Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- What is the effect of the structure of the novel? Why do you think Stoker chose to construct it as a series of journal entries and letters from multiple points of view? How would the story be different if there were one traditional narrator?
- Why does Dracula only drink the blood of English women? Why doesn't he drink, say, Jonathan Harker's blood when he has the chance?
- Why is Lucy Dracula's first target? What makes her vulnerable?
- Why does Quincey Morris have to die? If Stoker wanted a happy ending, couldn't they all have lived? Or, if one person needed to die, why Quincey?
- What do you think Dracula is referring to when he says, "Yes, I too can love; you yourselves can tell it from the past" (3.35)? Does he have a tragic love story in his past? Are we supposed to sympathize with Dracula?
- At what points in the novel does Stoker seem to elicit the reader's sympathy for Dracula? Do we ever feel sorry for him?
- Why do Arthur Holmwood and Quincey Morris never contribute journal entries? How would the novel be different if all the characters narrated an equal amount of the time?
- How do you think Renfield finds out about Dracula in the first place?