Dead Poets’ Society Analysis

Mandi Kanu

COR 100

D. Linton

Sept. 28, 2004

“Now I’d like you to step forward over here. They’re not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they’re destined for great things, just like many of you. Their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see, gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? Carpe… hear it? Carpe… carpe diem. Seize the day boys. Make your lives extraordinary.”

“Carpe diem; seize the day.” That was the basis of Professor Keating’s philosophy in life. It was a romantic philosophy. He wanted his students to learn “to contribute a meaningful verse, so that when it came time for them to die, they would not “discover