Neil Perry Essay

566 Words2 Pages

The identification of characters’ helped illuminate the challenges of which the characters face throughout the text, this can be revealed through Neil Perry’s subtle actions and the more obvious ones. Neil Perry, at first is mainly a blank slate, one of which the audience projects themselves or someone they know onto him. As Neil Perry is explored in the text the blank slate is given a personality that the audience sympathizes with. Neil Perry has an exuberant, rebellious nature that is valued and encouraged by Mr Keating. He welcomed Mr Keating’s unorthodox style of teaching and embraced it. Neil Perry is a character who, like the audience encounters problems in his life. This respectful and energetic protagonist is limited by his father’s …show more content…

It was shown when Neil’s father entered his room to inform him that he has to drop one of his extracurricular activities that his father is one who is controlling. Mr Perry set up boundaries, he forced Neil to follow one path. As Neil progressed through the text he finds holes in the boundaries keeping him on the path his father built for him. Mr Keating broke holes in the boundaries that kept Neil on the path of which his father made. Mr Keating encouraged Neil, guiding him through life, making sure to give Neil sufficient freedom to not rebel, but not too much freedom, as to keep Neil in check. “I don’t care if the world ends tomorrow night, you are through with this play!”. Neil’s father disapproved of Neil’s ambition of becoming an actor. “You’re acting too you know. You’re playing the part of the dutiful son.” There are multiple close up shots in the scene where Neil is talking to Mr Keating about his ambitions, these close up shots capture the sad and stressed face of Neil. Later, when Mr Keating asked Neil whether he had told his father about his ambitions or not Neil stutters as he tells Mr Keating that his father let him stay in the play. It is easy for the audience and Mr Keating to see that Neil was lying in that scene as Neil stuttered an abnormal amount of times while talking to Mr

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