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Summary and Analysis of Act One, Scene I
Act One, Scene I Summary: At the foreground of the stage is a courtroom set. Behind it, on a raked level, is the Main Street and converging streets of the small town of Hillsboro. A thirteen-year-old boy named Howard is greeted by a twelve-year-old girl named Melinda, who talks of the rain last night and the hot weather today. Howard, who is going to go fishing, looks for worms, dangling one in front of Melinda and telling her that she was a worm once the whole world was once covered by worms and blobs of jelly. Melinda threatens to tell her pa on Howard for this sinful talk and runs off, with Howard shouting that her "old man's a monkey" after her. As Howard looks for worms, a twenty-two year old woman named Rachel enters, carrying a suitcase, and goes to the courthouse. Meeker, the bailiff, enters from inside the jail below. Rachel asks him not to let her father the Reverend know she's there and says she wants to see Bert Cates. Meeker says the jail isn't the proper place for a minister's daughter and offers to bring him up to the courtroom to talk to her. Meeker gets Cates, who is "a pale, thing young man of twenty-four," and leaves Cates and Rachel alone to talk. Cates tries to cheer her up, telling her the food in jail is better than at the boarding house and it is cool down there, and Rachel tells him she has brought him a clean shirt, tie, and handkerchiefs from his place. She urges him to admit he was wrong and say it was all a joke, figuring if Matthew Harrison Brady "the biggest man in the country next to the President, maybe" is coming to town to say he is wrong, then he must be. Cates says that all he did was teach Chapter 17 in the biology book, Darwin's Origin of Species. Rachel insists that everyone says that what he did was bad and that there's a law against it, but Cates says that everything is not black and white. Nevertheless, the two embrace. Rachel rushes out when Meeker comes back in to sweep. Meeker mentions his amazement that Brady, who ran for President three times, is coming to little Hillsboro before Cates goes back down to the jail. Out in the square, Mrs. Krebs and a storekeeper greet Reverent Jeremiah Brown. The townspeople prepare for Brady's arrival on the next train. A man named Corkin and another man raise a banner which reads "Read Your Bible." Mrs. Krebs has helped to prepare a picnic lunch and is excited to board visitors to town in her house, for a cost, while the storekeeper is excited about increased business from all the people in town. Howard's excited about the ribbons decorating the depot while Melinda sells lemonade. A hawker sells hot-dogs, Mrs. McClain sells fans, and Howard tells his mother, Mrs. Blair, that it's just like a county fair. A bearded, barefoot "holy man" from the hills named Elijah sells Bibles. Just then, newspaperman E.K. Hornbeck, a man in his mid-thirties wearing city clothing enters. He turns down Mrs. McClain's offer of a fan and Mrs. Krebs' offer of a room and when facing a choice between a Bible and a hotdog, chooses the hotdog. He introduces himself to Elijah as a writer for the Baltimore Herald and remarks he's read some of Elijah's stuff, which confuses the man. Then, he speaks to an organ-grinder's monkey, whom he calls "grandpa" and asks if he's a witness for the defense or prosecution. When the monkey takes Melinda's penny, Hornbeck says that is proof it is father of the human race. A boy named Timmy announces that smoke from the incoming train is visible, and the crowd departs to meet it. Remaining behind, Hornbeck asks the storekeeper about his opinion on evolution, and the storekeeper says he doesn't have any, since they're bad for business. Matthew Harrison Brady, "a benign giant of a man...gray, balding, paunchy, an indeterminate sixty-five," enters with his wife Sarah, the mayor, the minister, and other citizens. The townspeople sing "Give Me That Old-Time Religion," adding a verse "It is good enough for Brady, / And it's good enough for me!" A magnetic speaker, Brady thanks the people for their hospitality and says he is there to defend against an attack by the big cities of the North and to defend the Living Truth of the Scriptures. Photographers snap pictures, and the major welcomes Brady in a speech which credits the man with everything from women's suffrage to Wilson's election to President to victory in World War I. Brady arranges a picture of himself between the mayor and minister, and the mayor presents him with a commission as Honorary Colonel in the State Militia, before leading him off to the picnic lunch. At the picnic, Brady meets Tom Davenport, the circuit district attorney, with whom he'll be working at the trial, and asks if Cates is a criminal by nature. Rachel says he isn't, and when Brady wants to question her further, her father forces her to answer his questions. She knows him because she too is a schoolteacher, of second graders, who Brady asks if she tries to teach according to the precepts of the Lord. When Brady asks if Cates has tried to pollute her mind with heathen dogma, she objects, saying Bert isn't a heathen. Brady takes her outburst as loyalty to a fellow teacher. A man named Bannister asks who the defense attorney will be, and the mayor says whoever it is won't have a chance against Brady. Hornbeck announces that the Baltimore Herald, looking for a headline, has paid Henry Drummond, "the most agile legal mind of the Twentieth Century," to defend Cates. The townspeople, who know of Drummond from his defense of child-killers and blaming society for murderer's crimes, are shocked. Brady, too, becomes pale when he hears this but quiets the townspeople's plans to bar Drummond from town by saying they should welcome him because this Goliath will magnify their cause. Brady eats constantly as he says they'll be able to fight Drummond with some of the things Rachel has told them, before apologizing for picking at his food and going off for a nap before the trial. The townspeople follow him offstage, singing again. Rachel calls down to Cates, who doesn't respond. Hornbeck offers to give her advice, saying he's inspecting the battlefield. He offers her a newspaper with a story he's written about Cates as a hero, "boy-Socrates, latter-day Dreyfus, / Romeo with a biology book." Rachel wants to know if the article will be published in the local paper because it would make people understand Cates' actions. She's surprised someone as cynical as Hornbeck would write an article like that and says she can't see Cates as a hero because a teacher, as a public servant, should do as the law and school-board tells them. She thinks all the answers to life's questions are in the Bible and that Cates must be wrong if Brady, who is "the champion of ordinary people," came to speak against him. Hornbeck says she is deceived, that Brady used to be a hero to the people but now they can think for themselves and he deceives them. Rachel leaves and Hornbeck watches the square, where the storekeeper and Mrs. McClain talk about the hot weather before leaving. Melinda runs onstage to give the monkey a penny, before the organ-grinder leaves. She is alone onstage, except for Hornbeck when a hunched-over figure with his head jutting forward walks onstage, lit from behind with the red sun, his face in shadow. "It's the Devil!" Melinda screams and runs off. Actually, it's Drummond, who Hornbeck greets by welcoming him to Hell. Act One, Scene I Analysis: From the very first description of the set, it is evident that the town of Hillsboro is as much a major player in Inherit the Wind than any of the characters. The town is "visible always, looming there, as much on trial as the individual defendant." Lawrence and Lee describe a courtroom set without walls, in which the town square, shops, and streets are always visible. In making the town always visible, they insure that it is clear to the viewer that this court case is not just a question of disembodied ideas or legal precepts. Rather, this play and the court case it dramatizes mean to challenge an entire way of life and thinking embodied by Hillsboro, as a small Southern American town. Hornbeck, the reporter, draws upon the image of a "truck-garden" when he challenges Rachel's assertion that the answers to all the questions of existence can be found in the Bible: "All?! You feed the youth of Hillsboro / From the little truck-garden of your mind?" Thus, the viewpoints of the people of Hillsboro are severely limited. This limited ability to see beyond oneself and one's beliefs contrasts sharply with the extended line of vision provided to the spectator of the play through the open set. The viewer of the play can see what characters like Rachel cannot that the action and beliefs discussed in the courtroom are controlled by the culture of the town which encompasses it. From observing the disconnect between the words and actions of the people of Hillsboro, the viewer becomes aware of the hypocrisy which the play criticizes. The townspeople people like Mrs. Krebs, Reverend Brown, and the Mayor and Matthew Harrison Brady all preach Christian sentiment and proclaim the importance of morality, according to the Bible. However, perhaps ironically, they seem far more interested in material goods and appearances than with Christian behavior. The preparation for Brady's arrival includes banners, food, and talk of the money the town will make during the trial rather than any deep discussion of the issue at stake in Cates' breaking the law. Even the singing of "Give Me That Old-Time Religion" is more of a show for Brady's arrival than a heartfelt expression of religious sentiment. One stunning parallel in this scene occurs between the characters of Mrs. Krebs and Elijah. Mrs. Krebs proclaims to be so Christian that she says she doesn't even mind the heat because "the Good Lord guv us the heat, and the Good Lord guv us the glands to sweat with." But her immediate reaction to the trial is glee over the amount of money she will make by putting up borders. Elijah at first seems to contrast to Mrs. Krebs. Whereas she is an upstanding townswoman, he is a barefoot mountain man. To Hornbeck, and to the viewer, Elijah at first seems as if he might be a voice of reason a true prophet, a true believer in religious precepts, like the Old Testament prophet Elijah to whom Hornbeck alludes. Elijah's action's, selling Bibles, to the crowd, and his statement to Hornbeck, telling him that the doesn't read, reveals him to be just as materialistic and ignorant as the rest of the town. That Elijah, who conjures thoughts of a true religious mind, is a fraud suggests the townspeople are just as bad. On a similar note, the concern with outward appearance over inward meaning is apparent from Rachel's first visit to Cates in jail. She has stopped by his room to get him some clothes, assuming that his physical appearance will make the difference in his trial. Similarly, Brady's first act when arriving in town is to call for the Reverend, so that the two of them can be photographed together for the press. Cates' admonition to Rachel, that she will only see things in black-and-white without digging deeper for the complications applies to the whole town. They live in Hillsboro, as Rachel says, and are concerned solely with Hillsboro and nothing beyond it. In one sense, Hornbeck the reporter functions as a surrogate for the viewer. Like the viewer, he is an outsider to Hillsdale. He comes from Baltimore, a city, and believes himself to be more intelligent, more intellectual, and more perceptive than the townspeople. The viewer is tempted to take Hornbeck's words at face value and to perceive him to be their guide for the spectacle of the trial but such a choice would be dangerous. Rachel is right in perceiving him to be cynical. In fact, Hornbeck represents the opposite end of the spectrum from Rachel. Whereas she is afraid to dig to deeply, to see the truth about life, he has looked at its dark side for so long, as a reporter, that he has become inured to the beauties and good things about life. Both attitudes are dangerous. Hornbeck's language, however, is significant in the way that it is set apart from the other dialogue of the play. Whereas the other characters speak in everyday prose and in a Southern dialect, Hornbeck's lines are written in blank verse. Hornbeck speaks out loud as a writer, attempting to make and extend meaning out of everything he observes. His numerous allusions calling Rachel "Little Eva" for her temptation, for example demonstrate that this is no ordinary trial and incite the viewer to look beyond the surface details of the action for a more universal meaning. Lawrence and Lee state in a preface before the first scene that this play is not to be taken as history. They say that the "time of the play is not 1925... It might have been yesterday. It could be tomorrow." Thus Hornbeck, like the bard of the Odyssey, sings the song which makes the meanings inherent in Inherit the Wind timeless and relevant.
Summary and Analysis of Act One, Scene II
Act One, Scene II Summary: A few days later, in the courtroom, ten of twelve jurors have already been chosen. Davenport, the local prosecutor, is about to confirm a prospective juror named Bannister, who has just testified that he attends church regularly, when Drummond asks Bannister why he's so anxious to get that front seat in the jury box. Bannister says it's supposed to be quite a show. Drummond asks if he's read Darwin. He hasn't read that but he hasn't read the Bible either; he can't read. Drummond confirms him. Brady makes a motion, because it is 97 degrees in the courtroom, that he be allowed to remove his coat. Drummond takes off his too, to reveal bright purple suspenders. Brady, who has been basking in the laughter of the crowd, asks if those are the latest fashion in Chicago. Drummond one-ups him by revealing he purchased them in Brady's hometown of Weeping Water, Nebraska. Davenport questions farmer and cabinetmaker Jesse Dunlap, the next prospective juror, who says he believes in God and in Brady. Drummond dismisses him. Brady objects to Drummond's levity the only question he asks Dunlap is about the heat and Drummond in turn objects to Brady's being called Colonel as prejudicial to the defendant. In return, the judge makes Drummond a "temporary Honorable Colonel." The next prospective juror, George Sillers, who works at the feed store, says he is religious as the next man and is accepted by Brady as an honest, God-fearing man. When Drummond questions him, he says that his wife tends to the religion for both of them. Brady objects to the hypothetical questions Drummond asks Sillers about what his wife would feel if she were to meet Darwin, and when Sillers insists all he does is work at the feed store, Drummond accepts him. Brady then objects, saying all the jurors should conform to the laws and patterns of society, leading Drummond to accuse him of wanting to run all the jurors through a meat grinder. Brady continues to object to Drummond's practice of twisting and confusing the jurors' minds, as he did in the Endicott publishing case when he convinced jurors the obscenity was not on the page but in their own mind. Drummond says he just wants to prevent "clock-stoppers" from dumping "medieval nonsense" into the Constitution, and the judge, in light of the heat, holds that the jury has been selected and resources court until the next morning. The judge then announces, as a favor to Reverend Brown, that a prayer meeting with be held on the courthouse lawn that evening. Drummond objects to that "commercial announcement" and says it's bad enough that everyone has to walk into the courtroom under the "Read Your Bible!" banner, with no "Read Your Darwin!" banner. The judge calls him out of order and recesses court. The crowd gathers around Brady as he leaves. Rachel stands wordless near Cates and then darts to Drummond's side, urging him to call the whole thing off and just have Cates admit that he did wrong and broke the law. Cates says that people look at him worse than they did at the man from Minnesota who killed his wife. Drummond says that murdering a wife isn't as bad as murdering an old wives' tale. Rachel is upset that he turns everything into a joke, and Cates says he can't laugh because he's scared. Rachel accuses Drummond of just wanting to make speeches against the Bible, but Drummond says he cares about Cates and what he thinks. He wants to know if it's worth buying back his respectability by making him a coward. He tells Cates he'll change his plea only on the condition that he truly believes he committed a criminal act against the citizens of the state and their children's minds. Cates says he's not going to quit. A teary-eyed Rachel says she doesn't know what she's going to do. She says Brady wants her to testify against Burt. Cates is worried because he knows those questions about what the stars are for or what's on the back side of the moon he has whispered to her in the dark will be made to sound like answers by Brady. Meeker takes Cates away, leaving Drummond telling Rachel not to let Brady scare her. She says she's not afraid of Brady; she's afraid of her father. Even when she was a child and woke up scared at night, the idea of going to him for comfort scared her more. She asks Drummond if Bert is wicked, and Drummond says no, that Cates may just may be a great man and it takes strength for a woman to love a man like that. Act One, Scene II Analysis: The theme of humor surfaces in this scene, first when the stage directions describe the judge as "humorless." Later, when speaking with Rachel, who accuses him of making jokes at Cates' expense, Drummond explains, "when you lose your power to laugh, you lose your power to think straight." Humor, then, is equated with perspective. In the previous scene, Hornbeck spoke about the "truck-garden" of Rachel's mind, referring to the circumscribed frame of reference possessed by the residents of Hillsboro. These people, who take the trial so seriously, cannot see beyond their own beliefs or customs, and like Rachel, cannot laugh at their situation. Their inability to step outside the situation their lack of perspective makes them unable to find the humor in it and furthermore makes them unable to see the truth in the situation. Similarly, Drummond's words in this scene bring up the theme of the absurd. When he proposes a banner "Read Your Darwin!" be raised next to the "Read Your Bible!" banner, the judge remarks, "That's preposterous!" Drummond replies, "It certainly is!" Drummond, unlike the townspeople, is an outsider. As such, he is capable of recognizing the absurdity of the situation. The townspeople, lacking perspective, cannot differentiate between levels of good or bad, of right and wrong like Rachel in the previous scene, they want things to be black and white. Therefore, to them, Drummond and Cates are not just wrong or even criminal they are as bad as the devil. Drummond, as a surrogate for the audience, provides a means for them to recognize the absurdity of the court case. With his purple suspenders, he assumes the figure of the clown. However, as a clown, he does not incite the crowd to laugh at him; rather, he causes them to laugh at his opponent, Brady. His role, as purveyor of humor, is to direct the crowd's and the audience's attention toward that which they have not examined and have heretofore taken for granted. Unexamined assumptions provide the basis for the contrast which Brady and Drummond examine in the prospective jurors. Brady is erroneously concerned with the public, outward beliefs of the jurors. That they profess to be religious and regularly attend church is enough for him. Only when Drummond elicits the information that while Sillers may not have read Darwin, he has never read the Bible either, does Brady seem to realize that the religious beliefs of the people of Hillsboro may not be as deeply held as they appear. Brady's reliance on appearances is further revealed by Cates' prediction that he will twist his speculations about the universe to seemingly blasphemous answers. Another theme that takes center stage in this scene is that of conformity. Brady does not seek adherence to deeper ideals or standards of justice. Rather, his primary concern is maintenance of the status quo. In his belated objection to the confirmation of Sillers as a juror, Brady says that "Unless the state of mind of the members of the jury conforms to the laws and patterns of society," suggesting an extremely narrow interpretation of a jury of one's peers. Society, to him, is not the nation or the world but simply the small town of Hillsboro. In conceiving of the laws and patterns of society as so limited, Brady in effect denies the rights of freedom of thought. Inherit the Wind was written in the 1950s, at the same time as Communist witch hunts were taking place in American politics. Many writers and other artists in the fields of drama, television, and film, were blacklisted for supposedly holding or expressing Communist beliefs. In curtailing freedom of speech in this way, of course, the United States risked becoming as totalitarian and thought-controlling as they accused the Soviet Union of being. Here, the court case in Hillsboro is an allegory for the situation in 1950s America. A great man, with creative ideas and a searching spirit, is called criminal simply for thinking. Thus, Drummond functions as a mouthpiece for the playwrights, speaking not only to the townspeople of Hillsboro but to the audience and country as well.
Summary and Analysis of Act Two, Scene I
Act Two, Scene I Summary: That same night, on the courthouse lawn, the heat has cooled down and workmen are preparing a platform for the prayer meeting. In a impromptu press conference, Brady says that he and Drummond were once on the same side, when Drummond fought for him in his 1908 campaign, but that he would oppose his own brother if he were to challenge the faith of millions. When the other reporters disperse, Brady tells Hornbeck he has read his press clippings and is disappointed to find his writing so biased. Hornbeck says he is a critic, not a reporter. Just then, Mrs. Brady arrives with Reverend Brown and fusses about Brady in the cool night air. Drummond arrives just as Brown begins to preach to the crowd which has gathered. He is charismatic, preaching a paraphrased Creation story from Genesis, earning fervent responses from the crowd. He rides a wave of enthusiasm through the six days of Creation and has the crowd proclaiming their belief in the truth of the Word and cursing the man who denies the Word. Together with the crowd in a frenzied prayer, Brown calls upon God to call down hellfire and vengeance upon Cates, to make him writhe in damnation, when finally Rachel cries out to stop him. In response, he calls upon God to curse those who ask for grace for sinners. Finally, Brady rushes over and grasps Brown's arm. He says that it is possible to be so overzealous as to destroy that which you hope to save. He quotes the wisdom of Solomon, "He that troubleth his own house...shall inherit the wind." He reminds him that the Bible urges forgiveness and sends the townspeople home. As the townspeople leave, singing "Go Tell It on the Mountain," Brady is left alone on the platform with Drummond. He asks him how, when they used to understand each other so well, Drummond has moved so far away from him. Drummond replies that perhaps it is Brady who has moved away, simply by standing still. Brady is struck by this statement and falteringly moves off, leaving Drummond alone onstage. Act Two, Scene I Analysis: Perspective resurfaces this scene in an examination of the power of interpretation. Each man Brown and Brady refer to the same book, the Bible, but use it to support entirely different viewpoints. Brown focuses upon the Old Testament, both in his retelling of Creation story from Genesis and in his calling down of a vengeful God from "the days of the Pharaohs." Brady in contrast draws upon the New Testament and the message of forgiveness. However, even in his references to the Old Testament as in words he attributes to Solomon Brady seeks to present an image of a loving, forgiving God. Thus, it is clear that these seemingly contradictory interpretations of the Bible reveal more about the interpreter than about the book itself. Brady may be the antagonist in this play, in his role as the prosecutor seeking to convict Cates for teaching evolution, but he is by no means a black-and-white villain. From his and Drummond's own recollections, it is clear that the two men opposing each other in the courtroom in fact have much in common. Certainly, Brady is troubled by this gulf between him and his former comrade. In contrast, Reverend Brown represents the extreme end of the spectrum so extreme in his beliefs that Brady himself terms him overzealous and stops his condemnation of Cates. Brown's hatred and the crowd's embrace of his preaching make even Brady, a man who says he is defending the faith of millions, uncomfortable. In some ways, the allusion to Solomon provides an apt comparison to Brady. Like Solomon, he is a wise and respected figure. His insight into Brown's rantings and warning that his hatred will only destroy him proves this. But like Solomon, from the Old Testament, Brady is also a creature of the past. Though his wisdom may be applicable in the present of the play, his customs are not. Drummond's statement, that Brady has moved away from him by standing still, renews the them of progress in the play. The old ways are not always the best, for clinging to old customs demonstrates stagnation of thought and inability to truly see the world as it is. Like the weather, the crowd plays a significant role in elucidating the beliefs and flaws of Hillsboro. In the opening scene, the playwrights described the courtroom set as open, so that the town would always be visible surrounding the courtroom throughout the play. Metaphorically, they intended the action of this specific court case to be informed and determined by the small town Southern environment in which it takes place. The "Read Your Bible!" banner which hangs over the entrance to the courthouse is another physical representation of the way environment determines people's interpretation and understanding. Similarly, the overly-fervent crowd, who joins Reverend Brown in his condemnation of Cates, present a underlying force of danger. The combination of their unthinking acceptance and fervent, passionate feeling make them incredibly dangerous because they cannot be reasoned with. Far more than Brady, they represent the status quo, from which they are loathe to be moved.
Summary and Analysis of Act Two, Scene II
Act Two, Scene II Summary: Two days later, in the hot courtroom, thirteen-year-old Howard is on the witness stand. Brady questions him about what Mr. Cates taught. According to Howard, Cates taught that at first the world was too hot and over millions of years, little bugs grew to bigger bugs and climbed out of the water. Then fish and reptiles and mammals, including man, came along. And out of what Brady calls "this mess," man evolved from "Old World Monkeys." But, Brady asks, in all this talk of "Evil-ution," did Cates ever mention God or the miracle of Genesis. Howard says no. And though Drummond objects to his speech-making, Brady proceeds to pontificate to the jury about the poison the "Evil-utionists" peddle and the need to mete the full penalty of the law to Cates so that the world will call the courtroom blessed. Drummond asks Howard if he thought there was anything wrong with what Cates taught. Davenport objects to questioning the boy on morality but Drummond argues that the right to think is very much on trial. Despite the judge and Brady's objections to that notion, Drummond says that Cates is on trial because he chose to speak what he thinks. Drummond then asks Howard if his pitching arm was hurt by what Cates taught or if he has murdered anyone since breakfast or even if he believes everything Cates taught. Howard is not sure about the last question, saying he needs to think it over. Drummond also asks the boy if a tractor or telephone is sinful because it isn't in the Bible, leading Brady to object and ask Drummond if "Right" has no meaning to him. Drummond says it doesn't, that truth does, as a direction, but that the need to place every action in a grid of morality is "one of the peculiar imbecilities of our time." Brady next questions Rachel, who says that Cates dropped out of the church two summers ago after the little Stebbins boy drowned and her father preached that because he had not been baptized, he didn't die in a state of grace. Cates shouts out that Reverend Brown preached that Tommy Stebbins' soul was damned, writhing in hellfire. Brady next attempts to question Rachel about her conversations with Cates, in which Cates said "God did not create Man. Man created God." Rachel explains Cates was joking when he in fact said, "God created Man in his own imageand Man, being a gentleman, returned the compliment." When Brady proceeds to ask about a statement Cates made comparing holy matrimony to the breeding of animals, Rachel is so emotionally blocked and near breakdown, she can say nothing. Brady dismisses her and Drummond says he has no questions for her. The prosecution rests its case, and Drummond attempts to call his expert witnesses the head of the Department of Zoology at the University of Chicago, a Congregational Church deacon who is also a professor of geology and archaeology at Oberlin College, and a philosopher, anthropologist, and author but the judge agrees with Brady's objections to these experts as irrelevant. Though Drummond argues that the jury can't pass judgment on Cates' teaching of evolutionary theory if they don't know what it is, Brady and the judge hold that they in court to enforce a law that excludes such testimony. Finally, a desperate Drummond calls Brady as an expert witness on the Bible. Though the judge holds that it is unorthodox, Brady fervently agrees to speak out on behalf of the Living Truth of the Holy Scriptures. Drummond wants to know, if Brady has studied and memorized so much of the Bible but has never opened the Origin of Species, how he can "whoop up this holy war" against something he knows nothing about. When Drummond attempts to quote a passage from the Origin of Species, Davenport objects and the judge tells him to confine his questions to the Bible. Brady says he believes everything in the Bible should be taken as it is given so God could make a whale swallow a man and could make the sun stand still. Of the story of Joshua stopping the sun, Drummond says Brady must not have much faith in natural law and might as well wipe Copernicus out of the classroom too. Of the Cain's wife, whose creation the Bible doesn't explain, Brady says he never wondered, for the "Bible satisfies [him], it is enough." Next, Drummond asks Brady if the "begatting" in the Bible is the same as today, which Brady confirms, and then elicits from Brady his belief that sex is Original Sin which Drummond surmises didn't make the holy people any less holy. The judge warns Drummond away from a line of questioning that has nothing to do with the case, but Brady says that Drummond is pleading the prosecution's case with his contempt for all that is holy. To that, Drummond objects. Brady wants to know what can possibly holy to "the celebrated agnostic," and Drummond replies that the individual human mind is more holy than shouted "Amens!" The advance of human knowledge is a miracle, but Brady is trying to stop the march of progress with a fable. Of course, we lose a little with progress lack of privacy with the telephone, for example and from Darwin's writing, we lose our faith in the "pleasant poetry of Genesis" but gain the ability to see from where we came. In response to Drummond's speech, Brady replies that faith is the important thing. Drummond asks, then, why God gave humans the power to think unlike a horse or a sponge, or, he asks Brady, does a sponge think? Brady says if God wishes a sponge to think, it thinks, and so Drummond demands that Cates, a man, be given the same rights as a sponge. The crowd applauds, shocking Brady, who insists that Cates is deluded. Drummond shows Brady a rock and asks if he knows its age. He says according to Dr. Page of Oberlin, the rock is over ten million years old and contains the fossil remains of a pre-historic marine creature. Brady says those dates are wrong; the great flood was more recent and the rock is no more than six thousand years old. According to Biblical scholar Bishop Usher, Creation occurred October 23 in the year 4004 BC at 9 AM and that's a fact! Drummond asks if that was 9 AM Eastern Time or Rocky Mountain Time. The crowd laughs, making Brady nervous. Drummond asks Brady if the first day was twenty-four hours long, since there was no sun. Brady will only say "the Bible says it was a day" and, when Drummond asks what he thinks, "I do not think about things that...I do not think about!" Finally, Drummond gets him to admit that the first day in Genesis is not necessarily a twenty-four-hour day; according to Drummond, it could have been thirty hours or ten million years. Davenport protests and Brady says Drummond is trying to destroy faith in the Bible. Drummond says he is trying to stop "you bigots and ignoramuses" from controlling education, earning him a warning from the judge. Brady demands to know how Drummond dare attack the Bible, and Drummonds says that while the Bible is a good book, it's not the only book. But, Brady replies, it is the word of God, who "spake" to its writers. Drummond asks how he knows God didn't speak to Darwin, and Brady says God told him, tells him the difference between right and wrong. So, Drummond says, orator Brady "the prophet from Nebraska" passes on God's orders to the rest of the world. Brady is nearly inarticulate as Drummond presses on, asking if God speaks through Brady and speculating what would happen if a man like Cates had as much lung-power. He wonders what would happen if a lesser man a Darwin or Cates thinks God whispers to him and dares to have an unBrady thought. Maybe a Book of Brady should be added to the Bible. Again the crowd laughs. Drummond excuses the witness as Brady struggles for words, trying to regain the crowd's sympathy. He says they know what he believes and begins to intone the names of the books of the Bible even after the judge has dismissed him and adjourned court. Drummond leaves the courtroom, surrounded by reporters and the crowd, leaving Brady still on the witness stand. Mrs. Brady approaches him, and he says that they are laughing at him he can't stand when they laugh at him. She cradles his shoulders and heading, rocking, saying "It's all right, baby." Act Two, Scene II Analysis: This is the climactic scene in the play. Brady's testimony on the witness stand and his eventual breakdown represents the point at which power shifts and all characters' fortunes change. Up until this point, Brady has wielded the power, as demonstrated through his impressive oratory, and has had the fervent support of the crowd. The reversals which occur in this scene undercut all we, the audience, have come to believe about Brady. No longer is he confident. No longer does he have the absolute respect of the crowd. No longer is his opinion the most valued in the courtroom. If we read this play as a contest between Drummond, as protagonist, and Brady, as antagonist, the action of the conflict has been fundamentally resolved in this scene. Protagonist confronts antagonist and antogonist surprisingly crumbles. Despite our and the townspeople's assumptions about Brady, a great deal of foreshadowing has in fact led up to Brady's disintigration in this scene. Mrs. Brady's attitude toward her husband in earlier scenes worrying about what he eats at the picnic and reminding him to cover his neck in the night air demonstrate that, out of the public eye, this is a man who needs and is used to having someone take care of him. His meltdown on the witness stand in effect reduces him to a child. The incongruity of seeing this "great man" reduced to being rocked, like a child, by the wife he calls "Mother" shows that, in many ways, Brady's show of strength and confidence has been a façade. Significantly, Brady waits until all spectators have left the courtroom the stage directions even note that he looks around the room to see if everyone is gone before he speaks to his wife before he allows himself to be reduced to the role of quivering child, telling his wife that "they're laughing at me, Mother!" And though the crowd has left the courtroom, the audience is privy to Brady's breakdown and this rare glimpse into the man behind the giant. If Brady's confidence has been a mask, they must wonder, what else assumed to be right and good is not to be trusted? It is possible to read Inherit the Wind as a tragedy and Brady as a tragic hero. Though he does not come from royalty, as the classical tragic hero must, he is a man of high status a former vice-president and famous political figure of whom great things are expected. Brady's flaw here is hubris, or excessive pride. He believes himself to be the defender of all that is good and right so strongly that he does not stop to question those beliefs. It takes Drummond's examination of him to reveal the absurdity and extent of Brady's pride, which is so great he believes himself to have direct knowledge of God's will and has appointed himself God's defender. Brady's tragic fall occurs in this scene as a direct result of this flaw. Though the judge offers him the opportunity to refuse to testify, he believes so strongly that his words will support the Bible and his own case that he is eager to take the stand. He is disgraced not because his opinions or beliefs are wrong but rather because his pride in himself, when revealed to the court, is ridiculous and excessive. To a proud man like Brady, nothing is worse than the laughter of the crowd he expects to worship him. From the conflict in the courtroom, between Drummond, Brady, and the judge, it is clear that differing perspectives drive the conflict. The judge as well as Davenport see the conflict quite narrowly. To them, a law has been broken. All that needs to be proved is that Cates taught evolution, which is against the law. For that reason, they are shocked by and vehemently opposed to the expert witnesses Drummond seeks to question. The judge says that the law is already on the books there is no need to question its validity. He is even confused by Drummond's insistence on introducing such witnesses and his comparison of an evolutionist as expert witness in this trial with forensic weapons expert in a murder trial. Brady, however, does grasp the greater significance of the trial that it is more than a literal struggle between legal and illegal. To him, it is a question of universal right and wrong, in which the verdict in the courtroom makes a statement about faith around the world. Both the judge and Brady differ from Drummond in their need to see the world in black-and-white terms a theme which began in the first scene with Cates' response to Rachel's desire for him to apologize for wrongdoing. Drummond has already stated that right and wrong mean nothing to him. To him, the content of the idea, rather than some value judgment placed on it, is what is significant. He says that a man's right to think and to express his thoughts is at stake in the trial. It is precisely Drummond's ability to see the gray areas, the ambiguity of speech and thought, that allows him to ultimately confront and gain the upper hand over Brady. Only by addressing the deeply held beliefs, in literal Scripture, that form the basis for this community's law against teaching evolution rather than by addressing evolution itself can Drummond hope to change and open their minds. A difference in tone characterizes Drummond and Brady throughout the courtroom scenes, especially here. Whereas Brady is grandiloquent and powerful in his oratory, Drummond is merely conversational, a manner that the playwrights note seems almost disrespectful after Brady's manner in the courtroom. Brady, and most likely the audience, assumes that Drummond "the atheist" must not feel strongly about anything because of his system of beliefs. In this scene, of course, Brady's assumptions are proven wrong. His assertions that he simply doesn't think about certain ambiguities in the Bible provides the ground for Drummond to assert his own system of beliefs. It is possible, he demonstrates, to not be religious, in the sense that Reverend Brown and his townspeople are religious, and to still hold things holy. Drummond's speech about the holiness of the human mind and capacity for thought encapsulates the basis on which he fights for Cates. He is not just fighting for this schoolteacher, or for the legality of teaching evolution, but for the fundamental value of free thought and speech, an ideal that great American Brady, in his fights for faith and belief in his own knowledge of right and wrong, seems to have forgotten. It is significant that Drummond's decision to question Brady comes not from strategy but from desperation, as the stage directions explicitly note. From the beginning, this has been a conflict not between Cates and the town but a conflict of deeply held ideas, which Drummond and Brady represent. It is only fitting, then, that they should reach the climax of the play through a direct confrontation of thoughts, beliefs, and assumptions. The juxtaposition of the crowd's reaction with the conflict between Drummond and Brady reveals some unpleasant truths about the citizens of Hillsboro. Whereas Drummond and Brady's conflict is primarily an ideological and intellectual, the townspeople throughout the play have reacted almost instinctually and unthinkingly. One example of this is their passionate emotional response to Reverend Brown's preaching against Cates. Another example is their fickle change from Brady's supporters to detractors in this scene. The crowd, with its applause and laughter, simply echoes the shift of power. They respond to Brady's crumbling certainty and Drummond's interrogation of his assumptions not with gasps of realization but simply with laughter at the confusion of what they once believed to be a great man. In many ways, the crowd is a far harsher judge than Brady himself might be for their opinions are not arrived at through intellectual consideration but through a mob mentality. Brady's downfall, in this scene, is that he considers the crowd's reaction far too important. Used to being considered all-powerful and respected by the people, Brady is unable to shake off their laughter once they turn against him.
Summary and Analysis of Act Three, Scene I
Act Three, Scene I Summary: The next day, in the courtroom, Drummond and Cates sit at the defense table, waiting for the jury to come back, while Brady sits eating a box lunch, drowning his sorrows with food. Hornbeck tries to provoke the men in turn, saying he'll miss Hillsboro, but all three men ignore him. Cates asks Drummond if he'll be sent to prison and if he'll be able to see anyone there. Drummond says that he might be, but that the story of the court case has become so big that the national exposure might prevent any extreme sentences. Brady rises from his food and leaves, and Cates observes that Brady seems sure about the verdict. Drummond says that no one knows but that he has a pretty good idea. When Cates asks what they're thinking now, Drummond only says that someday he'll pick himself an easy winner of a case. The law is too much like horse racing. He drifts off into a reverie about Golden Dancer, a rocking horse he wanted when he was seven years old. His father worked nights and mother skimped on the groceries to buy the horse for his birthday, but as soon as he got on it and rocked, the horse split in two. Inside the shining exterior was rotten wood. He urges Cates, when he sees something shiny and perfect-seeming to look behind the paint and if it's a lie, reveal it as one. The radio man enters with the judge, looking for the best place to put his equipment. He says they are making history, broadcasting a public event for the first time. The mayor enters and tells the judge a wire has arrived from the state capitol. The newspapers are writing a lot about the case, and with November elections coming up, they don't want to rile up the voters. He urges the judge to "go easy." The radio man tests his equipment and explains to Drummond they have a direct wire to WGN in Chicago, on which they'll announce the verdict as soon as the jury comes in. Drummond says that it will break down a lot of walls, but when the radio man warns him against saying "damn" and "hell" on the radio, he observes that it may be a barren source of amusement. Brady asks if he can speak into either side of the microphone, which the radio man attempts to protect from his loud voice. He requests that the radio man signal him if he is not speaking loud enough. The jury returns and the crowd rushes into the courtroom as Meeker announces that court is reconvening. Cates wants to know if Drummond can read the jurors faces and is visibly disappointed that Rachel is not in the courtroom. The radio man announces the returned jury into the microphone, annoying the judge. The judge asks about the jury's decision, receives the verdict from the foreman, and reads it. Cates is found guilty. The decision is met with a few Amens, some applause, as well as some boos. It is a bitter victory for Brady. Hornbeck welcomes everyone to the Middle Ages as the judge calls for order and moves to sentencing. Drummond interrupts, reminding him that it is customary for the defendant to make a statement before sentencing. Cates rises, saying he is only a schoolteacher but that he has been convicted of violating an unjust law, which he will continue to oppose in any way he can. He sits. Brady is fretful, without the enormous victory he expected. The judge announces, that without previous violations of the same statute to guide him, there is no precedent for sentencing. He sentences Cates to a fine of one hundred dollars. An indignant Brady objects, arguing for a more drastic punishment to make an example of Cates. Drummond interrupts to say that Cates has no intention of paying any fine because they are appealing the verdict in the state Supreme Court. He asks for thirty days to prepare the appeal. The judge grants his request and sets bond at five hundred dollars. He begins to adjourn court. Brady interrupts, saying he has prepared remarks to read into the record. Drummond says that Brady can say anything he wants anywhere else but that court should be adjourned. The judge says that people may stay after to listen to Brady and adjourns the court. Observers stretch and whisper. Melinda calls to Howard, asking who won, and he says he doesn't know but it's over. A hawker sells Eskimo Pies, and the judge calls for quiet for Brady's remarks. People are busy eating, drinking, talking, and buying and don't listen. A few fall silent when the judge calls for quiet again but other people continue to make noise. Brady calls for attention, and a few more fall silent. He begins to speak of "the hallowed hills of sacred Sinai" and "the law which has been our bulwark and shield" when the radio man asks him to move, finally directing him bodily toward the microphone. Brady is aware this is anticlimactic but won't give up. He continues, saying that in the coutroom, they have seen vindicated before the radio man interrupts, signing off, and announcing a music broadcast coming up. The radio man takes his equipment and leaves, a great affront to Brady, who speaks in a frantic raspy voice, beginning again with the first words of his speech. Suddenly, Brady freezes. His lips move but no sound comes out, gaining the crowd's attention with his silence. Mrs. Brady cries out. Some sort of eruption seems to occur inside Brady and he falls forward, caught by Meeker and Davenport, who calls for a doctor. The judge calls for room and Mrs. Brady cries Matt. An old woman rushes towards Brady, calling for God to save the "Holy Prophet" and is pushed back by Meeker. Several men lift Brady to carry him to the doctor's office across the street. As they carry him, he speaks in an unreal voice, reciting the Inaugural Address he never had a chance to give. The crowd follows, leaving Drummond, Cates, and Hornbeck alone in the courtroom. Drummond wonders how it must feel to be Almost-President three times. Hornbeck observes that "Something happens to an Also-Ran" he becomes a "national unloved child." "Show me a shouter," he says, "And I'll show you an also-ran." Cates simply observes that Brady looked terrible as Meeker returns, shaking his head. Hornbeck asserts that he will recover from "vinegar victory" by nightfall. Drummond asks a bewildered Cates what is wrong. He is unsure if he won or lost since the jury found him guilty. Drummond says that he won, that millions of people will read that he smashed a bad law and made it a joke. Cates worries that he has no job and won't be allowed back in the boarding house, but Drummond reminds him that he is helping the next man in a similar situation. A newly proud Cates turns to Meeker who tells him that Hornbeck fixed bail. Rachel enters, carrying a suitcase, smiling, with a new lift to her head. She tells Cates she is leaving her father. It is partly her fault that the jury convicted him. She brandishes his book, which she has now read, though she doesn't completely understand or like it, though she thinks that is beside the point. She apologizes to Drummond for saying anything that might have offended him. She was always afraid to think before but now knows that thoughts are like children inside you and have to be born, some healthy and some sickly and the sickly thoughts mostly die. Cates smiles in admiration at her. The judge enters and announces that Brady is dead, then heads to his chambers. Drummond says he can't imagine the world without Matthew Harrison Brady and Cates asked what he died from. Hornbeck says "a busted belly" and continues, saying they shouldn't weep for him, for he cried enough for himself and calling him "a Barnum-bunkum, Bible-beating bastard." An angry Drummond says Hornbeck has no more right to spit on Brady's religion than on his lack of religion. He says there was much greatness in the man. Hornbeck demands to know how you right an obituary for a man who has been dead for thirty years, then realizes he delivered his own obituary, talking to the minister. Hornbeck flips through the Bible, but Drummond knows the words: "He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise in heart." Hornbeck mocks Drummond, the supposed agnostic. Drummond tells Hornbeck he is tired of him, who never puts a noun and verb together except to blow something up. Hornbeck accuses Drummond of kindness, conscience, and sentimentality. Drummond says that Brady had the same right as Cates, the right to be wrong, adding that a giant once lived in Brady's body but he got lost looking for God too high up. Hornbeck calls Drummond a hyocrite and an atheist who believes in God before rushing off. Cates asks Drummond if it costs a lot of money for an appeal because he can't pay. Drummond says he didn't come to get paid, and that now he needs to get to the train. Rachel and Cates decide to leave on that train too and rush off to get Cates' things. Alone in the courtroom, Drummond weighs the copy of Darwin left by Rachel and Brady's Bible in his hands, before slapping them side by side into his briefcase. He leaves the courtroom and walks through the empty square. Act Three, Scene I Analysis: Ironically, in this battle of ideals and systems of belief between Brady and Drummond, pragmatic forces are responsible for the resolution of the trial. While the jury's unanimous guilty verdict demonstrates the people of Hillsboro to remain ignorant and unthinking, the judge's sentence a mere hundred dollar fine, rather than the years in prison which Cates had been fearing and for which Brady had been hoping is the most significant in the way the world will interpret the trial. The judge does not impart this sentence out of a newfound support of Cates but rather for political reasons. The mayor has warned him about the wire from the state. In the end, the judge is more concerned about reelection worries and state-wide perception of him than he is of upholding the citizens' of Hillsboro opposition to evolution. In numerous ways, this scene emphasizes Hillsboro's place in a greater community of state, nation, and world. With the exposure of the trial in this small town to a much greater audience through newspaper articles and radio broadcasts, the people of Hillsboro can no longer maintain the limited viewpoint they have tried to uphold by outlawing the teaching of evolution. "When they started this fire here," Drummond says to Cates, "they never figured it would light up the whole sky. A lot of people's shoes are getting hot." In striving to so publicly condemn Cates to, as Brady suggests, make him an example for the world the people of Hillsboro have failed to realized that the whole world does not share their viewpoints. Drummond observes, "Radio! God, this is going to break down a lot of walls." The image of walls surrounding Hillsboro, blocking its citizens from knowledge of the world around them, suggest that their ignorance is a prison. Furthermore, this image alludes to the Biblical Joshua who in Brady's testimony made the sun stop who made the walls of Jericho fall down by blowing his horn. The radio broadcast of the trial parallels the horn, in that its noise announces the fall of walls that have blocked victory through knowledge. With this realization of the boundaries that will be broken by the new universalizing force of the radio comes a warning. The radio man warns Drummond not to say "God" or "hell" on the radio. Though Drummond's reaction, saying "This is going to be a barren source of amusement," is comical, it also serves to remind the audience that no matter how broad the medium, some people will seek to impose their views of right and wrong on others and control their speech. Given that the play was written in the 1950s, when Senator Joseph McCarthy was blacklisting playwrights and screenwriters for expressing what were considered Communist viewpoints, the radio man's warning functions as a warning to the audience to always resist censorship, whatever the form. Another recurring theme in this play that recurs here, in the final scene, is that of the inevitability of progress. Brady is used to projecting his voice to crowds without any amplification. He is an orator whose time, speaking in public squares, has past. There is a new national venue, far greater than the small town, reached by radio. When the radio man moves to protect his microphone from Brady's booming voice, it is clear that this is a technical innovation to which Brady cannot quickly or easily adapt. Drummond said, earlier in the play, that Brady has moved away from him by standing still. By standing still, Brady has moved away not only from Drummond but from the entire country. The radio announcer's need, during Brady's closing remarks, to bodily direct the large Brady toward the microphone, demonstrates the difficulty in getting Brady to adapt to the march of progress. In direct contrast to Brady is Rachel. She embodies the thinking mind that Drummond has characterized as holy. Her actions, reading and questioning the book that other residents of Hillsboro have condemned without even considering, demonstrate the power of human thought. Her unification with Cates draws on the image of Genesis, in that, as a couple, they embody the Creation of a new, thinking and questioning way of life. Another contrasting set of characters in this chapter is Drummond and Hornbeck. Hornbeck's cynicism is revealed to be ultimately destructive as Brady's close-minded-ness, in that he is as eager to silence Brady's viewpoints on religion as Brady was to silence Cates' on evolution. Though his observations, about Brady's crying for himself and delivering his own eulogy, are apt, he fails to recognize and appreciate the good aspects of Brady. Brady was a "great man," a powerful man, though a misguided man. Drummond realizes this and realizes the importance than everyone, Brady included, be allowed to express their thoughts and opinions. In reading this play as the tragedy of Brady, it is possible to discover the root of Brady's fatal flaw in the Inaugural Address he recites when half-conscious. Brady's overriding question for power and recognition have failed, making him a perpetual also-ran. That his last words are a memorized Presidential acceptance speech that he never had the chance to deliver reveal just how much Brady's quest for power has destroyed him. As Hornbeck and Drummond realize, the Biblical quote, from which the title proceeds, does not apply only to Reverend Brown, to whom Brady directed it, but to Brady to. In attacking the very values of free thought and speech upon which the country he professes to love is built, Brady attacks his own house and inherits the wind nothing.
ClassicNote on Inherit the Wind
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