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.