For Thursday: Stoker, Dracula, Chapters 15-19 (or so)

Munch, The Storm (1893)

Answer TWO of the following: 

Q1: Why do you think Stoker settled on two main narrators for the novel: Dr. Seward and Mina (though Johnathan sometimes sneaks in, too)? Why might Seward and Mina be subtly opposed to one another, at least in their perspectives and narrative techniques? What is each one allowed to see, and what might be the limitations of each perspective?

Q2: While there is a definite theme of English vs. “Oriental” (that is, of the world beyond the British Empire), many readers also read this book as also Christian vs. Pagan, or science vs. superstition. What makes these readings increasingly complicated as the book goes on? And why might Stoker resist offering us such an easy, good vs. evil (or old vs. new) interpretation? You might also remember that even Dr. Seward describes Arthur slaying Un-Dead Lucy as looking “like a figure of Thor.”

Q3: Dracula is an extremely self-aware novel; that is, it is a gothic novel about writing a gothic novel. Stoker explicitly shows Mina “making” the book throughout, and even Arthur, examining all of her transcriptions, adds, “it does make a pretty good pile...Did you write all this, Mrs. Harker?” Why do you think Stoker calls our attention to the writing of the novel? What might be the advantage of this approach?

Q4: At one point, Van Helsing tells Mina, “We are men, and are able to bear; but you must be our star and our hope, and we shall act all the more free that you are not in the danger, such as we are” (225). Do you think Stoker intends this to be a misogynistic novel, one that puts “New Women” in their place? Or is this another example of the shortsightedness (and ineffectiveness) of the masculine ideal? In other words, are Stoker’s own limitations as a storyteller coming out in the narrative? Or is this Seward and Co.’s limitations?