Try to get at least to Chapter 9 for Thursday's class, even though we won't have any questions to respond to. When you come to class, we'll have an in-class response so we can all respond to a big idea in these pages. Here are some ideas to consider as you read, however, one of which might make an appearance on Thursday.
SOME IDEAS TO CONSIDER...
Which of the “outside” stories (the log from the
What might be the significance of Dr. Seward's study of Renfield? What is he trying to understand about his patient's strange behavior? And who is Stoker really studying here: Renfield or Seward himself?
What is unique about Mina as the heroine of this book? In most books of this time, she would merely be Johnathan Harker's wife, but Stoker makes her a character in her own right. Why might she have shocked or at least surprised some readers in 1897?
How does Dracula seem to be a profoundly intertextual novel? Did you catch any references to other works, characters, or traditions? In many ways, Stoker is writing a horror novel while being very conscious--and obvious--about all of his predecesors, kind of like how Stranger Things makes reference to the horror movies that inspired it.
How does Lucy change throughout these chapters as she is slowly seduced by Dracula? Why might this relate somewhat to what was happening to Johnathan in Castle Dracula?
