Mehrshad Vafaie
1
DEAD POET´S SOCIETY
At the Welton Academy new
students are taught four pillars which
will guide them through their studies:
tradition, honour, diszipline and
excellence. The headmaster tells
them that they are going to work
harder than ever before in their lives,
but in the end the reward will be
success.
As all the students say good-bye to
their parents, Todd Anderson is
standing around lonely, because his
parents are busy talking to other
people. Later on he meets Neil Perry,
his rommate. As they are settling in
their room, suddenly Neil‘s father
comes up and tells him that he isn’t
allowed to work on the school annual
this year because his grades need to
improve. As Neil wants to protest
and answer, his father doesn’t give
him the chance to and leaves. After
his father is gone, he desperately
regrets the way he reacted.
The first day at the academy is very
stressy and the amount of things that
need to be learned until the next day
is unbelievable. Only the lessons
with the new flamboyant teacher
John Keating are different. In his
lessons, extraordinary themes are
talked about and the students learn
about poetry and the way of
understanding it.
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On the next day, one of the students
does researches in old annuals and
finds out that Keating was very
active in Welton as a student, having
been a member of the „Dead Poets
Society“. Interested, a few students
ask Keating to tell them about it.
Secretly he tells them that the Dead
Poets Society was a group of young
people who read all kinds of poetry
in a dark cave, creating a special
atmosphere. The boys like that idea
and they decide to set up the first
meeting the same night.
Requirement for being a member is a
lifetime full of apprenticeship.
Knox, a member of the Dead Poets
Society falls in love with a girl
named Chris, who already has a
boyfriend. Later on he is invited to a
party, where Chris and her friend are,
too. There he gets drunk and comes
too close to Chris; as a consequence ,
her boyfriend beats him up.
Afterwards, Knox can’t think of
anything else but Chris and her
disinterest drives him almost crazy.
In the upcoming weeks, Keating
always uses unusual methods for
teaching. Once, for instance, Keating
tells them all to tear out a whole page
of their books to demonstrate the
idea of refusing to read certain
things.
The Dead Poets Society meets
almost daily and they have lots of
fun. But then
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a member, Charlie, writes an article
in the school-news that girls should
be allowed to come to Welton –
signed with „Dead Poets Society“.
He promises that he will take all the
responsibility if headmaster Noel
makes any trouble. As Noel then
reads the article, he asks Charlie to
tell him the names of all the
members of the club. Charlie still
insists on the statement, that it was
all made up by him and so Noel
punishes him.
Neil gets passionate about acting and
he is sure that this is the thing he
wants to do when he is older. He gets
the role of a character in the big
performance of „A Midsummer
Night’s Dream“and he tries very
hard to achieve excellence. As he is
practicing his texts, one night before
the performance, his father comes to
him and tells him that he must stop
all his activities immediately. Neil is
not even allowed to take part in the
big performance.
Later Neil’s friends recommend
asking Mr. Keating for advice.
Keating tells Neil that the only thing
he can do is to talk to his father and
show him who he really is.
Knox is crazy about Chris and so he
comes to her school and starts
reading a love – poem, that he wrote
himself, to her. As she refuses to
listen and goes into her classroom, he
follows her and reads the poem out
loud in front of the teacher and all
Mehrshad Vafaie
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her classmates. In the end he tells her
that he loves her and leaves. Neil lies
to everbody and says that his father
has allowed him to perform and so
he goes to the performance. As
everyone from the Academy is
leaving to go to watch the play, Chris
shows up and asks Knox why he
bothers her with phone-calls and
visits all the time. Then they decide
to go to the play together and if she
still doesn’t like him after spending
the night with him, he’d leave her
alone forever. That evening, she falls
in love with him too.
So Neil acts although his father has
forbidden him to. His father comes to
the performance and watches him
doing a great job. But after the
performance the father angrily makes
a scence, puts Neil into his car and
takes him away.
At home, his father tells Neil that he
is going to go to a military school
and then to Harvard to become a
doctor. Neil tries to tell his father
about his dreem of becoming an
actor, but his father ignores his
opinion.
As he is gone, the Dead Poets
Society holds a session dedicated to
Neil with Mr. Keating. As Neil is
sitting alone in his room the whole
night through, he silently takes his
father’s gun, puts on the hat of his
costume from the play and shoots
himself dead in the hall of his
father’s house.
Mehrshad Vafaie
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The whole Welton Academy attends
the funeral. On the next day one of
the members of the Dead Poets
Society tells headmaster Noel
everything about the club. In the end,
Keating takes all the blame.
One by one, all members of the Dead
Poets Society are called out to sign a
paper, which says that Keating is
responsible for all that has happened.
Todd Anderson is the only one who
doesn’t sign, even though his parents
and Noel want to force him to do so.
As Keating is preparing to leave, his
former students are having an
English class with Noel as substitute.
Ready to leave, he slowly walks
towards the door.
QUOTE!!! PAGE 164.
Neil Perry: Neil is a great artist and
a wonderful person, but due to his
education, he doesn’t have enough
self confidence. He can’t express his
feelings to his father- of course also
because he doesn’t get a lot of
chances to do so. Neil isn’t familiar
with solving problems and when he is
stuck with a problem, he is helpless.
It is pretty natural, that he committs
suicide(That’s exactly what I
would’ve done 2)☺
John Keating: Keating is a very
experienced and brave man. He
knows how to motivate students and
awaken their interest in quite
Mehrshad Vafaie
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unusual areas. But his way of
teaching doesn’t fit in with the
Academy’s style. Though problems
with the headmaster and his
colleagues come up, he doesn’t
change because he is convinced of
what he is doing. In the end he
shows, that he is willing to take all
the responsibility for all that has
happened. At last he was able to
teach his students what he wanted to:
he made them think about
everything’s real meaning. He taught
that not everything is right the way it
is and that it is important to make up
one’s mind all by oneself.
Mr. Perry: He wants the best for his
son but unfortunately he forgets the
need of integrating Neil in making
the decisions concerning him. Mr.
Perry thinks that he knows what is
best for Neil and that his decisions
are absolute. Seeing, that Neil has so
many more chances than he ever had
in his lifetime, he wants him to
become the person he had always
wanted to be.
Knox: He is hopelessely in love with
Chris and he can’t think of anything
else. His feelings can’t be hidden and
his emotions are stronger than his
mind. His love also makes him
develop inner strenth and braveness
for doing actions to attract Chris.
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Headmaster Noel: He is a man, who
thinks that tradition is very
important. Noel is not open to
changes and new ideas. He wants
everything to stay the same, is not
flexibel enough to adjust to the needs
of the students and he is indeed a
very strict person.
My Opinion: I think the book was
awesome. It was very exciting,
interesting and most of all teaching. I
learned pretty much from the book
and had a great time reading it.
The authors message: First, he wants
to show us how difficult it is to bring
about changes in our society.
Second, he writes about the different
ways of educating students. By
showing these extremes in this story
he wants to raise the reader’s
awareness of what we can do wrong
in educating our children. Sometimes
we do not even realize what we are
doing before it is too late. We should
listen to the needs of every individual
instead of letting our opinion take
over, even if we think something’s
best for our children.
M e h r s h a d V a f a ie
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