Poetry, Perfidy, and Passion

Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network 

Books, Ballads, and B-Roll

Poetry, Perfidy, and Passion

Episode #6

You are listening to Books, Ballads, and B-roll the podcast with your hosts Bee and Alastair.

In this episode, we will discuss three different media that incorporate poetry. Just a warning: this episode will deal with themes of suicide, mental health struggles, and violence, as well as events that may be upsetting or fraught. 

Segment 1: The Dead Poets’ Society

Another warning: this discussion contains spoilers. If you haven’t seen the movie, we greatly recommend it, although it’s a heavy watch!! 

The Dead Poets’ Society, directed by Peter Weir and written by Tom Shulman, came out in 1989, but the movie is set in 1959. It’s set at an all-male boarding school in Vermont called Welton Academy and centers around two students, Neil Perry and Todd Anderson, who have been assigned each other’s roommates. Neil is confident, outgoing, and charismatic, but hampered by an extremely strict father who seems more concerned with his son’s academic and financial success in life than his happiness and wellbeing. Todd is more shy and has trouble speaking in front of groups, but he starts coming out of his shell with the help of Neil’s firm friendship and the encouragement of their new English teacher, John Keating (played by the renowned Robin Williams). Keating surprises the class with unorthodox teaching methods that prioritize creativity and independent thinking over memorization of facts, and he instills a new appreciation for poetry in them that prompts Neil and several of his friends to found a group called the Dead Poets’ Society. Under the cover of night, the friends meet in a secluded cave in the woods beside the Welton campus, and read poems aloud. Keating and the club encourage them all to live their lives on their own terms. Todd starts writing poetry of his own, and Neil discovers his love of acting and successfully auditions for the role of Puck in a local production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. However, things take a turn for the worse when Neil is confronted by his father’s disapproval of his participation in the play, wanting him to prioritize the career in medicine already planned out for him. Mr. Keating advises Neil to convince his father how important acting is to him, and he successfully persuades his father to let him stay in the play. However, his father unexpectedly shows up to watch the performance and disapproves of it even more as a result; immediately after, he angrily tells Neil he’ll be disenrolled from Welton and put in a military academy, and will no longer be permitted to act. Neil is devastated, unable to express his feelings to his father, and receiving no support from his mother. That night, feeling extremely trapped and distraught, he ends up taking his life.

• We talk about societal constraints and hierarchies, how they often crush the individuality of those they claim to uplift, and how this relates...