He comes into Barrett's classroom and goes on a rant and flips out and then is seen leaving the school. Did he quit his teaching job or something? He seems to disappear for the rest of the movie after that. I only saw the last half of the movie so is there something from earlier in the movie that ties into this?
shareWithout seeing the first half of the movie, his rant and his character as a whole must make no sense (actually, most of the movie must make no sense...who watches only the second half of a movie?!) With 30 minutes left, he does disappear after his tirade. Since he is shown physically leaving the school, I think it is safe to assume he quit.
Interestingly enough, there is a "goof" listed on imdb that he calls Sandy Dennis "Miss Dennis" toward the end of the movie. As you've just seen, he is nowhere to be seen anywhere near the end of the movie. And in that last scene he is in, he clearly calls her "Miss Barrett." I've just attempted to remove the goof, but I thought it was ironic that right after I did that you mentioned he disappears after the rant, which is true.
It was on TV that's why I didn't see the first half. I started watching when that poor girl sent him the love note and he started correcting it in front of her. I thought maybe because what happened to her afterwards could be a reason why he flipped out but that didn't make sense because he seemed unsympethetic as to what happened to her. I guess I'll just have to rent it so it will make more sense to me.
shareThough that outburst in Miss Barrett's class may well have gotten him dismissed anyway, I think he quit.
The outburst, possibly fueled by alcohol, was a way of expressing his contempt of the students and his irritation at them for not wanting to really learn. Remember ( for those that saw the whole movie ) he earlier made derisive statements about the students while mocking Miss Barrett's suggestion box idea by reading some suggestions. He basically said that nothing matters to them. "What's it to them? What opinions can they have?...."
The meltdown in the classroom was him being brutally frank to them at what he saw as an overly apathetic attitude they had toward English/Literature, and how he thought they used their poor economic status as an excuse not to care of such things, or at least not be able to relate.
He just basically reached the point where he thought that it was hopeless to make them care about learning anymore.
I'm not agreeing with him, but given his persona, it would seem to be a good explanation of his behavior.
I think Barringer's first love was writing, not teaching. I expect he had come to feel that he was trapped in, what to him, was a dead-end job. Too bad it took a traumatic event (Alice leaping from his classroom window,) before he could summon the wherewithal to escape. While Sylvia was a born teacher, he was not, so it's good he walked out. Whether he became a successful writer or ended up driving a taxi the rest of his life, he was free of the shackles he had been wearing. The point is, Paul didn't want to live vicariously through his students; he wanted to live life for himself, but he couldn't do that standing in front of a chalkboard.
shareI have always took that scene to show that he has quit. I think he is racked with guilt/remorse by how he treated the girl. He (as we've seen throughout the film)has long since lost his passion for teaching; he has given up trying to reach the bad students and just goes through the motions.
Go to bed Frank or this is going to get ugly .