Whitman & Williams

         Despite the fact that it might be absurd to relate these two men, I have to say that there is some kind of linkage between them. Even though one is the famous american poet discussed and analyzed in class and the other is a famous american actor, actually they do not have anything more in common than nationality and what I am about to write. To my mind, this linkage it is an interesting coincidence.

        First, the character of Robin Williams in Dead poets society (1989) is a teacher who quotes Whitman and his poem O Me! O Life! (which seems to be easily related with students - real life students - life.Check this "comic" made with Whitman's poem O Me! O Life! which for the sake of space I left it as a link. click here)

        Second, before quoting Whitman he explain to his students the reason why we read and write poetry. He says: 

"We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering - these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love - these are what we stay alive for". 

(Thinkexist.com Quotations)

  Here is the link of the scene where he quotes Whitman and says the lines written above :

       You may have noticed that I highlighted in the previous quote “we are members of the human race”, which reminds me the idea of unity and democracy that Whitman put in his poems, his view of life that we are all connected and united.

       Third, the students in the same movie quote Whitman again: O Captain! My Captain! – an elegy for the president Abraham Lincoln (The Encyclopædia Britannica, 2013).

        Fourth, and also along the lines of the second idea, Williams was the protagonist of the movie Patch Adams (1998), a movie that attempts to tell the true story of Hunter “Patch” Adams, a doctor that became famous because of this movie and his revolutionary “laughter therapy” which he backs up with scientific facts. Well, Patch (in the movie), realizes that the solution for so many people suffering because of the medical expenses is to create a free hospital (Gesundheit! Institute – which really exists since 1978). When he suddenly came up with the idea, he goes to see his friend Karin, and dictates the vision of the hospital which develops in a dialogue with Karin as follows (I could not find the isolated scene so I copied the movie script):

Patch: “It'll be the first fun hospital in the world. It'll be a totally free-form building.It'll have, like, slides and secret passageways and game rooms”.

 Karin: “Slow down. I can't write that fast”.

Patch: “I can't slow down. We'll use humor to heal pain and suffering. Doctors and patients will work side-by-side as peers. There'll be no titles, no bosses. People will come from all over the world to fulfill their dream of helping other people. They'll be a community where joy is a way of life...where learning is the highest aim, where love is the ultimate goal.”

 Well, we saw in one of our classes Whitman's strong democratic belief, which is evident in Song of Myself, and here it is an extract from stanza n°19 of the poem, to compare with the Patch Adams movie scene:

 19.

This is the meal equally set, this the meat for natural hunger,

It is for the wicked just the same as the righteous, I make appointments with all,

I will not have a single person slighted or left away,

The kept-woman, sponger, thief, are hereby invited,

The heavy-lipp’d slave is invited, the venerealee is invited;

There shall be no difference between them and the rest.

(Whitman, 1892)

  


Particularly that speech of Patch in the movie, reflects what I understood by the democratic belief of Whitman, the fact that everything is connected and nothing is superior than other things or anyone superior than anybody. 

Finally and just for the sake of looking for coincidences, both Whitman’s and Williams’ lastnames start with “W”. Not a relevant or important fact but it works for the sake of this post just as these two images...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Have you ever thought about this? Can you see aspects of Whitman's poetry or ideology in other movies or perhaps a movie character?

 

 

 

References

The Encyclopædia Britannica. (2013, 10 6). http://global.britannica.com/. Retrieved from http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1315184/O-Captain-My-Captain

Thinkexist.com Quotations. (n.d.). thinkexist.com. Retrieved September 2, 2014, from http://thinkexist.com/quotation/we_don-t_read_and_write_poetry_because_it-s_cute/340521.html

Whitman, W. (1892). Song of Myself. Retrieved from The Walt Whitman Archive: http://www.whitmanarchive.org/criticism/current/pdf/anc.01051.pdf