Kohl Orner
Mr. Hershey
English II
October 4, 2009
Characterization in Inherit the Wind
Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s play, Inherit the Wind, which is based off
the Scopes Monkey Trial, covers the debate of Evolution vs. Creation. These trials
brought about by a law put in place against teaching evolution in Tennessee schools. The
people of the Scopes Monkey Trial influence the characters of Inherit the Wind, which
are given many of the same traits as the ones in the actual trial. The characterization of
Matthew Harrison Brady and Henry Drummond show the theme of that people are not
always as they seem.
Matthew Harrison Brady was a very influential character in this play. He is loved
at the beginning of the play, but by the end things change. Many of the citizens of
Hillsboro, Tennessee see him as a heroic man who has won every major trial that he has
gotten into. They throw him a huge feast, sing songs, and put up a banner that reads
“Read Your Bible”. He is a very narrow-minded and egotistical man in the beginning of
this play. Brady, an egotistical man upon getting his honorary title, Colonel Brady, he
says “Colonel Brady. I like the sound of that” (22). He likes only the bible and does not
open his mind up to other things and does not take them in. One of his narrow-minded
things that he says would be “To test the steel of our truth against the blasphemies of
science” (23). But both being egotistical and narrow-minded would be because of his
confidence from his major victories. One of his statements “The whole world will be
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watching our victory over Drummond” (29), this was the whole reason that the trial is
taking place to get Hillsboro back on the map. But by the end of the play this confidence
would eventually wear off.
Brady’s confidence wearing off makes him very unpopular among the people of
Hillsboro. The people that are on his side at the beginning of the play start leaning
towards Drummond’s side. He is not quite sure anymore about things. When he is asked
by Drummond about the first day in the bible if it was a twenty four hour day Brady
replies “It is…Possible” (97). After Drummond has Brady on the witness stand everyone
leaves the courtroom for a break. Mrs. Brady comes up to Brady and who is embarrassed
says “Mother. They’re laughing at me” (102). Brady gets down on himself and starts to
feel a little ill. When the jury finally comes to the verdict of who is guilty, the defendant
is made to pay 100 dollars for teaching evolution. Brady is shocked and says “Did your
honor say one hundred dollars” (116). The judge says it is because no one else has
committed this same crime yet so that have to have something to base it off of.
Drummond is pleased and people congratulate him.
Henry Drummond is being called the devil at the beginning of the book by people
who do not know him. Every one is intimidated when Brady announces who the
defendant’s lawyer his going to be everyone gasps. Once everyone really knows who he
is they do not want him to come into the town of Hillsboro. Rev. Brown says that
Drummond is “A vicious, godless man” (27) and that “We won’t allow him in the town”
(28). People do not at all like him in the beginning of the play. They think that he is going
to be a really mean guy and not like anyone at all. When Melinda, a little girl, sees him
for the first time she yells “It’s the devil” (36). In the beginning he is not very
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sympathetic. He presses and even embarrasses Brady at the trial. He acts like he does not
like Brady at all. By the end of the play people start to lighten up to him.
By the end, Drummond sort of becomes the hero over Brady. Drummond
becomes loved by the end of the play. When he had Brady up on the witness stand people
started to believe Drummond over Brady. People started to become skeptical of Brady.
He becomes more sympathetic for people. At the end of the play it really shows when he
says “A giant once lived in that body” (128). In this he is referring to Brady after he died.
Another moment when he really has become more sympathetic is when he says to Cates
“I didn’t come here to get paid” (128). At the beginning of the play he probably would
have been asking for the money but by the end he knew what was right. Drummond has
come to terms with both Creation and Evolution by the end of the play. At the end of the
play he takes both the Bible and the book on evolution and puts them side by side in his
brief case. He then walks off to go and get the train. Drummond’s character from the
beginning to the end of the play changes drastically.
Both Brady and Drummond show the theme of how people are not always as they
seem. This Evolution vs. Creation debate is still not over and has been going on for
centuries and it will be for centuries to come. Inherit the Wind will open any ones eyes up
to see that people are not always what you make them to be but something more.
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Works Cited
Lawrence, Jerome and Robert E. Lee. Inherit the Wind. New York: Bantam, 1955.
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