Step 1: Identify the narrator’s/author’s main points.
Step 2: Describe the 3rd and the 10th Jurors’ attitude and tone. Who or what is he criticising and why? Referring to at least three quotes, explain their purpose and their link to the character’s views.
- eg. contemptuous; indignant; intransigent; condescending; patronising; belittling; dismissive
Step 3: Learn new words and phrases: use in a sentence.
Learn four new expressions (words and phrases). Write these phrases in your own sentence.
Give Quotes:
The 10th juror has a flippant, casual, cavalier attitude towards the discussion ((reckless, indifferent)
As a spokesperson for justice, the 8th juror maintains a calm and considered approach to the boy’s trial (phlegmatic) (unflappable) He suggests that we “owe him a few words”; this is a criticism or an indictment of the 10th and 3rd jurors attitude – they prefer to tell “stories” and dismiss the boy’s right to be heard.
The 10th juror asks questions in a contemptuous manner; suggesting /implying that the boy does not deserve a trial that costs money, because he grew up in the slums and was brought up in an orphanage; because he is socially disadvantaged he does not deserve a fair trial.
He uses his own personal experience to cast aspersions on the boy and his “defence”; he suggests that “you can’t believe a word they say. I mean they’re born liars.”
Rose suggests that those who are bigoted and prejudiced often do not recognise their own blind spots or flawed reasons.
The 9th juror is concerned that the 10th juror presents as “ignorant” and from his bigoted perspective, implies that he has a “monopoly on the truth”
In the stage directions, Rose states that he “rises and looks around at the others” , he may be canvassing for support, but he is also intimidating the others.
Rose notes in the stage directions that the third juror “refers to his notes”; The fact that he reads these “facts” which is nothing more than a misguided assumption about the boy who said he was “gonna kill” his father, reveals a very serious problem about his bigotted views. When he heard the thump of the body, he assumed that the boy had killed his father.
Other Exercises
Exercise 6: 12 Angry Men; 8th juror’s comments
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