Lesson Five: Twelve Angry Men ( Part One )

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Lesson Five Twelve Angry Men ( Part
One )

• About the author
• background / works / note
• About the text
• figures of speech / word study /
  sentence paraphrase / exercise
• In-class discussion
• Homework

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Twelve Angry Men
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Background

• Reginald Rose (1920- ) is a native New Yorker,
  best known as a writer for television. The Twelve
  Angry Men was written in 1954 based on his
  experience as a juror. The play was turned into a
  movie, with much abridgement. What distinguished
  Roses teleplays was their direct preoccupation
  with social and political issues.
• Rose is one of the outstanding television
  playwrights to emerge from the "Golden Age" of
  television drama anthology series. Rose takes a
  place in history at the top of the craft of
  television writing.
• In addition to other accolades, Rose was
  nominated for six Emmy awards during his career,
  and won three.

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Works

• TELEVISION MINISERIES
• 1979 Studs Lonigan1987 Escape From
  Sobibor
• MADE-FOR-TELEVISION MOVIES
• 1982 The Rules of Marriage1986 My Two
  Loves (with Rita Mae Brown

• TELEVISION SERIES (various episodes)
• 1951 Out There 1954-57 Studio One 1955
  Elgin Hour 1955 Philco Television
  Playhouse-Goodyear Playhouse 1956 Alcoa
  Hour-Goodyear Playhouse 1959 Playhouse 90 1960
  Sunday Showcase 1961-65 The Defenders (creator
  and writer) 1967 CBS Playhouse 1975 The Zoo
  Gang (creator and writer)1977 The Four of Us
  (pilot

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Note

• 1. In comprehension, two things should be paid
  attention to (1) the tone of certain remarks.
  Ironical tone is commonly used when making some
  points. (2) the context since it is a play, it
  is important to link each statement with what is
  said before .

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• 2. Brief Introduction to U.S Judicial System
  
• In America, there is a principle guiding a
  criminal court the accused is convicted beyond
  reasonable doubt. In other words, innocent until
  proven guilty.

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• The jury consists of 12 jurors, selected at
  random, who will give an unanimous verdict of
  guilty or not guilty through discussion.
• unanimous all agreeing completely
• verdict an official decision made by a jury
  about whether someone is guilty or not guilty of
  a crime

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• If the verdict is guilty, then the judge will
  give the sentence. If the verdict is not guilty,
  then the judge will have to acquit the accused.
• acquit to give a decision that someone is not
  guilty of a crime

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Figures of Speech

• Observe these sentences and find out the
  grammatical function of each of the italicized
  gerund phrase.
• 1. They are the jury for the trial of a boy
  charged with murdering his father.
• 2. Hes been arrested for muffing, picked up for
  knife-fighting.
• 3. Lets stop being so sensitive.
• 4. so I was used to wrenching myself away from
  friends.
• 5. Keeping to myself was my way of not forming
  attachments that I would only have to abandon the
  next time was moved.

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• The gerund has exactly the same form as the
  present participle. However, while the latter has
  the function of the adjective or the adverb, the
  former always functions as a noun. Gerunds denote
  activities in a general way. They cannot be used
  with numbers and such determiners as this and
  that.
• prepositional object------1
• prepositional object------2 (knife-fighting part
  of a compound word which is used as prepositional
  object)

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• objects of verbs-----3
• prepositional object-----4
• Subject-----5 (keeping to myself)
• prepositional object-----5 (not forming
  attachment)

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Word Study

• court criminal a court dealing with criminal
  cases involving crimescf civil court a court
  dealing with cases involving private legal matters

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any way --------- anyway

• any way by any method in any manner
• anyway in spite of the problem involved in
  any case.
• He may not like to see me, but Im going _____.
• You can do it ______ you want. I dont care. I
  just want the result.
• 
  

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• first-degree murder the most serious kind of
  murder in which the murderer deliberately kills
  somebody
• manslaughter the crime of killing somebody
  illegally but not intentionally

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• juror a member of a jury.
• foreman the leader of a jury.
• jury a group of up to 12 people, called jurors
  whose duty is to listen to the evidence given in
  a court trial and decide whether the accused is
  guilty or not guilty.
• 
  

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I think its a customary to take a preliminary
vote.

• preliminary happening before sth. that is more
  important, often in order to prepare for it
  preparatory
• e.g.
• The congress will start preliminary hearing soon.
• They will have a preliminary discussion of this
  problem before the Board meeting.
• After a few preliminary remarks, he brought up
  this important question.

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You know, born in a slum, his mother dead since
he was 9, lived a year and a half in orphanage
when his father was serving a jail term for
forgery.

• to serve a jail term to spend time in prison as
  a punishment (also to serve a sentence to
  serve time)
• In spoken English, elliptical sentences are
  common. Writing in full, the above sentence would
  be You know, he was born in a slum, his mother
  was dead when he was 9, and he lived a year and a
  half in an orphanage when his father was serving
  a jail term for forgery.

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the boys story was flimsy.

• flimsy thin,weak feeble as in flimsy dress,
  flimsy cloth, flimsy building, flimsy
  evidence, flimsy argument, flimsy excuse
  etc.
• the boys argument was unconvincing his
  argument was weak.

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• listening while the evidence spilled out.
• to spill out to come out in a large
  amount
• plain stupid
• (infml) simply, completely stupid
• Look, there was one alleged eyewitness to this
  killingsomeone else claimed that
• alleged supposed to be true although
  there is no proof
• to claim to state as a fact even though
  it has not been proved

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• I kept putting myself in the kids place. If I
  was on trial for my life, Id want my lawyer to
  tear the prosecutors evidence to shreds.
• to put oneself in sbs place to imagine
  myself to be in sbs position
• to tear sth to shreds to tear sth to
  pieces
• Lets get to the point.
• Lets get to the point Lets talk about
  the most important part of the problem.

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Sentence Paraphrase

• Maybe we can all get out of here.
• No.7 means that if everyone agrees that the
  boy is guilty, then they can take the verdict to
  the court and get the whole thing over and done
  right away. He is eager to get out of this jury
  room because it is hot and besides he has a
  ticket for a football game for that evening which
  he does not want to miss. These interesting
  details have been cut out with great reluctance
  because the text is too long for our purpose.

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• weve got to send him to the chair.
• weve got to send him to the electric chair
  (to be electrocuted )
• Now we know where we are.
• Now we know what everybodys attitude is.

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• Thats old enough.
• The boy is old enough to be held legally
  responsible for his actions. He has reached the
  legal age for which the law can punish him for
  his crimes.
• I just think we owe him a few words.
• The society has not treated the boy very
  well. Therefore we should at least talk a little
  bit before we send him to the chair. The boy has
  a right to that. We should do it for him.

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• What do you think that trial cost?
• According to the U. S. law, any citizen
  has a right to a proper trial, and if he cant
  pay, the trial will be paid by the government.
  Thats why No.10 here reminds N0.8 angrily that
  the boy has cost a lot of public money.
• Youre not going to tell me that were supposed
  to believe this kid, knowing what he is!
• Dont tell me (because that will be useless
  and stupid if you do ) we should believe this kid
  since we know what sort of person he is.

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• Since when is dishonesty a group characteristic?
• Im surprised to hear you say that as if
  dishonesty has ever been a group characteristic.
  This is a retort to No.10s remark from No.9 who
  is opposed to stereotyped opinions about the poor
  people. Some individuals are dishonest. They
  might be rich or poor. It has nothing to do with
  the social group they belong to. To condemn a
  whole group of people as immoral or inferior is
  the common attitude of racists and other bigots.

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• Now look here
• Now listen to me
• This is used to call sbs attention, esp
  when you are annoyed.
• we might be able to show him where hes mixed
  up.
• we might be able to show him where he is
  wrong.
• just a quick idea
• Its just an idea that came to my mind. I
  havent thought it out very carefully.

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• Its hard to put into words. I just think hes
  guilty. I mean nobody proved otherwise.
• Its hard to express my views. I just
  think hes guilty. I mean nobody proved him
  innocent. No.2 obviously doesnt know the
  principle that the boy is innocent until proven
  guilty. His use of the word think shows that he
  is not basing his judgement on facts but his
  feelings.

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• Innocent until proven guilty. The burden of proof
  in on the prosecution.
• The American legal system is based on the
  confrontation principle with the prosecutor
  trying his utmost to prove the accused guilty and
  the defense lawyer trying his best to prove his
  client not guilty. When all the facts are out,
  then the jury makes a decision.

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• Youre a pretty smart fellow, arent you?
• Notice that when No.10 says this, he is
  wild with anger because No.8 has made him appear
  ridiculous.
• Its just part of the picture.
• Its just part of the whole case. It is
  somehow related to the whole matter.
• Notice that the speaker cannot explain the
  logical connection. His tone is uncertain.

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• Im just ad sentimental as the next fellow. I
  know hes only eighteen.
• Im just as tender-hearted as the other
  people. Im not callous or unfeeling.
• Notice that No.3 is being sarcastic by
  using the word sentimental because he considers
  himself a tough-minded man who will not allow
  feelings to interfere with his judgement like old
  women.

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• If her testimony dont prove hes guilty, the
  nothing does.
• I think her testimony is strong enough to
  prove hes guilty.
• Notice the use of dont instead of
  doesnt showing No.10s educational background.
• You dont believe the boys story. How come you
  believe the womans? Shes one of THEM, too,
  isnt she?
• No.8 is pointing out a flaw in No.10s
  logic. No.10 first says that you cant believe
  those slum people, then he begins to quote one of
  those peoples testimony, but he is not aware of
  his self-contradiction.

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• violence is practically a normal state of
  affairs with him. I just cant see two slaps in
  the face would have provoked him into committing
  murder.
• violence is so common in his life, he is
  quite used to it. I just dont understand how two
  slaps in the face would have made him so angry as
  to commit murder.

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• It may have been two too many. Everyone has a
  breaking point.
• These two slaps may have been beyond his
  limit of endurance. The boy has been kicked
  around so often that he may have been reaching
  the breaking point when the two slaps come.
• Notice that No.4s reasoning is not wrong.

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Exercise

• I. Translate.
• 1. From English into Chinese.
• to commit a grave error ?????
• to handle the case ??????
• to give testimony ????
• to provide evidence ????
• to identify the weapon ????
• to wipe off the fingerprints ????

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2). From Chinese into English.

• to quote the Bible
• to list all the reasons
• to dial the phone number
• to define a word
• to serve a jail term
• to owe sb. an apology

1. ????
2. ??????
3. ????????
4. ???????
5. ?????
6. ??????

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Fill in the blanks.

1. Did he give any reason why he turned ____ our
   request?
2. Its getting late. Its time we turned ____.
3. That sort of music did not turn me ____ . As a
   matter of fact, it turned me _____.

• down
• in
• on off

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In-class discussion

• After learning the play, ask students to talk
  about the following questions in group work
• What was the evidence against the boy? How did it
  fall piece by piece through the discussion?
• Why is it so easy for people to go along with the
  crowd?
• What lesson should we draw from this?
• Then choose some students to express
  their views.

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Homework

• a. Read the play carefully, and act it out with
  your classmates.
• b. Write a summary in your own words.