In the 1989 movie, Dead Poets Society, Robin Williams plays an eccentric English teacher named John Keating. He teaches a group of boys who attend a Catholic prep school in Vermont during the 1950s. Mr. Keating is very different from the kinds of teachers the boys had previously. He encourages them to think for themselves and to, “Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.”
One of the students named Neil Perry, played by Robert Sean Leonard, decides to pursue acting against his father’s wishes. Neil tries out for the lead in a performance of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream. He gets the part, which is the character Puck. When his father learns of this, he actually forbids Neil from continuing in the play. But Neil, inspired by Mr. Keating’s teaching, decides to defy his father, and stays in the play anyway.
His father ends up sneaking into the play when it debuts. After it concludes, he orders Neil to get into the car. Overwhelmed by his father’s judgement, Neil takes his own life that night.
Immediately the school moves to dismiss Mr. Keating. They don’t want a scandal and they coerce all of Mr. Keating’s students to blame him for what happened.
When Mr. Keating is packing up his stuff in the classroom to leave, the painfully shy Todd Anderson, played by Ethan Hawke, tells Mr. Keating that it wasn’t his fault. Then he and many of the students, stand on their desks in tribute to their beloved teacher.
If you haven’t seen Dead Poets Society, it is worth a watch! It is all about learning how to think for yourself and growing into your own person.
