Dracula 19

Study Guide Questions for Ch. 19 "Jonathan Harker's Journal"

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)

Fortitude, Fear, Appearance vs. Reality, Fate

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. What did Dr. Seward offer as his primary reason for deciding to refuse Renfield’s request to be released from the asylum?

2. With what items did Van Helsing equip each member of the group before entering Carfax?

3. What did the men learn concerning Dracula’s boxes of earth?

4. What danger manifested itself while the men were still searching Dracula’s house?

5. Who had prepared for just such a danger and how had he done so?

6. What did Jonathan observe about Mina’s appearance upon returning from Carfax?

7. How did Renfield treat Van Helsing during his visit to see him?

8. What had Mina observed as she looked out her window from her bedroom?

9. What did Mina hear from downstairs beneath her room?

10. Describe what Mina saw in her dream.

11. How was Mina feeling by the end of this chapter?

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

1. Using the book to justify your answer, do you think the group was wise to go to Carfax immediately or should they have waited until the day time? 

2. Why did the professor say, “In manus tuas, Domine” as he entered the house?

3. As the men moved into the foul smelling room Jonathan noted, “it seemed as though corruption had become corrupt itself?” What did he mean by that?

4. Why is Dracula redistributing his boxes elsewhere? What is the purpose of these boxes?

5. What is the phosphorescent light indicative of? What is happening when this appears?

6. Why do you think Mina looked “paler than usual” when Jonathan arrived back in their room?

7. Mina wrote, “I can’t quite remember how I fell asleep last night.” Why might this be?

8. Mina said that Renfield became “more loud than ever.” Why might that be?

9. Mina said that in her dream the fog that she had seen outside the house came pouring into her room, “not through the window, but through the joinings of the door.” What is the significance of that fact?

10. Do you think Mina was just dreaming? Why or why not?

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

1. It has been famously said that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” What does this statement mean? How might you relate this statement to our present reading in Dracula? How might we, personally, seek to avoid having good intentions which result in tragic consequences? Explain your answer thoroughly.

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. Read 1 Chronicles 13 and Exodus 25:10-16. Relate these two readings back to the question above about good intention and avoiding tragic consequences and to the story of Dracula.