12angrymen

The teleplay 'Twelve Angry Men' By Reginald Rose is a courtroom drama which exposes in a dramatic way the prejudices or bias some citizens can bring to a jury situation. However, the play also presents a positive view or insight about the open-mindedness of characters who wish to pursue the truth and act according to their conscience, the characters that show prejudice against the defendant (the boy) make assumptions about him based on his poverty statues, his neighbourhood and his ethnicity. Jurors Number Eight and Number Nine by contrast wish to pursue. The truth and be true to themselves.

One scene which really shows anxiety between the jurors and illustrates their anger towards each-other would have to be when Number 8 says on page two, 'There were eleven votes for guilty. It's not so easy for me to raise my hand and send a boy off to die without talking about it first.' This is the first sign that the viewer notices that there is going to be tension between the jurors. As all jurors don't really want to be placed on a trial, they don't like talking about the case either. When it comes to all twelve men sitting down and talking about the evidence shown and the testimonies brought to the judge, they didn't even want to do that. That is one reason they all but one voted guilty, just so they could get out of the courtroom. It is only juror number 8 who came into the jurors' room with a non-bias attitude and who left his personal baggage at the door. He believes that 'maybe we owe him a few words', but the others believe that they 'don't owe him a thing.' The evidence that has convinced the rest of the jurors soon gets analysed by juror number 8, which causes the others to think twice about their verdict.

There were three pieces of evidence that the prosecution brought up, which each one its own, could have probably convinced a jury of the boy's guilt: