Timothy O'Neill: Difference between revisions

Line 20:

[[Image:O'Neill_ohno!.jpg|thumb|left|250px|O'Neill, showing his 'wants to cry' face]]

Mr. O'Neill primarily teaches English (at Lawndale it is called "Language Arts") and also teaches an after-school course on Self Esteem, at which [[Daria Morgendorffer]] and [[Jane Lane]] meet. [[The Daria Diaries]] also have him teaching Drama ("Dramatic Horizons") and present English and Language Arts as separate subjects. He is shown to be well aware of a vast swathe of classic and seminal ~~20th century~~ literature, such as [[Fair Enough|Canterbury Tales]], War and Peace, [[This Year's Model|Walden]], [[Write Where It Hurts|The Dharma Bums, Breakfast of Champions]], and [[Daria's Inferno|Dante's Inferno]], and uses them in his class ~~- however~~, his ''grasp'' of the literature and their meaning seems suspect: in "[[Fair Enough]]", he asked the class why Tolstoy made War and Peace "so darn unpleasant" (and seemed thought-provoked when Daria joked it was so nobody would want a sequel).

Mr. O'Neill primarily teaches English (at Lawndale it is called "Language Arts") and also teaches an after-school course on Self Esteem, at which [[Daria Morgendorffer]] and [[Jane Lane]] meet. [[The Daria Diaries]] also have him teaching Drama ("Dramatic Horizons") and present English and Language Arts as separate subjects. He is shown to be well aware of a vast swathe of classic and seminal literature, such as [[Fair Enough|Canterbury Tales]], War and Peace, [[This Year's Model|Walden]], [[Write Where It Hurts|The Dharma Bums, Breakfast of Champions]], and [[Daria's Inferno|Dante's Inferno]], and uses them in his class. However, his ''grasp'' of the literature and their meaning seems suspect: in "[[Fair Enough]]", he asked the class why Tolstoy made War and Peace "so darn unpleasant" (and seemed thought-provoked when Daria joked it was so nobody would want a sequel).

Mr. O'Neill was gentle, soft spoken and ludicrously sensitive, very in touch with his emotions but incapable of controlling them. His English assignments were often ill-disguised attempts to get his students to express personal pain or experiences, and he himself would often cry in class. His ability to perform such simple tasks as remembering his own students' names was come and go at best during the first season. During the summer holidays, he ran the disastrous [[Okay To Cry Corral]].

⚫

In "[[Cafe Disaffecto]]", he said he identified with Daria's essay about "being a big misfit whom everyone hates" and "[[The Daria Diaries]]" have him say he identifies with Daria (see below). This implies interesting things about his childhood days.

His teaching beliefs, according to "[[Quinn the Brain]]", are that any student can achieve academically if their imagination and interest are engaged, and he clearly attempts to do this - he just proves unable to pull it off. When a problem student ''has'' improved in class, he has been known to 'reward' this by displaying the student or their new work to the school... which mortifies the student in question. ("[[Esteemsters]]", "[[Quinn the Brain]]")

One interesting tidbit in "The Daria Diaries" is that Daria reminds him "of myself at a young age, before I discovered Gestalt and the writings of M. Scott Peck". He doesn't specify what this means, but it comes after he says he believes Daria has deep rooted issues and is detached from people. It's possible that the younger O'Neill had problems with loneliness.

In "[[Fair Enough]]", for the first and only time he snapped at a student who was acting up ([[Brittany Taylor]]) to get them to pay attention, but immediately went back to his usual style after he'd got their attention. Later, when Kevin never turned up, O'Neill showed a brief glimpse of anger in referring to him as "sabotaging our play".

Line 37:

Line 33:

O'Neill suffers from an allergy to pollen, and carries an inhaler ("[[Antisocial Climbers]]").

⚫

In "[[Cafe Disaffecto]]", he said he identified with Daria's essay about "being a big misfit whom everyone hates" and "[[The Daria Diaries]]" have him say he identifies with Daria (see below). This implies interesting things about his childhood days. We learn more in "The Daria Diaries" when he says Daria reminds him "of myself at a young age, before I discovered Gestalt and the writings of M. Scott Peck". He doesn't specify what this means, but it comes after he says he believes Daria has deep rooted issues and is detached from people. It's possible that the younger O'Neill had problems with loneliness.

The series finale/made-for-TV movie, ''[[Is It College Yet?]],'' featured O'Neill accidentally becoming engaged to Ms. Barch, and being coached by Mr. DeMartino on how to break off the relationship. The results are amusing.