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.

Differences between Inherit the Wind and history

Inherit the Wind portrays the Cates/Scopes character as unfairly persecuted. In the actual event, however, whilst the ACLU were certainly looking for a teacher to figure in a test case, it was a group of Dayton businessmen who persuaded Scopes to be volunteer, in the hope that the publicity surrounding the trial would help to revive the town's ailing economy and status. Scopes was never jailed or even in the slightest danger of being jailed.

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Inherit the Wind has been criticised for unfairly portraying or stereotyping Christians as hostile, hate-filled bigots. Thus there is Reverend Jeremiah Brown who whips up his congregation into a frenzy and calls down hellfire on his own daughter for dating Cates. There was no such reverend, prayer meeting or girlfriend in the real Dayton. The townspeople were generally very kind and cordial to Drummond/Darrow in both the fiction and reality. Speaking of the townspeople, the real Darrow said:

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:I don?t know as I was ever in a community in my life where my religious ideas differed as widely from the great mass as I have found them since I have been in Tennessee. Yet I came here a perfect stranger and I can say what I have said before that I have not found upon any body?s part — any citizen here in this town or outside the slightest discourtesy. I have been treated better, kindlier and more hospitably than I fancied would have been the case in the north (trial transcript, pp. 225–226).

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Other differences

(In the following notes, (M) refers to the 1960 movie version, and (P) to the published play script. (M/P) means the material appears in both versions.)

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• (M) When Bertram Cates is arrested in the classroom and the sheriff asks his name, Cates replies "Come on Bert, you've known me all my life." In fact Scopes was born and raised in Paducah, Kentucky and only moved to Dayton after graduating from university in 1924.
• (M/P) In answer to a question from Drummond concerning the Origin, Brady says he has no interest in "the pagan hypotheses of that book". In reality, Bryan was very familiar with Darwin's writings and quoted them extensively.
• (M/P) In answer to a question from Drummond, Brady declares that sexual intercourse was original sin. In reality sex was never mentioned during the confrontation between Bryan and Darrow.
• (M/P) Brady betrays Cates' girlfriend, the local preacher's daughter, by questioning her in court about information she told him in confidence. In real life, Scopes didn't have a girlfriend at all, and Bryan didn't betray anyone.
• (M/P) When the verdict is announced, Brady protests, loudly and angrily, that the fine is too lenient. In reality, Scopes was fined the minimum amount allowed under the law, and Bryan offered to pay the fine.
• (M/P) Drummond is portrayed as being involved in the trial out of his concern to defend Cates from being jailed by bigots. In reality Scopes was never jailed, and never in danger of being jailed. As for Darrow, as he later acknowledged in a letter to H.L. Mencken and in his autobiography, he was there simply to attack Bryan and the fundamentalists.
• (M) The plot line regarding Mr and Mrs Stebbins and the death of their son by drowning is allegedly based on a true incident, only it was in fact the event which is said to have motivated George Rappelyea to turn against fundamentalist Christianity, and happened several years earlier - before Scopes ever moved to Dayton.