Dracula+DL+Dean

=Chapter XVII - XX=

Theme: Both male and female qualities are needed to fight evil.
Through the novel //Dracula// by Bram Stoker, the overall plot is about the conflict between good and evil. In the good side, there are protagonists who are willing to destroy Dracula, the major core of the evil. Dracula is difficult to defeat, since he has strength of twenty men, cunning, devil, brute, and capable of ruthless acts. In order to combat this creature, Van Helsing realized how they should combine the goods of both men and women. This is why Van Helsing has great preference over Mina. He describes Mina as a woman who "has man's brain-a brain that a man should have were he much gifted-and a woman's heart" (Stoker, p.207). When Van Helsing described Mina as having a man's brain, he meant that Mina is logical, intelligent, and able to prover her observations. This is shown how Mina receives diary from Dr. Seward and how she transcribes his diary, putting all of them in typewriter in chronological order. Her work allowed Van Helsing and others to see what happened. Before, the participants only understood pieces of the story while the reader knows all. Besides these man-like positives, Mina also has "woman's heart." She is able to comfort the other men by having sympathy and warmth for them. When Lord Godalming was in despair after he deceased Lucy, Mina helped him by offering shoulder to cry on, as if he were her own child. Mina well understood and said to her how "We women have something of the mother in us that makes us rise above smaller matters when the mother-spirit is invoked." Not only Mina had analytical character, but she also had an maternal heart that is able to relieve somebody in deep melancholy. By her actions, readers can understand Mina represent goods in men and women, and probably predict how she will be key player in the conflict of good and evil, despite Van Helsing tries to protect her from the danger. Van Helsing concludes how the "good God fashioned her for a purpose, when He made that so good combination" (Stoker 207). She can indeed help men to chase after Dracula by her knowledge and kindness that can 'neutralize' evil of Dracula.

Critical Passage
"You don't know what you do by keeping me here. I am speaking from the depths of my heart - of my very soul. You don't know whom you wrong, or how; and I may not tell. Woe is me! I may not tell. By all you hold sacred - by all you hold dear - by your love that is lost - by your hope that lives - for the sake of the Almighty, take me out of this and save my soul from guilt!" (from Renfield, pg.217-218)

In the passage above, Renfield begs Dr. Seward to release him from the asylum. This is interesting how Renfield sometimes can communicate as a sane man. He is able to deliver his thoughts and emotions to the listeners. Moreover, he seems to be very philosophical lunatic. Even though he consumes lives, he realize the existence of soul, and he fears how the souls of the dead animals would at sometime hunt Renfield. The other significance of this passage is that Renfield likes Mina. As a lunatic, Renfield has a emotional preference towards another human. Even though Renfield have preference to Mina, he is devoted to Dracula. Therefore, Renfield wants to be released because he wanted to prevent Dracula harm Mina. His care for Mina was shown previously, when Renfiled prays he will never see Mina again. This is because Renfield fears Mina might get in trouble by Dracula by having contact with himself. This can be considered as a pitiful love, yet Mina and Dr. Seward don't seem to notice.

Dramatic Irony
"Strange that it never struck me that the very next house might be the Count's hiding-place! Goodness knows that we had enough clues from the conduct of the patient Renfield!" (Stoker 199)

Dramatic irony occurs when the reader knows more about the events in the story than the characters in the story. Through their diary writings, the readers are capable of all the events, but the characters in the story only understand pieces of the story. The structure of the novel supports this dramatic irony how readers knew how Dracula was living at Carfax long time ago while Dr. Seward never thought about such thing.

Allusion
"The matter seemed preying on his mind, and so I determined to use it - to 'be cruel only to be kind.'" (Stoker 237)

Renfield and Dr. Seward talk at length about souls in chapter 20. The quote above is the allusion of Hamlet, Act III, Scene 4, line 178. Dr. Seward was having trouble understanding why Renfield would refuse to have souls. Therefore, Dr. Seward wanted to lead the discussion to observe more from Renfield. By posing contradiction against Renfield, which is being cruel, Dr. Seward hoped Renfield to talk openly, which is a kind part.

Reflection
In most of the time, we led debates by dividing the class in four groups. The questions for the debate, I think, were quite difficult to the students. Even though I thought they would understand the question thoroughly well, I found out that they were actually struggling to recognize the purpose of the question. However, once they understood the question, fortunately, the debate went fluently. There was intensity between the preposition and opposition, and students were voluntarily motivated to express their thoughts. One point is, however, is that some students spoke one over as the conversation progressed. I learned how students could interpret the novel in various ways, and for the key passages in our group, even though there was same quote, different analysis came out. In future, we can clarify the questions of the debates more, and provide more debatable topics in case of extreme difficulty to understand the question.