How the Boys Thought in Dead Poets Society

‘Dead Poets' Society conveys strongly the theme of romanticism versus realism. When Mr Keating first teaches the boys, he tells them to ‘seize the day' as one day they will all die. He is a romantic, and he influences the boys to express their own romanticism by teaching them the works of great romantic poets. Neil, Knox and Nwanda are all romantics and they never change throughout the film, and Cameron is always a realist, whereas the character of Todd is a dynamic character who changes through the film from realism to ‘anti-romantic romanticism', controlling his passions.

Neil sees himself as someone else (e.g. the role of Puck), as opposed to the act that he is playing everyday. He is trying to please his father, and he even lies to Mr Keating about his father. Apart from acting, his newfound passion, Neil felt he had nothing to contribute to life – he looked like he was in control in front of his friends, but really he was just as lost as his roommate Todd, because he had no control over anything. He couldn't deal with the thought of giving up acting, and so he took his own life to escape the reality of his situation. Neil was doomed from the time he said to Todd when discussing acting, "can't I just enjoy the idea for a while?", meaning that he knew he would never really be able to live that life he wanted because he was trapped in to control of his father.

Knox's understanding of ‘seize the day' was to throw his whole life and everything he did (thoughts, behaviour, poetry) into romanticism and his obsession with a girl – Chris – a girl he didn't really know. His behaviour was purely based on what he perceived of her and what he had to do in order to get her as his girlfriend. Knox's romanticism works out for him in the end, but the audience is unsure of how the relationship will turn out. Unlike Neil and his father, Knox had no real authoritive figure standing in the way, except perhaps Chris's current boyfriend who was never really a particularly strong figure. This made circumstances for Knox easier, despite his situation being quite similar to Neil's as he was hanging his whole life on one important thing.

Nwanda (originally Charles) is an attention seeker which is shown by his ‘witty' comments to Mr Keating and his bossing people around. When he changes his name to ‘Nwanda', he develops for himself a new identity. He seems to do everything in order to draw attention to himself without thinking about the consequences, thus indulging in too much romanticism. This is evident when he punches Cameron, thinking that he will have been expelled from school anyway. ‘Seize the day' to him meant putting everything into moments of passion without thinking