Dead Poets Society

I'm going to talk a little bit about the plot and the characters this magnific movie called Dead Poets Society. It's an American movie that was released in 1989 and directed by Peter Weir and with Robin Williams as principal actor. I really like this movie because it made me think a lot and it's a really good movie, in my opinion.

PLOT

  The summer has ended and Neil Perry, Todd Anderson, Knox Overstreet, Charlie Dalton, Richard Cameron, Steven Meeks, and Gerard Pitts are about to start a new schoolar year that is going to change their lives in the prestigious Acadamy Welton, the best private school from the UK. The succes of this institution is due to their four elemental pilars: tradition, honor, discipline and excellence.

  In the ceremony celebrated at the start of every year, the director announced that John Keating is the new English teacher.  Nobody knows anything about this new teacher, only that he studied also there, so they suppose that is going to follow the same pattern as the other teachers. But in the begging of his first lesson with our protagonist, we can see that he is totally different: everybody is talking about the new teacher, when he enters in the class. Obviosly, everybody goes silent and their surprise is maximun when the teacher starts to whilst, walk along the class and exit, telling the students to follow him. They do ir, not wanting to oppose the new teacher.

  Keating leads them to a showcase with a lot of photos of old students from Welton. He shows them how that people were the way they’re now, but now they’re all dead. With this, Keating tries to show them that they have to seize the day, following the concept of Carpe Diem. Keating also tells them that they may call him ‘Oh Captain! My Captain! In referente to a Walt Wilthman poem.

 The students are really surprised after this lesson, but the next on is also surprising. Keating makes Neil read the introduction of their English book, in which says how to measure the greatness of a composition using a graphic. Keating thing this is totally absurd and makes them rip out the pages of the introduction of their books. One of Keating’s colleages presence this scene and is really surprised for the methods of the English’s teacher. Also in this lesson he make the students stand in his desk to show them how things can change depending of their perspective.

  The boys discover that an old annuary with a photo of Keating saying that he was a member of the Deats Poets Society. They have no clue about what is that, so they decide to ask Keating himself. He tells them that  when he was a student in Welton, he had secret meetings with his friends in a cave and in tose meeting they used to read poems of dead poets or even their owns.

  Due to their admiration to their teacher, the boy decide to make these meetings again and follow the moral that Keating tries to teach them.

CHARACTERS

There are a lot of characters student, familiars, teachers… but I’m going to talk a little bit about the most importants ones.

Mr. Keating: He is a new English teacher that arrives to Welton. From the first lesson, we can see that he completely different from ther rest of the teacher; his methods may seem weirds, but they are enfocated to make the students see the literature as something more that another boeing subject. Keating also tries to teach their students some ethical and moral values, especially the Carpe Diem, that follows himself.

Neil Perry: Neil is one of the better students in Welton. His father is very strict with his education, so usually take decisions about the life of his son without taking in consideration what Neil thinks scout them. Along the movie, we can see the development in the personality of Neil, encouraged by the ideas that Keating is trying shows them, and how Neil rebels against his father and tries to pursue his dreams.

Todd Anderson: he is a new student in Welton. He is really shy, reserved and self-concicious and has a big pressure because is the little brother of the one of best student of Welton and everybody expect the same from him. Todd and Neil share room, and he starts to bring Todd out of his shell. Thanks to his friends and Keating, Todd starts to be more open and Express himself.

Knox Overstreet: He is romantic of the group. He fall in love with a girl that is ‘out of his limit’ becouse she is dating one of the most popular boys in her high-school. He is optimist and perseverant and always tries to get what he wants.

Charlie Dalton aka Nuwanda: Charlie is the adventurous and rebel one, he loves to defy authority. He is always loyal to his ideas, but this can be bad because sometimes, for defending his ideas, he goes over the limit and says or do things he shouldn’t.

Richard Cameron: he is an insecure boy without creativity that follows the lead of others and doesn’t take his own iniciative. He is really scared of authorities and sucumbes easily, a big flaw of him.

Gerard Pitts: He isn’t really relevant in the store, he only tells a couple jokes and doesn't talk much, but in the end he has a really important role taking iniciative and claiming the ideas of all the group

Steven Meeks: he is really smart and the best student of the group. Even though he is stoudius and compliant, he is really good friends with the others boys in the group. Due to his responble personality, at first he isn’t very exited about the Dead Poets Society, but later he embraces totally.

BOOK

I also wanted to tell that the guion of the movie has been adapted into a book by N. H. Kleinbaum, so if you prefer books before movies you can also reach this story through its novel.

Agustina Páez Rueda