Dead Poets Society

the floor where a mad Hermia, played by Ginny Danburry, crawled onto the stage, exhausted and wild-eyed.
    The director, a blond teacher in her forties, stopped Ginny as she started her lines and turned toward Neil. “Good, Neil,” she complimented. “I really get the feeling your Puck knows he’s in charge. Remember that he takes great delight in what he’s doing.”
    Neil nodded and repeated boldly and impishly: “ ‘Cupid is a knavish lad, thus to make poor females mad! ”
    “Excellent,” the director said with a smile. “Continue, Ginny.”
    Ginny crawled back onto the stage and started her lines:

    “Never so weary, never so in woe,
    Bedabbled with the dew, and torn with briers,
    I can no further crawl, no further go... ”

    The director gestured and pointed as the students ran through the scene several times.
    “See you tomorrow,” Neil called when they’d finally finished rehearsals for the day. He walked to the bike rack in the twilight, his eyes flashing and his face flushed from the thrill he got from acting. He rode back through the sleepy Vermont town to Welton Academy, repeating the lines he had practiced for the past two hours.
    Neil approached the Welton gates cautiously, making sure no one was around. He pumped up the hill to the dorm and parked his bike. As he started into the building, he spotted Todd huddled motionless on the stone wall.
    “Todd?” he called, walking over to get a better look. Todd sat shivering in the dark without a coat. “What’s going on?” Neil asked, staring at his roommate. Todd didn’t answer. “Todd, what’s the matter?” Neil said, sitting next to him on the wall. “It’s freezing out here!”
    “It’s my birthday,” Todd said flatly.
    “It is?” Neil said. “Why didn’t you tell me? Happy birthday! You get anything?”
    Except for his chattering teeth, Todd sat silent and still. He pointed to a box. Neil opened it to find the same monogrammed desk set Todd already had in the room.
    “This is your desk set,” Neil said. “I don’t get it.”
    “They gave me the exact same thing as last year!” Todd cried. “They didn’t even remember!”
    “Oh,” Neil said in a hushed tone.
    “Oh,” Todd mocked.
    “Well, maybe they thought you’d need another one. a new one,” Neil suggested after a long awkward pause. “Maybe they thought...”
    “Maybe they don’t think at all unless it’s about my brother!” Todd said angrily. “His birthday is always a big to-do.” He looked at the desk set and laughed. “The stupid thing is, I didn’t even like the first one!“
    “Look, Todd, you’re obviously underestimating the value of this desk set,” Neil said flippantly, trying to change the mood.
    “What?”
    “I mean,” Neil said and tried to smile. “This is one special gift! Who would want a football or a baseball bat or a car when they could get a desk set as wonderful as this one!”
    “Yeah!” Todd laughed, infected by Neil’s humor. “And just look at this ruler!”
    They laughed as they both looked at the desk set. By now it was pitch dark and cold. Neil shivered.
    “You know what Dad called me when I was growing up? ‘Five ninety-eight.’ That’s what all the chemicals in the human body would be worth if you bottled them raw’ and sold them. He told me that was all I’d ever be worth unless I worked every day to improve myself. Five ninety-eight.”
    Neil sighed and shook his head in disbelief. No wonder Todd is so screwed up, he thought.
    “When I was little,” Todd continued, “I thought all parents automatically loved their kids. That’s what my teachers told me. That’s what I read in the books they gave me. That’s what I believed. Well, my parents might have loved my brother, but they did not love me.”
    Todd stood, took a deep anguished breath, and walked into the dorm. Neil sat motionless on the freezing stone wall, groping for something to say. “Todd... ” he called lamely, as he ran in after his roommate.

    “Hey,” Cameron shouted as the boys started into Mr. Keating’s room the next afternoon. “There’s a note on the board to meet in the courtyard.”
    “I wonder what Mr. Keating is up to today.” Pitts grinned expectantly.
    The boys raced down the hall and out the door into the chilly courtyard. Mr. McAllister peered out from his classroom door, shaking his head in annoyance.
    “People,“ Keating said as the boys gathered around him. “A dangerous element of conformity has been