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The, Twelve Angry Men, By Reginald Rose

Decent Essays

Set in the 1950’s post depression America and written by world renowned playwright Reginald Rose, Twelve Angry Men has become a much loved classic within the drama playwright genre. With an abundance of audacious themes skillfully displayed throughout the feature length play, Rose has pushed the boundaries of the overly oppressive era from which the play was first published. The two main themes that were explored to great lengths throughout the play were prejudices and stereotypes. These themes were both highlighted through the use of three key literary devices; structure, setting and interactions of characters. Prior to act 1, character names are not listed in the structure, the characters are known only as their assigned juror numbers, this is to prevent the audience from developing prejudices of the juror, ‘The 8th Juror gazes out the window. The 12th Juror looks at him for a moment then moves away’, (pg. 4). This decision also puts the audience in a similar position to which the jurors are in; making a decision on facts provided without any bias. Act one of the play is set in America after the abolishment of slavery, yet racism was still extremely prevalent and widely accepted throughout the country. This certain prejudicial issue is highlighted in many key scenes during the play. The 10th Juror is a perfect example of how the setting affects the play and depicts the themes of prejudices and stereotypes;“Brother, you can say that again. The kids who crawl outa those

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