Chapter 6 Practice Quiz — Dracula
by Bram Stoker — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 6
Where does Mina Murray go at the beginning of Chapter 6, and who does she meet there?
She travels to Whitby on the Yorkshire coast and is met at the station by her friend Lucy Westenra.
What does Renfield do with the flies he catches in his asylum cell?
He feeds them to spiders he keeps in a box, building a food chain of consumption.
What does Renfield request from Dr. Seward after acquiring his colony of sparrows?
He asks for a kitten, hoping to feed the sparrows to it and continue his chain of life-absorption.
What happens when Dr. Seward refuses to give Renfield a cat?
Renfield eats all his sparrows raw. The attendant reports he was sick and disgorged a mass of feathers.
What does Mr. Swales reveal about the tombstone of George Canon?
The tombstone claims Canon died "falling from the rocks," but Swales says he actually committed suicide to prevent his mother from collecting his life insurance.
What change comes over Mr. Swales during his final conversation with Mina?
He drops his comic irreverence and becomes sincere and frightened, confessing he mocked death because he feared it, and sensing something terrible in the approaching storm.
What does the coastguard observe at the end of the chapter?
He spots a strange Russian ship sailing erratically toward Whitby harbour, unable to decide whether to run north or put in to port.
Why is Mina growing increasingly anxious throughout the chapter?
She has not received a letter from her fiance Jonathan Harker for over a month, and his one brief note from Castle Dracula seemed unlike him.
How does Dr. Seward classify Renfield, and what does the term mean?
He classifies Renfield as a "zoophagous maniac," meaning a life-eating madman who seeks to absorb as many lives as possible in a cumulative way.
What personal sorrow does Dr. Seward reveal at the end of his diary entries in this chapter?
He is heartbroken over Lucy, who has chosen his friend Arthur Holmwood. He writes: "Oh, Lucy, Lucy, I cannot be angry with you."
Who is Mr. Swales, and what is notable about his age?
He is a retired sailor who claims to be nearly a hundred years old, saying he sailed in the Greenland fishing fleet when the Battle of Waterloo was fought.
What hereditary condition does Lucy share with her late father?
Sleepwalking. Her mother tells Mina that Lucy's father also used to get up, dress himself, and go out at night if not stopped.
Who is Arthur Holmwood, as introduced in this chapter?
He is the Honourable Arthur Holmwood, only son of Lord Godalming, and Lucy's fiance. He is expected to visit Whitby but is delayed by his father's illness.
How does the chapter explore the theme of death and deception?
Mr. Swales exposes the lies on tombstones, showing that many graves are empty and inscriptions are fabrications. This introduces the idea that death can be masked by false narratives—a theme deepened when Dracula creates the Un-Dead.
How does Renfield's food chain parallel the novel's broader theme of vampiric consumption?
Renfield absorbs many lives into fewer organisms (flies to spiders to birds), mirroring how Dracula feeds on human lives. Both pursue a predatory hierarchy of consumption.
What does Lucy's sleepwalking represent thematically in the novel?
It represents vulnerability to supernatural invasion and the loss of conscious will, foreshadowing how Dracula will prey on her during her nocturnal wanderings.
How does the chapter juxtapose rationalism and the supernatural?
Both Swales (debunking legends) and Seward (clinically analyzing Renfield) rely on rational thinking, yet the chapter surrounds them with uncanny signs—sleepwalking, storms, and a mysterious ship—that reason cannot explain.
What narrative technique structures Chapter 6, and what effect does it create?
Epistolary narration—alternating between Mina's journal and Dr. Seward's diary—creates dramatic irony because neither narrator understands the full significance of what they record.
How does Stoker use pathetic fallacy at the end of Chapter 6?
The grey, stormy weather mirrors the approaching evil. The sky darkens, the sea roars, and mist drifts inland as the strange ship appears—nature reflecting the menace of Dracula's arrival.
What is the purpose of Mr. Swales's Yorkshire dialect in the narrative?
It provides local colour and realism, grounding the Gothic horror in a specific English coastal landscape and contrasting the ordinariness of daily life with the supernatural threat.
What does "zoophagous" mean as used by Dr. Seward?
It means "life-eating" or "animal-eating," from Greek roots. Seward invents the classification "zoophagous maniac" for Renfield's compulsion to absorb as many lives as he can.
What does "expostulate" mean in the context of Seward's diary?
It means to reason earnestly with someone to dissuade them. Seward expostulates with Renfield about his excessive fly-catching.
What does "kirkgarth" mean in Mr. Swales's dialect?
It means "churchyard"—from Old Norse "kirkja" (church) and "garth" (enclosure). Swales uses it when pointing out the empty graves around them.
Who says: "There's something in that wind and in the hoast beyont that sounds, and looks, and tastes, and smells like death"?
Mr. Swales, during his final conversation with Mina in the Whitby churchyard, as a storm approaches and a mysterious ship appears on the horizon.
Who says: "A kitten, a nice, little, sleek playful kitten, that I can play with, and teach, and feed, and feed, and feed!"?
Renfield, when begging Dr. Seward for a cat. The repetition of "feed" reveals his obsessive desire to consume ever more lives.