“Nosferatu” Completely Misinterpreted In Vampire Lore

By Divya G

Lucy Westenra, a character in the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, fell victim to the aristocratic villain. Transylvania’s Count Dracula stole her blood every night, draining her life slowly out of her body. And death was not just the end for the poor girl. It was only the beginning.

The convict significantly transformed her into an undead vampire just like himself. Thus, a brief reign of terror sprang up at the graveyard. After that, Arthur, Lucy’s fiance, and his companions spotted her awake near her tomb. Vampire-savvy Dr. Abraham Van Helsing also found her the same way.

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Lucy tried to lull Arthur into a lover’s embrace. But after that, she was utterly destroyed for good. Helsing stated that if Arthur accepted her kiss, the morning suitor would eventually become a nosferatu. He later revealed that the nosferatu doesn’t die a bee’s death. Instead, it becomes more powerful to do all the tasks of an evil.

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But in Stoker’s novel, Nosferatu is used as a synonym. Since then, numerous writers and TV shows have kept on using the terms interchangeably. Like Helsing, Stoker also considered Nosferatu an authentic word of Eastern European origin.

However, the evidence states an entirely different story. It is probably some mistranslation done by some Greek or Roman scholars. Whatever the origins might be, Nosferatu was given a whole new meaning by the horror media. Besides, it also worked as a ready-made title fodder for some scariest vampire stories.