Inherit the Wind

Rating:
Summary: Review for Inherit the Wind
Review: "He that troubleth his own home shall inherit the wind:
And the fool shall be servant to the wise in heart."
Proverbs 11:29

In Inherit the Wind, Bertram Cates, a small-time schoolteacher, teaches Darwinism and dares to challenge his upbringing in the small town of Hillsboro. The mob mentality of overzealous religious people causes them to object. The protagonist of the story is Henry Drummond, the defending attorney for Bertram Cates. The antagonists are Matthew Harrison Brady, the prosecuting attorney, Reverend Jeremiah Brown, who condemns to Hell all people who dare to challenge his strict interpretations of the Bible, and Hornbeck, the forever cynic of everyone's thoughts and feelings but his own.
Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee are not supporters of Darwinism. They just want to convey, through their story, that things and thoughts should not be condemned merely because they are different. In their writing, the authors used flashbacks through Henry Drummond and metaphors through many of the characters in order to communicate their feelings. This book conveys a message to its audience that is well-worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Monkeying with the Monkey Trail
Review: Almost all of the scientific evidence brought forward during the time of the trial has been discarded.

There was another very disturbing thing about Inherit the Wind. It caricatured Christians as self-righteous, intolerant and mean-spirited. The two leading Christian characters in the film rant like lunatics much of the time. Phillip E. Johnson's book
DEFEATING DARWINISM BY OPENING MINDS (available at Amazon) writes about how Christians were stereotyped.

The play did get one thing right. It is indeed a `crime' (to use their word) to censor an opposing view in the classroom. This lesson has been lost on secular humanists today who attempt to censor any evidence contrary to their dogmatic belief in evolution.

Rating:
Summary: A True Classic
Review: I didn't read Inherit the Wind in school. Maybe because I went to Catholic schools? But I can see why many people did and still do. This is a true classic, concerning a gigantic human and national issue, one which well defines America still.

Based on the Scopes Monkey Trial, this is a spectacular drama, full of people from the town of Hillsboro (a fictional setting) and outsiders, converging to witness the trial of a man who dared to teach or suggest Darwinian evolutionary theory, and the two lawyers who argue for the law of God (and here the law of the state) and the laws of Science, respectively.

This is an important, positive play because it is about choice. I wish I could have been part of a class discussion of the play, and to see how other people, especially kids take this story.

I read the Dramatists Play Service edition, which features extensive stage directions that take up equal space to the dialogue itself. The scope of the production is evident, with about 30 speaking parts and dozens of other bystandards. For this reason I wonder if another edition is less extensive...

But the stage directions can be skimmed, and if you are reading for the heart if it, they should be. The heart being the trial scenes themselves, particularly when defence attorney Henry Drummond cross examines his counterpart Matt Brady, an avowed Biblical expert.

Highly recommended. The kind of play and story I'd like to re-read once a year...

Rating:
Summary: A required reading book...
Review: I don't normally care about the books I have to read for school. In fact, in the past there have been books that I've purposely tried to forget, but when I had to read this book for a 10th grade religion class, I was surprised to find I liked it.

Inherit the Wind is a short and sweet book which not only makes a good point, but makes it quickly and clearly. This is something I can respect...after sorting out Jane Austen's mess of romantic words and snotty characters in Pride and Prejudice, it was a relief to say the least.

It takes place in small town called Hillsboro in Tennessee and revolves around a freethinking teacher named Bertram Cates who deliberately broke the law by teaching about evolution in his classroom. His trial becomes known nation-wide for both political and religious reasons. His lawyer is smart, practical but heartless Henry Drummond and the prosecutor is the likable Mathew Harrison Brady, both huge political figures. The trial erupts into a rude awakening for the ignorant residents of Hillsboro and changes the way they all think about the world.

It is one of only three or four required reading books I've managed to enjoy and this is why I recommend it completely.

Rating:
Summary: Great Required Read
Review: I very much enjoyed Inherit the Wind.It was funny and yet still a good play...

Rating:
Summary: One of the Modern Theatre's Best
Review: In this introduction to "Inherit the Wind" Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee attempt to put the play into historical perspective: "'Inherit the Wind' is hot history. The events which took place in Dayton, Tennessee...are clearly the genesis of the play [but] it has...an exodus entirely its own." The playwrights took only a handful of phrases from the trial transcript and declared that "The collision of Bryan and Darrow at Dayton was dramatic, but it was not a drama." In the play William Jennings Bryan becomes Matthew Harrison Brady, Clarence Darrow was transformed into Henry Drummond, H.L. Mencken changed to E.K. Hornbeck, and John Scopes was now Bertram Cates. However, from the play's first performance in 1955 it has been impossible to dissociate the characters from their historical counterparts.

The Scopes "Monkey" Trial did not pop up in American history books until the late 1950s after the debut of "Inherit the Wind," and many early descriptions followed the play rather than actual events despite the fact that changes are numerous. Unlike Scopes, who was persuaded to be a test case, Bert Cates takes it upon himself to violate the law, becoming a pariah in the town of Hillsboro. The citizens of the town in the play have much more of a lynch mob mentality (which is played up even more in Stanley Kramer's 1960 film version), but the centerpiece for both the historical drama and the theater version is the cross-examination of one lawyer by another before the media and the world.

Whereas Darrow had a weekend to practice his examination of Bryan, Drummond is suddenly inspired to put Brady on the stand. The cross-examination in "Inherit the Wind" most notably differs from the Scopes trial transcript in that Drummond is required to confine his questions only to the subject of the Bible, where as Darrow could ask not only about the miracles in the Bible but explore Bryan's knowledge of various sciences and non-Christian religions as well. Drummond insists that "it takes a very smart fella to say 'I don't know the answer,'" which, ironically, is what Bryan repeatedly responded to Darrow on the witness stand in Dayton.

The character of E.K. Hornbeck, the cynical observer, has such an extreme view of the proceedings that he forces the audience, whether viewing or reading the play, to take a more moderate position. Ultimately, the judgment here is of "Brady" and "Drummond." Brady is portrayed as a foolish fundamentalist, whose chief sin is ignorance more than bigotry. In contrast, Drummond is a religious atheist, who finds the right to think to be holy. When Drummond leaves at the play's conclusion he puts the Bible and a copy of Darwin into his satchel together, suggesting an equality of sorts that neither character, in the drama or in history, ever espoused. There was such a figure of reconciliation during the trial, defense lawyer Dudley Field Malone, but he remains the most forgotten figure of the trial as the idea of the compatibility between Genesis and evolution has come to be rejected more and more by both sides.

Lawrence and Lee's fictionalized account of the Scopes trial was not only the first major work to touch on the Monkey trial after World War II, it was the most significant in terms of public knowledge about the trial. Certainly more people have seen the film or television movie versions of "Inherit the Wind" than have read all the books on the Scopes trial combined. Whatever disclaimers are provided to the contrary, the play's version of what happened in "Hillsboro" is accepted as either being true or close enough to the truth to make the differences inconsequential. When Susan Epperson challenged Arkansas' Rotenberry Act journalists actually invoked "Inherit the Wind" rather than the Scopes Trial as their point of reference.

Furthermore, the "Inherit the Wind" dramatization has never been challenged. Scopes admitted the film "altered the facts of the real trial," but focused on the "small liberties" of suggesting he had been jailed and met his future wife during the trial. Overall, Scopes declared that the film version "captured the emotions in the battle of words between Bryan and Darrow." In the final analysis that idea of "emotions" may be the best way of capturing the essence of the Scopes myth; it is a version of the Scopes trial that is shaped and colored by emotions rather than by factors or logic. After all, when the play premiered the Butler Act was still on the books in Tennessee.

It was not until the vote by the Tennessee legislature to repeal the Butler Act, after the supreme court decision in Epperson vs. Arkansas, that "Inherit the Wind" became more history that rhetoric, although certainly the rhetorical dimension has, to some extent, been subsumed by the theatricality of the piece. After all, from Paul Muni and Ed Begley to Spencer Tracy and Frederic March to Jason Robards and Kirk Douglas to Jack Lemmon and George C. Scott the play has been a dramatic showcase for its two male leads. Perhaps it is for that reason that it will remain a staple of high school and community theaters rather than for the resonance it brings to current events regarding the teaching of evolution in American schools. Furthermore, you can argue that the touchstone for the play is now more the separation of church and state than the original issue of evolution. What is not in dispute is that "Inherit the Wind" has become a rare instance of fiction that has assumed the mantle of fact.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: Inherit the wind was written as a play in 1955 and is still relevant today. The play was freely adapted from the "Scopes Monkey Trial" of 1925. The teacher was placed on trial for teaching evolution and not creationism. This argument continues to rage today after the turn of the twenty first century! The beauty of this play is that it is simplicity itself. The play is a very fast read and is very enjoyable. The play covers some very tough subjects, but does it in such a way that the reader deos not get bogged down in heavy philosophical discussions. They are still there, but handled in an ingenious way. What I loved about this play was that the issues were not really about the teacher, but the clash of personalities of the major players. The teacher is nothing more than a background player here and the evangelist and the defense lawyer are the true stars. Makes one think when the same issue comes up after eighty years since the original trial of Scopes what is really being argued. Highly recommended

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: Inherit the wind was written as a play in 1955 and is still relevant today. The play was freely adapted from the "Scopes Monkey Trial" of 1925. The teacher was placed on trial for teaching evolution and not creationism. This argument continues to rage today after the turn of the twenty first century! The beauty of this play is that it is simplicity itself. The play is a very fast read and is very enjoyable. The play covers some very tough subjects, but does it in such a way that the reader deos not get bogged down in heavy philosophical discussions. They are still there, but handled in an ingenious way. What I loved about this play was that the issues were not really about the teacher, but the clash of personalities of the major players. The teacher is nothing more than a background player here and the evangelist and the defense lawyer are the true stars. Makes one think when the same issue comes up after eighty years since the original trial of Scopes what is really being argued. Highly recommended

Rating:
Summary: Inherit the Wind
Review: Inherit the Wind, a book written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, is based on the famous Scopes Trial. In this novel, Henry Drummond is the lawyer fighting for what is right. Inherit the Wind takes place in the summer of 1925, in a small town. The majority of the book is inside the courtroom. The major conflict is between Henry Drummond and Matthew Brady who believes in God and wants the law enforced. The theme of Inherit the Wind is that just because you don't believe in something, doesn't make it wrong for someone else to. Lawrence and Lee use foreshadowing in this book. The people in the court take their jackets off because it is so hot to foreshadow that the trial is going to get heated. I found this book to be very easy to read and understand. It has a valuable lesson and I would suggest this book. "He that troubleth his own house, shall inherit the wind."

Rating:
Summary: "He that Troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind."
Review: On a number of levels, this is a great story. Some people see it only as a take on the Scopes trial. The characters are fictitious, but the story is largely based on facts. The readers that only see this as a book about the monkey trial miss the point.

Those who view this book as promoting evolutionism, see Chrisitians portrayed as narrow-minded and intolerant. This is no more of a stereotype than a Middle Easterner playing the role of a terrorist in a James Bond film. In the Scopes Trial, the Chirstians were intolerant of evolution being taught. Tolerant Christians, which still comprise the majority, would not exactly play the role well.

The point of the story is clearly laid out in the final pages of the book. The agnostic defense attorney Henry Drummond (who represents Clarence Darrow in the actual Scopes Trial) is talking to the arrogant reporter E. K. Hornbeck. Hornbeck assumes Drummond agrees with his view that the peopleof Hillsboro are backwards and ignorant in their Christian beliefs. Drummond lashes out at Hornbeck, telling him the people of Hillsboro have every right to have their beliefs. In the same way, people have a right to believe in evolution.

The 1st Amendment provides freedom of religion, or freedom not to subscribe to any particular religious beliefs. This book is a powerful statement not about evolution, but the right to think. Whether you fall on either side of the argument for evolution or have compromised between the sides, the story is a lesson worth noting.