Exploring the Symbolism of Lilacs in Nosferatu (2024)
Left: Ellen Hutter holding a bouquet of purple lilacs. Right: The piece “Death & the Maiden” by Petals & Poison.
Nosferatu (2024) was absolutely one of my favorite films of 2024, in a year that was already packed with incredible horror films (yes I will be covering The Substance sometime soon!) I already was extremely excited for this movie as a big Robert Eggers fan and gothic horror girlie, but even with those high expectations this movie absolutely blew me away. Every shot looks like a painting, the sound design is incredible, the performances (by Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, and Bill Skarsgård especially) were astounding, and the way the film builds tension and dread is so masterful it genuinely unnerved me (as a person who does not get scared by much in horror anymore.) It’s a masterpiece, in my opinion.
But the thing I love most about Nosferatu (2024) is how it’s packed with visual parallels to the original film, small details that build out the world, and many layers of symbolism to the point where I’m still noticing many new things several rewatches later.
One particular bit of symbolism that I absolutely love and want to dive in here is the use of lilacs throughout the film.
Lilacs are directly and specifically associated with Ellen in Nosferatu. Throughout the film she’s directly seen with lilac flowers, wearing the color lilac, or referenced as smelling like lilacs. The use of lilacs is not just an aesthetic choice, but rather these flowers are used to further deepen Ellen’s story by symbolizing everything from Greek mythology, Victorian flower language, and breaking curses.
If you have not seen Nosferatu (2024) yet, be warned because I will definitely be talking about specific scenes in the film and these will include spoilers.
Lilacs in the Victorian language of flowers
So first off, let's talk about how the Victorians would have seen and used lilacs. Flower languages (also called Floriography) started in Europe in the 18th century and became more widespread and popular through the end of the 19th century, hitting peak popularity in the late 1800s. Floriography essentially takes individual flowers and assigns specific meanings to them in order to convey a message. For example, roses mean love and roses would be included in wedding bouquets to represent the love between the married couple.
In Floriography, lilacs could represent first love or remembrance. Before Thomas sets off to Transylvania to meet with Count Orlok, he gives Ellen a bouquet of purple lilacs. She is immediately upset about this and orders him to take them away. She then tells Thomas about the dream that she had:
“The scent of the lilacs was strong in the rain... and when I reached the altar, you weren't there... Standing before me, all in black was Death. But I was so happy, so very happy. We exchanged vows, we embraced, and when we turned round, everyone was dead. Father... and... everyone. The stench of their bodies was horrible, it overwhelmed the lilacs... and... But I had never been so happy as that moment, as I held hands with Death.”
I think there are a few things interesting about this. First, I could see that Thomas, knowing that lilacs represent first love, wanted to show Ellen his devotion and love for her before he was going to be gone for a long time. In turn, Ellen is deeply devoted to and in love with Thomas. We learn that she was plagued with her “melancholy” and sadness until she met Thomas; he was her first love.
But why would this symbol of devotion make Ellen so upset? I theorize that it’s because Victorian widows would wear lilacs when in mourning. Receiving these lilacs, with her dream still fresh in her mind, could be seen as an ill omen that one day she will be mourning the loss of Thomas as she already foresees that his journey will not end well.
As a side note, I particularly like this shot because the way Ellen is holding the flowers (with her hands in front of her) is the same way a deceased person would be holding flowers. This is nice subtle foreshadowing to Ellen’s eventual death.
Lilacs in mythology: Syringa/Syrinx and Pan
The botanical name for lilacs is syringa vulgaris. Syringa comes from the Greek word “syrinx”, which means pipe or tube. This refers to the branches of a lilac bush. As a note, as I was researching the story of Syringa and Pan, I noticed that Syringa is referred to either Syringa or Syrinx, so I think a different name is used depending on the translation. I will just use both interchangeably.
Anyway, the myth goes that Syrinx, a nymph, caught the eye of the god Pan and he became obsessed with her. In order to escape his advances, she turned herself into a lilac bush (or reeds, again, depending on the translation). Pan found the bush and took reeds from it order to make his pan flute.
To me, this myth is a direct parallel to Ellen and Orlok’s relationship in the film. Ellen called out to someone, anyone, in a moment of desperation and loneliness, and unfortunately Orlok was the one that heard her. He was summoned and became completely obsessed with her. Ultimately, Ellen could not escape him and the only way to save everyone she loved was to sacrifice herself by keeping Orlok up until daylight so that the light would kill him. While she was victorious in the end, during the process Orlok took parts of her (like how Pan took reeds from Syrinx’s new form) and ultimately fully consumed her and her blood, killing her.
In the scene at the beginning of the film where Ellen contacts Orlok, she wanders outside in a trance and we see this shot where she is lying on the ground next to lilac bushes. This is a nice parallel to the mythology as well. Here Ellen is framed so she is completely surrounded and enclosed by the lilac bushes, almost like she has become them the way Syringa did.
It’s interesting to note that different colors of lilacs have different meanings, and specifically purple lilacs represent not just first love but also infatuation and obsession. It’s really hard to tell but I think there’s both purple (on the left and right sides) and white lilacs here. While purple lilacs represent obsession, white lilacs represent youthful innocence. Nosferatu doesn’t tell us exactly how much time passed between Ellen first summoning Orlok and his return, she does state that she “was a child” when this event happened. In this moment, Orlok became obsessed and took Ellen’s innocence away.
Note this is the only place in the movie that we see white lilacs. Every other time we see them they are purple, symbolizing Orlok’s constant presence, obsession, and infatuation with Ellen.
As a side note, Ellen is also referred to as a sylph multiple times. This term means an airy wispy woman, but also a sylph is an air spirit, an elemental as theorized by Paracelsus (who is mentioned in the film). His work is a whole rabbit hole I won’t go down, but essentially as I was researching this, seemingly accordingly to how you translate it a sylph could also mean forest nymph. So another direct connection.
Magical properties
Finally, lilacs have additional meaning and significance when it comes to magic and folklore. Lilacs were associated with exorcism, protection, and were used to drive away evil.
Towards the end of the film as Ellen prepares to confront Orlok and ultimately kill him, she wears her wedding dress with purple lilacs woven into her hair. Not only is this a direct parallel to her dream (marrying Death with the scent of lilacs in the air), but I also see this as Ellen incorporating the flowers as protection and strength to help her drive away this ultimate evil, not just to exorcise it from herself but from the entire town as well.
Concept art for Ellen’s wedding dress. Costuming by Linda Muir
Photo by @skarsgard_bro on Instagram.
In the final scene of the film after both Ellen and Orlok are dead, Prof. Albin Eberhart Von Franz takes the lilacs and spreads them across Ellen and Orlock’s intertwined bodies. While this seems like a nice gesture at first, I also interpret this as Von Franz using the lilacs to show that Orlok’s evil is finally exorcized and to ultimately banish any more evil that might linger.
Now, I’m not sure if these are the same lilacs that Thomas gave Ellen many months before. It looks like the same ones, but also if that was the case they should definitely be dead after the long passage of time. But what if they are the same lilacs and were supernaturally kept alive while Orlok and Ellen were still connected, showing his obsession would never end? I have no idea if that was the intention but it’s fun to think about.
If you enjoyed this breakdown and want to read more film analysis from me, definitely read my previous blog breaking down the use of color motifs in Crimson Peak or my blog analyzing how Glass Onion uses masks to tell us about its characters.
