Puritan and Romantic Literary Consciousness: Term Paper

Thus he becomes, much like the title sailor of Herman Melville's Billy Budd, a figure who is martyred as a result of intolerance. Budd draws the ire of the captain of his ship because he is attractive and charismatic in a way that defines conventional maritime rules and conventions. Budd is literally hung out to dry upon a mast, while Williams is only symbolically strung up -- but the kind of hatred of the new that both figures call upon is the same impulse depicted in both Romantic texts, of the film and the novella. "Oh captain, my captain," say the boys, overcoming the natural timidity all of them feel, as they jump up upon their desks in a show of support. By uniting in common bonds, forming a solidarity of purpose and ideological unity against tradition and by using Whitman's words to embody their lives, they demonstrate a true Romantic spirit -- art is in life, not learning about life through analysis, charts, and dusty pages.

The setting of an American preparatory school in New England seems uniquely appropriate for a screenwriter to inveigh against the type of ideals that New England authors such as Melville, Hawthorne, and Emerson all wrote against.Passion, real life religious experience, and ability to find martyrs in real life, as well as the ability to find religious worth in pleasure and appreciating nature were all ideas that Puritans disapproved of. The Puritan stress upon predetermination and fate suggested that spontaneous appreciation was to be distrusted, and the idea that nature was good, rather than potentially carnal ("It's God calling and he wants girls to be admitted," notes one student, during an assembly, and is promptly expelled) is something denied by the leadership of the prep school and the authorities Emerson and Melville wrote against in their works.

Works Cited

Dead Poets Society." (1989) Starring Robin Williams. Directed by Peter Weir.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Nature."1839. Full text available 11 Jan 2005 at Oregon State English Department Website. http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/emerson/nature-emerson-a.html#ChapterI

Melville, Herman. Billy Budd. Full text available 11 Jan 2005 at University of Virginia Crossroads, English Department Website. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/bb/bb_main.html.....