In the film Nosferatu (1922), why does the man climb out of a window to escape the castle?

Question

The main character watches as the vampire Count Orlok flees the castle and for some reason the guys tears his bedsheets apart in his room to create a rope to climb out of the window with. But WHY? Couldn't he have just escaped the castle by using the normal exit? It doesn't seem like it would have been any trouble since he wasn't locked in the room or anything as far as we were able to tell. It just didn't make any sense to me.

Then how was the man able to find the Count in his coffin in the castle's crypt when he went exploring around the castle during the daytime (when the Count sleeps)? That doesn't seem possible if he was confined to only his room.

Answer 1

...as I recall, having read the original Bram Stoker novel, "Dracula", a long time ago (from which "Nosferatu" was based), Jonathan Harker used this method of escape, because the Count had locked him in his room, during the daylight hours...

...as Harker was very much aware that he couldn't tie up enough bedsheets to escape to the ground, he might at least, get down to one of the lower windows...and in the case of "Nosferatu", the closest window was the one that the Count had climbed out of...

(edit)

...going back to the original novel (and my somewhat vivid memory of it), the room that Harker accessed via the window he climbed down to, wasn't locked up (it is my opinion that the Count figured that Harker may not have been clever enough, or even brave enough to do something this drastic); this allowed Harker to toured the remainder of the castle. Knowing that he was doomed to perish in the castle, unless he did something about it, he desperately sought out the secret of the Count, and invariably found the crypt, where the Count rested....

...as I recall, the film "Nosferatu", as well as other versions of the Dracula tale, had variations on this particular scene (I particularly like it when some of these filmmakers attempt to emulate the classic scene from the book, where Harker sees the Count climb out the window, and down the sides of the castle walls, like a lizard); it's understandable that "Nosferatu" might have skimped on some of the finer details...

...for the full effect of the story, I would whole-heartedly recommend picking up a copy of the original novel; rest assured, you will not be able to put it down, until the very last page!!!