Dead Poets Society

Name: ________________________________

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A Dead Poets Society Unit

Peter Weir’s film Dead Poet’s Society is an asset to any curriculum. In it, students will gain an appreciation of poetry. Also, the movie shows the dangers of peer pressure and suicide. It encourages students to think for themselves and to live life to the fullest. It is a movie about coming to terms with oneself and others. It practically teaches itself because students identify with it so well.

Dead poet’s society is rich in symbolism, plot and imagery, making it challenging and ripe for discussion. It is open to several interpretations, as all good art is, and provides teachers with an alternative to teaching print.

Dead Poets Society works well with other literature. It may be viewed in conjunction with “A Separate Peace” or “Catcher in the Rye”. It also works well as an introduction to poetry, especially that of the Romantics.

There are several approaches one might take in Dead Poets Society, for instance:

1. Feelings of alienation: Todd’s low self esteem; the issue of conformity and peer pressure; Todd’s following in his brother’s footsteps; the dilemma of feeling indebted to parents.

2. Dealing with increased feelings of independence and rebellion: Neil’s conflict with his father; Charlie’s illegal editorial; learning to spread one’s wings slowly.

3. Academic pressure: private schools as too competitive; preparatory schools as babysitters for the elite; dictatorship of school administrators.

4. Symbolism and imagery: Neil as Christ-figure; boys as flocks of geese; Mr. Keating as scapegoat; Mr. Keating as Lincoln-figure.

5. Influence of role models: Mr. Keating’s influence on the students, Neil’s father.

With any film it is always a good idea to preface it with things to look for. Pages can be read again, but scenes from movies come quickly and important items can be missed if a viewer is not aware.

The film will be viewed in four (30) min segments

Part 1- Beginning of the movie to the end of Mr. Keating’s “O me! O life!” speech (approx.32min)

Part one establishes the setting and tone of the movie. The characters are introduced, as is the personality of Mr. Keating. The year is 1959. Welton Academy is situated on a large campus in autumnal Vermont.

Points to pay attention to:

-The four pillars of Welton are Tradition, Honor, Discipline and Excellence. Which pillars do the administration lean on? Notice the prominence that is given to the pillar of tradition.

-A scene of flying geese fades to a scene of the boys standing in line to receive their extracurricular activities. Notice as the honking of the geese fades to the chattering of the boys, setting up a connection that will later be commented on by Mr. Keating.

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-Quick views of typical Welton teachers are followed by Mr. Keating as a unique individual.

-The sentiment of carpe diem is expressed by Donne in his poem. Discuss the point that Mr. Keating is trying to make.

-Mr. Keating dares the students to refer to him as “O Captain! My Capitan!” this reference will prove to be symbolic.

Part 2-

-First dinner scene to students standing on Mr. Keating’s desk-20 min

Part 2 reveals the secret of the Dead Poets Society. The boys decide to revive the organization and meet in the cave at night. Later, they get a lesson in looking at life from new perspectives from Mr. Keating via standing on his desk.

Draw students attention:

-T.S Eliot’s quote about dead poets (reference study questions)

-The boys run through the mist in dark cloaks as they head to the cave. Discuss what the director might be saying with this imagery.

-Ask the students the question, why would the “present administration” not look favorably on the Dead Poets Society”?

-Invite the students to stand on their desk and view the world differently.

Part 3-(From Neil’s desire to act to Charlie’s punishment-approx-35min…)

-In this section, we learn of Neil’s desire to act, even if it means disobeying his father. We also see Todd’s fear of expressing himself, and the talent he has hidden inside. Knox summons the courage to call Chris, the girl he has a crush on. Mr. Keating gives a lesson about the evils of conformity by having the student walk together.

Charlie brings two girls to a Dead Poet’s meeting and announces he has slipped an article into the school newspaper. The article demands girls be allowed onto Welton, and Charlie has signed it in the name of the Dead Poets. This section ends with Mr. Nolan’s paddling of Charlie.

Draw to student’s attention:

-Mr. Keating’s philosophy of sports.

-The way in which Mr. Keating brings out Todd-what is it that makes Todd come out of his shell?

-The music involved (Handel, Beethoven)

-Discuss the poems used so far.

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Part 4- (Mr. Keating’s meeting with Nolan to Knox’s talk with Chris-approx 19 min)

Points for discussion?

-Is Charlie too daring?

-Is Mr. Keating a bad influence?

Part 5 (The rest of the movie)

Points for discussion:

-Who is the most to blame for Neil’s death? Mr. Keating? Neil’s father? Neil himself?

-What is Peter Weir trying to say about life in this movie?

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“Dead Poets Society”

Study Questions Part 1

Please read the following poem:

TO THE VIRGINS, TO MAKE MUCH OF TIME.by Robert Herrick

GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may,     Old time is still a-flying: And this same flower that smiles to-day     To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,     The higher he's a-getting,The sooner will his race be run,     And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first,     When youth and blood are warmer; But being spent, the worse, and worst     Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,     And while ye may go marry: For having lost but once your prime     You may for ever tarry.

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Read the poem “TO THE VIRGINS, TO MAKE MUCH OF TIME.”by Robert Herrick and Answer the following questions:

1. Define Tarry:____________________________________________________________________

2. Define Coy:_____________________________________________________________________

3. Find an example of personification: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Find two metaphors: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. Find an example of alliteration: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. What is the theme of the poem, “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” by Robert Herrick.________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Beginning of the movie to the end of Mr. Keating’s “O me! O life!” speech, approximately 32 minutes.

1. What are the four pillars of Welton Academy? /4

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2. In what year does the story take place? /1

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3. Notice the short scene with the flock of birds. What might this scene symbolize? /2

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4. What do the Latin words carpe diem mean? /1

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5. What is the point of Mr. Keating’s first class with the boys? /2

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6. According to Mr. Keating, why read poetry? Why does he have them rip pages out of their books? /4

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7. “You may contribute a verse.” What does this mean?

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Read the poem “O Captain, My Captain,” and answer the following questions:

O Captain My Captain a poem by Walt Whitman

O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done,The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won,The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;But O heart! heart! heart!O the bleeding drops of red,Where on the deck my Captain lies,Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;Rise up--for you the flag is flung for you the bugle trills,For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths for you the shores a-crowding,For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;Here Captain! dear father!This arm beneath your head!It is some dream that on the deck,You've fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;Exult O shores, and ring O bells!But I, with mournful tread,Walk the deck my Captain lies,Fallen cold and dead.

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Walt Whitman 1865

Written on the occasion Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, “O Captain! My Captain!” was first published in the New York Saturday Press (November 1865) and was later included, along with “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” in a group of poems titled “Sequel” to Drum Taps (1865). While “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” has become one of Whitman’s most critically acclaimed poems, “O Captain! My Captain!,” which incorporates more conventional rhyme and meter, was by far the most popular of Whitman’s poems during his lifetime.

“O Captain! My Captain!” became an instant classic, and children were taught to recite its verses in school. Yet Whitman thought the praise the poem garnered was unwarranted. He is noted to have said: “I’m almost sorry I ever wrote that poem.... I say that if I’d written a whole volume of My Captains I’d deserve to be spanked and sent to bed with the world’s compliments — which would be generous treatment, considering what a lame duck book such a book would have been!” At the heart of this statement is Whitman’s recognition that the reading audience of his day still preferred conventionally rhymed and metered poems over more experimental free-verse forms that he himself favored. Nevertheless, “O Captain! My Captain!” does attest to Whitman’s versatility as a poet. While engaging fixed patterns of rhyme and meter, the poem manages to communicate Whitman’s heroic vision of Lincoln, the great Union leader of the Civil War, as well as the horror, shock, and dismay Whitman felt at learning of Lincoln’s assassination.

The fallen Captain of the poem is an allusion to Abraham Lincoln, and the ship is a metaphor for the ship of state, or more precisely, the United States of America. The speaker’s difficulty in coming to grips with the death of his Captain is the subject of the poem. While he knows his Captain is dead, he hopes that he is dreaming, that he is somehow mistaken. However, the last line, in repeating the refrain “Fallen cold and dead,” lends a sense of finality to the poem and leaves no doubt in the reader’s mind. The Captain (Lincoln), the speaker’s father figure and leader, is indeed dead, and what should have been a time of great rejoicing at the end of the Civil War has been turned into a time of national grief and mourning.

-The Civil War spanned the years of 1861 to 1865. Those tumultuous years ended with the assassination of the 16th President of the United States. This lesson covers the days after the surrender of the Confederate Army to the Union Army and the ensuing mayhem that took place regarding the assassination.

- BackgroundPresident Lincoln was beginning his second term as President of the United States. The Civil War ended with General Lee surrendering at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9th. The country was taking its tentative first steps in its aftermath. The Nation was then stunned to have the President of United States assassinated. An actor, who was disenfranchised with Abraham Lincoln, plotted to kidnap and ransom the president with aid from fellow conspirators. Shooting Lincoln instead and fleeing capture for eleven days

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kept the nation on edge. With the telegraph system able to keep the country current with up-to-date occurrences, a nation waited.

This was a turbulent period in history. What if Grant had decided to accept the theater invitation? What if the guard had stayed at his post? What if Mudd hadn’t set Booth’s leg? What if the Lincoln’s had gone to another play they had tickets for? What would have happened if the Confederacy had won? What if the shot hadn’t been fatal? So many different variables that could have produced a different outcome. The following lessons provide background as well as a challenge to the students to think about events changing the course of history dramatically.

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Poem Activity

Worksheet

Read the poem “O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman. Think about the author’s feelings about President Lincoln’s assassination.

1. Who is Whitman referring to as the ‘captain’?

2. What does the ‘ship’ represent in this poem?

3. What is the ‘prize that is sought and won’ referring to?

4. How does the author feel about the ‘captain’?

5. What does “The ship has weathered every rack” mean?

6. Why won’t “My Captain” answer?

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O Captain! My Captain!By Walt Whitman

O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done,The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won,The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;But O heart! heart! heart!O the bleeding drops of red,Where on the deck my Captain lies,Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;Rise up--for you the flag is flung for you the bugle trills,For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths for you the shores a-crowding,For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;Here Captain! dear father!This arm beneath your head!It is some dream that on the deck,You've fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;Exult O shores, and ring O bells!But I, with mournful tread,Walk the deck my Captain lies,Fallen cold and dead.

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“Dead Poets Society”

Study Questions Part 2

(First dinner scene to students standing on Mr. Keating’s desk- approx. 20 minutes)

1. What was the Dead Poets Society? What did they do? Where do you think the name comes from?

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2. What is the symbolism in the scene where the boys go to the cave?

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3. How does Mr. Keating get the boys to look at life differently?

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4. What does T.S Eliot mean by the following quote?

“No poet, no artist of any art, has complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation, is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists. You cannot value him alone; you must set him, for contrast and comparison among the dead.”-T.S Eliot, from “Tradition and the Individual Talent”

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5. Summarize, in your own words, why Henry David Thoreau went to the woods:

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I have not lived. I did not wish to live what is not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God…..”

-Henery David Thoreau, from – Walden

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Choose one of the following questions to respond to:

1. As the film progresses, it becomes readily apparent that each primary character faces a challenge. These conflicts help suggest a theme, or central message, that the author and director are trying to impart to the audience. What do you consider to be Dead Poets Society‘s central theme? Explain with examples in a well-developed paragraph of at least 200 words.

2. “We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering; these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love; these are what we stay alive for.” Professor John Keating says this—what do you think it means? Do you agree? What are your views on poetry and why we read it?

3. “I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way. The world looks very different up here… Just when you think you know something you have to look at it in another way… When you read, don’t just consider what the author thinks, you must consider what you think.” Comment on this quote from Professor Keating. Do you agree? Why or why not? Do you have a personal story about a time you took another perspective?

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