Dracula 20

Study Guide Questions for Ch. 20 "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)

Indulgence, Prudence

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. What was Jonathan Harker attempting to do at the beginning of this chapter?

2. For what reason did Mr. Joseph Smollet encourage Mr. Harker to try to find Sam Bloxam “soon in the mornin’?”

3. What had temporarily led Jonathan astray while trying to find Sam Bloxam’s residence?

4. What “new painful experience” did Jonathan say he gained?

5. What was the only thing the man from “Mitchell, Sons & Candy” would say about the house Mr. Harker was inquiring into?

6. What did Jonathan say which cause the man from “Mitchell, Sons & Candy” to become more desirous to “oblige” him?

7. What did Renfield insist that he did and did not want to gain from consuming flies, spiders, etc. 

8. After talking with Renfield, what did Dr. Seward conclude had occurred to give Renfield some “assurance” that he could receive “some higher life?”

9. What had Van Helsing gone “off to the British Museum” to do?

10. What made Dr. Seward cut off his diary entry “at once?”

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

1. Why is finding all the places the boxes from Carfax (and originally from Transylvania) a key part of the plan to thwart Dracula?

2. What kinds of things might be inferred about Mr. Joseph Smollet from Jonathan Harker’s interaction with him?

3. Why was the man from “Mitchell, Sons & Candy” being so tight-lipped about what Jonathan wanted to know?

4. Why did the reference to “Lord Godalming” make any difference to the man at Mitchell, Sons & Candy?”

5. Jonathan noted in his journal that Mina was “more affectionate with me than ever, and clung to me as though she would detain me.” What do you think accounts for her behavior at this particular point?

6. What was Renfield trying to say, analogically, when he referred to Enoch in the Bible?

7. Why was Renfield so insistent on making clear that he was not interested in souls, but only life? 

8. Why would Dracula want to meet with Renfield?

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

1. Which vice seem to be prominent among the blue-collar working class men in London? Why do you think that vice was so prominent among them? In what way does such a vice make men easy to control and manipulate? What should we learn from this?

2. Dr. Seward and Renfield discuss the distinction between lives and souls. What is a soul? Do you agree that a distinction can be made between a life and a soul? Why or why not?

3. Dr. Seward stated, “It is too bad that men cannot be trusted unless they are watched.” How does this statement relate to the concept of integrity? What does it mean to be a person of integrity? Do you think that Dr. Seward is right or wrong that people can only be trusted if they are watched? Why or why not? How, as Christians, might we suggest that God enters into this discussion?

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. Read Genesis 2:7, Genesis 35:16-21, and Matthew 10:26-33. How do these passages inform us further about the concept of the “soul?”

2. Read Matthew 6:1-6 and Hebrews 4:12-13. How do these passages affect your thinking on the question of having “integrity?”