dead poets society final essay

Dead Poets Society Ending Explained: The Powerful Play Goes On

"Dead Poets Society" is one of a choice number of films that's defined almost entirely by its ending . That iconic final scene isn't easy to forget, even for those who watched the film for the first time in 10th grade English class or some such equivalent. The image of once-timid prep school boys standing atop their desks to pay tribute to their recently-fired English teacher, Mr. Keating (Robin Williams), is meant to invoke a sense of purpose. It's meant to stir up your emotions and stay with you for the rest of your life, even as the broad strokes of the film eventually fade into hazy memory. Without that "O, Captain, my Captain" moment, "Dead Poets Society" might have been a very different film . But it's not the only one that shaped the film into the classic it became.

Like with all good stories, the ending is merely a culmination of moments. It only packs such a punch because of everything that had to happen before it, and as pedestrian as the events of "Dead Poets Society" may seem — at least, leading up to the shocking suicide in the final act — a lot really does happen, if only beneath the surface. It makes "Dead Poets Society" so much more than a quintessential high school movie , including a commentary on a major societal shift, as well as the cycle of abuse perpetuated by a culture of toxic masculinity.

Words and ideas can change the world

Peter Weir's 1989 film takes place at Welton, a prestigious, all-boys boarding school with strict traditions and even stricter staff. The story begins as the class of 1959 descends onto campus for the fall semester. With the new academic year also comes a brand new teacher, Keating ( a career-best Robin Williams ), who makes quick work of radicalizing his first class of prospective lawyers and doctors. Keating himself once attended "Hell-ton," so he understands the trappings of its suffocating curriculum all too well. He wants these boys to find their voices while they're young. The longer they allow the toxic culture at Welton to suppress their spirits, the harder it will be for them to think for themselves when they reach adulthood.

Keating's unorthodox methods encourage the rebirth of his unofficial, one-time club: the titular Dead Poets Society. Keating and his peers first founded the group to escape the monotony of their day-to-day academia, to "suck the marrow out of life." It's a principle that makes a big impression on certain members of his class, namely Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard), his roommate Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke), and friends Charlie Dalton (Gale Hansen), Knox Overstreet (Josh Charles) and Steven Meeks (Allelon Ruggiero).

The newly founded Dead Poets Society adopts Keating's mantra, "carpe diem," in ways that only teenage boys can. Charlie is arguably Keating's most passionate disciple, staging elaborate campaigns to bring female students to Welton and even adopting a new moniker, Nuwanda. Knox uses the well-known power of poetry to win over a girl at a neighboring school. And then there's Neil, who seems like the last person in need of Keating's help, at least on the surface. Deep down though, the exact opposite is true: while he's a talented student and a natural-born leader, he frequently has to set aside his personal aspirations and do what his overbearing father (Kurtwood Smith) tells him.

In normal circumstances, Neil would concede to his dad without question. Until he graduates from Welton, then college and ( eventually ) medical school, his life is not his own. It's only after Keating's lessons start to sink in that Neil realizes he can live a different way, without submitting to his dad. He auditions for a local production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in an effort to take control of his life again. The only problem: he does so behind his father's back, and it backfires spectacularly when he discovers the truth and demands Neil drop out of the production.

It's this conflict that demonstrates Neil's half-formed approach to Keating's philosophy. Like other members of the Dead Poets Society, he largely fails to absorb the true essence of "carpe diem." Honoring your inner truth and shunting the status quo are both vital to seizing the day, but not without an understanding of the consequences. "There's a time for daring," Keating tells his class, "and there's a time for caution. A wise man understands which is called for."

If we shadows have offended...

Keating tries to encourage temperance and patience in his students, especially when Neil comes to him with his dilemma. In order for Neil to actually find the freedom he's been searching for, Keating says, he has to confront his father. Even if Mr. Perry can't empathize with his son, it isn't the end of the world. His "indentured servitude" won't last forever: soon he'll be free to star in whatever play he likes. It's a nice sentiment, but a totally foreign concept for Neil, who can't see beyond his own suffocating reality. He feels trapped no matter what he does, and that feeling only increases his desperation to break free.

This is, ironically, what makes Todd's role in the story so important. He's Neil's foil in every way, as both characters represent the different ways that shame can manifest within a person. Todd's shame keeps him putting his ideas and emotions out into the world. "Mr. Anderson thinks that everything inside of him is worthless and embarrassing," Keating very astutely observes. And Neil, for all his inner fire, is made to feel the same from his father.

Despite his projected confidence, Neil also struggles to prove his worth — he's just much better at hiding it. He is, as Keating later points out, a very talented actor. He's been acting his whole life, playing the part of the dutiful son, the Mr. Future Doctor of his dad's dreams. But after getting a taste of freedom, he realizes he can't keep acting any longer, especially not with the threat of military school — and 10 more years in "service" to his dad — looming over his head.

A quiet flame

After his final confrontation with Mr. Perry, Neil can only see one way to escape, to finally be free on his own terms. His suicide understandably sends shockwaves through Welton, and Headmaster Nolan (Norman Lloyd) works quickly to restore "order" in the wake of the tragedy. He implicates Keating in Neil's death, and threatens the remaining Society members with expulsion if they don't corroborate his story.

With Charlie expelled, Keating sacked, and Nolan poised to replace him as English teacher, the status quo is all but restored — and it's here that the focus shifts almost entirely to Todd. Out of everyone in the Dead Poets Society, he was the most resistant  to Keating's teachings. Of all his friends, he was most likely to shrink away from a challenge. It's not until he's presented with the most difficult challenge of all — to honor truth, consequence be damned — that he's able to demonstrate a complete understanding of "carpe diem."

Keating sees his class for the last time when he returns to pick up the last of his belongings, and there, Todd finds the courage to come clean about Nolan's scheme. What happens next — that aforementioned "O Captain, my Captain" moment — is a symbol of the effect that Keating had on his students, Todd especially. He can't take back what he did (and he may very well face expulsion for what he does after) but the principles he's learned have lit a fire within him, and it won't be an easy one to snuff out.

O Captain, My Captain

"Dead Poets Society" contends with a tricky legacy today. Its status as a pop culture staple makes it overrated in some circles, and its focus on the white male elite — tragic as their individuals upbringings are — raises concerns about its lack of diversity . But these critiques come from examining the film through a modern lens. It's easy to dismiss the film for its female representation (or lack thereof), to pick at its one-note antagonists. But it's also important to keep the setting in perspective. "Dead Poets" takes place in the late '50s, when women were discouraged from pursuing higher education, and schools in general were less integrated. Post-War America had only just begun to move away from conservatism and embrace romanticism . It was a different time, and sure, most of the characters in the film are either archetypes or ciphers — but perhaps that's why it's still so evocative today.

"Dead Poets" deals with a period of time when most of us are trying to discover who we are. Life is hard, our emotions are overwhelming, and every setback feels like the end of the world. The film may feel cringey or old-fashioned now, but it's only because we've since learned to contextualize the suffocating bind of adolescence, or family drama, or unrequited high school love. If we try, we can probably still remember how it felt to hear Keating's mantra for the first time, or how it felt when our own teachers recognized greatness in us. "Dead Poets" has captured that feeling in a bottle. It serves as a reminder of some of Keating's best advice to his students (lifted from Whitman, of course): "That life exists, and identity. That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse."

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"Dead Poets Society" is a collection of pious platitudes masquerading as a courageous stand in favor of something: doing your own thing, I think. It's about an inspirational, unconventional English teacher and his students at "the best prep school in America" and how he challenges them to question conventional views by such techniques as standing on their desks. It is, of course, inevitable that the brilliant teacher will eventually be fired from the school, and when his students stood on their desks to protest his dismissal, I was so moved, I wanted to throw up.

Peter Weir's film makes much noise about poetry, and there are brief quotations from Tennyson, Herrick, Whitman and even Vachel Lindsay, as well as a brave excursion into prose that takes us as far as Thoreau's Walden. None of these writers are studied, however, in a spirit that would lend respect to their language; they're simply plundered for slogans to exort the students toward more personal freedom. At the end of a great teacher's course in poetry, the students would love poetry; at the end of this teacher's semester, all they really love is the teacher.

The movie stars Robin Williams as the mercurial John Keating, teacher of English at the exclusive Welton Academy in Vermont. The performance is a delicate balancing act between restraint and schtick.

For much of the time, Williams does a good job of playing an intelligent, quick-witted, well-read young man. But then there are scenes in which his stage persona punctures the character - as when he does impressions of Marlon Brando and John Wayne doing Shakespeare.

There is also a curious lack of depth to his character compared with such other great movie teachers as Miss Jean Brodie and Professor Kingsfield. Keating is more of a plot device than a human being.

The story is also old stuff, recycled out of the novel and movie " A Separate Peace " and other stories in which the good die young and the old simmer in their neurotic and hateful repressions. The key conflict in the movie is between Neil ( Robert Sean Leonard ), a student who dreams of being an actor, and his father ( Kurtwood Smith ), who orders his son to become a doctor and forbids him to go onstage. The father is a strict, unyielding taskmaster, and the son, lacking the will to defy him, kills himself. His death would have had a greater impact for me if it had seemed like a spontaneous human cry of despair, rather than like a meticulously written and photographed set piece.

Other elements in the movie also seem to have been chosen for their place in the artificial jigsaw puzzle. A teenage romance between one of the Welton students and a local girl is given so little screen time, so arbitrarily, that it seems like a distraction. And I squirmed through the meetings of the "Dead Poets Society," a self-consciously bohemian group of students who hold secret meetings in the dead of night in a cave near the campus.

The society was founded by Keating when he was an undergraduate, but in its reincarnate form it never generates any sense of mystery, rebellion or daring. The society's meetings have been badly written and are dramatically shapeless, featuring a dance line to Lindsay's "The Congo" and various attempts to impress girls with random lines of poetry. The movie is set in 1959, but none of these would-be bohemians have heard of Kerouac, Ginsberg or indeed of the beatnik movement.

One scene in particular indicates the distance between the movie's manipulative instincts and what it claims to be about. When Keating is being railroaded by the school administration (which makes him the scapegoat for his student's suicide), one of the students acts as a fink and tells the old fogies what they want to hear. Later, confronted by his peers, he makes a hateful speech of which not one word is plausible except as an awkward attempt to supply him with a villain's dialogue. Then one of the other boys hits him in the jaw, to great applause from the audience. The whole scene is utterly false and seems to exist only so that the violence can resolve a situation that the screenplay is otherwise unwilling to handle.

"Dead Poets Society" is not the worst of the countless recent movies about good kids and hidebound, authoritatian older people. It may, however, be the most shameless in its attempt to pander to an adolescent audience. The movie pays lip service to qualities and values that, on the evidence of the screenplay itself, it is cheerfully willing to abandon. If you are going to evoke Henry David Thoreau as the patron saint of your movie, then you had better make a movie he would have admired. Here is one of my favorite sentences from Thoreau's Walden, which I recommend for serious study by the authors of this film: " . . . instead of studying how to make it worth men's while to buy my baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling them." Think about it.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Dead Poets Society (1989)

130 minutes

Robert Sean Leonard as Neil Perry

Josh Charles as Knox Overstreet

Dylan Kussman as Richard Cameron

Ethan Hawke as Todd Anderson

Robin Williams as John Keating

Gale Hansen as Charlie Dalton

Directed by

• Tom Schulman

Photography by

Produced by.

• Steven Haft
• Tony Thomas
• Paul Junger Witt
• Maurice Jarre
• William Anderson

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Dead Poets Society

By peter weir, dead poets society summary and analysis of the boys coping with neil's death - the ending: "o captain, my captain.".

Charlie wakes Todd in his bed and tells him that Neil is dead. Pitts, Meeks, and Knox are at the door. The next snowy morning, Todd heads down to the lake with the boys in tow. He observes how beautiful the snow is and then immediately vomits. The boys comfort him and put snow in his mouth. Todd shrieks repeatedly that Neil’s father must have shot him, that Neil would never leave them. The others protest, but Todd escapes from their grasp and runs toward the lake, screaming as he goes. Charlie says to leave him be. The camera zooms out on the snowy lake as Todd walks out onto the dock, appearing miniscule.

Keating sits at his desk in his empty classroom. He goes to Neil’s desk and finds “Five Centuries of Verse” in it. He reads the Thoreau quote written in his own hand on the first page and begins to sob. The voices of Welton boys singing transition to a shot of a service for Neil held in the school’s sanctuary. Headmaster Nolan delivers a mournful tribute to Neil and announces that he’ll conduct a full inquiry into his death at the request of his family.

Neil’s friends gather together in secret, waiting for Cameron, suspecting him of having betrayed them. Charlie says the administration will be looking for a scapegoat. Cameron arrives and admits that he told Nolan everything. The boys hold Charlie back from attacking him. Cameron insists the boys cooperate, believing that they’re victims and that Neil’s suicide is Keating’s fault. Charlie punches him in the face. With a bloody nose, Cameron vehemently maintains that Keating should be fired and that the boys should save themselves.

In the next scene, Nolan walks Meeks back to his room as Todd waits in his. Nolan calls Knox into his office, who gives Todd a thumbs up as he walks by his room. Todd asks Meeks what happened through his door. Meeks says that Charlie was expelled and that he didn’t tell them anything they didn’t already know. Nolan calls for Todd to come in next. His parents are waiting in his office. Nolan asks if Todd was a part of the Dead Poets Society , and Todd admits he was. Nolan reviews the details of the Society’s meetings, and says that Mr. Keating ’s abuse of influence as a teacher is what led to Neil’s death. He hands Todd a piece of paper summarizing this and asks Todd to sign it as confirmation that it’s true. The signatures of his friends are already on it. Todd asks what’ll happen to Mr. Keating, but his father insists he sign it.

Mr. McAllister walks with students in the snowy courtyard, reciting verse to them. He sees Mr. Keating in a window and gives a quick wave. Mr. Keating returns the wave from his office full of suitcases. Next, the boys stand beside their desks as Nolan comes in to Keating’s old classroom, acting as the English teacher until Mr. Keating can be replaced. He asks the students where they left off in the textbook. Cameron says that they skipped around a lot, so Nolan decides to start from the beginning. Mr. Keating knocks and enters to retrieve his personals. Nolan asks Cameron to read from the book’s introduction, but Cameron admits that they all ripped it out. Nolan hands him his own copy to read. Todd makes eye contact with Mr. Keating from his office. As Keating leaves the classroom, Todd stands and yells to him that the boys were forced to confess. Keating says he believes him. Nolan silences Todd and demands that Keating leave. As Keating makes for the door, Todd stands on his desk and yells “O captain, my captain!” Nolan tells him to sit, but he doesn’t. Knox stands as well and repeats the phrase. Pitts follows with the same gesture, as does Meeks, followed by many other boys. Cameron noticeably remains seated. Mr. Nolan screams for them all to sit down, but they ignore him. The boys stare at Mr. Keating, who thanks them earnestly and leaves the room. The film ends on a shot of Todd’s face, appearing heartbroken but proud.

The film’s final scenes take a morbid tone as the various characters cope with Neil’s suicide. Todd demonstrates complete denial, even accusing Neil’s father of being the one who killed his son. This statement, while not literally accurate, holds some weight, as it was the trapped position that Neil’s father put him in that drove him to end his life. One could argue that, in this way, his father did figuratively kill him. Meanwhile, Keating sobs openly, deeply distraught at the loss of his student. Displaying the warm and carefree Keating in this heartbroken light casts an immovable shadow over the entire rest of the movie.

Neil’s death allows Welton to rear its ugly head in full: the institution’s brutal conformism only increases as the administration promises to conduct a full inquiry into what happened to Neil. Of course, having already had difficult with Keating, it's perhaps unsurprising that they would use him as a scapegoat for what happened. After all, they believe their strict practices to be what’s best for the students, despite the fact that Neil would’ve cited those very practices as a key component in his decision to end his life. Keating’s contrasting ideologies are therefore the odd piece out in the equation, and the obvious branch to prune to ensure that things return to normal at Welton.

Cameron’s willingness to give Keating up when the boys meet in secret demonstrates the powerful, lasting influence of the academy’s ideologies. While Keating managed to inspire and encourage many of the Dead Poets Society members into believing in his ideas about independence and non-conformity, Cameron represents the other side of the equation: those who still believe that Welton is in the right and that Mr. Keating’s teachings were rightfully to blame for Neil’s death. He is concrete proof that Keating's impact was not so easily made on everyone.

The administration's decision to pressure the implicated members of the Dead Poets Society into signing a paper blaming Mr. Keating's influence for Neil's death is an unfortunate parallel to the hold that Neil's parents had over him: straight to the end, much of the movie's misfortune comes from forcing the hand of adolescent boys who either aren't mature enough to make these difficult decisions themselves or who are not of legal age to act independently without threat of serious backlash from their parents and superiors. This is exemplified particularly when Todd tries to ask questions and put off signing the paper until his father interjects and forces him to sign it. The film's themes of discipline and tradition are driven home, with the administration's old-school ideologies appearing to win out, at least for the moment.

The famous final scene in which members of Keating’s class stand and salute him with the declaration “O Captain! My Captain!” is a stirring testament to the impact that Keating will leave on his students after he’s gone. That they are defiant enough to carry out this gesture in plain viewing of Mr. Nolan, and despite his protests, speaks immediately to the rebellious influence Keating had on them. The use of the phrase, “O Captain! My Captain!” is also a reference to Walt Whitman mourning the loss of President Abraham Lincoln, whom Whitman admired very much, following his assassination. In a direct parallel, the boys mourn the loss of a great teacher taken from them under circumstances that they consider unjust, in a moving gesture that has become cinematically iconic over the years.

Dead Poets Society Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Dead Poets Society is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What’s the theme of dead poets society rip it out

Do you mean the scene where Keeting asks his class to rip out the Pritchard text? He wants them to avoid conformity by ripping a text that treats poetry like a math equation.

Explore Keating's influence on his students and how his encouragement of originality and "carpe diem" affect them.

I can't write your essay for you but can make a general comment. One of Keating’s main, overarching lessons for the boys is the idea of “seizing the day”—that is, making the most of the time they have now and taking advantage of the opportunities...

According to Pitts, all of the girls go for “jerks”. Do you agree with his assessment? Why or why not?

Well, this is a pretty subjective answer from personal experience. Many many years ago I was captain of the chess team in high school. Lets just say girls were not clamouring to wear my jacket. The hockey players,they used to throw pucks at our...

Study Guide for Dead Poets Society

Dead Poets Society study guide contains a biography of director Peter Weir, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Dead Poets Society
• Dead Poets Society Summary
• Character List
• Director's Influence

Essays for Dead Poets Society

Dead Poets Society literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of the film Dead Poets Society directed by Peter Weir.

• Authority Against Individualism: Dead Poets Society and The Rabbits
• Dead Poets Society: The Powerful Thought of Individuality
• Identity in Dead Poets Society and Frost's Poetry
• Exploring Transitions: Educating Rita and Dead Poets Society

Wikipedia Entries for Dead Poets Society

• Introduction

Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Dead Poets Society — Neil Perry Dead Poets Society

Neil Perry Dead Poets Society

• Categories: Dead Poets Society

About this sample

Words: 709 |

Published: Mar 25, 2024

Words: 709 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, body paragraph 1: neil perry's struggle for authenticity, body paragraph 2: the consequences of repression and the importance of self-expression, body paragraph 3: the role of supportive educational environments, counterarguments: balancing self-expression with responsibility and respect for others.

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Transcendentalism In Dead Poets Society

Transcendentalism was a movement in the early 1800s that emphasized intuition, emotion, and imagination. Dead Poets Society is a 1989 movie set in an all-boys preparatory school that follows a group of friends who start a secret club inspired by their English teacher, who is a Transcendentalist. The movie explores themes of conformity, individualism, and the power of words and ideas. Dead Poets Society is a classic example of Transcendentalism in film.

The film, Dead Poet Society, was a wonderful production. The movie revolves around adolescent males who are inspired by their teacher, Mr. Keating, and encourage them to think for themselves and find their own way in society. Non-conformity, extreme success, and open-mindedness are all transcendentalist ideals represented in this work.

Dead Poet Society is a great movie for those who want to learn about transcendentalism and see how it works in the modern day. This film is also good for those who appreciate well-made movies with deep messages.

Non-conformity is one of the most prominent features of transcendentalism in Dead Poet Society. In “Self-reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson, another transcendentalist writer, conformity is discussed. Conformity, according to Emerson, destroys a person’s individuality.

Dead Poets Society takes this idea and displays it through the character of Neil. Neil conforms to his father’s wishes and goes to Welton Academy, where he is expected to become a doctor. However, Neil has other plans. He wants to be an actor. When he meets Mr. Keating, his English teacher, Neil finally has someone who supports his dream of becoming an actor.

With Mr. Keating’s help, Neil starts Dead Poet Society, a club for boys who want to express themselves through poetry. Through Dead Poet Society, Neil and the other boys learn to think for themselves and to follow their own dreams instead of conforming to the expectations of others. Dead Poet Society shows that transcendentalism is still relevant today. It is a movie that everyone should see.

The Dead Poets Society is an organization for students who want to find inspiration from poems. The movie will talk about the ideas of transcendentalism as they concern three key writers of transcendentalism, how these philosophers relate to the characters in=the film, and what sort of personal vocations the members discover.

The Dead Poets Society, set in 1959 at the prestigious Welton Academy, is a coming-of-age story about a group of friends who are united by their love for poetry. The film follows the students as they navigate through their final year of high school and face the pressure of choosing a career path.

Through the guidance of their English teacher, Mr. Keating, the boys are exposed to the works of three transcendentalist writers: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman. As they read and discuss the writings of these men, the boys begin to see how transcendentalist principles can be applied to their own lives.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a key figure in the transcendentalist movement. His essay, “Nature”, advocates for a more spiritual understanding of the world around us. Emerson believed that humans are connected to nature and that we can find truth and beauty in the simplest things. This philosophy is evident in the character of Todd Anderson, who struggles to find his voice throughout the film. However, after reading Emerson’s work and being encouraged by Mr. Keating, Todd is finally able to write a poem that expresses his true feelings.

Henry David Thoreau was another important transcendentalist thinker. In his book, “Walden”, Thoreau argues that humans should live simple lives in harmony with nature. He believes that material possessions only serve to distract us from what is truly important. This philosophy is reflected in the character of Neil Perry, who comes from a wealthy family but longs for a more meaningful existence. Neil’s father is very strict and has high expectations for his son’s future. However, after reading Thoreau’s work and being inspired by Mr. Keating, Neil decides to follow his heart and pursue his passion for acting.

Walt Whitman was the final transcendentalist writer that the boys studied in their English class. In his poem, “Song of Myself”, Whitman celebrates the individual and encourages everyone to embrace their unique quirks and qualities. He believes that we are all connected and that we should celebrate our differences. This philosophy is evident in the character of Charlie Dalton, who is initially shy and reserved but comes into his own after discovering Whitman’s work. Charlie begins to express himself more freely and eventually stands up to his father, who has been trying to control his life.

The Dead Poets Society is a film that speaks to the importance of transcendentalist principles in our lives. Through the characters of Todd, Neil, and Charlie, we see how exposure to the writings of Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman can change our lives for the better. We are encouraged to find inspiration in nature, follow our dreams, and celebrate our individualities.

The critical aspect is that American citizens’ beliefs, as seen in this film, are strongly influenced by transcendentalist ideas from the 19th century. When it comes to individuality, various transcendentalist viewpoints frequently link to each character. Transcendentalism maintains that everyone has the potential to discover greater truth on their own through intuition.

This is shown in Dead Poets Society when Todd Anders begins to look up to Mr. Keating after he helps Todd gain confidence in himself. Mr. Keating also encourages his students to “seize the day” and follow their dreams, which is another main tenet of transcendentalism. Dead Poets Society illustrates how transcendentalist ideas are still influential in American society today.

The principles of transcendentalism encourage self-reliance and individualism rather than deferring to external authority or blindly following tradition. This can be seen in Mr. Keating telling Neil to speak with his father about being in the play, Charlie making up a phone call from God, and Knox going to Chris’ school to get her to accept his affections.

In Dead Poet’s Society, Mr. Keating is the English teacher who follows Transcendentalist ideas. In one scene, Neil’s father comes to see Mr. Keating because he wants Neil to quit the school play. Mr. Keating tells Neil to stand up for himself and talk to his father about what he wants. This shows that Mr. Keating believes in self-reliance, or the ability to make decisions without depending on others. He also believes that Neil should individualism, or thinking and acting independently, rather than blindly following his father’s wishes.

Later in the movie, Charlie makes a “phone call from God” to get out of going on a date with Mr. Nolan’s daughter. This is an example of individualism because Charlie is acting on his own beliefs, rather than blindly following what Mr. Nolan wants him to do. Charlie also shows self-reliance when he refuses to give in to Mr. Nolan’s demands that he stop seeing Christine, even though it means getting kicked out of school.

The final scene that demonstrates transcendentalist ideas is when Knox goes to Chris’ school to profess his love for her. Chris had previously rejected Knox because he was not “preppy” enough for her. However, Knox follows his heart and individualism by going to her school and telling her how he feels, regardless of what others may think. This scene also shows self-reliance, as Knox is making his own decisions and not relying on others to tell him what to do.

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Dead Poets Society

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A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-10

Chapters 11-15

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Discussion Questions

Describe Todd Anderson’s character arc as it relates to the theme of finding your voice . In what ways does Mr. Keating help him? In what ways does Neil?

Compare and contrast the characters of Charlie and Cameron. Be sure to track their growth or regression throughout the novel and focus on their relationship to the rules of Welton.

In Dead Poets Society , Welton is a symbol for the isolation that comes along with striving to maintain certain traditions and standards. Pick one character that experiences isolation in the novel and explain how they escape (or don’t escape) that feeling of loneliness.

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Dead Poets Society

N. h. kleinbaum, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

The novel is set in 1959 at the prestigious Welton Academy, a Vermont boarding school. As the school year begins, we meet Todd Anderson , a shy new student who’s transferred from another school, as well as Neil Perry , Richard Cameron , and Charlie Dalton —all junior-year students. Neil Perry is a likable, kind student, and is Todd’s roommate; Neil is terrified of his own father, Mr. Perry , who insists that Neil must study chemistry, go to Harvard, and become a doctor. Richard Cameron is an uptight, conforming student who hates breaking rules; Charlie Dalton, on the other hand, is an easygoing, rebellious student who loves breaking rules.

Another Welton student and friend of Neil’s, Knox Overstreet , goes to have dinner with some family friends, the Danburrys. During dinner, he meets Chris Noel , the beautiful girlfriend of Chet Danburry , the Danburrys’ son. Knox is instantly smitten, but doesn’t know what to do about his love.

Classes begin at Welton. Most of the teachers are extremely rigorous and controlling. However, there’s a new English teacher at school, John Keating , who is different. Keating immediately impresses his students with his charismatic, energetic lectures—in the first of which he stands on his desk . While other teachers force students to do homework and obey them at all times, Keating begins the year by talking about “Carpe Diem,” the idea that humans should “seize the day”—i.e., make the most of life while they’re alive. This year, Keating promises, he wants to teach his students how to be extraordinary instead of simply following the rules. Keating’s unusual teaching methods draw some attention from his colleagues, but because he’s an intelligent, likable man, he stays in the good graces of the Welton headmaster, Gale Nolan .

Neil tries to engage with Todd and become his friend, but Todd is too shy and reserved. Things begin to change when Neil comes across an old yearbook in which he learns that John Keating was once a student at Welton; during that time, Keating was a member of a club called the Dead Poets Society. When Neil and his friends ask Keating about the Dead Poets, Keating explains that the Dead Poets met in a cave near Welton, read poetry, and celebrated life. Later, Neil finds that someone, presumably Keating, has put an old poetry anthology marked “Dead Poets” in his room. Neil convinces his friends, including Knox, Cameron, Charlie, and Todd, to go to the cave, and together they read from the poetry anthology, gradually becoming transfixed by the poems’ beauty.

In class, Keating asks his students to compose poems. Todd is at first unable to write anything that he feels comfortable reading in from of the other students, but with Keating’s encouragement, he improvises a brilliant poem about Keating’s hero, Walt Whitman. Afterwards, Todd begins to open up, both with his classmates and with Keating. He admits to Neil that he feels that his parents don’t love him—they’re incredibly hard on him, and clearly prefer his older sibling. Neil is sympathetic to Todd’s problems, since they echo his own. Keating’s lessons also inspire Neil to try out for a local production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream –to his delight, he gets the lead part of Puck.

The students’ attempts to “seize the day,” inspired by Keating, become increasingly reckless and foolish. Charlie Dalton pens an article in the school paper in which he claims that women should be admitted to Welton, and signs it “The Dead Poets.” To protect his classmates, Charlie comes forward and admits he wrote the article—he’s given corporal punishment by Nolan, but doesn’t tell Nolan anything about the Dead Poets Society. Meanwhile, Knox is invited to a party with Chris and Chet—at the party, he gets very drunk and, telling himself that he’s just “seizing the day,” he touches Chris’s breasts, infuriating Chet. In response to his students’ wild actions, and the suspicion he’s been getting from Nolan, Keating tries to teach his students how to be realistic, “survive” college, and bluff their ways through essays about horrible books that aren’t worth reading.

Mr. Perry finds out that Neil is going to be in A Midsummer Night’s Dream , and furiously forbids him from performing in the play. Neil, unsure what to do, goes to Keating for advice. Keating advises Neil to talk to his father and show him how passionate he is about acting. Neil can’t bring himself to talk to his father, but tells Keating that Mr. Perry gave him permission to perform after all.

Knox goes to Chris’s school and reads her a poem he wrote for her, in which he professes his love. Later, Chris visits Knox at Welton and warns him that Chet is going to kill him for what he’s done. Knox begs Chris to go see A Midsummer Night’s Dream with him—if she doesn’t have a good time, he’ll never try to see her again. Reluctantly, Chris agrees.

Chris, Knox, Keating, and the other Dead Poets go to see Neil in A Midsummer Night’s Dream . Neil is spectacular as Puck, to everyone’s delight, especially Todd. Chris begins to develop feelings for Knox during the performance—and later that night, she kisses Knox. After the show, however, Mr. Perry appears to confront Neil. He brings Neil home and tells him that he’ll be going to a rigorous military academy from now on—clearly, Welton is distracting him from his “goals” of being a doctor. Neil is so upset by this news that, late at night, he shoots himself with his father’s revolver.

In the aftermath of Neil’s suicide, there’s an investigation, at Mr. Perry’s request, into the matter. Cameron betrays the Dead Poets by going to Nolan and telling him about the Dead Poets Society. Nolan uses Cameron’s information to cast Keating as a scapegoat—by blaming Keating for “corrupting” Neil with talk of freedom and individuality, Nolan hopes to avoid a full-scale scandal with Welton’s wealthy alumni donors.

One by one, the students are brought into Nolan’s office and forced to sign a document stating that Keating corrupted them with his free-thinking lessons, and thereby compelled Neil to commit suicide. While most of the Dead Poets sign the document, Todd refuses to do so—and Nolan places him under strict probation for refusing to go along. In spite of Todd’s loyalty, Keating is fired from Welton and essentially barred from ever teaching again.

In the final chapter, the students file into English class, now being taught by the dull Headmaster Nolan himself. In the middle of the lesson, Keating walks in to pick up his personal items. While Keating gathers his things, Todd runs up to him, explaining that Nolan forced the students to sign the document that’s gotten Keating fired. Keating smiles and nods, showing that he understands. Todd stands on his desk, just as Keating did during his first lesson at Welton. Slowly, and despite Nolan’s cries to stop, the other students join Todd in an inspiring show of solidarity with Keating.

The 2024 Foley poetry contest: art that pierces and disrupts

The only unfortunate thing about the winner of this year’s Foley Poetry Contest, “The Patron Saint of Sliding Glass Doors,” is that when I read the title, I immediately thought of the 1998 Gwyneth Paltrow romantic comedy (which I’ve actually never seen) called “Sliding Doors.”

Whatever the merits of the film, the poem by James Davis May about sliding doors is that superb piece of writing that does a lot of labor but does not feel labored. It dives into what is tiny and four-legged and amphibious—a tree frog, of all things!—and pans out to what is universal and bipedal: human envy, the hunger for prayer. Out of this tiny frog the poet weaves a tiny charged theology of the world. This bit of writing is worth your while, worth even a few reads as you go deeper and deeper into its beauty.

To select the Foley winner, we whittled 500-plus poems down to our top 30 strongest poems. We then brought the 30 down to 27 when we realized that three poets had disqualified themselves by going far above the 45-line limit. (A kindly reminder from one writer to another: Read those guidelines.)

Not every one of the final 27 poems works as a whole, but lines catch you; they work as a world unto themselves:

* “ My mother loves to retell plots—mystery, romance, Seinfeld—and she expects that you’ll be moved.”

* “For years I was convinced oafish was/ a type of fish....”

* From a poem in which a family moves from the northern climes down to New Orleans: “Within the week I awoke to snow,/ like I’d brought an old friend with me from Minnesota.”

* An utterly sad poem based on Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma , about piglets living in unspeakably miserable quarters, states: “Premature weaning leaves a lifelong craving/ to suck, chew—a need piglets gratify/ in confinement, biting the tail of the animal/ in front of them.”

* “Your ashes grazed the treetops/ and everybody smiled./ I shook twenty hands,// watched the cars go,/then knelt/ by racks of thorns....”

* “ We often underestimate/ The teeth of water.... The only thing that cuts mountains/ Is stream....”

* A sparrow takes grubs from the skull of a deer: “Take, eat my memory// of the woods, Swallow my swift/ witness of this earth.”

My co-judges for the 2024 contest— last year’s winner , Laurinda Lind, and an America O’Hare fellow, Christine Lenahan—went back and forth over a poem called “Gaza,” by Kirby Wright, and whether it should be one of the runners-up. Is it too one-sided? Anytime you write about the horrors taking place in Gaza, do you have to name what Hamas did in Israel? Does a poem have to be perfectly “fair”? Can there be anything “perfectly fair” said about that war? Is it a genocide? If its people are being massacred, shouldn’t Hamas just give up, to stop the massacre? All this spurred by a 10-line poem.

We eventually settled on “Gaza” (well, two of us did) as one of our three runners-up, along with “Animals,” by Hannah Ahn, and “01100111 01101111 01100100 01100100 01100101 01110011 01110011,” by Jon Saviours. (Yes, that is its title.) These poems will be published in our July/August issue.

It was a pleasure to sit down and give a close read to our 27 finalists and in pinpoint detail discuss with Laurinda and Christine each phrase, each idea, what they mean, how they work or do not work. Words matter, space matters, commas, ellipses, breaths in the line, broken rhythm, dynamic range; every little eyelash matters in a good poem, so tightly constructed does it need to be.

We are grateful for everyone who shared with us all of these details, large or small, whether veteran poets or beginners—those who dared open themselves to the impossible and frankly ridiculous thing of being named “winner.”

I don’t know that you can actually “rank” art , but you can declare what poem works, what really works. You can notice and signal to the world which poem does something. Like an edgy tech start-up, it “disrupts” you; it lingers in your mind, pierces the mist of human generality and lashes you to what is vital, particular and beautiful. Poems like these at the very least deserve more eyes on them, and we are more than happy to make that happen.

Joe Hoover, S.J., is America ’s poetry editor and producer of "The Allegory."

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