Dracula 8

Study Guide Questions for Ch. 8 "Mina Murray'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)

Death, Joy, Unbelief, Love

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. What happened which startled Mina and Lucy on their walk and which helped “give [them] a fresh start?”

2. Where did Mina discover Lucy had gone during her sleepwalk?

3. What else did Mina see, besides Lucy, at the graveyard?

4. What did Lucy implore Mina to not do after they got back to the house?

5. What did Mina see on Lucy which made her think that she had inadvertently hurt her with the safety pin?

6. What did Mina see one night outside her and Lucy’s bedroom window?

7. What did Lucy’s mother confide in Mina about?

8. What, fundamentally, do we learn from the two letters between the two companies of solicitors?

9. What did Lucy recall hearing on the night of her sleepwalk to the graveyard?

10. What caused Mina to proclaim, “Joy, joy, joy! Although not all joy?”

11. In what way had Renfield’s manner and personality changed suddenly?

12. Where did Renfield go after escaping the lunatic asylum?

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

1. Why do you think Lucy is sleepwalking like she is?

2. What might account for why Lucy was breathing “in long, heavy gasps” when Mina finally got to where she was?

3. Why were Mina and Lucy so concerned that no one should know about this incident?

4. What did Mina mean when she wrote, “though sympathy can’t alter facts, it can help to make them more bearable?”

5. What was the “good sized bird” which Mina saw next to Lucy?

6. Why did Lucy’s mother, Mrs. Westenra, not want to tell Lucy about her “death warrant?” 

7. Why is Lucy’s health going downhill?

8. What is Lucy’s experience of hearing “a lot of dogs all howling at once” reminiscent of from earlier in the story?

9. Why did the people of the Hospital of St. Joseph and Ste. Mary think Jonathan had temporarily lost his senses? Why did they not believe him?

10. Why might account for why Renfield suddenly changed his behavior from servile to haughty?

11. What did Dr. Seward mean when he said, “These infinitesimal distinctions between man and man are too paltry for an Omnipotent Being. How these madmen give themselves away! The real God taketh heed lest a sparrow fall. But the God created from human vanity sees no difference between an eagle and a sparrow. Oh, if men only knew?”

12. Dr. Seward said of Renfield, “He is a selfish old beggar anyhow. He thinks of the loaves and fishes even when he thinks he is in a Real Presence?”

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

1. Mina wrote in her journal, “Some of the 'New Women' writers will some day start an idea that men and women should be allowed to see each other asleep before proposing or accepting. But I suppose the 'New Woman' won't condescend in future to accept. She will do the proposing herself. And a nice job she will make of it too! There's some consolation in that.” What do you think of the concept of women proposing to men in marriage? What are some reasons as to why it has traditionally been the other way around? Do you think it is equally acceptable either way, or do you think the traditional approach is more appropriate? Explain your thoughts on the matter.

2. A theme in this chapter is “unbelief.” Where do we see at least two cases (in the current reading) of someone not believing something that they should believe? What might account for why, in those instances, belief was withheld? Can you think of something which many people do not believe today but which they should? What seems to cause unbelief where there should be belief? How does one make sure he is not guilty of withholding belief in situations where he should be granting it?

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. Read John 20:24-29 and relate it to our present reading in Dracula. 

2. Read Matthew 28. One of the verses tells us “some doubted.” Why would some people doubt Jesus in the midst of all that was before them? What does this teach us about the nature of doubt in relation to evidence?