Dracula

Below is a list of web addresses that will help you in your study of Dracula. Along with each site is a list of questions for you to answer. You will be responsible for these answers on the Dracula final, so read through these sites carefully.

1. Go to: http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emiller (note: this site linked with permission of the author, Dr. Elizabeth Miller - thank you Dr. Miller!)

1. Where was Bram Stoker born?
2. Where did Stoker go to college?
3. When was Dracula first published?
4. Who was Vlad the Impaler?
5. Where does the name "Dracul" come from?
6. What does "Transylvania" mean in Latin?
7. Explain the threats Dracula posed to Victorian social, political, and moral values.
8. What is "draculin"?
9. What was Vlad's Romanian name?
10. What two things was the Order of the Dragon designed to protect?
11. What enemy was the Order of the Dragon designed to fend off?
12. What are Dracula's traditional vampire traits?
13. Locate two other web sites about Bram Stoker, Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, or vampires in literature. List these sites, and for each site, recount two new things you learned about the subject (four facts total).

2. Go to: http://www.victorianweb.org/science/sciov.html

1. Click on "Evolution, Progress, and Natural Laws." Read the first two paragraphs, paying special attention to the last sentence in P1 and the entire P2. The last line in P1 indicates there was a tension among Victorian scientists:some believed in some sort of evolution, but others felt uncomfortable because the notion of organisms changing for the better seemed to contradict the popular view of Creation based on the book of Genesis in the Old Testament. In this view God created the world in perfection, and was later damaged by people's sin.

But notice now the second paragraph: "For most of the century the question was not, do organisms evolve, but rather does nature change by itself? The crux of the question was where the agency for change lay. Was it with God or some other unseen divine creator or intelligence, or did nature simply work in the ways it did by virtue of its properties?"  People with religious concerns have since pointed out that the idea of evolution (that things change and adapt to their environment) does not necessarily rule out the idea of God as a creator; that in fact the Judeo/Christian ideas about God ultimately redeeming mankind - which is obviously in need of redemption - are in perfect agreement with the basic concept of evolution. For many Victorians, evolution was a given - the question was who started the evolutionary process: a creator God, or natural laws alone.

Question: How does the novel Dracula deal with/show the question of evolution?
Hint: Consider Van Helsing's discussion of Dracula, the "child brain" who has lived many, many years one way as an immortal, and the rest of humanity, which has bred new generations one ofter the other, with "man brains." Also consider Renfield's comment "The blood is the life" and the vampire's need for blood (with its inherent genetic components).

2. Question: How does the novel Dracula deal with/show the integration of science and religion?
   Hint: consider the character of Van Helsing and the ways in which he is initially different from the rest of the friends.

3. Go back to the home page and click on "man." Read the first paragraph.

Question: How is the Victorian conception of Man as consisting  "of a body and a mind and/or a soul" and man possessing "a special, unique, and untouchable value compared to all other living things" dealt with/shown in the novel Dracula?
Hint: consider Jonathan's concern about the death of his body vs. The death of his soul when he is trying to escape the castle, and consider the looks on the faces of Lucy and Dracula after their "undead" bodies have been destroyed.

4. Go back to the home page and click on "Victorian Science and religion." Read paragraph 1-2.

Question: What was the general belief about religion and science and how they related to each other at the beginning of the 19th century? Don't just supply a quote - explain it in your own words.

5. Read paragraph 3.

Question: Was the shift toward the notion that God had no place in science brought about because of primarily scientific reasons? Explain who was responsible and why these people wanted God out of the scientific picture.

6. Read chapter 4

Question: Explain the meaning of the quote "The effect of these discoveries on faith has, however, been oft-exaggerated. Clerical geologists were quite able to find ways to reinterpret Genesis in the light of their discoveries, with no harm done to their faith."

7. Return to the home page and click on "Science and the Empire in Victorian Ireland." Read the introduction.

Question: Until the 1930's, where was the prime focus of Irish scientific activity?

8. Question: What is Bram Stoker's relationship to this location?

9. Return to the home page, scroll down under "Science" and click on "Psychology" and then click on "Social Darwinism." Read # 1 under "the Organic Analogy."

Question: This quote explains that in the theory of Social Darwinism, just as organisms evolve and become more complex (like humans, animals, etc.), ________________ also evolve, grow, and become more complex.

10. Question: How does the Count's move from the remote and isolated Carpathian Mountains to the city of London relate to the theory of Social Darwinism?

11. Scroll down to "The Nature of Social Evolution" and read the sentences between the bullets of # 1 and # 2

Question: If an "increase in the size of society" produces "differences in the power and roles of its members" what (besides a larger feeding ground) might be the Count's goal in moving from Transylvania to London?

3. Go to: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/redgold/history/timeline3.html

1. Question: In what year was the first unpublished case of human to human blood transfusion performed?
2. Question: In what year was the first published account performed?
3. Question: What new information, published in 1991, enabled blood transfusions to become more successful?

4. Go to: http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/victorianbritain/divided/default.htm

Question: List three ways in which women's roles were restricted in Victorian times:

1. ___________________________________________________________________________


2. ___________________________________________________________________________


3. ___________________________________________________________________________

5. Go to: http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/victorianbritain/divided/default.htm

1. Question: What was the primary role of a middle class woman (e.g Mina and Lucy)?
2. Question: In what was the novel as a form of writing instrumental in the beginning of changes for women?

6. Go to: http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~ulrich/femhist/marriage.shtml

1. Read "Why Victorian Women Married" including "social and economic pressure"

Question: How does Lucy's frequent "dates" spent with her mother and Arthur together (remember Lucy says she thinks her mother and Arthur have more in common than she and Arthur do) before their engagement relate to this?

2. Read "laws that helped women"

Question: Prior to the Infants and Children Custody Act of 1839, what happened to the children of divorced parents?

3. Question: The 1870 Married Woman's Property Act allowed for some advancements in women's rights but failed to advance others...women were allowed to keep:


1. Their own _____________________ and


2. Property they________________ from family, but they were not allowed to keep any percentage of the money or property they acquired as a couple.

7. Go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/victorian_britain/women_home/ideals_womanhood_01.shtml

Read "the icon."

1. Question: What began to extend the female role of service (i.e. Open up new possibilities for women to work and so be recognized professionally)?

2. Question: The transformation of Britain into an ____________________nation began to change the way women's roles were perceived as well.


3. Question: In what ways was Queen Victoria seen to be the epitome of femininity in the age names for her (the Victorian age)?


4. Click on "women's mission" to the left of the text and read it

Question: Other than to socialize, why did Victorian middle class women leave their homes?

5. Click on "towards a political mission' and read it

Question (part 1): What slowly began to evolve out of the middle class women's missionary visits?

Question (part 2): Explain how this (refers to # 5 above) began to occur:

6. Scroll to the bottom of the page on the right - under "women out and about" click on "private view: Victorian letters as source material" and read it.

Question: In what ways are Lucy's and Mina's letters to each other reflective of this typical example of Victorian personal letters?

8. Go to: http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=3

Read the article.

1. Question: What more modern women's movement was the "New Woman" the predecessor of?
2. Question: What 3 broad categories did the "New Woman" seek change in? (answer in P1)


1. _________________________


2. _________________________


3. _________________________


3. Question: What sociological condition existed at the time that stirred a need for the "New Woman" image? (answer in P2)
4. Question: In what ways is Mina like the "New Woman" (see P1-P3)
5. Question: In what ways does Mina represent a more stereotypical Victorian female image?

9. Go to: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~natinfo/rep3.htm

1. Click on "Definition of a Monarchy"

Question: What is "the Divine Right of Kings"?

Question: What is a monarchy?

2. Go back to the home page and click on "What is a Republic"

Question: How does the author define a republic?

3. Go back to the home page and read "the Monarchy in Trouble"

Question: What does the author's opinion seem to be of the validity of the monarchy in Victorian times and in present times?

10. Go to: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~irelandlist/eastreb.html

Scroll down to "the Irish Easter Rebellion" and read the first paragraph.

Question: As late as 1916, there was concern amongst the Irish that Ireland be made free of British rule, an that Ireland, subject to British monarch, establish instead a Republic...how specifically do these ideas relate to the democracy/monarchy concerns evident in Dracula?

The Complete Text of Dracula can be read at the following sites:

http://www.literature.org/authors/stoker-bram/dracula/

http://pd.sparknotes.com/lit/dracula/

http://www.enotes.com/dracula-text

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