Caveat lector! Character sheets are littered with spoilers.
open/close all folders
Students
Neil Perry
"For the first time in my whole life, I know what I want to do. And for the first time, I'm going do it."
- Played by: Robert Sean Leonard
One of Keating's students who decides to restart the Dead Poets Society. He has a strained relationship with his controlling father.
- Abusive Parents: His dad's unrelenting expectations lead him to commit suicide.
- Ambiguously Gay: He and Todd are very, uh... close.
- Bad Liar: Mr. Keating is quick to see through his lies when he says his dad is okay with him acting.
- Big Man on Campus: Everyone adores him, and he's a talented actor as well as an excellent student.
- The B Grade: There'll be hell to pay from his father if he gets anything less than an A+ average.
- Broken Ace: He's bright, popular, sporty, in numerous clubs, Harvard-bound, and clearly the leader in his group of friends, yet he is trapped in a troubled relationship with his overbearing and controlling father and sees no way out.
- Bromance: With Todd. Despite Todd's shyness, they quickly bond, and end up the closest of the Poets.
- Bury Your Gays: He is only implied to be gay, but he is the only character who dies (he commits suicide).
- Cannot Spit It Out:
- Neil can never bring himself to tell his father how he feels; his father considers acting, or indeed anything that won't directly lead to getting into Harvard medical school, to be an off-limits activity.
- He can't even be honest with Mr. Keating when his teacher asks if he discussed the possibility of continuing acting with his father, and he's so ashamed of fibbing to Mr. Keating that he doesn't even listen to what Mr. Keating has to say, leaving Keating with a confused look on his face.
- The way his father responds doesn't help and indeed might be the reason why Neil can’t be honest with his father. Neil says to him "I've got to tell you how I feel", and he practically yells "What? What? Tell me what you feel! What is it? Is it more of this, this acting business? Because you can forget that! What?" That kind of behavior is unlikely to convince anyone to be honest with Mr. Perry.
- The Complainer Is Always Wrong: After his dad decides that Neil is doing too many extracurricular activities and needs to drop the school annual, they step outside the dorm room, where he quietly and firmly tells Neil that he won't tolerate any of his complaints, demanding unquestioning obedience to his wishes:Neil: But Father, I'm the assistant editor!
Mr. Perry: I'm sorry, Neil.
Neil: But, Father, it's not fair! I...- Later, at the Perrys' home:
Mr. Perry: Tomorrow I'm withdrawing you from Welton and enrolling you in Brighton Military School. You're going to Harvard, and you're gonna be a doctor.
Neil: But that's 10 more years, Father. Don't you see, that's a lifetime!
Mr. Perry: Oh, stop it! Don't be so dramatic! You make it sound like a prison term! You don't understand, Neil! You have opportunities that I never even dreamt of, and I am not going to let you waste them!
Neil: I've got to tell you what I feel!
Mrs. Perry: We've been so worried about you!
Mr. Perry: What? What? Tell me what you feel! What is it? Is it more of this, this acting business? Because you can forget that! What? - Compulsive Liar: In order to make it to the play auditions at Henley Hall, he makes the excuse of a dental appointment to cover up his playing hooky. In order to make the play, he types up a permission letter and forges his dad's signature. Later, after his dad gets wind of the scheme, he forces Neil to withdraw from the play. Neil is so dejected that he tells Keating his dad is letting him stay in the play and lies that his dad will be in Chicago for a business trip for the duration. After he's unenrolled from Welton, the relationship of trust between Neil and his dad has deteriorated so badly that his dad refuses to hear anything Neil has to say about his feelings or passions. Of course, Neil might not have felt compelled to lie if his father hadn’t been such a Control Freak.
- Decoy Protagonist: He's the focus student for much of the film, but after his death, it becomes apparent that the real protagonist is Todd.
- Driven to Suicide: After his father forbids him to perform in the theatre and forcibly withdraws him from Welton, he plays a lethal game of Russian Roulette.
- Extracurricular Enthusiast: His apparently large load of extracurricular activities is reduced when his dad consults with Dean Nolan and decides to have him discontinue working on the school annual, considering it to be extraneous and unnecessary.
- Forged Letter: He types one up and forges his father's signature to try out for A Midsummer Night's Dream at Henley Hall.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Neil is the Sanguine.
- Gayngst-Induced Suicide: Neil's Ambiguously Gay status makes him a possible victim of this trope when he commits suicide.
- I Die Free: After he's had his moment to shine on the stage, even if it was for just one night, he tells himself, "I was good, I was really good", before he pulls the trigger rather than face being sent to boot camp.
- Poor Communication Kills: After his father discovers his forged letter and forces him to quit the play, he lies to Keating about his father giving him permission, and Keating has a bit of a puzzled look on his face as he does. Once the rumors of Neil being in a play become true, the level of trust deteriorates between Neil and his dad. When Neil is withdrawn from Welton by his father, he can't even come up with another subject that isn't related to acting.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to Todd's Blue. He's much more passionate and ready to do things.
- School Clubs Are Serious Business: He pours all his soul into the community play.
- Stepford Smiler: He's miserable underneath his outgoing and cheerful personality. It makes his death all the more shocking.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Apart from his tendency to lie, he is otherwise, for the most part, one of the most pure-hearted characters in the film, which makes it incredibly tragic when he commits suicide to escape his extremely controlling and abusive father.
- Tragic Bromance: With Todd. Neil is immediately protective of Todd, and seemingly makes it his mission to bring him out of his shell. Then his own problems crush him, and he commits suicide, leaving his best friend more broken than before.
Todd Anderson
"I'm not like you, all right? You - you say things and people listen. I'm – I'm not like that."
- Played by: Ethan Hawke
A new student at Welton, and Neil's roommate. He starts out as the most timid of the poets, but gains confidence thanks to Keating and Neil's encouragement.
- Always Someone Better: Both his parents and staff adore his brother Jeffrey, who was apparently valedictorian and a National Merit Scholar, and they don't mind shoving it in Todd's face.
- Ambiguously Gay: His relationship with Neil is pretty...intense.
- Bromance: With Neil. The two are very close, and it's established that Neil is Todd's only good relationship, at least at first.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: He can hardly string two sentences together initially, is overlooked by most of Welton, and is the last to be pulled in to confess about the Dead Poets Society, as Nolan clearly isn't expecting any resistance. He ends up leading an all-out rebellion against Nolan to defend Keating, and half the class follows him.
- Bromantic Foil: To the confident and outgoing Neil.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Todd is the Melancholic.
- Grew a Spine: As the movie goes on, he becomes more confident, culminating in him standing up for Keating in the final scene.
- New Transfer Student: He's the newest student in the class, having transferred from another prep school called Balincrest. It's explained in earlier script drafts and the novelization that he was rejected by Welton previously because his grades weren't good enough to be enrolled, so he had to attend Balincrest until he could bring them up high enough.
- Parental Neglect: In contrast to the pressure that Neil suffers, Todd's parents view him as the family disappointment, don't expect him to amount to anything, and forget he exists most of the time. A Deleted Scene reveals his dad equated his value as a person to his chemical worth unless he made something of himself.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: He has kicked puppy variety when he's scared or shy (which is most of the time) — best seen when Keating first tries to get him to speak in class, but then quickly relents after Todd offers a pleading look.
- The Quiet One: Even after he settles in at Welton, he's reserved and soft-spoken.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue to Neil's Red. He's much quieter and more introspective.
- Shrinking Violet: At the beginning, at least, he seems to just be trying to blend in with the wallpaper half the time. Fortunately, his friendship with the other Poets (Neil in particular) goes a long way toward making him a more confident person.
- Speech Impediment: Going with his shyness, he suffers from a noticeable stutter when talking to most people.
- Tragic Bromance: With Neil. Throughout the movie, the pair grow extremely close, confiding their family problems and comforting each other in trouble. Neil especially builds up Todd's broken self-esteem, resulting in Todd becoming happier and more confident in himself. Then Neil kills himself, and Todd is left distraught and heartbroken.
- The Un-Favourite: He's clearly second-best to his successful, accomplished brother Jeffrey. A shot of an Anderson family photo shows Jeffrey standing in the middle of his proud parents, while Todd is shunted off to the side. In the original script, Todd states it outright.Todd: When I was little, I thought all parents automatically loved their kids. That's what I believed... Well, my parents might have loved my brother, but they did not love me.
Charlie "Nuwanda" Dalton
- Played by: Gale Hansen
Another of Keating's students and the most rebellious member of the Dead Poets Society.
- Beatnik: He has shades of this as he wears sunglasses and a beret, and plays the bongos.
- Brass Balls: As demonstrated with his "phone call from God" prank — admitting to sneaking an article into the school newspaper by standing up in front of the entire student body and faculty and saying that God Himself supports admitting girls to Welton takes some
- The Charmer: Not that he has much chance to be, going to an all-boys school. He makes use of poem lines written by Shakespeare and Byron to seduce two girls he brings to a meeting of the Poets.
- Class Clown: Always goofing off.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": After he starts getting involved with Gloria, he makes up the name "Nuwanda" in the spirit of experimentation, and whenever someone calls him "Charlie", he'll respond by saying, "It's Nuwanda, damnit!"
- Foil: To Richard Cameron, being the rebellious and reckless hothead who is loyal to his friends to the end, while Cameron is more reluctant to join the Dead Poets Society and sells them out to the school administration to save his own skin.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: He's the Choleric.
- Hidden Depths: He's generally the most thoughtless of the group, and frequently teases the other boys. However, after Neil's death, he's the one who takes the lead comforting Todd, and is savvy enough to realize the school will pin the blame for his suicide on the Dead Poets Society.
- Hot-Blooded: He's definitely the most reckless of the boys.
- It Amused Me: Is there anything that Charlie says or does which is not simply intended to have fun?
- Jerkass Has a Point: Charlie may be a rebellious young man, but he is within his rights to not throw Keating under the bus, because he knows he isn't responsible for Neil's death, regardless of any claims otherwise, and is perfectly okay with getting kicked out of the school if it means sticking to his principles.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As much as he likes to goof around and mouth off, he does care about his friends, and protects the group even after painful punishment from Nolan. After Neil's suicide, he's expelled rather than selling out Keating, in contrast to Cameron, who immediately finks on the Society.
- Large Ham: He has his moments, and is clearly enjoying himself yelling out the line "To indeed be a god!"
- The McCoy: After Neil's death, Dalton shows strong outrage at Cameron's selling out to the faculty and their honor code, punching him for ratting out the Society.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Once he pulls off the "phone call from God" prank, Nolan starts to observe the students more cautiously, and as a result, Dean Nolan is aware of the Society's existence when Charlie is interrogated in his office with the use of corporal punishment.
- Rebellious Spirit: His actions make for an interesting contrast with what Keating actually encourages. While the latter is trying to teach his students to think for themselves and be masters of their own lives, the former takes that to mean rebelling for its own sake, or fighting against authorities for fun. When Charlie nearly gets himself expelled for a joke, Keating calls him out on this misinterpretation. Still, when he "exercises the right not to walk" during the strolling lesson, Keating notes that he rightly "illustrated the point" by "swimming against the stream". Charlie may not actually be misinterpreting him, but simply over-interpreting. See also It Amused Me.
- Refuge in Audacity: After publishing an article in the student newspaper suggesting that girls be enrolled into Welton, he pranks the entire establishment by pretending to get a phone call from God endorsing the sentiment.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Cameron tells Dean Nolan about the Society's activities, Dalton, who has nothing to lose now that Keating is about to be removed from his teaching position and the Society is about to be dissolved, gets expelled for punching Cameron after the confrontation.
- Undying Loyalty: Despite his careless attitude, he is extremely protective of his friends, refusing to betray them even while taking a brutal beating from the headmaster and after being expelled out of loyalty to Keating.
Knox Overstreet
- Played by: Josh Charles
A member of Keating's class and the Dead Poets Society. He spends most of the movie attempting to win the love of local girl Chris Noel.
- The Charmer: He is smitten with Chris, and attempts to gain her love by making grand gestures with poetry and flowers.
- The Determinator: He's going to get Chris if it's the last thing he does.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: He's the Phlegmatic.
- Hypocrite: Knox, who had no objections to visiting Chris at her high school, is berated by Chris when she visits him at Welton before Neil's performance:Knox: Chris... what are you doing here?
Mr. Keating [offscreen]: Gentlemen, let's go!
Knox: Go ahead guys, I'll catch up.
Dalton: Yeah, come on guys.
Knox: Chris, you can't be in here. If they catch you, we're both gonna be in big trouble.
Chris: Oh, but it's fine—
Knox: Shh, shh, Chris...
Chris: Oh, but it's fine for you to come barging into my school and make a complete fool out of me? - The Kirk: After Neil's death, Knox takes on this role to try and calm Todd after his emotional breakdown in response to Neil's death as well as trying to restrain Charlie from punching out Cameron's lights.
- Love at First Sight: He's struck dumb when he sees Chris for the first time.
- Mistaken Identity: At the Danburry house, a drunken Chet mistakes him for "Mighty" Mutt Sanders' brother, which he vehemently denies.
- Stalker with a Crush: Yeah, he's nice, and he means Chris no harm, but still. Following her to school? Kissing her while she's passed out? Really?
- Two First Names: Well, two last names, but Knox Overstreet.
Richard Cameron
- Played by: Dylan Kussman
Another classmate who is grudgingly accepted into the Dead Poets Society.
- Dirty Coward: He betrays his classmates and informs the authorities about their secret poetry meetings, just to save his own skin.
- Establishing Character Moment: He invites himself into a study group with Neil, then makes fun of Todd before even meeting him.
- Et Tu, Brute?: People are right not to like him, since when the pressure is on he betrays everyone, worrying about being caught and upholding the school's honor code over his fellow students.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: He only gets included in the Society because he's part of the other boys' study group and is Charlie's roommate. It's obvious they wouldn't have included him if they had any hope to hide the Society from him, calling him a creep, and for good reason: he betrays Keating to save his own ass, facing expulsion if he doesn't uphold the honor code and be truthful in describing the Society's activities.
- Hate Sink: He's a brown-noser, doesn't like anything the others do, is constantly looking over his shoulder to make sure things don't come back to haunt him, and rounds it off by ratting on everyone to save his own miserable hide. Eventually, Charlie decks him hard enough to cause a nosebleed—
and boy is it satisfying. - Honor Before Reason: He spills the beans to uphold Welton's honor code to avoid getting expelled at the expense of Keating and the Society.
- The Informant: When Charlie acts as the Society's unofficial spokesman and publishes an article saying that girls should be admitted to Welton, Cameron eagerly uses a convenient, detailed record of everything that happened at their meetings that he'd been keeping to inform Dean Nolan of the Society's activities.
- It's All About Me: He doesn't care what happens to Keating and the rest of the Society after telling the administration about the Society's meetings, since he would get off scot-free with or without them.
- Jerkass: He wasn't pleasant to begin with, but betraying the Society? Dick move, dude.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- When "Nuwanda" writes a letter recommending that girls should be admitted to Welton, Cameron tells Charlie that Dean Nolan will eventually find out who pulled the prank, which will lead to an investigation of the Society and its activities, which starts after Charlie makes a prank phone call at a school assembly meant to root out the culprit claiming God told him that Welton should admit girls. Even the rest of the group agree that Charlie shouldn't have risked all their necks for his prank.
- Later, Cameron's suspicions are proven right after Dean Nolan can get no further information from Charlie. He takes a dim view of Keating's unconventional methods, which go contrary to Welton's traditional values, which Nolan believes are firmly established and not to be questioned.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After he rats out the Society to save himself, Charlie punches him in the face.
- Never My Fault: After Neil's suicide, Cameron narrows the list of suspects down to Mr. Keating, eliminating Neil's dad, Dean Nolan, and the rest of the faculty from being liable for Neil's death:Dalton: Who are they after?
Cameron: Well, who else do you think, dumbass? The administration? Mr. Perry? Mr. Keating put us up to all this crap, didn't he? If it wasn't for Mr. Keating, Neil would be cozied up in his room right now, studying his chemistry, and dreaming of being called doctor. - Not So Above It All: While he does disapprove of some of Mr. Keating's methods and the others' actions, he does enjoy Mr. Keating's lessons and occasionally relaxes and actively participates during the Society's meetings. Too bad it's not enough to keep him from being a Turncoat.
- Smug Snake: He betrays the Society, and encourages the others to do the same. When Charlie punches him, he gloats that now Charlie is going to be expelled for sure.
- The Spock: Cameron is even more reluctant than Todd to attend the Society's meetings as a non-participant, and is concerned about the faculty members finding out about the Society, which changes after Neil's suicide when he becomes the informant who upholds the school's honor code to avoid being punished by Dean Nolan.
- Teacher's Pet: Unlike his classmates, he fully embraces Welton's honor code and does everything that is asked of him by the teachers without hesitation.
- Turncoat: His switching allegiances from the Society to Dean Nolan results in Keating's forced resignation after Neil's death.
Steven Meeks
- Played by: Allelon Ruggiero
The smartest member of the Dead Poets Society.
- Deadpan Snarker: Mostly in regards to Charlie's antics.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Steven is the Supine.
- Nice Guy: He tutors Charlie in almost every subject.
- The Smart Guy: He aced Latin and tutors Charlie in just about every subject, something that Charlie happily admits, calling him a genius.Meeks: He flatters me. That's why I help him with Latin.
Charlie: And English. And Trig. - Smart People Know Latin: He's the smartest of the students, tutors Charlie in Latin, and is readily able to translate "Carpe Diem."
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Meeks is the academically brightest guy in the Dead Poets Society and the only one who wears glasses.
- Teen Genius: Downplayed, as Meeks is extremely intelligent, even building a working radio from scratch in his spare time, but not so exceptional as to be beyond the range of normalcy.
Gerard Pitts
- Played by: James Waterston
The final member of the Dead Poets Society.
- The Generic Guy: He doesn't have much characterization or a story arc — in fact, his comparative normalcy serves to heighten the unorthodox nature of his friends.
- Gentle Giant: He's easily the tallest member of the Poets, and is generally an agreeable person.
Teachers
Mr. John Keating
"No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world."
- Played by: Robin WilliamsDubbed by: Patrick Floersheim (European French)
The new English teacher, and a previous student at Welton. He inspires the boys to "seize the day" and restart his old club from his Welton days, the Dead Poets Society.
- Blithe Spirit: He spends a lot of the time telling his students to "seize the day." Everybody Has Standards, though — there is a difference between taking charge of your destiny and doing stupid stunts that will ruin your life, and he calls out Charlie on how his ill-advised pranks may lead to him suffering the latter.
- The Captain: He's not actually one, but his students call him "O Captain My Captain" at his suggestion.
- Cool Teacher: He teaches English, and manages to fill his students with enthusiasm to study literature, especially poetry, and appreciate the beauty in life in general.
- Fired Teacher: He is kicked out after Neil's death.
- Foil: His unorthodox teaching approaches stand out in sharp contrast to the old-school traditionalist Dean Nolan.
- Meaningful Name: It can't have been coincidence that John Keating is a lover of poetry. As well as being close to John Keats, the -ing suffix usually implies a verb or an action. Thus, he's a more active John Keats by teaching poetry.
- Mentor: He's the one who teaches the class to live out their lives to the fullest and look at life from a different angle. Charlie in particular looks up to him so much that he'd rather be expelled than sell him out.
- Parental Substitute: He takes on a fatherly role for both Neil and Todd, as they're distant from their own Abusive Parents. He counsels Neil on finding his own way in life and standing up to his cruel father Mr Perry, and encourages Todd to overcome his insecurities. In a deleted scene, Todd outright declares that Keating cares more about him than his parents ever did.
- On the other hand, Keating telling students to vandalize textbooks by ripping out their introductions could hardly be considered the action of a responsible parental substitute. Neil feels disappointed when Keating urges him to talk with his dad, believing that Neil can do as he wishes at 18, which conflicts with Neil's dad saying that he can only do as he pleases once he has qualified as a doctor, when he'll be 25. However, it's possible that Keating never realized that Mr. Perry would be so controlling even if Neil went on to college.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: While Keating encourages his students to think for themselves and broaden their perspectives, he disapproves of them breaking school rules just for the sake of being rebellious. He approves of Charlie doing things as a clever way of going against the norm, but reprimands him for pulling his "phone call from God" prank and risking expulsion. As he tells the boy in an earlier draft of the script, Welton is far from a perfect school, but it still provides the students great opportunities that shouldn't be wasted.
- Save Our Students: He wants to get his students interested in art and make them believe that their lives matter and should be special.
- The Scapegoat: Welton and the Perrys blame him for Neil's suicide, when Neil's father was responsible for most of it. He also gets blamed for the boys restarting the Dead Poets Society, even though they did so of their own volition and he didn't know about it, and even though Keating explicitly told Charlie and others not to pull pranks that can lead to expulsion or other serious disciplinary measures.
Dean Gale Nolan
- Played by: Norman Lloyd
The headmaster of Welton.
- Big Bad: The closest thing the film has to a legitimate antagonist.
- Corporal Punishment: He hits Charlie's buttocks with a paddle after he plays a prank on the establishment, which is very painful since his paddle has holes drilled in it to make the blows more aerodynamic and swift.
- Dean Bitterman: He is a stuffy old authoritarian who believes in physical punishment and conformity, and is against everything fun the boys do and especially Keating's unorthodox teaching methods.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: His beliefs and values were likely the norm when he was a young man, and his belief in following the curriculum would have been an admirable thing several years ago. Nowadays? Not so much, and certainly not by the time the movie was released in.
- Hate Sink: While he is just doing his job as head of the school, he can get quite overzealous and annoyingly stubborn, especially when he unjustly discharges Keating. He even blackmails Todd to comply with making Keating take the fall, which should be seen as a breach of ethics.
- Hidden Depths: He discusses his time as an English teacher with Mr. Keating around the middle of the film.
- Jerkass: There's a number of moments where his conduct goes past being justifiable.
- Lawful Stupid: Headmaster Nolan places more emphasis on Welton's draconian policies of rote memorization and harsh discipline than inspiring his students to face the real world with courage. He is so pedantic about trivial details and learning for learning's sake that he does not motivate students to want to learn on their own. When Mr. Keating tries to instill in his students a love of life and a passion for pursuing subjects that stimulate their curiosity, Nolan admonishes him to just "prepare them for college."
- My Way or the Highway: He's so convinced that his (and the school's) philosophy is so unimpeachable that he refuses to consider that it might be flawed or that there might be other avenues of achieving success. Anything or anyone whom deviates from it should be dismissed without question.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Most of the time, he's just doing his job as the principal of the school.
George McAllister
- Played by: Leon Pownall
The Latin teacher at Welton.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: "Slow down, boys! Slow down, you horrible phalanx of pubescence!"
- Character Development: Early in the film, we see his classroom in action, with McAllister monotonously drilling the students through their Latin conjugations. At the end of the film, he's leading his students on a walk and uses Latin vocabulary to describe the world around them. This shows that some of Keating's teaching methods did rub off on him.
- Token Good Teammate: Out of the strict conservative establishment that is the Welton teaching staff, McAllister is the only one who strikes up a friendship with Keating and even adopts some of his methods. When Keating is fired, McAllister takes the time to wave goodbye to him and appears genuinely saddened to see him go. In a deleted scene, he consoles him after Neil's death.
Others
Thomas Perry
- Played by: Kurtwood Smith
Neil's emotionally abusive and overly controlling father.
- Abusive Parents: Is unrelentingly controlling of Neil, forcing him into a life plan he hates (going to Harvard to study medicine) and making him give up even Welton-encouraged extracurricular activities, and the normally outgoing, confident Neil is noticeably cowed around him. When Neil goes ahead with performing in the local play, Mr. Perry immediately drags him home and plans to send him to military school.
- Berserk Button: Never contradict or talk back to him, especially if you happen to be Neil. Neil wanting to act is also this, to the point that when he sees Neil acting, he drags Neil home and announces his intention of sending Neil to a military academy!
- Control Freak: He wants his son to go to Harvard and become a doctor, and absolutely won't let Neil do anything else. Even when he decides to ease Neil's workload by having him drop an extracurricular, he decides which one it will be (the school annual) and doesn't give a damn that Neil has an important position and actually enjoys the activity.
- Education Mama: He's a pretty severe example of an education papa, making it clear that he expects his son to follow the course he's set for him until he's at least in his thirties, if not forever, and denying him anything at all that would help him blow off steam or maybe even help get brownie points with his teachers/when looking for work. This is despite the fact that Neil already has straight A's in all his classes, so his acting hobby obviously isn't hurting him academically. Deconstructed HARD, as his Control Freak attitude leads to Neil's suicide.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He's clearly distraught over his son's death, but he reminds us of the 'evil' part when he tries to attack Keating for it instead of accepting his responsibility in driving his son to suicide.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: He doesn't want Neil to have anything to do with poetry or theatre, and upon discovering that Neil is playing Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, he goes utterly ballistic. He sends Neil to a military academy, but Neil is Driven to Suicide before he can be shipped off.
- Hate Sink: He's abusive to Neil, completely crushes his dreams of acting and drives his son to suicide, and even blames Keating for everything and solely focuses on his reaction to the events, thinking himself blameless. Compared to Nolan, who went too far at times but was also simply doing his job, Mr. Perry is just an unreasonable jerk and loser of a father.
- Helicopter Parents: He is so determined that Neil should become a doctor, he consults Nolan to discontinue Neil's future involvement with the school yearbook, and forbids Neil to ever speak in his own defense, especially when he removes him from Welton after the play has concluded. Eventually, blinded by his ambitious goals for Neil becoming a doctor, he calls for an investigation into Mr. Keating and the Dead Poets Society's activities after Neil's suicide, ignoring that his pressure on Neil to become a doctor was the real cause of his suicide.
- Honor Before Reason: He is more concerned about his reputation, which he considers to have been tarnished when he denied that Neil was in a play because Neil had gone behind his back to do so and he wasn't aware, than the well-being of his own son, and would rather have Neil fulfill his parents' wishes than risk being made to look foolish by a forged letter of permission.
- Ignored Epiphany: It seems like he might come to regret his actions after finding Neil's dead body...but he instead pins the blame on Mr. Keating.
- Jerkass: Would it really be so hard to just listen to Neil for once?
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- While Mr. Perry is a Control Freak who unwittingly pushes Neil to shoot himself when he crushes Neil's dream of becoming an actor, when Neil is confronted about the forged letter, he has a point when he asks Neil how he ever expected to get away with pulling such an outrageous stunt.
- Mr. Perry also wasn't wrong to say that unlike medicine, acting isn't a dependable career path for Neil: many aspiring actors (and people in the arts in general), even talented ones, wind up unemployed or underemployed.
- Karma Houdini: Zigzagged. He never receives any direct comeuppance for his role in Neil's suicide, and he doesn't even seem to realize he was at fault. Instead, he starts an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Neil's death that results in Keating's dismissal from Welton. All the same, his ruthless and cold-hearted parenting did end up costing him his son, which he is shown to be genuinely upset over.
- Knight Templar Parent: After Neil's death, he urges the Welton faculty members to conduct a thorough investigation of Mr. Keating and the Dead Poets Society.
- Loving a Shadow: A platonic version. All Mr. Perry wants from Neil is complete obedience and subservience, which he cultivates through abuse, only truly loving his idealized version of Neil, being a successful doctor, rather than the actual one who enjoys acting and drama.
- Manchild: Ironic, considering how strict he is. He throws his own versions of temper-tantrums when things don't go his way, refuses to take responsibility for his own actions, is annoyingly self-righteous, and has no form of humility. He's basically the adult version of a Spoiled Brat.
- Narcissist: He has definitive shades of this, being obsessive and possessive of Neil's devotion to him and his future plans, seeing him more as a tool than as his son.
- Never My Fault:
- How he plays out Neil's suicide. Instead of admitting he was wrong for forcing Neil to become a doctor, he blames Mr. Keating for everything.
- Keating incorrectly assumes that Neil will be able to do what he wants as soon as he's 18 years old, which is contrary to Mr. Perry's plans, telling Neil that only when he has graduated from medical school (when he reaches 25) will he experience freedom. And it’s quite possible that even when Neil graduated from medical school, he would only have experienced freedom when his father died.
- Obliviously Evil: Mr. Perry seems to be a well-intentioned father who does care about Neil's well-being, but because he only sees Neil as an extension of himself and his legacy, he just can't comprehend the real effect his actions have on his son.
- Obsessively Normal: He has already plotted out his son's entire life (becoming a doctor) and won't accept anything that deviates from this a single bit (including activities that could look good on his portfolio), even when Neil tries to defend himself by pointing out that he's an A+ student regardless. He can't even bother to label Neil's acting desire a hobby, calling it an obsession, and even with everybody in the theater giving Neil a thunderous ovation, he still makes a scene to drag his son away, can't bother to admit it was a good performance (even if he won't let him act again), and takes overkill measures to make sure Neil will never deviate from the goal he's set for him.
- Parents as People: In a rather twisted way, as he really wants his son to be successful...but this involves micromanaging Neil's life to an inexcusable degree, with little to no concern for the effects this has on him.
- Perpetual Frowner:
- He rarely smiles, except when shaking hands with Dean Nolan and greeting the other students before telling Neil that he and the Dean have decided that he should resign from the yearbook staff. Otherwise, his reactions to Neil's rebellious tendencies aren't very happy ones.
- In the junior novelization, when the new school year begins, Neil is called on to define excellence, which he does with some bitterness, and his dad doesn't even smile in the least; later, his dad isn't at all pleased when adjusting Neil's extracurricular activity award pins.
- Vicariously Ambitious: He hopes that Neil will get to experience the opportunities he never had through Neil becoming a doctor, with his hopes and aspirations ending tragically and abruptly when Neil commits suicide.
Mr and Mrs Anderson
- Played by: John Cunningham and Debra Mooney
- Jerkass: Mr Anderson spends what little screentime he has berating Todd or barking orders at him.
- Parental Favouritism: They much prefer their oldest son Jeffrey, who was valedictorian and a National Merit Scholar, over Todd.
- Parental Neglect: They treat Todd as The Unfavorite and barely seem to remember he exists most of the time, and neither care about his obvious anxiety and shyness. A deleted scene spells out how emotionally abusive Mr. Anderson is:Todd: You know what Dad called me when I was growing up? "Five ninety-eight." That's what all the chemicals in the human body would be worth if you bottled them raw and sold them. He told me that was all I'd ever be worth unless I worked every day to improve myself.
- Small Role, Big Impact: They only appear in two scenes, but their influence on Todd is present and obvious throughout the film.
Chris Noel
- Played by: Alexandra Powers
Knox's love interest who goes to a local public school.
- Everyone Loves Blondes: Knox sure does.
- Gender-Blender Name: Her name is short for Christina, but she usually goes by Chris, which is often a guy's name.
- Hidden Depths: Despite being a popular cheerleader with a Jerk Jock boyfriend, Chris was planning to watch the performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream even before Knox invited her.
- Only Sane Woman: She's the only sensible one in the love triangle, between violent, hot-blooded Chet and obsessive, romantic Knox, including telling Chet off for overreacting and pointing out to Knox that he doesn't properly know her at all.
- Satellite Love Interest: To an extent, though through no fault of her own, as she just doesn't get much character development onscreen, and Knox is only infatuated with her for her appearance. She even points this out to him when she goes to confront him at Welton, replying to his repeated insistence that he loves her: "You don't even know me!"
Chet
- Played by: Colin Irving
Chris' boyfriend.
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: When at the Danburrys' party, he mistakes Knox for Mutt Sanders' brother when drunk, threatening him later on when Knox makes a move for Chris.
- Berserk Button: He blows a fuse when Knox flirts with Chris.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Apparently kissing his girlfriend on the forehead is grounds for beating the stuffing out of Knox.
- Dumb Jock: Though probably smarter than one would think, as he attended Welton once... before flunking out, as per Chris.
- Jerkass Has a Point: He's obviously way out of line for getting so furious at Knox for kissing Chris on the forehead as to threaten to kill him, but Knox is undoubtedly a bit of a creep for kissing someone (practically a stranger, no less!) while they're asleep.
- Jerk Jock: He's an obnoxious jock who threatens to kill Knox just for touching Chris.
