“Carpe Diem!”
That’s what Mr. Keating keeps saying in this movie. And
that’s the word that kept me mesmerized the whole movie. Oh wait! I didn’t yet
mention who Mr. Keating is right? Oops! What have I done! My fingers are doing
the typing and they don’t seem to like the backspace key of my keyboard, so I
guess I’m gonna let the first line stay there without editing. And I have
decided to write whatever my mind speaks on the subject. Anyways, lets get it started then.
The subject My Lord/Lady is Dead Poets Society. Yes. You read
it right. I know it’s kind of creepy by its name. But dear me! What a great
movie it is! And that’s the reason of today’s review. That I was completely
bewitched by the idea of this society which Mr. Keating started. Okay now! My bad,
again. I hereby introduce Mr. John Keating (played by Robin Williams), the
teacher that will be teaching English at Welton High, which is one of the best
preparatory schools in the United States, as the movie unfolds.
Mr. Keating, also an alumnus of this school returns to his
alma mater to teach English. A romantic at heart, Mr. Keating teaches the class
about the value and essence of poetry and dares his pupils to call him “O
Captain! My Captain”. Also there is one Mr. Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard-best
known for his character in House M.D. series as Dr.Wilson), another important
character of the story who loves acting but only can’t pursue it because his
father wants him to prepare for Harvard Medical School and become a doctor.
I opine that every good English teacher is eccentric and
unique in their own way. They somehow have the power of changing our
perspective of thinking. My English teacher made our whole class stand-up on
the desks of those neatly laminated benches of conference room (which are
rarely used by students) and touch the roof only to make us think that its not
impossible to reach the sky if we want to. Yes, she’s my favorite and when I
watched Mr. Keating make his pupils stand on benches to see the world in a
different view, it took me back to the memory lane and lurk there till all the
pupils of Mr. Keating took turn on the bench and stepped down.
So yes, this English teacher had his own way of teaching and
naturally his students wanted to know more about him. And they find his image
in the yearbook and some intro which states he was a part of some Dead Poets
Society. On enquiring the Captain, they get to know that it’s a bunch of
romantics who used to read poetry of biggies like Shelley, Thoreau, Whitman and
even sometimes their own verse. After listening to this, the students decide to
reconvene the Dead Poets Society. From then on, they went to that Indian Cave
every night after the lights were out in their dorms and read poetry.
Meanwhile our Perry keeps pursuing his dream to be an actor
by getting a role of Puck in a drama Midsummer Night’s Dream for which his
dad’s consent is required and he carefully forges the document for greater
ambitions only to be caught and punished mentally by the nagging dad! Ergo, Mr.
Keating comes into the scene, as always taking the back of his students, trying
to encourage them. But it has to end as a tragedy for Perrys as their son does
something inexplicable and stupid (for the sake of suspense I’m not revealing
the story) and the blame comes on to our beloved English teacher. And he had to
leave.
But his farewell was fitting, for his class stands upon
their benches and calls out to him O Captain My Captain as he leaves.
This story touched me, for, my passion towards writing also
has been kindled by that English teacher Sumati who taught us in our 8th
standard.
And now, about the most important word Mr. Keating always
told his students, which also is the opening word of my article. Carpe Diem
means “Seize The Day!”
Dead
Poets Society takes us back to our schools and to those extra-ordinary teachers
without whose guidance, most of us wouldn’t be where we are now proud to be.
This movie emphasizes that one should think for oneself and that ideas can
change the world. Live the day and make it extraordinary. And finally, to quote
from Whitman as Mr. Keating passionately says to his students
Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.
I know what my verse is gonna be. Do you ??
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