'TWELVE Angry Men And Democracy'

Rose’s dramatic teleplay ‘Twelve Angry Men’ was written in a time of social upheaval in which the United States witnessed the calamitous misuses of the justice system during the McCarthy era. The play centres around twelve men who are given the task of deciding the fate of a sixteen year old boy, charged with his father’s murder. Set in the 1950s, in a New York Courtroom, Rose reveals that compassion and understanding are essential in order to serve justice. The playwright expresses this view through the protagonist Juror 8 as he reveals how we should value a system of democracy. Yet, through the 8th jurors’ sense of compassion and integrity, he is able to

It must be very disappointing to take blame for something you did not do. In the play " Twelve Angry Men " by Reginald Rose, act one, most of the jurors said their statements without enough evidence and almost sentenced the kid guilty. Later on, the jurors change their minds because of the evidence presented to them. Therefore, the author shows you should not go along with what you hear without proof.

"Its not easy to stand alone against the ridicule of others". Twelve Angry Men is more than a play, it is a reminder of our social responsibility. Discuss.

The Constitution guarantees the right to trial by an impartial jury. Impartiality is the principle holding that all parties should be subject to equal treatment under the law. Being impartial requires jury members to reach a decision based on the evidence presented. The chosen jury must be unbiased, and capable of weighing out the evidence objectively. In order to counter bias, The Supreme Court established a rule that the selection of jurors must be from a pool representative of a cross-section of the community.

What is Democracy? Reginald Rose the author of Twelve Angry Men and Langston Hughes the author of “Democracy”, express their opinions on democracy. Although Rose and Hughes both show their perspective on Democracy, a key difference is how they are written. In Twelve Angry Men the author writes a drama, while in “Democracy” the author writes a poem.

In the 1957 MGM film, Twelve Angry Men, a young boy from the slum is on trial for allegedly stabbing his father to death. The jury from New York City is forced to have 12 men agree as to whether the boy is guilty or not guilty. If they decide not guilty, the boy is set free; if he is found guilty, the boy will receive the death sentence. In the beginning all but one agreed the boy was guilty; Juror 8, Mr. Davis, argues that the boy deserves some deliberation. Mr. Davis changed the other eleven jurors’ minds by using his core values such as keeping an open-mind, staying humble, and believing every life is valuable.

From the very start of the play when Juror 10 is first introduced, he has been portrayed as a selfish and impatient person. As a character, he really makes the title of the play stand out as ‘The Twelve Angry Men’, due to his short temper. He usually has negative opinions regarding anyone who is different than he is, hence the strong disagreement with Juror 8 about the boy being guilty or not guilty. The fact that he says, “I’ve lived among ‘em all my life. You can’t believe a word they say.

“It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.”William Blackstone. Nowadays, the judicial system sometimes can still be affected by economic, social or cultural factors. In The twelve angry man, most the jurors voted guilty based on the boy’s back ground, he grew up in slum so the jurors believe that he stabbed his father in the first vote instead of considered that everyone is innocence before proving guilty. Today In the American justice system, what happened in the book can still occur in real life, judgment in court is not completely unbiased because most people cannot judge a situation with total objectivity.

“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,

Both Sara Holbrook’s and Reginald Rose’s perspectives on democracy are shown in the poem “Democracy” and in the excerpt from “12 Angry Men”. They both express in these passages that democracy can be unfair, very inefficient at times and also inequality. Yet, both authors don’t see eye to eye, for the things they want equality for. While Holbrook shows more feelings about equality of resources in her poem, Rose talks about equality in terms of judgement and accusations toward the accused defendant. This makes their perspectives similar yet different in some ways.

The play 12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose is set in New York City Court of Law Jury Room around the 1950’s. A young Kid is on trial for being accused of killing his father with a switch blade. The judge says he is here for murder and this could lead to a mandatory death penalty for the kid. Twelve guys are in the jury. They've finished hearing the case, and are now talking about their decision. Everyone’s giving their opinion and eleven of the guys believe the kid is guilty but one thinks he's innocent. The towards the end they all are changing their mind and the votes go from eleven men saying he’s guilty to 6 men saying the boys guilty and the other 6 saying he’s not guilty. Now if they cannot reach an agreeable decision, then the case will

Twelve Angry Men (1957) is a play set in New York, which takes place in a jury room. It follows a jury’s decision-making process in a murder trial. We are able to observe the gradual change of eleven of the twelve jurors’ minds about their verdict, illuminating the central concerns in the play. These central concerns are prejudice and justice and are shown through settings, stage directions and dialogue.

The statement “Drama reflects real life on a stage” is shown through the powerful dramatic play by Reginald Rose, ‘Twelve Angry Men’. Reginald rose through the effective use of characterisation, conflict and tension, symbolism, language and setting, Rose dramatically reflects human experiences with ‘Twelve Angry Men’. It is a play that directly appeals to our sense of justice and equality and questions audiences to contemplate the arguments on a ‘fair trial’ in a judicial process when ‘reasonable doubt’ is also taken into consideration. Reginald Rose also reflects human nature and experiences by taking into account the emphasis on each individual’s civic duty and responsibility to maintain fairness through the eyes of the law and shows how easily unbiased truth can be blinded by personal prejudice when conflict and tension are involved.

Twelve Angry Men is a play that has been written down and put into a book format, for the enjoyment of a wider audience. The play involves a jury in which one juror doesn’t agree with the rest over the verdict of the case that they all witnessed take place in the court. After much argument, hostility, and anger, all of the jurors change their vote from “guilty” to “not guilty.” This all happened through the strong efforts of juror #8 in which he got to the bottom of the logical facts of the case, and through the prejudices of his other jurors. This would make the protagonist of the play juror #8, since he was the only juror who was willing to give the young boy whose life was on the line, a chance. Although most people may consider the antagonist of the play to be one of the more hostile, prejudiced juror’s, I disagree with this idea. In my opinion, it is the defensive attorney who is the true antagonist of this play. As for the theme, it seems quite clear that the writer of the play is trying to show us that one strong person can make others aware of their true prejudices and present ideas in a new way.

Rose and Hughes have different perspectives on democracy because Rose believes “In Twelve Angry Man” that nobody cares about democracy while Hughes claims in the poem “Democracy”,that he wants freedom and every one should have equal rights .The better interpretation of democracy is portrayed in Hughes’s poem because his poem is short and understandable. Langston hughes has the better interpretation of democracy because his poem is not so confusing and long as the story “Twelve Angry Man”. Hughes states in his poem “Democracy” that democracy will never come today, this year nor ever through compromise and fear. As you can see his all words are clear and understable.