Art Imitates Life: The Phenomenon of "Inherit the Wind"

Inherit the Wind was written in the mid-1950s by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee (for the history-challenged, not the famous Confederate general). It was not specifically intended to be a faithful dramatization of the Scopes Trial or even to promote the truth of evolution per se. Rather, it was a veiled critique of McCarthyism. But that little detail has been lost in the ensuing years, especially as the controversy over creation and evolution flared back up again and proponents of Darwinism sized on the play (and especially the movie version, produced in 1960) as a vehicle for warning the public of the dangers for science of ignorant religious fundamentalism.

In brief, the play concerns one Bert Cates, a handsome young science teacher caught by angry local leaders in the illegal act of teaching evolution to Hillsboro high school students. Bert is in love with Rachel Brown, the daughter of a fiery bigoted preacher. The famous antievolution crusader and former presidential candidate Matthew Harrison Brady arrives to prosecute the case. Hillsboro welcomes him with open arms. Hardened reporter E. L. Hornbeck of the Baltimore Herald arrives to offer acid reflections on the developing spectacle; he takes special glee in skewering the townsfolk for their mindless religiosity. Brady is characterized as a genial but pompous, gluttonous windbag who is not above manipulating Rachel into making certain confidences that he will use against Bert in the trial. All the hoopla is interrupted by the arrival of Henry Drummond, a principled defender of the oppressed, to act as defense counsel. His reception in Hillsboro is not nearly so friendly. Drummond is given all the good lines. The defense cause is pure and noble but in an impossible legal position. Brady forces Bert to admit to having taught evolution in the classroom, some reluctant students are made to corroborate this confession, and even Rachel is brought to the stand to weepily document Bert's heterodox opinions. His scientific witnesses disallowed by the court, Drummond brilliantly maneuvers Brady into taking the stand to give "expert testimony" on the Bible. The ensuing exchange goes all Drummond's way as he succeeds in flummoxing and embarrassing Brady and makes of him a laughingstock. But the foregone guility verdict is returned. Embarrassed civic leaders convince the judge to impose a small fine, which Bert in principle refuses to pay. He and Rachel, who has learned the errors of her narrow ways of thinking, leave town to get married. Brady lets loose with an incoherant rant that ends in a physical collapse and his death off-stage. At the end, Drummond is left alone in the courtroom. He takes a Bible in one hand and a copy of Origin in the other, weighing them as if in a balance. He then shrugs and places both books in his briefcase as the curtain falls.

The reader may compare this plot synopsis with the historical account of the actual Scopes Trial I wrote last week.