How horribly unfree they are, for that to be such a thrill for them. That the boys are enchanted by Keating because he does things like getting them to stand on their desks is really quite depressing.
Dead poets society oh captain my captain scene free#
He loves being a teacher because he loves being looked up to by a bunch of boys who are not free to leave. Through these divergences from the strict conformist formality of the school as a whole, Keating creates the semblance of anti-authoritarianism whilst working in a system that is inherently authoritarian. He further draws his pupils in by acts of nonconformity like getting the boys to stand on their desks, getting them to tear out part of their textbook (because he disagrees with the theory presented in it), and holding a lesson outside while playing football. He purports to be all about the poetry, but to me the poetry feels more like a vehicle by which he inspires all the “O Captain! My Captain!” stuff. He is altogether too comfortable being addressed as “O Captain! My Captain!” by them. Keating is not doing that at least.īut still, when Keating says he “love being a teacher” my impression is that what he most loves about it is the rapt attention and hero-worship of his pupils. He drove an E-type Jaguar that he called his “crumpet catcher”, and he was blatantly having an affair with one of the girls in our class. My English teacher, unlike Keating, had no interest in his subject and spent almost every lesson wasting our time just chatting inanely. Like my English teacher, Keating strikes me as a creepy, useless narcissist who fancies himself as a ‘hip’ teacher. I must admit that Keating – the ‘nice’ teacher who presumably is intended to be a contrast with the other teachers and the evil parents – reminds me of my A-Level English teacher, so perhaps my view of him is more negative than is warranted. The fact that Dead Poets Society seems to be beloved by young people who are still at school suggests to me that (1) the school system cannot possibly have moved on as much as teachers say it has, because there is nothing in this film that is taking children seriously (2) young people are far stronger than I, to be able to bear being incarcerated in school for years on end. I’d hate to ruin the film for you! (See In praise of ignorance, by David Deutsch about this.) This article contains spoilers and is quite critical of the film, Dead Poets Society, so you might want to read Arjun’s charming, inspiring, much more nuanced review instead.
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