Loss Of Innocence In 12 Angry Men

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In the play,”12 Angry Men,” the relevance of the ways of knowing emerge as everyone tries to debate on whether the boys is guilty or not. The boy is found guilty under the eyes of the jurors and the subjects compromising the courtroom. This is a result of, the witnesses providing explicit declarations against the boys innocence. In fact, the boy is on trial because of potential murder towards his father and is subject to a death sentence if the jurors do not prove his innocence. Although, the jurors are not aware of augmenting the ways of knowing by examining and reasoning throughout the meeting, they prove the boys innocence by incrementing the ways of knowing as a source of knowledge. To begin with, every juror is convinced …show more content…

For example, they had faith in the witnesses declarations. Some even questioned,”How can they repeal oath?’’ In addition, Juror #2 relies on his intuition to settle his decision. When asked he says,”I just think he is guilty.”(Juror #2) Juror # 5 relies on his memory to determine whether the boy is guilty or not. For instance, all he says is,”I lived in a slum.”(Juror # 5) Here juror # 5 debates in his mind whether the boy should be guilty or not. He draws connections between the boy and him by analyzing his own past times in slums. To move on, All the jurors use sense perception during the beginning to acknowledge the situation. They see and hear the witnesses declaring their statements under oath, in which allows them to trust them. Nonetheless, language is a big factor in determining the boys innocence in respect with the case. For one, it allows the jurors to communicate and extract knowledge by understanding what others say. Without a doubt language is the basis for the extraction of the truth. Juror # 8 enters the room believing that the boy is not guilty. His reasons and different perceptions of the situations allows everyone to scrutinize the situation. For instance, once he proves that the old man could not have seen the boy down the steps and in addition he could have not heard him through the train, he introduces everyone the other side of the story by saying,” We have a reasonable doubt.”(Juror # 8) This statement circulates in …show more content…

Although, their reason seemed valid in their eyes they were invalid in other jurors eyes, especially in juror #8’s. Their trust in believing the witnesses declarations allowed them to reason the boys honesty, which ultimately allowed them to announce his guiltiness. Furthermore, juror #8 presented them a distinct way of viewing the decision, in where he questioned the oath of the witnesses. This allowed the jurors to consume a distinct perception of the situation, in where the boy does seem ingenuous. Juror # 11 changed his decision and defended the boy later on the play. In his own words,” Why is this such a personal trial for you.”(Juror # 11) Here he questions juror # 3 in which he ultimately wants to express why juror # 3 can not accept his defeat. To add on, Juror # 9 also contaminates the pursuit to acknowledge his innocence. He uses sense perception to bring out a powerful point. He asks juror # 4,” Don’t you feel well?” Here he introduces the glasses as a vital point, he questions the visibility of the women in her validness to see the boy murder his father. Further, Juror # 8 says,” It is logical that she wore eyeglasses to bed.”(Juror 8) Indeed, the plague to prove the boys innocence spreads and everyone accepts the important facts being presented and reasoned

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