Dracula 13

Study Guide Questions for Ch. 13 "Dr. Seward's Diary (Continued)"

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)

Trust, Friendship, Appearance vs. Reality, Providence, Grief, Despair, Decorum, Prudence

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. What items did Van Helsing collect from Lucy’s room?

2. What items did Van Helsing put in Lucy’s coffin with her?

3. What shocking bit of information did Van Helsing tell Dr. Seward concerning his intentions with Lucy’s body?

4. What did the maid do which changed Van Helsing’s plans?

5. Who received the whole of Mrs. Westenra’s estate after her and Lucy’s death?

6. What did Arthur ask after seeing how beautiful Lucy looked lying in the coffin?

7. What did Van Helsing do while all the others slept the night before the burial?

8. What did Jonathan Harker see in London which gave him quite a shock?

9. What did Mina decide that she must do for the sake of her husband’s well being?

10. What did Van Helsing say about laughter?

11. What unsettling things did the Westminster Gazette report upon?

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

1. Why might Lucy appear more beautiful now that she is dead?

2. What might have been Van Helsing’s purpose in putting the items in the coffin with Lucy which he did?

3. Why did Van Helsing wish to do to Lucy’s body the things which he proposed to Dr. Seward?

4. Why did the stolen crucifix make Van Helsing abandon his original plan?

5. What should be inferred from the fact that Mrs. Westenra left her entire estate to Arthur instead of Lucy?

6. Why did Van Helsing not go to sleep the night before Lucy’s burial even though everyone else did?

7. What did Jonathan mean by saying, “Oh, my God! My God! If I only knew! If I only knew!” when he saw the Count in London?

8. Why did Van Helsing call laughter, “King Laugh?”

9. Who is the “Bloofer lady?”

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

1. Van Helsing desired Arthur’s trust in him, but he said, “to trust such violence needs to understand; and I take it that you do not – that you cannot – trust me now.” What is the basis for trust? Why do we trust some people but not others? How can we go about earning someone’s trust? What is the relationship of trust to knowledge and understanding? How important is the role of trust in a well ordered society? Walk through each question carefully and tie them together to explain what “trust” is all about.

2. Do you have a person in your life whom you trust implicitly as Dr. Seward trusts Van Helsing (even when he proposes seemingly crazy things)? Share a time when you have simply had to trust someone else’s word on something. What made it possible for you to trust them in that moment even though you didn’t personally understand?

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. Read Proverbs 3:5-6 and Hebrews 6:13-20. Why is God trustworthy? What makes him so?