"Sucking the Marrow out of Life"
Dead Poets Society is awesome, but needs a warning
*Note: This post will discuss suicide. Please read with caution*
“We could watch Dead Poets Society!” I told the Krystal Wife as I scrolled past tons of movies, trying to figure out which one hit the spot on this fall evening.
“Is that the one with the smart janitor guy?” She asked, referencing Good Will Hunting.
“No, but this does have Robin Williams and similar vibes.”
“Okay, let’s do it.”
And so we started the movie. And twenty minutes in my wife asks, “Why do you like this movie?”
“Just you wait!” I said in response.
Today we are going to examine some main events in the movie, “Dead Poets Society” and see what we can learn from it.
The movie follows a group of male students at an all-male boarding school in the late fifties while they are being introduced to their new English teacher, Mr. Keating, played by Robin Williams. The movie is about poetry. And poems. And literature. And changing your perspective on things. Mr. Keating certainly keeps things interesting. On the first day of class he takes them out to look at pictures of previous years’ students and he tells them, “You can hear them whispering through the glass, carpe diem.” Which means, “seize the day”. Effectively, he is telling his young students, “You’re only going to be this young once, you’ll never be as young as you are now. Take advantage of it.”
Later, the boys find him in an old year book and it says he ran the ‘Dead Poets Society’. Curious, they asked him about it. He explained to them how it was a group of students who wanted to live by the words of Henry David Thoreau, by “Sucking the marrow out of life”.
The boys then restart the old club and begin meeting late at night to read poetry and discuss real life, instead of always conforming to what society and their parents expect of them. One of the boys pushes it too far by publishing an article about girls being enrolled in the school. When the principal addresses it in an all-school assembly, a phone starts ringing and that same individual ‘answers’ the phone and says to the principal, “It’s for you. It’s God. He says you should let girls into the school.”
He gets punished for this action. When Mr. Keating confronts him on it, he says to his teacher, “I thought you’d like that: seize the day! sucking the marrow out of life and all that.” But Mr. Keating replies, “Sucking the marrow out of life doesn’t mean choking on the bone. One must be cautious and daring, and a wise man knows the difference between the two.”
So the audience experiences one example of taking the whole thing too far. Keating was trying to inspire his students: live life! Don’t just do repetitive actions over and over again - there isn’t much life to that. But what this student did was too far: he questioned authority to the point of being blatantly disrespectful. It is one thing to question tradition, but another thing entirely to spit in its face without due vigilance.
Next we have a student who auditions for a play, knowing his father, a stricter than strict authoritarian, would never allow it. His father finds out about the play and demands his son quit. He doesn’t. He expects his father to be in Chicago, far away, the night of the play so he could do it without his knowing about it. But his father shows up. He’s a really good actor, too. But his dad can’t see that. All he sees is a child1 defying him endlessly. After the play, he takes his son home and reprimands him. He pulls him out of the school to send him to a military academy. Neil stands up and says, “I must tell you how I feel.” His dad’s response is, “Tell me then.” But Neil sits down. He can’t bring himself to confront his father on this issue. His dad had a plan for him to go to medical school to become a doctor, not to chase some the dream of becoming an actor. Neil didn’t want that. But he didn’t want to disappoint his father, either. Instead, that night after his parents go to sleep he sneaks into his father’s office and uses his dad’s revolver to kill himself.
It’s easy for someone in the audience to blame the school for being too authoritarian and not letting anyone have autonomy. It’s even easier to blame his dad for controlling every aspect of his son’s life. And you could just as easily blame his mom, who was unable to stand up for her son to let him speak. She just sat there during all the reprimanding. It’s easier to go full anti-authority on the whole thing. That was the result of Mr. Keating’s teaching, but I don’t think it was the purpose.
Mr. Keating was inspiring his students to pursue noble things, but also to find beauty in life. To fulfill their duty while simultaneously live a life they would cherish. Mr. Keating was trying to convey to his students the same thing Viktor Frankl said, “Liberty must be lived in terms of responsibility.”
It was tragic when Neil took his life. He tried to ‘suck the marrow out of life’, but he also choked on the bone. A bone he didn’t have to swallow. He was an exceptional and responsible student, as seen throughout the movie. But he didn’t have the courage to stand up to his dad. It was easier to take his own life than disappoint his father.
Dead Poets Society is a really good, inspiring movie. It has an anti-authoritarian message, which is good, but it should not be taken as an anti-authority message. Life is easiest and best lived after your duties and responsibilities have been fulfilled, which includes standing up for the things you believe in. Authority helps keep us in line, with a good amount of flex and push back to keep both parties in check.
not his son. Not Neil. A child.