Dead Poets Society – Questions
Together with your partner, work out answers to the following questions. Write down the answers and be prepared to talk about them:
1. What are the four "Pillars" of the Welton Academy?
2. There is much added pressure on students who attend prestigious schools like Welton. Name two aspects of education at Welton that are different from your experience at school.
3. What does the Latin term "Carpe Diem" mean?
4. What is the goal of Mr. Keating’s teaching?
5. What happened at meetings of the Dead Poets’ Society?
6. What is the purpose of language according to the movie?
7. Why does Mr. Keating stand on his desk?
8. What does Neil decide he really wants to do?
9. What is a yawp?
10. What does Todd get for his birthday? What happens to it?
11. What happens to Knox at the party?
12. Who is Nuwanda?
13. What does Charlie do to get the boys in trouble?
14. What are the consequences of his action?
15. What problem does Neil face the day before the play?
16. What advice does Mr. Keating give Neil?
17. How does Knox seize his day?
18. Does Neil have a talk with his father? If so, what is the result of that talk?
19. Why can’t Neil express what he really wants to do in life to his father?
20. What does the boys’ final statement tell Mr. Keating?
21. How has Todd’s character changed in the course of the film?
22. What is the theme of this film?
23. What can you do to "suck the marrow out of life?"
24. Would Neill still have committed suicide if Mr. Keating had never come into his life?
25. Why exactly did Neil take his own life?
26. Could Neil have found another way out of his trouble? Was suicide his only answer?
27. With similarly terrible parents as Neil’s, why didn’t Todd take the same way out?
28. Did Keating put the poetry book into Neil’s room? Why?
30. DPS…the next day. What happens next? What does the future hold for Keating and the boys?
31.Who was really to blame for Neil’s death?