Emotion Classification of Neil Perry Character in Movie Dead Poets Society

Abstract

This study aims to classify the emotions of main character in the movie Dead Poets Society. The film, written by Tom Schulman and released in 1989, explores themes of education, rebellion, and passion through the inspirational influence of John Keating, an English teacher. This research focuses on main character’s emotions: Neil Perry. He is one of the member of the Dead Poets Society group and a popular, idealistic student of Welton Academy, whose life-dream is to become an Actor. However, his domineering and tyrannical father, strictly forces him to take his life seriously into the medical field in order to become a doctor, an occupation which Neil himself doesn't want him to be. This research uses a descriptive qualitative method by collecting data and finding related information from films, books, articles and journals found on the internet. The research identifies and categorizes Neil Perry's emotions based on frameworks proposed by David Krech. The analysis focuses on dialogues and expressions throughout the movie, highlighting how Neil's character communicates emotions such as happiness, fear, anger, and sadness. The conclusion from this discussion is that the emotions shown by Neil Perry are dominated by negative emotions caused by his father.