Nosferatu and "The Jewish Nose"

Summary-

Nosferatu is the first Dracula movie made in 1922. The main character Jonathan Harker is sent to Transylvania the land of phantoms by the professor Renfield. He is sent there to see Count Dracula and the Count hopes to return and live in the same town as Jonathan. As the Count is being shipped back to his new home a plague breaks out and is transferred from the ship to land where all the towns people are worried about dyeing. Harker's wife Mina reads the vampire book she was specifically told not to read and figured out the only way to stop the plague is to give her self to Dracula and then everybody else will be saved. In the end she does just this and saves everybody.


The Jewish Nose depicts the hardships that Jewish people went through and how they tried to fit in with the rest of the world. By mid-century being black, being Jewish, being diseased, and being ugly came to be inexorably linked. The German (Aryans) were said to be a pure race, and the Jews were criticized because to erase their "Jewishness" they would marry outside of their race but this would usually just bring out their Jewish characteristics even more. Jews were associated with being dirty and out casted by many people. The Jewish race is also said to have a prominent nose which was explained in this piece.


"plica polonica"-an uncommon condition in which groups of hair-shafts become irreversibly entangled, forming a matted and sometimes sticky moist mass. Symptoms may also include an inflamed scalp with bad odour. It was first described in Poland during the 19th century. Associated with the Jewish people.

Key Terms-

Mischling- Having one parent be Jewish but the other from another background.

Nosferatu- vampire in Slovenian

Zionist- Jewish movement that was world wide


Questions and Comments-

Is religion and race the same?

Are Jews a separate and distant racial category?

Why do you think Mina had to give herself to Count Dracula to save everybody?

What similarities if any did you see between the reading and the video?

Do you think today there is a problem with people showing unkindness towards the Jewish race?


I thought that the video was really unique in the way that I have never sat down and watched a 1920's movie before I found it intriguing and at the same time it was a little hard to stay focused. I had never seen this version of Dracula before and I found it really interesting. The article really caught my attention and I was really intrigued to keep reading since there was so many key points about race and religion I have never considered before.