Dead Poets Society - Movie Essay Sample

Written by Tom Schulman and directed by Peter Weir, the movie Dead Poets Society, is about making the best of available opportunities as well as aggressively chasing one's dreams and passions! Filmed at a conservative school called Welton Academy, the movie brings to scene Mr. Keating an English and poetry teacher who encourages students to pursue their own careers with passion! Throughout the film, carpe diem comes out as the main theme of central focus! Mr. Keating introduced the Latin quote carpe diem, which means seize the day. This popularized theme motivated the students to revive an old literacy club known as the Dead Poets Society. At the end, one message comes out clearly, live out your life to the fullest by seizing all opportunities!

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At the onset of the film, Mr. Keating navigates the students through a series of photos of previous Welton Academy prep school students and shows them how to become successful and achieve greatness! Intrigued by Mr. Keatings conviction in life, the students undertake to form a secret club involved with poetry, philosophy and they name it Dead Poets Society. In efforts of encouraging them to embrace poetry, Mr. Keating, uses the examples of Whitman and Henry David Thoreau! Convinced by his words, Charlie, Neil, Todd, Knox, Meeks and Cameron followed Mr. Keatings carpe diem advice and boldly undertook daring actions! The timid Todd Anderson for example, finally became bold and overcame his shyness when he stood up and spoke before the headmaster proclaiming O Captain! My Captain! and refuting the retrenchment of Mr. Keating, his English teacher. Despite fiery orders by the headmaster, Todd together with other boys dauntlessly stand up to wave their teacher goodbye! Neil Perry on the other hand, defied odds and went ahead to pursue his passion in acting despite the great opposition by his dad! Neil always clashed with his father! While his father advocated for military and medical courses, Neil had a different taste in life! He adored theatre arts and at one time he choose to audition Puck in Midsummer Nights Dream all against his fathers wishes. This made him received severe punishment from his father after the show. Sadly enough, Neil finally committed murder using his fathers revolver after his parents declined him from becoming an actor! Charlie is also another character in film who got into myriad in his pursuit of exploring new adventures and experiences in life! He was a firm believer in carpe diem! As for Knox, he persistently chased after the girl of his dreams and finally won her heart! At first, Chris, her girlfriend, did not love him, but since Knox was determined to win her love, he finally succeeded! Through a poem, he was able to cajole her. In the poem, he said, but life is complete-contentment is mine, just knowing that shes alive.

Following Neils suicide, Mr. John was retrenched on allegations of inciting the students to pursue his dreams through unjust means! The point at which the Dead Poets Society students rebel against the headmaster is ideally the climax of the film! Altogether, the film is indeed an effective, powerful, inspiring and motivational movie and here is why; apart from incorporating myriad characters, it effectively posits a clear and concise message that life is all about choices! It is essential to look at life from a different angle and doing what one believes is right irrespective of what others say! The scene that John Keating interacts with the students, was really captivating! It shows that the pivotal role of teachers is to motivate, teach and help students discover their passions and ultimately pursue their life careers! The character portrayed by Mr. Keating is perfect epitome of what other teachers and lecturers ought to do which is to instill positive values to students. Scholars, students and pupils on the other hand are called upon to follow their hearts desires, pursue their passions, chase their dreams aggressively and utilize all available opportunities! They should do so by studying literature and poetry since it helps expose the mind to new and vast experiences!

Through the Dead Poet Society, the students came to appreciate the beauty and significance of literature! The poem, tomorrow will be dying, helped the boys realize they needed to arise and do daring things in life which would positively impact their lives! If it were not for poetry, Neil would never have found his true passion in life while Knox would never have discovered the true meaning of love! Poetry helped Knox and Neil open up their minds and discover things about themselves. Nevertheless, parents ought to not only allow but also encourage their children to pursue their career of choice! To show them support, they provide resources, motivation as well as advice to them in a loving manner!

The take away lesson from the movie is that carpe diem should be embraced but only in the wise way! It was not in the intention of Mr. Keating for the students to get into trouble! He tells Charlie, Getting expelled from this school is not an act of wisdom or daring. He just wanted them to live their best day today and not for them to be troublemakers. The bottom line is, seize the day, be true to self, do something great and extraordinary and most importantly believe in yourself! Follow your dreams for today is the day! No matter the situation, hold onto Carpe Diem the right way!

Works Cited

"Dead Poets Society (1989) Original Trailer." YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2016.

"Dead Poets Society Is a Terrible Defense of the Humanities." The Atlantic. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2016.

"Watch Dead Poets Society For Free On 123Movies.to." 123movies.cz. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2016.

"Dead Poets Society (1989)." IMDb. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Sept. 2016.