Dead Poets Society: An Oldie But Goodie
When Taylor Swift announced her new album, the Tortured Poets Department, at the Grammys, it sparked a wave of memes and posts online. One such meme featured the cast of the Dead Poets Society as said tortured poets in the new album, which got me thinking back to the old film. I watched it several years back and it quickly became one of my favourite films. While old, the coming of age film is still highly relatable, transcending generations. It is profound, unpretentious (despite being centred around poetry), and is overall a cinematic masterpiece. If given the opportunity, I encourage you to give it a chance as you’d definitely not regret it.
The film, directed by Peter Weir and written by Tom Schulman, follows a group of boys as they learn to break out of their shells and truly live. They learn this through the unorthodox teaching methods of their new English teacher, Mr Keating (Robin Williams), at the strict and traditional all-boys boarding school Welton. Through Keating, the boys find out about the unsanctioned Dead Poets Society and go on to revive the club. They sneak out of school at night and take turns reading poetry aloud in a cave. While it may seem a little lame or pretentious, the poetry reading itself is really more than just that. It represents their dreams, their individuality, their adolescence. It is an amalgamation of life itself. In Keating’s words, “We didn’t just read poetry; we let it drip from our tongues like honey. Spirits soared, women swooned, and gods were created.”
The Significance
Your Barbaric Yawp
There were a great many things that the film wanted to convey to us. I will first start off with one of the most important messages that is also a personal favourite of mine: to be brave. I’m sure we know all about the mortifying ordeal of being perceived. The film tackles this growing pain in a profound yet subtle way, encouraging us to be brave in letting ourselves be seen, through my favourite scene in the film. In the scene, Keating calls on Todd, a socially anxious boy, to read out the poem that they have been tasked to write as homework, in front of the class. After Todd tells Keating that he didn’t do the work, Keating writes this out on the chalkboard: “I sound my barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world.” While its sentiment is overused and overdone in so many iterations of various pieces of media telling us to be ourselves, the way it is delivered and the scene’s context in the film gives it so much more meaning. This is especially so when Todd is forced to come up with a poem on the spot and deliver it under everyone’s watchful eyes. The whole scene feels so raw and genuine, you can practically feel yourself in Todd’s shoes, the sheer anxiety he must feel at the moment. Coupled with his poem that is just his true feelings, you can’t help but feel so seen yourself. After he’s finished his poem, Todd opens his eyes and is met with loud applause from his peers. To let yourself be seen is to allow yourself to simply be. And to do that, one has to be brave. It always seems much scarier than it actually is. So, let us all be brave and sound our barbaric yawps over the rooftops of the world.
Carpe Diem
Of course one cannot talk about Dead Poets Society without talking about chasing one’s dreams when half of the film’s most famous quotes are about just that. It is arguably the main and most important message the film is trying to send out. “Carpe Diem, seize the day, make your lives extraordinary” is one of the first few things Mr Keating says to his class. Neil, one of Keating’s students, loved acting and wanted to pursue his dream of becoming an actor despite his father’s strong disapproval. He thus went behind his father’s back to sign up for a play where he obtained the lead role. His joy at being able to do something that he genuinely loves is so palpable, it makes you want to follow in his footsteps and chase your own dreams too, despite whatever societal expectations there may be. While the film ends rather darkly, it asks an important question: would you rather die with your dreams than continue to live meaninglessly as an empty shell? Nevertheless, at the heart of the matter, whatever your answer may be, the film just wants to encourage you to chase your dreams. This is your own life after all. Let yourself be young and free, let yourself dream.
To Those Who Go With You
Another theme the film hints at is the importance of friendships. The film highlights the close relationship between Neil and Todd, as well as the friendship between all of the members of the Dead Poets Society, who we shall refer to as The Poets here. The Poets have consistently been a pillar of support for Neil, encouraging him to chase his dreams of acting, agreeing to join the Society should he want to revive it once more. They watched his play, cheered him on and were happy for him. They were more of a family to Neil than his parents ever were. Thus, I’d like to dedicate a few lines to two of my closest friends. Firstly, to Claire, thank you for being a constant in my life, for giving me structure and security. Secondly, to Hazel, thank you for all the beach days, all the low days and all the high days. Both of you mean the world to me, thank you for letting me grow and live life with you. After all, we all need a friend in our life because we are not meant to go at this alone.
The Woods Where We Lived Deliberately
The final point I’d like to delve into is the message that I personally feel captures the whole essence of the film: to live life. The film tells us that there is more to life than just excrement, the expectations of others and the rigidity or mundanity of school. Life is beautiful and fluid, and we must strive to see beyond conformity. We must strive to find ourselves, to be stirred up by things. Because being stirred up by things—feeling things—is the precipice, the tipping point of discovering how to truly live, to appreciate life for all that it is. It is only when we allow ourselves to feel that we can see all these intangible beautiful things in life, like dreams and hopes and love. And perhaps, to feel stirred up by things, we must first do things. This is all admittedly terrifying, which is exactly why we have to be brave—brave to accept ourselves and let ourselves be seen. I’d like to end this section with the poem that is read aloud to officiate the start of every Dead Poets Society meeting. The poem reads,
“I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately.
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.
To put to rout all that was not life;
and not, when I had come to die, realise I had not lived.”
Conclusion
There’s still so many more things I want to say about this film but if I continue, this article will simply never end. I know most of us are put off by poetry, thinking it to be pretentious or akin to some incomprehensible mystery that we can never seem to figure out. We abhor it because we don’t understand it. And we don’t understand it because we are so desperate to find this fixed, elusive, obscure meaning to something. This is the crux of our problem. Poems are fluid, organic and their meaning differs from person to person, because as what your peace-loving english teacher would say and what we all loathe to hear, there is simply no hidden meaning to discover, rather just the ones we make up on the way. To understand poems, we must first feel. It is only when we feel, when we are stirred up by things, that we can make up our own interpretations and create the answers that we’re looking for. Poems are really just an avenue for the expression of life. So, Carpe Diem; let us all live deliberately, let us all live deeply and extraordinarily. After all, the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.