Dead Poets Society: The Welton Way

In the Dead Poets Society, there are two conflicting educational methods: the “Welton way” and the “Keating way.” Under Welton’s methods, the individual student is restrained. Welton teaches their student to blindly obey every piece of information thrown at them. Their students are taught to regurgitate information, not chew on it, swallow it, or spit it out. The students are not taught to be individuals but instead are forced to fit the exact same mold of straight A’s to Ivy League colleges to wealthy career paths. Keating, however, wants his students to think for themselves; they should ask questions and experience life because they only get one to live. Keating’s teachings enthrall his student, Neil Perry, who takes Keating’s torch and runs
Keating does not. Mr. Keating pushes his students out of their normal school environments to teach his students how to unlearn their blind obedience and to think for themselves. Keating embodies the Romantic ideas of independent thinking and experiencing life. These Romantic thoughts make a very big impression on one of Keating’s students: Neil Perry. Neil Perry embodies many aspects of a Romantic hero because he has an admiration for imagination and living life. He loves the idea that Keating’s Dead Poets Society existed outside of Welton and that it emphasized living life, not just hearing about it. So, Neil restarts the Dead Poets Society and claims himself the leader. He calls his friends to come with him and they start to read the real poets works, not just the poetry limited with in Welton’s walls. They read about love, sorrow, and legends, and expand that small section dedicated to the Romantics in their poetry textbooks. Additionally, like other Romantic heroes, Neil ultimately rejects the authority around him. Neil restarts the Society knowing that if Welton found out, he would be expelled. He also auditions for the play without his father’s permission and even forges a letter of permission from his father. Neil is also a misunderstood young man in revolt against his surroundings. Unlike the students at Welton who are content with following the career paths their parents have laid out for them, Neil really
The school needs someone to blame for Neil’s suicide because they need to keep Welton’s reputation intact. As many would have guessed, Mr. Keating becomes the scapegoat. Yet, there is a case to be made that Neil’s father, not Mr. Keating, is responsible for Neil’s death. Neil’s father does care for his son, but he cares about his personal image more. Mr. Neil has a very big concern for his own pride and reputation, not his son’s own ambitions and experiences: he wants a mini-me, not an unique son. When Neil reprimands his father in front of Neil’s friends, his father immediately commands him never embarrass him like that again. Again, when Neil doesn’t ask permission to audition for the play, he is more angry at the fact that Neil made him sound like a liar in front of Neil’s friends mother. From this constant pressure to make his father look good, Mr. Perry immediately casts his son under his shadow and represses Neil into someone he isn’t. Additionally, Mr. Perry has basically planned out his son’s life. He makes Neil quit some of his extracurriculars, like writing for The Annual newspaper, so he can do more work that will prepare him to be a doctor, and when Neil finally says he doesn’t want to be a doctor, Mr. Perry says Neil is going to military school because he won’t obey the plan set for his life. This consistent pressure, represent, and scrutinization causes Neil to finally say enough, and pull the trigger,