Juror 8

677 Words2 Pages

There are lots of different types of people in one city. Jury duty allows them to get together and participate in discussing the freedoms and rights of their peers or the one being tried. In the play “Twelve Angry Men,” by Reginald Rose, twelve men with different personalities try to persuade each other towards their opinion. Juror Eight is the most effective because he is able to manipulate the other jurors with his calm, respectful, open-mindedness, and rational ways. Juror Eight is calm and respectful which helps him to manipulate the other jurors. When a person is calm they tend to know how to control what they say and do in tense and serious situations. Juror Three rages with anger and threatens Juror Eight that he is going to kill him but all Juror Eight did in response was say, “You don’t really mean you’ll kill me, do you?” in a soft and sincere voice. By doing this allows people to see he is able to maintain composure when things get a little tense. The meaning of calm is steadiness of the mind under stress which in this situation is very stressful. Most people would show a sense of fear or anger, but Juror Eight remained in the same state. This allows the other jurors to feel that they can talk to him and he would be understanding towards them. Juror Eight gives everyone a chance to speak or have a say to what they are talking about. People recieve a sort of comfort and respect that they may not always get. He does this when they are talking about the el tracks. Juror Eight asks, “What do you think?” to Juror Five who has not said anything. Juror Five says, “About ten or twelve seconds- maybe” in response to how long the el train would take. Juror Eight respects his answer and allows Juror Five the opportunity to s... ... middle of paper ... ...nd the situation of the case to create a conclusion that will help decided whether the kid is guilty or innocent. He can use this ability to his advantage and persuade the other jurors his opinion. Making the jurors feel that they can trust him and believe he knows what he is talking about by being rational. Throughout the play “Twelve Angry Men,” Juror Eight is able to persuade and convince the other jurors with his calm, open-mindedness, respectful and rational personality. He was very strategic in a way that he must have planned the whole things out because if he was not the way he was and was yelling at everyone about what he thought no one would have listened to him. Everyone would have been too frightened to say anything. They could have punished an innocent boy just because no one would respect, act calm, have an open-mind and be rational about everything.

Open Document