Who writes for this site?
AntiRomantic.com was created by K.M. Baker and Jessica See back in the late 90s when we were college students writing papers for classes. Jess now teaches at Harrisburg University.
What is the purpose of the site?
The purpose of this site is to present a series of essays describing character behavior in the movie Dead Poets Society. We argue that Todd Anderson is the main “dynamic” character; that Neil, Nwanda, and Knox are symbolic of what romanticism is; and that Neil’s father, the school, and Cameron are symbolic of realism.
We hope this page will make you think about whether or not the movie truly embraces the “Carpe diem” philosophy of romanticism. I personally believe the true philosophy of “Carpe Diem” in the movie stems not from a romantic view, but from an existentialist view. I chose to describe it from a romantic point of view because I believe the movie constantly combats romanticism with realism, & existentialism isn’t really touched upon.
(I do, however, think Peter Weir did an excellent job with the Truman Show by portraying “Carpe Diem” in an existentialist philosophy. I personally think that movie is much more thought provoking than DPS, and emphasizes to a greater extent, living life to the fullest instead of limiting yourself to a minimal existence. Of course, the movie also is the ultimate case of paranoia which was actually real; it was a leap of faith to discover truth rather than accept deception; it was a play on the power of the media, and what people will do for money; and it gave a picture of what God may be like. I could go on and on…)
Can I use this site as a source for my paper?
Yes, by all means. We’ve licensed the work under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, so feel free to share and adapt the contents as long as you give us appropriate credit.
Can you recommend other Dead Poets Society sites?
Sure, here are a few:
How often do you publish articles?
Honestly, we rarely publish anything on this website. Jess and I wrote this page almost 10 years ago now and we’ve said pretty much all we ever wanted to say and then some. I leave this site up because once, I took it down for a year and a professor went to great lengths to contact me about putting it back up.