Dearly beloved
After the costumes have been put away and the candies have been eaten, it’s time to bring out the candles, the banigs, and the baon and head for the cemeteries to honor our dearly beloved. We ponder the lives they lived and the effect they had on our own. As I prepared for my own visit to the cemetery this year, I began to mull over the upsetting deaths of some movie and TV characters and wondered what effect these deaths have had on me through pop culture. Indeed, their fictional passing has changed many plots and happy endings.
Neil Perry (played by Robert Sean Leonard in Dead Poets Society) Fearless, spirited and all-around nice guy, Neil Perry was the student who got the idea to revive the Dead Poets Society, the underground literary club which his non-conformist teacher John Keating (played by the charismatic Robin Williams) had been a part of years before. I was probably around six or seven years old when I first watched the movie on laser disc, and I was absolutely enthralled as he and his classmates snuck out of their stuffy boarding school to read poetry.
The moving words of Whitman and Thoreau inspire the young students to break the shackles of conformity and find their true passions in life. For Neil, it was acting, a choice that didn’t sit well with his father, who wanted him to become a doctor. Nevertheless, Neil joined the cast of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We all panicked when we saw his father’s steely gaze from the back of the auditorium, and when he declared he was putting Neil in military school, we all felt defeated. Yet we were shocked when Neil took his own life, and from then on, there was a gaping absence in the movie, an eerie silence of sadness. His death became the catalyst to Keating’s firing, but without it, we wouldn’t have had the famous last scene where the boys stand on their tables. Without it, carpe diem might have just been a fleeting lesson instead of a philosophy.
W.P. Inman (played by Jude Law in Cold Mountain) I read the book before watching the movie, so I knew what was going to happen at the end. It didn’t make it any less heartbreaking for me. I tried to ignore all the foreshadowing signs, the visions Ada (played by Nicole Kidman) had of Inman falling, and the dangerous conditions for a Confederate soldier during the American Civil War. I watched as Inman, the shy but passionate soldier, decided to desert the Confederate army and go home to his beloved Ada. It’s a long and hard journey for him, but my heart leapt when he finally found his way back to Cold Mountain. I almost forgot his fate as they rekindled their relationship and married one another, simply by saying “I marry you, I marry you, I marry you.”
When they ran into the Confederate home guard sent to hunt down deserters from the army, something in me was still hoping for a happy ending. But no — Inman gets shot, just like in Ada’s vision, and dies. I was absolutely infuriated — Inman left for the army not long after meeting Ada, and when they are finally together again, he dies. It seemed so unfair that Inman and Ada went through all that hardship apart and didn’t even get to be together, but in the end we realized (however grudgingly) that in love, it’s not about the length of time you spend together, but about its power, even if that sounds incredibly cheesy. Love can sustain you through the direst of situations and can fulfill you without length.
Thomas J. Sennet (played by Macaulay Culkin in My Girl) No explanation needed at all. I mean, who didn’t cry while watching My Girl? It might have been just another coming-of-age flick if not for this memorable passing and this unforgettable character. Through all her pre-pubescent and hypochondriac hang-ups, Thomas J. is a faithful friend to Vada (played by Anna Chlumsky). It seems so poetic — in his last deed as good friend (and maybe even hopeful admirer), Thomas J. goes to find Vada’s missing mood ring, one that she’ll be holding onto until My Girl 2, and the bees strike when he accidentally kicks the hive.
Marissa Cooper (played by Mischa Barton in The O.C.) Ask all of my friends, and they will tell you (while rolling their eyes and laughing, probably) that I still haven’t gotten over this. I watched The O.C.’s third season finale before studying for my economics finals and, needless to say, I couldn’t stop crying afterwards and wasn’t able to study at all (I passed the exam, though). The sight of Marissa’s ex-boyfriend ramming his car into Ryan’s, causing it to roll over a cliff, Ryan pulling Marissa out before the car exploded, and Marissa slowly losing consciousness was too painful for me.
For me, it was the beginning of the end of The O.C., which was my favorite show after Dawson’s Creek. It wasn’t the same without the beautiful and troubled rich-girl-next-door who captured the new boy’s heart from the very beginning. (I mean, Ryan and Taylor?! Yuck!) But it eased me into letting the show go. I loved everything about the show, and as much as I would have liked it to run forever, it surely would have begun to suck. Growing up often means having to let some childhood (even teen-hood) things go.
