Carpe Diem: A Midsummer's Night Dream

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Carpe Diem! An English professor begins his senior student’s last year of high school english with this simple phrase. In most cases a brand new professor’s views on life would affect a group of arrogant and emotional teenagers, but John Keating had a certain charisma that convinces them to listen. Through months of life lessons and unconventional classwork, Mr.Keating manages to give some, such as Neil Perry, Charlie Dalton, and Todd Anderson, a whole new perspective on the world around them. Others, like Richard Cameron, do not heed his advice and continue life without his wisdom. Mr.Keating gave his class a bone full of knowledge, and only a few chose to suck it out. Mr.Keating’s Teachings greatly impact many students, but Neil Perry uses …show more content…

He participates in a multitude of extracurricular activities, but must drop out of one of his them due to his father’s will. At this point, Neil does not know what he wants in life. He only knows that he does not want to go through with his father’s plan. Through the lessons of Mr.Keating, Neil became a fervent follower of the phrase Carpe Diem. Soon after his introduction to the phrase, Neil discovers that auditions will take place for A Midsummer’s Night Dream. As soon as he found this, he became very ecstatic. With the help of his new found phrase, Neil found the courage to forge a letter so that he could participate in the play. He would have never done this if he had not heard the teachings. This makes it seem as if it made Neil into a whole new person, but Neil only became more dishonest.. In both the beginning and the end, Neil does not stand up to his …show more content…

Todd begins as a shy boy and the expectations people have of him torment him. He has a tremendous amount of talent but he does not want to use it. Mr.Keating gets Todd to demonstrate his literary talent by forcing him to describe a picture of Uncle Walt hanging on the wall. Todd slowly begins to open up at this point. Through most of the semester, Todd remains fairly quiet, but he begins to get involved more. One example of this includes his going to the meetings of the dead poets society after refusing to attend a single study group. Todd also becomes more courageous due to difficult events he encounters. Todd begins to stand up for Mr.Keating when Cameron blames him for the situation caused because of Neil’s death. Todd also speaks out and takes a stand, literally and metaphorically, when he gets on his desk and calls Mr.Keating his captain during class. Todd felt a strong sense of loyalty to the man who showed him that he had

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