Inherit the Wind

The opening scene of the play introduces the major players and sets up the subject of the court case. It also introduces a key theme, The Value of Critical Thinking. When Bert and Rachel have their brief conversation, Rachel wants Bert to be on the “right” side of things; she is completely unwilling to consider his perspective. Although Rachel loves Bert, she does not think it is acceptable for him to be critical of the status quo. She feels that teaching children anything outside of a strictly biblical worldview is a mistake, and she often rationalizes Bert’s perspective by assuming that he must be “confused” about what he believes. Her behavior shows how threatening Bert’s perspective really is to the people of Hillsboro. Before Hornbeck and Drummond arrive, there is nobody else in the story who shares Bert’s understanding of the world. He is deeply isolated, but he maintains that his beliefs are not the result of error or confusion.

The Tension Between Science and Religion is apparent from the first moments of the play. Howard teases Melinda with a misrepresentation of evolutionary theory, telling her that her family used to be worms or monkeys. He is referring to the fact that humans and monkeys share a common ancestor and that before life diversified into plants, mammals, fish, reptiles, and birds, all living beings were comparatively simple and lived in the ocean. The fact that Howard does not describe the theory of evolution accurately suggests that either he has not understood Bert’s lessons, or he is deliberately taunting Melinda, or both. Even Hornbeck, whose beliefs stand in stark contrast to the other characters’, perpetuates this tension. Hornbeck addresses the organ-grinder’s monkey as “grandpa” and speaks to it as though it were a person. As the most non-religious character in the play, this might seem like an odd choice for him to make. He certainly knows that he is contributing to a misrepresentation of evolutionary theory. However, Hornbeck is a deeply antagonistic character. He is pretending to believe that humans and monkeys are the same to rile up those around him, satirizing their own misconceptions about evolution.

The characterization of Hornbeck is slightly unusual in a play that is otherwise very naturalistic. Unlike all the other characters, Hornbeck speaks in verse. His poetry lacks rhyme and meter, but the use of verse is clear in the typesetting of his lines in the script. In his beliefs, his manner, and his speech, Hornbeck is immediately and obviously out of place. The play implies that he is the Devil; he even eats an apple, representing the forbidden fruit, when speaking to Rachel. 

This first scene sets up the basis for Bert’s trial. The trial is ostensibly about evolution and creationism, but it is actually about Intellectual Freedom and Censorship. Bert’s actions were in contravention of the law because it was thought that even telling children about evolutionary theory might poison their minds, confuse them, or push them away from Christianity. Evolution and creationism are standing in for left-wing thought and McCarthy–era anti-communist sentiments, respectively. This creates a slight flaw in the premise of the play. The McCarthy trials were primarily about what the accused believed, not what they were teaching to children. Bert is not on trial for believing the theory of evolution, but for teaching it. Despite this, characters often behave as though it is his beliefs that are unacceptable. Drummond, who has just been introduced, is a man who believes deeply in the value of intellectual freedom. Other characters note that he has defended people accused of murder, as though this makes him evil. In fact, Drummond believes that every person accused of a crime, no matter how serious and no matter their guilt or innocence, deserves to have fair and appropriate legal representation. 

In Inherit the Wind, Bert says he read his class part of Darwin’s Origin of Species, more correctly known as On the Origin of Species. In this text Darwin lays out his theory of evolution by natural selection in clear terms. In the real trial, Scopes taught his students passages from A Civic Biology: Presented in Problems by George William Hunter. The text includes only a very vague passage about the “evolution” of humans as they developed sophisticated tool use. It also includes passages celebrating eugenics, a form of scientific racism that is no longer considered acceptable to teach or to promote. By changing this element of the Scopes trial, the play clarifies the issue at the heart of Bert’s trial—the theory of evolution by natural selection—and aligns Bert with Darwin rather than Hunter.