Dead Poet's Society
Dead Poets Society follows a group of boys at an elite private school in the late 1950’s and their quirky new English teacher, Mr. Keating. The school they attend is extremely strict and old fashion where classes are more of a daunting task in the student’s day to day lives than a learning experience. In comes Mr. Keating, a new English teacher who was once a student at the school himself, who teaches the boys to think for themselves, follow their passions and most importantly “seize the day.” Through poetry and other odd classroom lessons he tries to show the boys their potential. The movie follows the students of Mr. Keating’s class as they encounter various aspects of coming of age from first loves to making new friends, discovering oneself,
…show more content…
Throughout the film Robin Williams’ character, Mr. Keating emphasizes the point that each student should think for themselves. This is evident when Keating says “Now we all have a great need for acceptance, but you must trust that your beliefs are unique, your own, even though others may think them odd or unpopular.” The theme of following your passions can be seen as Neil follows his passion for acting despite his father being against it. As well as a student fighting for a girl he has fallen in love with even though she has a boyfriend who he doesn’t think is good enough for her. Also when Charlie, another student, writes a letter to the head of the all-boys school, saying it’s time they had girls join. Finally the idea of living each day to the fullest is very frequent in the film with an emphasis on carpe diem and various quotes on the subject like when the boys read a quote from Henry David Thoreau “I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. To put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived.” These and other quotes inspire the boys to do things that terrify them because many of the things that scare them don’t turn out to be half as bad as they thought. Keating also teaches the boys to just do things and not spend their time wishing they had done it. Dead Poets Society successfully incorporates these ideas through dialogue and acting as well as
Throughout the film Robin Williams’ character, Mr. Keating emphasizes the point that each student should think for themselves. This is evident when Keating says “Now we all have a great need for acceptance, but you must trust that your beliefs are unique, your own, even though others may think them odd or unpopular.” The theme of following your passions can be seen as Neil follows his passion for acting despite his father being against it. As well as a student fighting for a girl he has fallen in love with even though she has a boyfriend who he doesn’t think is good enough for her. Also when Charlie, another student, writes a letter to the head of the all-boys school, saying it’s time they had girls join. Finally the idea of living each day to the fullest is very frequent in the film with an emphasis on carpe diem and various quotes on the subject like when the boys read a quote from Henry David Thoreau “I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. To put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived.” These and other quotes inspire the boys to do things that terrify them because many of the things that scare them don’t turn out to be half as bad as they thought. Keating also teaches the boys to just do things and not spend their time wishing they had done it. Dead Poets Society successfully incorporates these ideas through dialogue and acting as well as