Dead Poets' Society

Dead Poets’ Society

What the movie has in case you have not watched it is an interesting title; it keeps you wondering what the movie is about. And in case you watched the movie, it still leaves you pondering over a few things.

An immediate theme it exhibits, right at the start of the movie, is an individual’s feeling when he is associated with a reputed institution. Another theme in display is the age old one of creating a difference. It is a statement that the movie makes which could be summed up in just two lines written by Frost:

Two roads diverged into the woods and I,

I took the one less travelled by.

Dead Poets’ Society is a movie that has a simple plot yet it is wonderfully written. The story revolves around a group of seventeen year olds who are inspired by their English professor to do something different and revive an old society known as the dead poets’ society which read poems by the great poets of America. You would get to hear a lot of great poets and their quotes, Whitman and Byron are ones you would hear almost always. Apart from some great American poets you also would get some display of originality by Keating (played by Robin Williams).

When professor McAllister mocks him about his teaching practices and says, “Show me the heart unfettered by foolish dreams, And I’ll show you a happy man.” Keating replies, “But only in their dreams can men be truly free; ‘twas always thus and always thus will be.”

Closely looking at Keating as a character he was more of a romanticist than a realist. This is evident as he covers the romantics from the syllabus but does not teach the realists, skipping even the essay by Pritchard (a fictional character who wrote an introduction to poetry).

Coming to think of the climax of the movie, it left some questions unanswered, like what became of Keating, what became of the boys who stood up on their desks in support of Keating, what became of Knox and Chris. I guess abrupt would be the word many might use for this ending but I choose two words- full and complete. Of the latter word, I make it to an adverb and say that the ending was completely left to ponder by the viewer. An ending left to ponder is one that is thought over and over again and remembered later for the same reason: the ending. Of what use are questions if they are always answered by someone or another? It becomes real only when you seek to find that answer.