Matilda Essay, Research Paper
DEAD POETS+ SOCIETY
The story takes place in the fifties in Welton, New England. The rich people
send their boys to a private boarding school, where they will be educated up to
doctors, lawyers and professions of that kind. Their own thoughts don+t count
there.
John Keating, the new Englishteacher at the elite-school, causes trouble with
his motto “Carpe Diem!. He encourages his pupils to think freely and to muster
the courage for own decisions and thoughts. By unusual methods of teaching he
wants the boys to discover the beautiful things of life like literature an
performing on the stage.
The pupils like the new teacher and the new teaching. After a time
they encounter on the notion “Dead Poets Society”, where once Keating himself was
a member, when he was at Welton. It was a secret meeting of boys who wanted to
enjoy lyric. They had meetings in an old cave and there they read poems. They
didn+t only read them, they “let it drip from their tongues like honey”. Full
members requires a lifetime of apprenticeship.
A few of bays are interested in this theme, so they set up a new dead
poets+society and they decide to take their lives in their own hands.
Neil Perry decides – against the intention of his father, who is very strict, -
to become an actor.
Unfortunately the new freethinkers don+t know how to adapt their new way of life
to the reality. When Neil+s father hers about his son+s plans he wants to remove
his son from the boarding school. Neil realizes that he will never win against
his father and commits suicide.
John Keating gets under pressure. He is dismissed.
After Neil+s death Todd, his best friend, is a changed person. He becomes
concernful and sensitive, for example, when he shows his feelings to Mr. Keating
by giving him his final salute in saying “Oh captain my captain”.
John Keating is a very individual, unique man. He has his own way of teaching,
and it is very productive. He inspires most of his pupils in a way that no other
teacher does. He tends to work from the heart, not from the text books. Mr.
Keating concentrates on poetry in the period when he is at Welton, and creates a
new fascination for the pupils towards this topic. He is the one to introduce it
to the boys.
Neil Perry is a very intelligent boy and he knows what he wants and how to get
it. His ambition to be an actor is very strong. Mr. Keating values him as a
pupil. His parents think that acting is an unsuitable career and a waste of
time. Neil wants to become an actor major than anything else in the world and he
is not going to let anything or anyone stand in the way of his dream. He feels
his dream is so important that he cannot live without it. Neil feels so strong
about his dream that it leads to his suicide.