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Inherit the Wind Study Guide

by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee

Inherit the Wind study guide contains a biography of Jerome Lawrence, Robert Lee, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

Inherit the Wind opens in the small town of Hillsboro, where a little boy named Howard teases a little girl named Melinda about once being a worm. Soon, a young woman named Rachel enters the courthouse square and asks a bailiff named Meeker if she can see Bert Cates. This visit is a secret from her father, a minister. Bert and Rachel speak in the courtroom, and Rachel urges him to confess to wrongdoing, for Matthew Harrison Brady is coming to prosecute him. Cates holds that he did nothing wrong by teaching the Darwinian theory of evolution to his students.

In the square, the townspeople prepare for the arrival of Brady, a three-time Presidential candidate, readying the things they will sell and preparing a banner that says "Read Your Bible…

Read the full Inherit the Wind Summary

• Inherit the Wind Summary
• About Inherit the Wind
• Character List
• Major Themes
• Summary and Analysis of Act One, Scene I
• Summary and Analysis of Act One, Scene II
• Summary and Analysis of Act Two, Scene I
• Summary and Analysis of Act Two, Scene II
• Summary and Analysis of Act Three, Scene I
• Related Links on Inherit the Wind
• Test Yourself! - Quiz 1
• Test Yourself! - Quiz 2
• Author of ClassicNote and Sources

• Inherit the Wind: Major Themes
• Inherit the Wind: Questions
• Inherit the Wind: Purchase the Novel and Related Material
• Jerome Lawrence: Biography
• Robert Lee: Biography