What does it mean to live?
If we are bound by what other people want, can we really say that we are living?
We are left with a question of who do I want to please? Myself or those around me?
We choose to please others but do we feel happiness?
We choose to do things for ourselves, but some people will start to hate us.
But that’s not all, The real problem arises when we can’t do anything to choose for ourselves.
Life without freedom is comparable to being dead.
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Dead poets society is a movie that made me think about the things I pursue. It’s not always that we encounter something that makes us think and reflect to ourselves like this movie did to me.
Is what I’m doing now something that I want? Or am I just another actor acting in a play authored by other people’s expectations?
The whole plot revolves around the phrase “Carpe Diem” or seize the day which the students learn early in the film from Mr. Keating. This gave the characters the confidence and opened their eyes to realize what they really want instead of just following what other people want them to do.
The film illustrates that a free thinker who is not bound by other people’s expectations is capable of doing anything that they want. This was shown in the scene where the students read the annual from Mr. Keating’s generation. He was labeled as “A man most likely to do anything.”
Also, as a future educator, this movie shows the vital role of a teacher that we are the guide of our students who are minors and just starting to discover their own potential and what they really want to do in life. Even though there is a burden among students from their parents, we could give them advice and don’t act that they will feel more pressure inside our class. Mr. Keating defines the character of my role model to become a teacher and a person who can do anything without considering other people’s expectations. He lets his students know their limitations and learns to seize the day. These students have experienced living freely and they learned to know themselves and he gave motivation among his students to pursue what they want, especially for Neil and Knox.
I realized, if we set aside other people’s expectations and take the time to consider what we want and work towards what we think are the best for us, we are capable of achieving anything we want. This very idea was explored by showing to the audience the differences of being held by other people’s expectations and demands, compared to being able to decide for ourselves. What’s more important, though, is the writer’s decision to show the consequences of having too much freedom by having the characters go too far with their freedom by making them reveal to the school heads that their organization exists. Which Mr. Keating did not approve of.
This whole sequence tells us that one can do anything that they want but they must not forget about their ideals and think about the consequences of their actions.
Neil’s death can be explained by the scene near the end when Mr. Keating finds the book of verses by the Dead Poets Society. A quote from Henry David Thoreau that reads “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately…and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” was emphasized because after the play, Neil realized that all of his life, he “had not lived.” And he knew that he had no choice but to live like a dead person with no freedom.
For his classmates, and for most of us, it’s all a question of “who do I want to please? Myself or those around me?” But there are the minority like Neil whose problem is much bigger than us: that they do not have a choice.
Neil’s life is strictly for the benefit of his family. His family is not as wealthy as his classmates’ and the fact that after his father saw his talent, he still wasn’t convinced. This was enough reason for Neil to believe that he will never be in control of his life. And according to Thoreau, that this kind of life is comparable to being dead.
This also explains the name “Dead poets society.” The moment someone decides to explore their freedom, they’re already a dead poet. Because they have already discovered that they “had not lived.” and from that point, they start living for themselves. Not just to stay alive.
The moment you realize that you’re not free, and decide to do something about it, your past person is already dead.
Dead poets society is a film about choices. Some of the students chose to just be the same; to remain being constrained by what the people around them wanted them to do, and the others who saw the truth and decided to change their lives.
PS: I also wrote about we’re not living to satisfy the expectations of others and I recommended to read this book. Click here to read more.
