Analysis Of The Play ' 12 Angry Men ' By Reginald Rose

The capacity of human beings to possess different viewpoints, opinions beliefs and choices is what draws the line between man and animal. During the course of Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose, the viewer sees exactly what makes up the unique and complex nature of man and how these individualities can compare and contrast when combined. The message she conveyed by her depictions of the opinions of each of the jurors was that with twelve different people comes twelve different viewpoints that everyone included can learn from. By using the Marxist and Historical lens, it reveals that even though the jurors are seen as a collective, their individuality is what propels the story into a study of human nature and interpersonal communication.

The play "Twelve Angry Men", By Reginald Rose, is a play about 12 jurors that in an

“Three: You sat right in court and heard the same things I did. The man’s a dangerous killer. You could see it.”

In today’s society, we face prejudice every day in many forms. Most people in today’s society have either been victims of prejudice or are guilty of exhibiting prejudice towards others.

12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose is a twisting story where a son is accussed of stabbing his father to death. Twelve strangers are told to listen to this court case and are then stuck in a small, hot room where they are told to decide on a verdict, whether or not the kid lives or dies. The jury finally decides on the verdict of : Not Guilty. Three major facts that influence the juries agreement that the accussed is not guilty include doubts of the murder weapon, doubts of the old man’s testimony, and doubts of the lady across the street’s testimony.

It has been thoroughly thought over what current topic or issue that people experience in most environments today, at both a micro and macro level that would be able to be examined and have come to the decision of looking at the most widely discussed subject, prejudice. All people are affected by prejudice in one way or another and it can impact on people's lives depending on what form it has taken. Also to be able to acknowledge that all people can be prejudices and see this is the first step to overcoming it.. The question that has been decided upon is that of “What types of prejudice do we see commonly today and how do they affect an individual at a micro and macro level?”

Often our prejudices are based on their colour, religion, gender, age. “Prejudice is a part of life and there is nothing we can do to change it”. This quote is only half true, true in the first half ‘prejudice is a part of life’ but wrong in saying ‘there is nothing we can do to change it’. We may not be able to stop people from being pre-judged, but there is always a way to make people look and think about things from a different perspective. One person can change another person’s judgement. People in a position of power often abuse it.

During the New York summer of 1957 the play Twelve Angry Men is set in a small humid jury room. The playwright Reginald Rose through this play questions the reliability of current jury system. The jurors are instructed by the judge “to deliberate honestly ant thoughtfully”, as a result some take this instruction more seriously than others. A number of the jurors are able to take a logical stance, whilst other becomes emotionally involved in the issue. Uncertainty plays a vital role in creating doubt in the jurors minds. The contrasting perspectives of Juror 3 and Juror 8 make this very clear. Demonstrating quite evidently that despite the minority most are able to deliberate genuinely and with close considerations to the details of the trial.

Imagine this, you're being taken to jail for a crime you supposedly did, although you actually had nothing to do with it. The next day you have a trial, but The jurors that are there care less of who you are. The trial goes up to three days, finally the jurors discuss the case and come up to a decision, however it isn't what you had expected. You're accused guilty for a crime you didn't commit and now you have to deal with the consequences, what perhaps could have gone wrong in this case? Could it have been that someone set you up, then again could it have been that the jurors in the trial just rushed since they didn't actually care from the start?

Through history people have tended to judge the lives of other by what they see on the outside, and completely disregard their actually character. “Stereotyping in the World” today has become a greater and greater problem has history moves on. Some have been known to look past these cases such as Reginald Rose’s book Twelve Angry Men. The play has been shown that one voice can change the thoughts of many by getting past the first layer and breaking it down to their inner person. Twelve Angry Men has showed the theme of “Stereotyping in the World” through the characters’ proper reasoning, communicating, and believing in good faith.

In this modern world, prejudice is still a universal problem we still have yet to overcome. Although it is true that our society is much less prejudiced than it was 40-50 years ago, we are still struggling to create racial harmony in a world that is so diverse in terms of racial group, sexual orientations, ethnicity, nationality, religions, and so on. I think the core of prejudice comes from stereotyping, which is the generalization of motives, characteristics, or behavior to an entire group of people. In the world where media propaganda is ubiquitous, often times most stereotypes are not formed on valid experiences, instead they are based on images publicized by the mass media, or even created within our heads after seeing and hearing examples from many different sources, like movies, or even hearsay. Stereotyping is more powerful than we think, because it allows those false pictures to control our thinking that leads us to assign uniform characteristics to any person in a group, without consideration of the actual difference between members of that particular group.

Life and death in their hands but they don’t care, do you think justice is a joke? In the play of 12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose, there are 12 jurors who have to make a life or death decision of a 19 year old boy because he supposedly stabbed his father all the jurors believe he was guilty. Until one motivated juror actually looked closely into the facts. It's the jury's responsibility to analyze and dig much deeper into the defendant's case, its unfair to put an end to a man's life just because the jury did not care to take a closer look for a reasonable doubt. But they are too lazy and just want’s to get threw it very quick because they got something better to do.

“The Twelve Angry Men” by Reginald Rose is an examination of the American judicial system. Through depicting what happens inside the jury room in New York City, the author manages to illustrate the unique characteristics of each juror and presents the idea that facts can be different depending on the individual presenting it. The murder of an African-American male by his son sets the background of the story and leads to the discussions between the 12 jurors on whether the son is guilty or not. The play centers its stage on juror 8, the only juror and refuses to let the case end without a fair discussion on the case, and talks about his actions to persuade other juror into eventually changing their votes. Strongly influenced by its time period,

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible. (Maya Angelou) By definition prejudice is a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. Prejudice to others is hate, judgement, and evil. The effects of prejudice are shown in the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the play The Merchant of Venice, and the tragedy known as the Holocaust. Prejudice affected all people differently, but one thing is true for all; prejudice is crippling and disables those who experience it from being who they truly are and doing as they please.

Idealized Influence – defined by the values, morals, and ethical principles of a leader and is manifest through behaviours that supress self interest and focus on the good of the collective.