Dracula 10

Study Guide Questions for Ch. 10 “Letter, Dr. Seward to Hon. Arthur Holmwood”

If you are looking for the beginning of the study of Bram Stoker’s Dracula then you can go HERE for a brief introduction. At the bottom of the introduction you will find the links to each section of the study guide as it becomes available. If you would like to see the growing list of available book studies available for free on this site you can go HERE. Enjoy!

Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)

Love, Cowardice

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. What analogy did Van Helsing give Dr. Seward when he asked him why he would not share his thoughts right then about Lucy’s condition?

2. What things did Van Helsing tell Dr. Seward he should take “good note of?”

3. Dr. Seward said in his journal that he was “horrified when I saw her today.” How did he describe Lucy’s appearance when he saw her that day?

4. What operation did Van Helsing decide is absolutely necessary to save Lucy’s life and whom did they use to do it?

5. What did Van Helsing and Dr. Seward notice upon Lucy for the first time after her operation?

6. What did Lucy state as her reasoning for desiring not to fall asleep?

7. How did Dr. Seward and Van Helsing find Lucy just two days after the operation despite her seeming recovery?

8. What did Dr. Seward and Van Helsing do to save Lucy’s life this second time?

9. Who stayed up and watched over Lucy after her second operation?

10. What item did Van Helsing have shipped to Lucy’s home and thereafter spread all around her room (particularly the window and fireplace)?

Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)

1. How are Lucy and her mother’s conditions both equally dangerous to the other at this point?

2. Van Helsing said, “Knowledge is stronger than memory.” What did he mean by that and how is it relevant to the current story?

3. What do you think Dr. Seward’s point was when, speaking of Mrs. Westenra’s lack of awareness of Lucy’s situation, he said, “If this be an ordered selfishness, then we should pause before condemn any one for the vice of egoism, for there may be deeper root for its cause than we have knowledge of?”

4. Why might Van Helsing be so concerned to let Arthur kiss Lucy at such a time as this? 

5. Why was Van Helsing so insistent that Dr. Seward not leave Lucy alone even for a second and that he should not even sleep that night as he watched over her?

6. What accounts for Lucy’s extreme loss of blood with no apparent cause?

7. Why was Mrs. Westenra’s comment about Dr. Seward needing a wife seemingly ill placed?

8. Why is Van Helsing so insistent that Dr. Seward should not ask him what his thoughts are about Lucy’s situation?

9. What should be inferred from the fact that Dr. Seward can see no medical reason for what Van Helsing is doing at the end of this chapter?

Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)

1. Dr. Seward wrote, “All men are mad in one way or another.” First, what did he mean by this? Second, do you agree with him? Why or why not?

2. In this chapter we see Van Helsing making use of medical science to save Lucy from death. We also see him doing something that seemed to Dr. Seward as if his friend were “working some spell to keep out an evil spirit.” Taking the vampire story with a grain of salt as an example, how should science and religion (or spirituality) relate to one another? What are some mistakes that could be made in the over (or under) emphases of either one? Can science and religion occupy the same space and even encourage one another to greater heights or are they antithetical and completely opposite to one another (mutually exclusive)? Explain your thoughts carefully.

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. Read Psalm 104. Given that science is the study of the natural world and its processes, how does this Psalm suggest that we should view God in relation to our study of the natural world? Why does understanding God’s relationship to the realm of nature matter?