Analyse af 'Dead Poets Society'

Dead Poets Society is a drama film from the end of the 1980s. The story takes place 30 years before that, in 1959. The story is about a dignified school in the US, which has four pillars: Discipline, excellence, honour and tradition. The pupils we follow, in the film, ridicule these by: Decadence, excrement, horror and travesty. At the school we mainly follow the characters; John Keating, the English teacher, and the pupils Neil Perry, Todd Anderson, Knox Overstreet, Charlie Dalton, Richard Cameron, Steven Meeks and Gerard Pitts.

Carpe diem - Seize the day. In the film the phrase carpe diem is used many times. It is mainly used by Mr Keating. In the beginning of the film Mr Keating makes his students leave their classroom for his first class with them, and explaining to the students that their lives are fleeting so they should seize the day to make their lives count. This event makes the students intrigued with their new teacher. Shortly after, they find out that Mr Keating was a member of the Dead Poets Society after this they repeatedly sneak off campus to convene their own version of the Dead Poets Society.

Half way through the film Knox Overstreet falls in love with a girl who is practically engaged to the son of his parent’s friends. In the meantime, Charlie Dalton prints an article in the school news in the name of “Dead Poets”. The administration begins to investigate this matter. Also at this time in the film, Neil Perry realizes that he has a passion for acting, he gets to play in the local theatre, but his father demands he quit the play. His father says that Neil is wasting his time with “this absurd acting business”, and Neil has deliberately deceived him. He also says that he “has made a great many sacrifices” to get Neil in to this school, and that Neil “will not let him down”. Neil does not follow his father’s commands and continued acting. This led to his father, after Neil’s play, taking him home with the wish to withdraw Neil from his current school, Welton, and enrol him in a military school. Neil feels trapped and decides to take his own life.