Inherit the Wind

Inherit the Wind is a play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. It is frequently cited as being a fictionalized account of the Scopes Trial. The play first appeared on Broadway in January 1955.

Inherit the Wind and history

Inherit the Wind, in both the movies and the play, takes much poetic license, meaning that the writers do not try to present things as they actually happened, but instead use key events to craft a story, embellishing them according to the needs of drama. It is, like Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, a literary device wherein historical events are retold as an exploration of events and ideas of the times. In this case, authors merely use the historical Scopes trial as the background for a drama that comments on and explores the threats to intellectual freedom presented by the anti-communist hysteria of the McCarthy era. The script of the play, however, actually does use multiple excerpts taken directly from the actual court transcripts.

Related Topics:
Poetic license - Arthur Miller - The Crucible - Intellectual freedom - Communist - McCarthy

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The play includes a note from the playwrights reminding the reader that "Inherit the Wind is not history." They state that the characters have different names from the historical figures on whom they are based, and that the play "does not pretend to be journalism." Rather, they argue that "the issues of conflict have acquired new dimension and meaning" in the thirty years since the actual courtroom clash. They do not set the play in 1925 but instead say that "It might have been yesterday. It could be tomorrow." This timelessness setting could be seen as a warning about repeating the wrongs of the past, which, without vigilance, always have the possibility of recurring.

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Despite the comments of the authors, much of the marketing of the play today portrays it as a basically true account of the Scopes Trial, and many still unknowingly interpret the work as a documentary-drama. The Scopes trial did not appear in the Encyclopædia Britannica until 1957 when the inclusion was spurred by the successful run of Inherit the Wind on Broadway, which was mentioned in the citation. It was not until the 1960s that the Scopes trial began to be mentioned in the history textbooks of American high schools and colleges, usually as an example of the conflict between fundamentalists and modernists, and often in sections that also talked about the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the South. Most entries followed the play's lead and focused on Darrow reducing Bryan to a figure of ridicule and several substituted the substance of the drama for the reality of the actual trial.

Related Topics:
Encyclopædia Britannica - 1957 - 1960s - Ku Klux Klan

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