Neil Perry

Neil Perry was the child of Tom Perry and Mrs. Perry. He attended Welton Academy in 1959 and was the leader of the revitalized Dead Poets Society. Neil was seen to be outgoing and popular amongst his peers, but struggled with standing up to his father to achieve his dream of being an actor.

 

Biography
His parents wanted him to take his life seriously and force him into the medical field, but his connection with John Keating inspired them to pursue their dream of becoming an actor. His father’s harsh disregard of his emotions, feelings, dreams and goals led to Neil's suicide - causing his father to blame Keating for both “brainwashing” Neil and his death.

School-Background
Neil was part of the school newspaper's editing team, but was forced to drop the activity by his father. He was also an ambitious honors student, taking on summer school courses, like Chemistry, in addition to regular coursework to get ahead.

Personality
Neil Perry was an extroverted and passionate student. He was often seen joking around with classmates and friends. As expressed by Mr. Nolan, he was an honor student who took many extracurriculars, demonstrating his school smarts and adherence to the rules. Despite being in many extracurriculars, Neil did not care deeply about any of them, instead reveling in the feeling of being free to do things of his own choosing.

When hanging out with the Dead Poets Society, they were more eccentric and carefree. Once his father came around, Neil would straighten himself and become rigid. His voice would also crack and his smile fall. He is seen hiding his sadness plenty of times with a smile when their friends come back around, namely right after the first encounter with him and his father in Neil and Todd's dorm room.

While playing Puck in Henley Hall's production of Midsummer Night's Dream, Neil allowed himself to indulge in the more impish side of his personality while both acting and outside of it. He was seen to be more daring and careless. Despite that, he remained terrified of standing up to authority, namely his father, as shown when Charlie's prank almost led to the Dead Poets Society to discovered.

Tom Perry
The relationship between Tom Perry and his kid is a very strained one. At the beginning of the movie, Neil continuously bends to his father’s will. However, as the movie progresses, he begins to tentatively defy his father’s wishes by acting in the play. Then his father becomes enraged with him over his participation in the play and plans to enroll him in military school, Neil commits suicide, believing it is the only way he will be free from a future he doesn’t want. Mr. Perry believes that it was John Keating corrupting Neil with his unconventional teaching methods, and the school starts an investigation off of his beliefs, leading to Keating being fired.

Mrs. Perry
The movie does not explicitly outline their relationship. It appears that they both struggle to stand up to Mr. Perry, as his mother fails to say anything when Mr. Perry threatens to send Neil to military school.

Charlie Dalton
Charlie and Neil seemed to have been best friends, with a certain sense of familiarity indicating they have seemingly been close friends for a very long time. After Neil's death, Charlie seemed to act more irrationally, which caused their expulsion from Welton when they punched Uriah Heep in the face for selling out Keating to Mr. Nolan. He also seems to be visibly shaken by Neil’s death, as he had been clearly crying when he went to wake up Todd to tell him this news.

Todd Anderson
Since they were roommates, and they were roommates, and Todd was new to Welton, Neil found it important to include Todd in their conversations despite the latter being extremely shy. Todd was extremely reluctant to build a friendship with any of the Dead Poets Society members, yet Neil encouraged him to do so by finding ways to make Todd comfortable with the situation.

Neil always tried to inspire Todd to speak up for himself and compared him to Walt Whitman in regard to his sexuality. They rehearsed lines for the play together and often leaned against each other during conversations or Dead Poets Society meetings because they were in love.

Todd was the one of the two members of the Dead Poets Society that was affected the most by Neil's death this is because he was in love with Neil, He blamed Mr. Perry for Neil's death claiming that Neil loved Todd too much to take their own. Neil's death was one of the factors that helped Todd to finally speak for himself and defend Mr. Keating.

Trivia

 * Neil's desire has been to become an actor as one can see when he plays the part of Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, a play by William Shakespeare.
 * Mr. Perry mentions “having to pull a lot of strings” to get Neil into Welton. It is implied that the Perry family was not independent wealthy like Charlie, which might explain why Mr. Perry pressured Neil so hard in a certain direction.
 * Neil is very outspoken, but is unable to stand up to his father for the majority of the film
 * If you look closely at Mr. Perry's calendar on the desk of his office, the date is the 15th of December, revealing the date of Neil’s death.
 * Prior to the movies events, Neil tried to go to Summer Stock auditions but his father did not allow him too.
 * The movie was shot in chronological order. Peter Weir, the director, did not allow Robert on set after his suicide scene to make the actors feel like they were really losing and missing a friend.