Dracula 4
Study Guide Questions for Ch. 4 "Jonathan Harker's Journal (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)
Truth, Despair, Deception, Despotism, Light vs. Darkness, Fortitude
Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)
What “small evidences” pointed to Jonathan’s experience the night before being real rather than just a dream?
According to Jonathan, why was he certain that Dracula would not allow him to go on living indefinitely?
How did Jonathan attempt to get information about his situation to Mina?
What did Jonathan discover was missing from his portmanteau?
What were the Szgany transporting to Dracula’s castle?
What “new shock” did Jonathan witness as Dracula climbed out his window?
What was materializing before Jonathan from “little specks floating in the rays of the moonlight?”
What heartbreaking scene did Jonathan witness outside of Dracula’s castle?
What interesting things did Jonathan find on his venture through the Count’s window?
What incident nearly brought about Jonathan’s death?
What did Jonathan notice about the count’s appearance as he looked upon him lying on the box?
What did Jonathan try to do to the count and what happened as a result?
What did Jonathan say he would try to do as a last desperate attempt to escape from the castle?
Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)
Given that it is always best to act on more certain information than less certain, why did Jonathan decide he “must act on this surmise” that what he experienced was real and not a dream?
What was hypocritical about Dracula’s claim that Jonathan’s letter (written in shorthand) was “a vile thing, an outrage upon friendship and hospitality?”
What did Jonathan mean when he said, “Despair has its own calms?”
What was Dracula’s purpose in dressing himself in Jonathan’s clothing? Why would he want to do this?
Why did Jonathan say of the woman who came to the castle, “I could not pity her?”
Why might the Count be filling many boxes with dirt? What purpose could this serve?
What did Jonathan mean by saying that Dracula gave “a smile that Judas in hell might be proud of?”
What might have caused the Count to look more youthful than he had before?
Why might the Count be going to London after all these years of being in Transylvania?
Jonathan said, “At least God’s mercy is better than that of these monsters, and the precipice is steep and high. At its foot a man may sleep - as a man?”
Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)
Define the virtue of Fortitude (Courage). What is it, and what is its relationship to fear? Where do we see examples of genuine Fortitude in this present reading? Why is it Fortitude instead of mere recklessness?
Jonathan lamented that he was “a veritable prisoner, but without that protection of the law which is even a criminal’s right and consolation.” In what way is the law a criminal’s “right and consolation?” What do we mean when we say, “it is a person’s right?” Do certain criminal acts justly sever a person from some of their rights? Are there any rights which are inseparable from a person, even the worst of criminals? If there are, what is an example of a right that is inseparable and why do you think it is so? If there are no rights which are completely invulnerable to being severed, why do you think so?
Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)
According to Ezekiel 7:23-27, what kind of person should despair? In light of this, (assuming the story follows the biblical perspective in the end) who in the story of Dracula will be the one to despair in the end?
According to Psalm 33, who should have hope and who should have despair?