Twelve Angry Men depicts a jury deliberating over a murder trial. The characters are identified only by number as each juror brings their own biases and preconceptions. Through rigorous debate over the evidence, the jurors gradually reconsider their positions as their understanding of the case and themselves evolves. Prejudices are challenged, and reasonable doubt raised, as they determine whether to condemn a boy to death.

1. Revision Seminar

2. Twelve Angry Men is not a play about finding a boy
innocent of a crime he didn’t commit. Rather, it’s a vivid
depiction/portrayal/representation of...

3. Past essay questions
‘In reaching a verdict, the jurors reconsider both their understanding of the
case and their
understanding of themselves.’ Discuss.
i. “It’s not easy for me to raise my hand and send a boy off to die without talking
about it first.” ‘The 8th Juror is the only member of the jury who values the
life of the boy who is on trial.’ Do you agree?
ii.‘Twelve Angry Men highlights the importance of seeing things from more than
one perspective.’
Discuss.
iii.‘Twelve Angry Men is a play about how power can be misused.’
Discuss.
iv.‘Twelve Angry Men is less about guilt or innocence than about reasonable
doubt.’
Discuss.
v.Why is it so difficult for the jury in Twelve Angry Men to reach its final
verdict?

4. Essay response task
i.‘In reaching a verdict, the jurors
reconsider both their understanding of
the case and their
understanding of themselves.’ Discuss.
Write the numbers 1-12
Group them

5. The 8th Juror
Is the first character to vote ‘not
guilty’
Does not necessarily believe that
the boy is innocent, but believes
that they ‘can’t decide in five
minutes’
Is separated from the rest of the
characters at the beginning by the
stage directions which have him
gazing out of the window and not
responding to questions

6. Of all the characters, we learn the least about the 8th
jurors background, although there is the rather curious
story about him wandering the neighbourhood of the
murder and buying a switchblade similar to the murder
weapon, which may suggest that he is familiar with the
area
He only ever asserts that he is trying to do what is
‘supposed to be happening in a jury room’, and even
suggests that he will change his vote if all of the other
jurors maintain their ‘guilty’ vote during the second
count

7. The 3rd
Juror
This is the juror we all
love to hate. His
argument rests upon his
own prejudice and life
experience

8. The 3rd juror is a self-made man, who believes in rough
justice
He is the last juror to change his mind
His relationship with his estranged son determines his
prejudice and attitude to the case, although he is the
first to declare ‘I have no personal feelings about this’
Unlike many of the other jurors, he uses definite words
like ‘I know’, ‘You can’t refute facts’ and ‘You’re
absolutely right’

9. The 4th
Juror
This juror is in many ways
the foil for the 8th juror -
he is the logical side for
the prosecution

10. The 4th juror describes himself as a broker, and his
arguments are punctuated by numbers, that lend him
more logic and reason than the observations the other
jurors offer
He lacks the imagination to put himself in the position
of the accused, distancing himself from the ‘filthy
neighbourhood’ that is a ‘breeding ground for criminals’

11. In many ways, the 4th juror is blinded by his own logic -
he cannot imagine that his careful ordering of the world
is wrong
When the 8th juror demonstrates that he doesn’t know
all the pertinent details about the films he has recently
seen, it doesn’t change his mind
Only by comparing himself to the spectacle-wearing
witness, does the 4th juror finally (2nd to last) change
his vote

12. The 10th
Juror
This juror is one of
the loudest
opponents of the
innocence of the boy

13. The 10th juror is loudest in his opposition to ‘those’
people
Unlike many of the other jurors he is not interested in
seeing justice done - he thinks the boy is guilty, but
when opinion swings the other way, tries to convince
the 4th and 3rd jurors to ‘just quit’ because he doesn’t
want to ‘break [his] brains over scum like that’
He is prejudiced against the boy he describes as a
‘common ignorant slob’ but derides the logic and
intelligence of others - ‘everyone’s a lawyer’

14. The 7th
Juror
A baseball fan, this juror
tries to expedite the
whole process so that
he can watch a game

15. The 7th juror represents Rose’s understanding that not
all citizens will give justice its due consideration
He tries to play cards, noughts and crosses (tic, tac,
toe)
Finally votes not guilty because ‘all this yakkin’s getting
us nowhere’

16. The 9th
Juror
This is the ageing
juror and he brings
insights into some of
the witnesses

17. The 9th juror is first introduced as the juror in the
lavatory, the Foreman has to ask him to hurry up, which
gives us an insight into others’ perception of ageing
This juror most strongly identifies with the witness who
‘saw’ the boy fleeing the scene
He is the first juror to change his vote, recognising the
importance of the boy’s life and the relative
unimportance of spending more time in the jury room -
‘it’s only one night. A boy may die’
He is disgusted by the 10th juror

18. The
Foreman
The foreman is a
reluctant leader who
tries very hard to
maintain impartiality

19. The foreman tries to make the dialogue within the jury
room proceed in an orderly fashion, asking the jurors to
‘go in order here’ and to ‘keep it peaceful’
He is challenged by both the 10th and the 12th juror,
but tries to be fair to all jurors, even though he thinks
the boy is ‘guilty’
He facilitates all enquiries by asking the guard to
retrieve various pieces of evidence
He changes his vote after the switchblade discussion in
an ‘almost embarrassed’ manner

20. The 11th
Juror
This is the juror with the
German accent - a
watch-maker who
believes in the justice
process

21. In Act 1, the 11th juror has little to say, raising small points of
evidence - such as the witness, the time and the knife
Towards the end of this act (a short time after he tells us of his
profession) he corrects the grammar of the 10th juror and
begins to ask some serious questions about the case, saying
‘I don’t believe I have to be loyal to one side or the other’,
finally concluding he has ‘reasonable doubt’
He defends the 8th juror even when he believes the boy is
guilty, upholding the principles of democracy

22. The 12th
Juror
The ad man who is
the only juror to
change his vote twice

23. Like the 7th juror, the 12th is seemingly disengaged
from the case at the beginning, doodling on his paper,
although he claims it helps him ‘think more clearly’
He is the juror that asks them each to take a turn, but
seems uncertain, ‘it’s just a quick thought’, ‘I...No! I
don’t think so.’
He says, ‘This is a pretty complicated business’ and
seems to epitomise the difficulty facing the 12 men

24. The 6th
Juror
The ‘working
man’ (house painter)
with an intuitive sense
of justice

25. Begins by thinking that the case is ‘pretty obvious. I
mean, I was convinced from the first day’
Articulates the concern that the jurors release the boy
and ‘the kid really did knife his father’, highlighting
again the difficulty of the situation
Raises the question of motive
Has only two lines (apart from voting) in Act 2

26. The 2nd
Juror
Mildly spoken, first
questions the
‘evidence’ of the knife

27. The 2nd juror has little specific to say about the case
other than ‘I don’t know, it was pretty interesting’
He does not even defend his guilty response when the
foreman goes around the table, saying, ‘It’s hard to put
into words’
He offers cough drops all round, but in Act 2 when the
10th juror asks for a cough drop responds, ‘They’re all
gone, my friend’
Changes his vote in the beginning of Act 2

28. The 5th
Juror
The juror from the
slums who most
sympathises with the
defendent.

29. Although we know from early on that the 5th juror has
‘lived in a slum all [his] life’ and has nursed ‘that trash in
Harlem Hospital’, he starts by thinking the boy is guilty.
When asked to defend his position he says he will
‘pass on it’
Is accused by the 3rd juror of changing his vote
(because of the revelations of his background); later
changes his vote in Act 1
Gives crucial evidence about knife fighting

30. Introduction
In Twelve Angry Men Reginald Rose has created a set
of characters who...

31. Topic sentence
Many of the characters...
Some of the characters...
Two of the characters...
One character in particular, the ...th juror,....

32. In a body paragraph
There are no names in Twelve Angry Men. Thus the
characters come to symbolise...

33. No Names
Words are used to label not who characters are but
what they are perceived to be.

34. Label what, not who
Boy
Kid
Man
Dangerous
killer
Punk little kid
Ignorant slob
Very old man
Woman
Smart
bastards
This guy
Smart guy
You people

35. 3rd Juror
Now listen to me, you people. I’ve seen all kinds of
dishonesty in my day - but this little display takes the
cake. You come in here with your sanctimonious
talk...you start getting through to some of these old
ladies here. We’ll you’re not getting through to me. p.
47

36. 11th Juror
This is not why we are here, to fight. We have a
responsibility. This, I have always thought, is a
remarkable thing about democracy. That we are
notified by mail to come down to this place and
decide...We have nothing to gain or lose by our verdict.
p. 50

37. Character conflict
The jury room is both a personal and impersonal
space. On one hand, without names, that characters
are...On the other hand, characters connect to and are
confronted by the case and each other in highly
personal ways. For example...

38. Themes
In 12 Angry Men, justice can be fragile and tenuous
because...
Prejudice can exist inside every person, even those
who...
Innocence and justice are two different notions,
because...
Everyone can have an agenda when judging the justice
that causes them to...

39. Setting
The scarring of the table and the stark image of the
knife still stuck in the middle of it at the end of the play
reveal that...
The heat, locked door, confined space and lack of
cooling all emphasize...

40. Narrative
As each point of evidence is debated, the
preconceptions of the jurors is challenged. Some of
these points of evidence symbolically represent the
feelings of the jurors. For example, the scene in which
the third juror acts out the stabbing of the
boy...Moreover, the last evidence debated is that of the
woman who claimed to witness the killing. The
revelation that she wears glasses and may not have
been able to see anything clearly at all, also
represents...

41. Violence
As the process of justice challenges the character’s
personal values, the jury room becomes violently
charged. Threatening others with violence becomes a
way for jurors to protect...