Why Doubt is More Important than Certainty in 12 Angry Men It is very clear that certainty and doubt both play important roles in the play, 12 Angry Men, by Reginald Rose. Certainty is when you are absolutely positive about something. Doubt is to be uncertain about or to not be fully convinced. In the play, 12 men are put to the task of deciding whether or not a 19-year boy is guilty of killing his father. One of the men does not think the defendant is guilty. This causes them to argue on the facts of this case. Doubt is more essential to the conclusion of 12 Angry Men than certainty. First, doubt is more important because the defendant would not have had a chance for his case to be reviewed. One of the men in the room, eight, says “There were eleven votes for guilty. It's not so easy for me to raise my hand and send a boy off to die …show more content…
In the play, they say that the defendant has lived in the ‘slum’ all his life. Five, one of the 12 men, also grew up in a bad neighborhood. Four says, “We're missing the point here. This boy—let's say he's a product of a filthy neighborhood and a broken home. We can't help that. We're not here to go into the reasons why slums are breeding grounds for criminals. They are. I know it. So do you. The children who come out of slum backgrounds are potential menaces to society” (Rose 7). When the men start to agree and say that the defendant would be more likely to kill his father because of where he lived this gave reason for five to have doubt. Five says “I've lived in a slum all my life” (Rose 7). Five turned out to be successful and had not killed anyone even though he lived in that type of neighborhood. Furthermore, the accusations about the defendant's behavior due to his background caused Five to have doubts about the determination of this