Dracula

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Penguin Readers Factsheets. l e v e l. PRE-. INTERMEDIATE. Dracula. S U M M A R Y onathan Harker works for a London law firm which is hired by Count ...
Penguin Readers Factsheets

level E

T e a c h e r’s n o t e s

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Dracula

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by Bram Stoker 6 PREINTERMEDIATE

S U M M A R Y onathan Harker works for a London law firm which is hired by Count Dracula of Translyvania (modernday Romania) to find and purchase a suitable property in England. Jonathan goes to Dracula’s castle to tell him about Carfax House, which has been purchased on the Count’s behalf. At first, all seems well, although there are some strange things about the Count, not the least of which is that he has no reflection in a mirror. But by the time Jonathan realizes that he is a prisoner in the castle, it is too late. He has already revealed information about his private life, including the names and location of his fiancée, Mina Murray, and her beautiful friend, Lucy. And he has suggested a way in which Dracula can arrive in England by sea and begin to destroy the lives of everyone Jonathan holds dear.

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Whilst Jonathan languishes in the castle, Dracula has travelled to England, changing shape at will, into a dog, a bat and a green mist. He attacks Lucy and, despite the best endeavours of Professor Van Helsing, a vampireslayer from Amsterdam, who uses garlic flowers and a golden cross to ward off evil, Lucy succumbs. She begins to attack children and drain their blood. In the fight for her soul, Van Helsing persuades her boyfriend, Arthur Holmwood, to perform the dreadful acts of cutting off her head and thrusting a stake through her heart. Meanwhile, Jonathan has escaped from the castle and been reunited with Mina. But when they return to England Jonathan’s new wife is drawn into Dracula’s web, and begins to change slowly into a vampire. There is only one solution, to save Mina without killing her. Dracula must die. A chase across Europe ensues, ending in a pitched battle near the Count’s castle, and the eventual destruction of Dracula in the time-honoured way.

ABOUT BRAM STOKER Bram Stoker is famous today for Dracula but this fame came after his death. In fact, he started writing fiction quite late in life, in 1890, when he was 43. He was 50 years old when he wrote Dracula. As a child, Abraham, or ‘Bram’ Stoker, was quite ill. He couldn’t stand or walk until he was seven years old, but later he became a brilliant sportsman and played football

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for his University, the University of Dublin. He then had a number of jobs but the most interesting one, which occupied the majority of his working life, was his work with Henry Irving. Irving was the superstar of his day, a wonderful actor. Stoker was Irving’s manager and personal secretary for 27 years and he went with him on his American tours. Sometimes he had to write 50 letters a day for him. Bram Stoker wrote several novels but Dracula is by far the most famous, because it is a classic Gothic horror novel, It has all the features, a medieval castle, a mysterious country, unremitting evil with the final triumph of good. Bram Stoker died in London in 1912.

BACKGROUND AND THEMES Several critics have noticed similarities between characters in Dracula and people from Stoker’s own life. Van Helsing, the all-knowing doctor, could be based on Stoker’s father, Mina Murray could be his mother and Lucy, his fiancée, Florence Balcombe. The main character of the novel, Jonathan Harker, could be Stoker himself, or at least, the person he would have liked to be – the dull solicitor who becomes an all-action hero. The theme of the novel is, as so often in horror stories, good versus evil. The evil is constantly evil and at first, holds all the cards. But the good is perfectly good and courageous, and through bravery and loyalty to each other, and with the help of some religious artefacts and some old-fashioned herbal remedies, the four friends and the doctor defeat evil. The religious undertone comes through, not just in the use of the cross and the holy bread, but in the way that the fight for Lucy’s soul is in some senses more inspiring than the fight for Mina’s life.

Penguin Readers Factsheets T e a c h e r’s n o t e s Communicative activities The following teacher-led activities cover the same sections of text as the exercises at the back of the Reader and supplement those exercises. For supplementary exercises covering shorter sections of the book, see the photocopiable Student’s Activities pages of this Factsheet. These are primarily for use with class readers but, with the exception of the discussion and pair/groupwork activities, can also be used by students working alone in a self-access centre.

ACTIVITIES BEFORE READING THE BOOK Ask students to work in pairs. Each pair must try to guess what happens in each chapter, just from the chapter headings and the illustrations. Then put three pairs together to compare their ideas in groups.

ACTIVITIES AFTER READING A SECTION Chapters 1–3 Put students into pairs to role play a conversation between Dracula and Jonathan before Jonathan starts to be afraid of him. The Count asks about England and Jonathan tells him about the country and about the house he has bought for Dracula.

Chapters 4–8 1 Put students into pairs to role play a conversation between Van Helsing and Lucy. He wants to protect her from vampires but she does not believe in them, or in his strange ideas. Eventually, he persuades her. 2 Remind students that Dracula can appear in many different shapes. Ask students to role play a conversation between Van Helsing and Dracula – who is in the shape of an ordinary person – near Lucy’s tomb. Dracula asks about the preparations that Van Helsing has made to catch the vampire.

Chapters 9–11

Glossary It will be useful for your students to know the following new words. They are practised in the ‘Before You Read’sections of exercises at the back of the book. (Definitions are based on those in the Longman Active Study Dictionary.) Chapters 1–3 breath (n) the air that comes out of your lungs when you breathe carriage (n) a vehicle with wheels that is pulled by a horse cart (n) a vehicle with two or four wheels that is pulled by a horse castle (n) a very large, strong building built in the past to protect the people inside from attack evil (n) something that is very bad and has a very cruel or harmful effect mad (adj) mentally ill mist (n) a layer of cloud close to the ground that makes it difficult for you to see very far passage (n) a narrow area with walls on each side that connects one room or place to another servant (n) someone whose job is to live in another person’s house and do such jobs as cleaning and cooking wolf (n) a wild animal similar to a large dog Chapters 4–8 bat (n) a small animal that flies around at night coffin (n) the box in which a dead person is buried garlic (n) a small plant like an onion with a very strong taste, used in cooking professor (n) a teacher at the highest level in a university department soul (n) the part of a person which many people believe continues to exist after death tomb (n) a grave, especially a large one built like a room vampire (n) a person in stories who bites people’s necks and sucks their blood wound (n) an injury, especially a deep cut made in your skin by a knife holy (n) connected with God and religion Chapters 9–11 rat (n) an animal like a large mouse, with a long tail

Ask students to work in four groups: Group 1 Arthur and Jonathan; Group 2 = Jack and Quincy; Group 3 = Mina and Van Helsing; Group 4 = Dracula and servants 1 Each group must work out from the information in Chapter 11 how their people got from London to Dracula’s castle, and draw a diagram showing the route and the methods of transport they used for each part. 2 The four groups must then work together to combine their diagrams into one diagram.

ACTIVITIES AFTER READING THE BOOK Put students into groups to discuss the following questions: 1 Why do some countries have myths about vampires? Is there any basis in truth for these stories? 2 Why are stories and films about Dracula so popular? Why do some people like horror stories?

© Pearson Education 2001

Publis hed and d is tribu ted by Pearson Education Factsheet written by Terry Philips Fac tshee t ser ie s dev elope d by Lou is e James

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Penguin Readers Factsheets

level E

Student’s activities

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Dracula

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Photocopiable

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Students can do these exercises alone or with one or more other students. Pair/group-only exercises are marked.

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Activities before reading the book

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1 Work in pairs. Look through the illustrations. Which pictures do you think show Dracula? 2 In pairs, read the first part of the Introduction – to and Mina again? Make a list of the questions and think of possible answers. 3 Work in pairs. Student A reads about vampire stories in the Introduction. Student B reads about the life of Abraham Stoker. Tell each other the main information in the section you read.

Activities while reading the book Chapters 1–3 1 Are these sentences about the information in Chapter 1 true or false? (a) The woman in the first carriage wanted to help Harker. (b) Castle Dracula was a long way from the rough, dry road. (c) A servant came to answer the door. (d) Dracula and Harker had dinner together the first night. (e) Dracula planned to move to England. (f) Harker heard Dracula’s children outside the castle. (g) Harker spent the first day reading in the castle library. (h) Dracula was happy with the house that Harker told him about. (i) Harker jumped when he saw Dracula in his shaving mirror. (j) When Dracula saw the silver cross, he laughed. (k) Harker realized he was a prisoner in the castle. 2 In Chapter 2, who or what is/was ... ? (a) Transylvania (b) Whitby (c) Mina (d) Lucy (e) Mr Hawkins (f) the three women in the room (g) the tall, black shape in the room 3 Complete the story of the first time Jonathan went to Dracula’s room (Chapter 3 pages 9–11). Use one word from the box in each sentence. boots box breath cart clothes day death hate keys letters money morning nose paper passage plan room stones wall window

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(a) Dracula told Jonathan to write three ... (b) The next morning, Jonathan saw some men taking wooden boxes off a .... (c) He ran to his room for the ... he kept in his bag. (d) But the bag with his ticket and his ... was gone. (e) That evening he sat by his ... and waited. (f) He saw Dracula dimb down the ... (g) He was wearing Jonathan’s ... (h) Jonathan thought of a .... (i) ‘The ... in the castle wall are big and rough.’ (j)

‘If I take off my ... , perhaps I can climb down into his room.’ (k) He waiting until the .... (I) He knew that Dracula slept during the ... (m) He climbed down the wall to Dracula’s ... . (n) But there weren’t any ... in the room. (o) He found a dark .... (p) He started to go down and noticed the smell of Dracula’s .... (q) He found Dracula inside a wooden .... (r) No breath came from his mouth or .... (s) But his eyes did not have the glassy look of ... (t) They looked at Jonathan with a terrible ... and he returned to his room. 4 Work in pairs. Tell the story of the second time Jonathan went to Dracula’s room. (pages 12 –15)

Chapters 4–8 1 Match the beginnings and endings of these names from Chapter 4. (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f)

Mina Lucy Jack Quincy Arthur Van

(i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) (vi)

Helsing Holmwood Morris Murray Seward Westerna

2 Match each character from Exercise 1 with something about him/her. (a) He comes from a famous old English family. (b) He is a doctor with a hospital for mad people. (c) He is a professor from Amsterdam. (d) He is an American adventurer. (e) She is going to marry Jonathan Harker. (f)

She is very beautiful.

PREINTERMEDIATE

Penguin Readers Factsheets Student’s activities 3 What is the connection in Chapter 4 between these things? (a) a tall black shape (b) a black dog (c) a bat (d) the wounds on Lucy’s neck. 4 How did Van Helsing help to look after Lucy in Chapter 5? (four things) 5 How did Mrs. Westerna put Lucy in danger again? 6 Discuss these questions in pairs. Who said or thought these things in Chapter 6? When did each person say/think these words? (a) It was probably my imagination. (b) Blood is life! (c) I don’t believe it. (d) You must stay in bed. (e) No, that’s not possible. (f) I’m afraid we are too late. (g) Get some hot water and towels. (h) It will not be long now. (i) Arthur, kiss me. 7 One word is wrong in each of these sentences about the information in Chapter 7. Find the wrong word and correct it. (a) A few days later, the television began to report attacks on young children in north London. (b) The children disappeared, but they were found later – after lunchtime. (c) They looked weak and pale and they had wounds in their legs. (d) ‘Lucy died because she had too much blood.’ Van Helsing told Seward. (e) I’ve heard of vampire bats that drink wine.’ said Seward. (f) ‘But we don’t have cats like those in England.’ (g) ‘Lucy was the vampire that attacked those people.’ (h) ‘We must wait outside the room,’ said Van Helsing. (i) They saw a black shape moving through the trees. (j) They found Lucy, lying in her bed. (k) Her eyes were like knife points. (I) Van Helsing said ‘ We must cut off her arm ...’ (m) ‘... fill her mouth with food ...’ (n) ‘... and push a thick piece of wood through her head.’ 8 Match each verb with some words on he right to make a phrase from Chapter 8.

(a) cut

(i) a child in her arms

(b) make

(ii) a joke on me

(c) try

(iii) behind a tree

(d) change

(iv) between them

(e) open

(v) her hand

(f) pIay

(vi) her head off

(g) lock

(vii)him sick

(h) break

(viii) in the spaces

(i) press

(ix) into the shadow of a tree

(j) wait

(x) something move

(k) see

(xi) the bread into pieces

(I) hold

(xii)the child to the ground

(m) throw

(xiii) the coffin

(n) reach out

(xiv) the door

(o) jump

(xv) to save her life

(p) run

(xvi) our mind

9 Tell the story of Chapter 8 (pages 30–32) in groups, using the phrases from Exercise 8. 10 How did they save Lucy’s soul? Tell the story (pages 32–35) in groups. 11 Match each sentence (a–g) with a reply (i–vii) from Chapter 9. (a) Why haven’t you told anybody this story before now? (b) If we can catch him in his box, we can destroy him. (c) Carfax House? (d) Let’s go! (e) What’s the matter? (f) Rats! Thousands of them. (g) We must come back tomor row. (i) But we need to know where these boxes are. (ii) Carfax is Dracula’s house. (iii) I don’t want to come back here ever again. (iv) I thought I saw a face. (v) Not so fast. (vi) Oh, Professor. He’s been very ill. (vii) Run for the doors! 12 Why ... (a) did Mina visit Renfield? (b) did Dracula visit Renfeld? (c) did Dracula visit Mina? 13 Make a list of the different methods of transport used in Chapter 11.

Activities after reading the book Work in groups and discuss these questions. Which part did you find: • the most exciting? • the most frightening? • the worst/most horrible part? • the most difficult to believe?

© Pearson Education 2001

Publish ed and distrib ute d by P earson E ducat ion Fact shee t w ri tt en by Terr y Phil i ps Fa ctshe et s e ri es devel oped by Lo uise J ame s

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