12 Angry Men

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Jacob Moses                                   12 Angry Men Coursework                           English                                             Mr McClusky

12 Angry Men

What techniques does the playwright use to increase and decrease tension in the scenes provided? Does the playwright succeed in this attempt?

This essay will be discussing the methods used to increase and decrease tension by the playwright Reginald Rose in the play 12 Angry Men. The play takes place on a blazing hot day in the middle of July, and begins as some Jurors enter the jury room to discuss a murder committed by a young man.

The jurors begin light conversation as they enter the small, hot and cramped room and find their seats. They begin discussing the murder, and soon it is clear that the majority of the jurors believe the young man to be guilty and that they have no desire to sit and deliberate, they would rather talk about a baseball game, which starts at 7pm that evening. Although they seem keen to dismiss the case with a guilty verdict, Juror 8 stands up and declares that there is room for reasonable doubt. He would like to examine the evidence thoroughly. Eventually this Juror persuades the others that the accused is not guilty. Throughout the play, the playwright uses this conflict to inflame and reduce the tension.

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Reginald Rose uses a few methods to increase and decrease tension. We can firstly tell by the little things he uses. Some of these consist of the room being cramped and stuffy, the fan not working, and the weather. The different moods of the characters also make tension. Small things like these cut the tension in noticeable ways. The weather changes at one point into lightning, thunder and heavy rain and the fan starting to work. These examples break the tension that has been building in the room.

Whilst this is happening the mood of the ...

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