Rensun T.

Laureño
Dead Poet Society
Synopsis
It’s the beginning of the school year for a group of students at Welton Academy, a well-
known all-boys boarding school. It is a back-to-school for everyone. Among the students are
Todd a shy person and his new roommate, Niel a bright and full of ambition along with other
boys at the school. But Mr. Perry dictates his son’s life including school activities, plans and
what others think of him.
It was very interesting when in their first meeting, the boys were introduced to their new
English Teacher, Mr. Keating. Mr. Keating begins his lesson by explaining the students that their
lives have its ending so they should seize the day to make their lives count, to leave a legacy of
“carpe diem”. He continues his teaching by reaping the pages of their books to determine the
greatness of poetry. He teaches them the works of the romantic poets and employs outdoor
exercise and the power of sports in their class.
Despite the different activities, the students, interested with their new teacher, learn that
he was a member of Dead Poet Society. When asked, Mr. Keating describes glorious moments of
creating gods, but warns them to forget the idea. However, the students repeatedly sneak off the
campus to form their own version of Dead Poet Society. Todd the one keeps the meeting on their
group. Throughout these meeting, they develop their own romantic or realistic nature.
There was a shocking news when Charlee Dalton printed an obnoxious article in the
school news in the name of the Dead Poet Society. The administration of the school begins an
investigation regarding on the situation. On the other hand, Knox fall in love with a girl who are
engaged to the son of his parent’s friends. Her pursues her but he faces a threat on his life by her
boyfriend. Niel realizes thar his real passion is acting and proceeds to become a role of Puck in a
Midsummer Night’s Dream at the local theater. He did not inform his father and lie the he quit
the play. Feeling trapped after his final performance, he takes his own life.
The horrible news echoes in Welton Academy, applying a great pressure to the Dead Poet
Society. When Mr. and Mrs. Perry asked for an investigation, the administration links the Dead
Poets Society, which determine the cause of the turmoil, to Mr. Keating. Each of the member is
called before the administration with their parents to sign a confession statement indicating that
Mr. Keating filled their minds with these lofty ideals ultimately leading to Neil’s suicide.
Richard signs the statement and encourage the rest of them to do the same. Knowing what is true
that Keating was not responsible, Cameron lets him take the rap to free himself. Angered by this
betrayal, Dalton punches Cameron in an impulsive fit displaying his final romantic act, only to
be expelled. The last to sign, though unwillingly, is Todd, thus removing Mr. Keating from his
position. In the final scene, Todd is able to cry out to Mr. Keating, who stopped by the class to
collect his belongings, O Captain, my Captain, and climbing at the top of desk to salute his fallen
teacher, who changed his life.
Insights
Dead Poet Society is all about a literature teacher named Mr. Keating who changes the
lives of his students at Welton Academy. He tells them, “Carpe Diem, seize the day boys, make
your lives extraordinary”. This one line takes control the whole theme of the movie. It was said
the live your life to the fullest. All of the characters in the movie expresses Carpe Diem but Mr.
Keating, Todd, and Niel embraces this idea more than others in the movie. Mr. John Keating is
an example of a character who shows seize the day when he stands up in front of her students
and said “I stand up my desk to remind myself the we must constantly look at things in different
way. On the other hand, Neil is the one who pursue his dream to become an artist even his father
did want him to do so. At the end of it, he committed suicide because of his father’s disapproval
about his dream. And the last is Todd, when he salutes to Mr. Keating that even the last moment,
he portrays seize the day or live your life to the fullest.
One of the symbolism and imagery used in the movie Dead Poet Society, is when Niel
wore a crown of twigs on a play and when Niel is preparing to kill himself. He is standing on his
room, shirtless and the window is open, and the snow piled on the windowpane just outside.
With this information we can conclude it is like Christ figure when he dies. He is a shirtless one
and sacrifice for the betterment of the people. This will support the statement that Niel sacrifice
himself for the betterment of a group of individuals he cared for.
Some of the beautiful lines and famous lines are this:
 “Two road diverged in the wood and I, I took the one less traveled by” it is based on the
poem of Robert Frost entitled the “The Road Not Taken”.
 “O Captain My Captain” from the famous poem of Walt Whitman.
 “Carpe Diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary, said Mr. Keating.
 Thoreau said, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation”.
 “She walks beauty like the night, of cloudless climes and starry skies.” All that’s best
dark and bright. Meet in her aspect and her eyes.
 “Lived a man named William Bloat. Now he had a wife, the plague of his life, who
continually got his goat. Änd one day at dawn, with her nightshift on, he slit her bloody
throat.”
 “Come my friends. Tis not too late to seek a newer world. For my purpose holds to sail
beyond the sunset. And though we are now that strength. Which in old days moved Earth
and heaven. That which we are, we are: one equal temper of heroic hearts. Made by time
and fate but strong and will. To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.
 Then I had a religion, then I had a vision. I could not turn from their revel in derision.
Then I saw the Congo, creeping through the black, cutting through the forest with a
golden track, then I saw the Congo creeping through the black, cutting through the forest
of a golden track….
 Teach me to love? “Go teach thyself more wit. I chief professor am of it. The god of love,
if such thing there be, may learn to love from me,”