Romanticism vs.

Realism

(An Overview of ‘Dead Poets Society’)

Written by: Morie Lane Ramiro

Inspirational movies about dreams are everywhere and a lot of them turn out to be

corny and cheesy. Dead Poets Society maybe the only one that moved and really influenced

me what makes it so special because in the movie teenage life is tragic and dreams are

painfully realistic.

Dead Poets Society is a story about a group of teenagers in one of the best high

schools in the United States. They're bound to prosper and it's almost like the path to their

future successes has already been mapped out meticulously the moment they were born.

There are future bankers, lawyers, and doctors among them and in order not to disappoint

their parents, all their lives they've been working towards that one goal until somebody

appears in their lives, their English teacher John Keating. With his unconventional teaching

methods, Keating introduced the students to the paradise of the Romantic poets. “Gather ye

rosebuds while ye may,” Keating exhorted telling them to see their teenage days. “Carpe

diem,” he said and that became one of the most often quoted sayings in the movie. He hoped

that his students can have faith in themselves not to blindly conform dare to take the path less

traveled dare to be extraordinary because according to Walt Whitman, the world is a

powerful play. It goes on and on and we may contribute a verse while it's undoubtedly

beautiful and romantic to phrase these life lessons through the words of the poets. If the

movies start progressing here and show us how the students are so inspired to chase the

dreams and how their lives turn out to be exceptional, it would be no different than those

cliché inspirational quotes or life stories you see random people share on Facebook.
 The interesting part of the movie comes from the second half where it radically

changes its tone and becomes an examination on happiness dreams and death. This part of the

movie and revels from the moment Neil got the part to play in the drama production. Neil

loved acting and even dreamed of becoming an actor, but his father wanted him to become a

doctor. He knew that his dad wouldn't let him play the part so he held that out on his dad and

faked a ladder of agreement to the production. On the night of performance, Leo received an

ovation due to his remarkable talent, but his father remained unimpressed. He chastised Niel

and told him that he would be withdrawn from the school and transferred to a military

academy to prepare for university. Niel was distressed knowing that his father is never going

to let him pursue a career in acting. He decided to commit suicide the same night. The school

conducted a full investigation on the matter putting the blame on Keating’s unconventional

teaching. They required the students to sign a document to attest to that. Some were

uncooperative and would rather be expelled than to sign the document, but most of them

compromised under the threat of expulsion. With sufficient evidence, Keating was fired.

The main theme of Dead Poets Society is actually how it constantly challenges our

traditional definition of happiness from a romanticism standpoint. First, it is the value of

success in a traditional sense. One of the things that's special about the story arc is how it

attaches success from dream chasing. It didn't tell you with banality how, if you don't give up

in your dreams, they will come true someday. It showed you if somebody aspires to become

an actor not only that dream is incredibly far-fetched but they're also left distraught and dead.

If someone defends their favorite teacher who made their lives that much more exciting, they

get expelled. If someone does not conform to the usual teaching paradigm and insist on

upholding their ideals, they get fired in less than a year. Reality is always that cruel to dreams

but it is precisely how the movie detached success from it that the value of dreams and

perseverance shine more brightly than ever. When a lot of stories coupled the persistence in
dream chasing and the eventual success, we think to ourselves if we're getting the best of both

worlds, what's the struggle? In the face of the cruelty of reality at the point where we must

choose between the two, inevitably we ask ourselves what's really worth pursuing is that the

romance of the dreams or is it the eventual success where dreams and persistence are the only

means to an end. Like a philosopher, the movie presents the audience with a Thought

Experiment to find out which one of two values do we value more. We don't imagine a world

where we can obtain both of them or be it possible. We imagine the case where they conflict.

If we want to find out whether we value our own existence in reality or happiness more, we

don't imagine us existing an everyday reality and being happy although that is more than

possible. We ask ourselves to choose between being plugged into a simulated reality where

we can be as happy as we want versus existing in the real world even though it may be full of

pain. The Thought Experiment constructed is exactly the famous experience machine

argument by philosopher Robert Nozick. In the same vein, the movie realistically tells us that

oftentimes believing in your dreams and actually accomplishing them does not have an

inevitable causal relationship. In this case, do we value the brief sparkle of romance more

than a successful life and the security that comes with it?

The story goes on to challenge our attitude to life and death. The theme of Jeff is a

subtle yet recurring one in the movie and you can even say that it is the actual main motif of

the story. From Keating's first lesson where he led the students to a room filled of pictures of

school alumni with the poem, ‘To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time’ was mentioned, “and

how the flowers smiling today will be dying tomorrow.” Too many poems and verses

mentioned later involve the relationship between life and death. One of the most memorable

lessons that Keating taught his students was when he said that “medicine for law, business,

engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty,

romance, love, these are what people stay alive. Keating went on to quote Whitman's “Oh
Me! Oh Life!” in a grim and seemingly hopeless society portrayed where everything appears

to be so aimless. We can't help but to ask ourselves, what good amid these? What motivates

us to keep going? For Whitman, the answer is that we're still living life exists and identity.

The commencement of a meeting of the Dead Poets Society features a paragraph from

Thoreau's ‘Walden’ in which life and death again serve as the central theme. The road went

to live in the woods because he wanted to experience the essence of life to live deep and suck

out all the marrows of life so that he wouldn't when he dies discover that he had not lived.

After Niel’s suicide, Keating revisited this paragraph emotionally overwhelmed, heartbroken,

and cried. From the traditional point of view, the Society has implicitly imposed on us death

is basically the worst thing that can happen to a person which is also why we categorized this

movie as a tragedy in the first place. But wouldn't we be guilty of having the exact mindset

that merely set out to challenge through these verses. See, for the writers, one thing may very

well be worst and dying that is to lose your identity to never have written down a verse of

your own and to find out that you have not lived when you die. For Niel, he understood

clearly that after this attempt of rebellion, he would have to follow the path his family laid

down for him. At least for the next 10 years, all he would be doing was to study medicine

even though that was no Broadway. Taking part in that production maybe the only point in

his life where his individuality truly takes the main stage and shines. If life is mundane and

ordinary after this digression even if he would have everything to sustain life, but what he

staying alive for is lost. Then for Neil, the suicide was in the tragedy because he'd contributed

his own short but original verse, he had truly lived. In this regard, new suicide was romantic,

emancipating and happy even. But the narrative of the movie isn't pushed further.

To this point, only questions are being raised using romanticism to challenge a world

overshadowed by realism. Unlike many other, the movie did not conspicuously advocate for

the romantics because we all know that it's foolish to cite definitively that one of two values
are more noble and worth pursuing. For every line like this; “Only in their dreams can men be

truly free. It was always thus and always thus will be;” there will always be a response like

this; “Show me the heart unfettered by foolish dreams and I'll show you a happy man.” At the

end, the movie passed the struggle and decision back to us. We can choose to be like Charlie

to defend the teacher who has enlightened you with the lyrics of the romantics, adamant even

in the threat of expulsion, or we can be like taught and the others to compromise in the face

of reality. Either way, Keating wouldn't say that you're wrong because at the end of the day,

Keating himself is not exactly the resolute advocate for Romanticism either as he said;

“There is a time for daring, and there is a time for caution. And a wise man understands

which is called for.” We are left with the choices to trade-offs and the compromises to make

to struggle through life and I think, he would just hope merely that we don't forget the teacher

like him ever existed.

“And you boys, thank you.” – John Keating