The ideas behind romanticism and transcendentalism are those that state everyone is their own person. Transcendentalists believe that human emotion and freedom plays a very important role in ones life. Dead Poets Society makes examples of many of these beliefs and they affect many of the characters by changing the way they think about things and the way they view the world.
             Mr. Keating, the boys' English teacher, opens the world of transcendentalism to the boys by telling them to rip out the introduction of their literature books. This shows them that they have freedom. Throughout the movie, he shows them not to rely on the thoughts of their professors and the ideas of others, but to think for yourself and do everything your own way. In the end this is bad for Mr. Keating because it is concluded that he was the one to cause the suicide of Neil Perry.
             The teaching of Mr. Keating to Todd Anderson proves to be invaluable to him in the end. At the start of the movie Todd is a very shy boy and Mr. Keating proclaims "Todd thinks he is worthless". But through Mr. Keating and the Dead Poet Society meetings, Todd becomes much more comfortable with himself and is able to be the one to speak out to Mr. Keating and tell him that they were forced to sign the accusation to take ihs position away from him.
             Knox Overstreet is affected by these teachings both positively and negatively, but in the end it winds up as a positive experience. In Mr. Keating's first class, he introduces the phrase "carpe diem" to the boys. This means seize the day in Latin. Knox meets a girl named Chris and is determined to get her to like him. So he is invited to a party she's at and kisses her while she's sleeping on the couch. Her boyfriend sees this and beats the living daylights out of Knox. The good that comes from the teaching is that he learns to thinks for himself and not let anyone else makes him confor...