it was definitely text that Ellen's desires awakened Orlok, at which point they became inextricably linked. as for how a random woman awakened a random vampire a thousand miles away... magic doesn't have to make sense. plus it's a very old idea that if you put particular energies out into the universe, you don't know how they will come back to you, nor can you control it. the ungovernability of desire is a common theme in fiction more generally and this is certainly an exhibition of it. i do agree with the analysis you and lunasspecto did regarding Ellen eventually taking ownership of her situation.
also, connecting sex, contagion, and death is inherently cyclical: we are all born through sex, and we all must die as a result, and in a figurative sense we "infect" the world with ourselves, with our desires, with our weaknesses. what this leads me to is that, while Orlok's awakening is Ellen's "fault," caused by her unrestrained desire, the men around her are no less guilty of letting their own desires run amok. out of all of them, Ellen is the only one willing to close the cycle, so to speak, by voluntarily ending herself and Orlok at the same time.
also, connecting sex, contagion, and death is inherently cyclical: we are all born through sex, and we all must die as a result, and in a figurative sense we "infect" the world with ourselves, with our desires, with our weaknesses. what this leads me to is that, while Orlok's awakening is Ellen's "fault," caused by her unrestrained desire, the men around her are no less guilty of letting their own desires run amok. out of all of them, Ellen is the only one willing to close the cycle, so to speak, by voluntarily ending herself and Orlok at the same time.
the horrors persist, but so do we
(aka large mozz)
(aka large mozz)