Society The Four Pillars of Welton Academy The four pillars of Welton Academy are Tradition, Honor, Discipline and excellence and through them the school conveys exactly what it wants of its students.

As Headmaster Nolan begins his speech welcoming students to Welton, he instructs the boys to light candles. These candles represent the “light of knowledge” that Welton will spark inside of them. Candles and light are frequently used as symbols for enlightenment; they bring illumination to dark places.

Standing on the Desk Symbol Analysis In John Keating’s first and last scenes in the book, characters stand on desks in his classroom: in his first scene, he stands on the desk, and in the final scene, his students do—an apt symbol for how Keating passes on his own spirit and wisdom to his young disciples.

The tune that Keating whistles is Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. He whistles this tune one the first day of class to lead the students out of the classroom, and before he tells them of the Dead Poets Society.

Why does he have them rip pages out of their books? Mr. Keating says to read poetry because we are the human race and humans are full of passion, so poetry is Passion. He tells them to rip out the pages to keep on the concept of them thinking for themselves.

I see before me. Throw me a dagger! is like a dagger. This is no ordinary dagger.

The four pillars of Welton Academy are the following: tradition, honor, discipline, and excellence.

Just check out the four pillars of Welton—”Tradition,” “Discipline,” “Honor” and “Excellence”—as they march toward the screen on flags in one of the early shots of the film.

Oh Captain, my Captain

Keating says, “I stand upon my desk to remind yourself that we must constantly look at things in a different way.” It’s so easy and comfortable to follow the crowd.

He is assigned one of Welton’s most promising students, Neil Perry, as his roommate and meets Neil’s friends: Knox Overstreet, Richard Cameron, Steven Meeks, Gerard Pitts, and Charlie Dalton. On the first day of classes, they are surprised by the unorthodox teaching methods of the new English teacher, John Keating.

John Keating is the charismatic, energetic English teacher who inspires the students of Welton Academy to rebel against their families and other teachers.

John Charles Keating

John Keating: We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life.

Mr. Keating’s philosophy was different from the other teachers because he was teaching them to think for themselves, follow their dreams, and live the lives they want to live. Mr. Keating taught them about individuality and individual perspective.

Keating are three of the most important characters in the film “Dead Poets Society.” Todd Anderson is the character that we see undergo the most change during the course of the movie. Upon entering Welton Academy, he already must live up to the reputation of his older brother, who was the valedictorian of his class.

Perry wants him to go to study medicine because “he knows what´s best for him”.. The other major conflict is between Mr. Keating and the rest of the school board, Mr. Keating´s unorthodox way of teaching is not appreciated by the other teachers.