themselves, had flourished in the face of death on the battlefields" – these forces were intrinsic to the shaping of cinema's first vampires. Albin Grau himself also linked the war and vampires: "this monstrous [[World War I|event]] that is unleashed across the earth like a cosmic vampire to drink the blood of millions and millions of men". Belial as well is the link between war and contagion, as Orlok is linked directly to the Black Death and many critics have linked ''Nosferatu''{{'}}s disease-bearing rodents to the transmissible sickness associated with [[trench warfare]] in which rats flourished. As noted by [[Ernest Jones]] in his psychoanalytic study of nightmares, vampire legends proliferate in periods of mass contagion.<ref>{{cite book |title=Vampires on the Silent Screen: Cinema's First Age of Vampires 1897–1922 |date=2023 |author=David Annwn Jones |pages=169, 183 }}</ref>