As Thomas A. Kempis says, Such as every man is inwardly so he judgeth outwardly. ” In other words, how someone feels inside reflects his or her thoughts and opinions. This is true in the play Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose. In Twelve Angry Men, a boy is accused of murdering his father, and it is the job of the twelve members of the jury to decide his fate.
Jurors eight and ten have strong feelings towards the boy that affect their votes. Juror eight isa calm, thoughtful man who fights to see that justice is carried out. Eight is the first to state that they should at least review the facts of the case before they send him off to die. He also points out holes in the old man’s testimony and proves that they cannot put all their trust in what the old man has to say. One of the last pieces of evidence that juror eight brings to attention is the way the boys father was stabbed. Juror eight gets it into the other juror’s minds that there is reasonable doubt, and saves the boys life because he opts to review the facts of the case with the jury.
Unlike juror eight, ten is a boisterous, angry bigot who is not fond of the boy, and this affects his vote. Ten believes that he’s guilty up until the end of the play, and is constantly referring to the boys racial group as them, and those people. He also thinks of the boy as being ignorant, and a slob. Ten is not a fair man, and is very prejudiced towards the boy and says that he does not value human life.
The negative feelings that ten has against the boy cause him to vote guilty for the majority of the play. As a result of the feelings of jurors eight and ten, their votes are affected. How the jurors feel inside reflects their thoughts and opinions, and as Kempis says, Such as every man is inwardly so he judgeth outwardly.
