44 pages • 1 hour read
Jerome Lawrence, Robert E. LeeInherit the Wind
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1955A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Act I, Scene 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Act I, Scene 2, Pages 58-65 Summary
A few days later, the courtroom is packed with people. It is a sweltering day, and Bert Cates’s trial is about to begin. Drummond, Brady, and Davenport select the jury. Davenport accepts a juror on the basis that he attends church on Sundays; Drummond in turn accepts him because he cannot read, and therefore has read neither the Bible nor Darwin. Brady interrupts proceedings to ask the Judge if he will permit everyone in the courthouse to remove their coats on account of the heat. The Judge agrees, and Drummond gets a laugh from the audience for his bright purple suspenders. Brady teases him; Drummond rejoins that he bought the suspenders from Brady’s hometown.
Another man is called forward for juror selection. The man, Dunlap, states that he believes in the Bible and in Matthew Brady. Davenport wants to accept him onto the jury, but Drummond objects because of the man’s obvious bias. The Judge reluctantly excuses Dunlap, but he agrees with “Colonel Brady” that Drummond seems to disrespect the court. Drummond objects to Brady being called a colonel, as he believes that it “prejudices the case of [his client, Bert]” by making Brady out to be a force of righteousness (64). The Mayor protests that they cannot take back Brady’s title, but agrees to make Drummond a “temporary Honorary Colonel” to level the playing field (65). The proceedings continue.
Act I, Scene 2, Pages 65-72 Summary
A final man, George Sillers, is called for juror selection. He describes himself as somewhat religious. Brady asks him what he would do if his child came home and told him something that a “Godless” teacher had told him. Drummond objects to this line of questioning, saying that it denounces the defendant before the trial has started. The judge sustains the objection. Brady changes tactics and is eventually satisfied that Sillers does not have any biases that would impact his opinion in the case. He accepts Sillers. Drummond questions Sillers and realizes that he is actually quite apathetic toward religion. He has no strong feelings about evolution either. Drummond accepts him.
Brady, having now realized that he was too hasty, is unhappy to have a juror who is not a staunch Christian. He no longer feels confident that Sillers will be impartial. An argument ensues between Brady and Drummond. Both want a fair trial but have different ideas about what a fair trial looks like. Drummond argues that Brady seems to want jurors who are all the same; Brady says he wants jurors who represent normal American society. The judge states that they are both out of order and orders a recess until 10 am the following day. In any case, he notes, Brady has already accepted Sillers and cannot now change his mind. He also announces that Reverend Brown will be holding a prayer meeting tonight to “pray for justice and guidance” (71). Drummond objects to the announcement as well as to the sign outside the courthouse that says “Read Your Bible” (71). He proposes adding a sign that says “Read Your Darwin” to make things fair (71). The judge tells Drummond that he is out of order. The court is recessed and a crowd gathers around Brady.
Act I, Scene 2, Pages 72-79 Summary
Rachel approaches Drummond and Bert. She tells Drummond that they should call the whole thing off, that Bert knows he is wrong and wants to apologize for what he said. She believes that if Bert does do, the trial can be stopped. Drummond asks Bert if this is what he wants to do, and Bert thinks. He is surprised by the tone of the trial and observes that people look at him as if he were a murderer, or worse. He feels like people he thought were his friends see him with “horns growing out of [his] head” (73). He is scared of what might happen to him.
Rachel accuses Drummond of not really wanting to help Bert; she believes that he simply wants an opportunity to speak against the Bible. Drummond insists that he cares a lot about what Bert thinks and argues that Rachel cannot “buy back his respectability by making him a coward” (75). He asks Bert once more what he wants to do. To Rachel’s dismay, Bert resolves not to quit the trial. He asks Rachel to stand by him, but Rachel is hesitant. She reveals that Brady has asked her to testify against Bert.
Bert panics when he hears this and tells Rachel that she cannot testify against him. He has told her things in confidence; they have discussed his questions and doubts about religion and the way the world works. He insists that if she repeats his questions on a witness stand, “Brady’ll make ’em sound like answers” (78), and it will hurt his case. Before Rachel can respond, Meeker comes to take Bert back to his jail cell. Drummond tells Rachel that unfortunately she cannot legally refuse to testify. Drummond commends her for loving Bert despite everything that is happening. Rachel worries that she is only confusing Bert. Drummond believes that it takes a smart man to admit when he does not know all the answers.
Act I, Scene 2 Analysis
As the trial begins, the issue of Intellectual Freedom and Censorship takes center stage. Drummond wants the trial to be fair, because he believes that Bert’s intellectual freedom has intrinsic value. Many other characters, particularly Brady and the Judge, outright refuse to acknowledge whatever unfairness may already exist. Nobody likes Drummond’s suggestion that they put up a sign encouraging people to read Darwin. While Drummond acknowledges that his suggestion was not serious, it speaks to the inherently uneven playing field that disadvantages Bert’s case. Drummond’s objection to the judge calling Brady “Colonel” is rooted in the same desire for fairness. When he speaks to Rachel, Bert admits that he has been asking questions about religion. His right to question religious doctrine and his own personal feelings about evolution are not on trial; however, Bert correctly assesses that even though questioning Christianity might not be against the law, it does give people a reason to be biased against him.
The reason the play conflates Bert’s personal beliefs with his choices as a teacher is because of Inherit the Wind is really a play about McCarthyism. Ostensibly, Bert’s personal beliefs should have no bearing on the content of the trial; Scopes’s beliefs were not the subject of the Scopes trial. The writers conflate belief with teaching choices to make a stronger point about McCarthyism as an attack on intellectual freedom, even though doing so muddies the waters of what Bert’s trial is actually about.
The Tension Between Science and Religion only grows as the trial approaches. The people of Hillsboro generally see Christianity as the default worldview, with anything else being a potentially dangerous aberration. They also view Christianity as the basis of morality, which is why Rachel wants to see Bert as simply confused, and why Brady wants Christian jurors, who represent what he perceives as ordinary society. During the McCarthy era, left-wing political thought was given much the same treatment as Bert’s uncertainty about Christianity. Both were considered a deviation from the norm, potentially dangerous, and a fundamental break with morality. Rachel is the character who most embodies the tension between science and religion in this play. She feels torn between the man she loves and the religion her father has taught her. Because she was too naive to do otherwise, she has revealed private information about Bert to Brady and must now pay the price and testify against him.
Drummond bases much of his case on The Value of Critical Thinking. He does not try to find jurors who already believe that evolution is correct; rather he tries to find people with no strong preconceptions. That way, the trial itself can inform their critical thought. Brady, on the other hand, explicitly tries to select jurors who already agree with him. This play initially positions itself as a story with Christian creationists on one side and agnostics who believe the theory of evolution on the other. In fact, that dichotomy does not accurately represent the debate that is taking place. It is not Christians versus non-Christians; it is people who value critical thought and open-mindedness versus those who do not. Drummond belongs to the first group, and Brady to the second. Other characters, like Rachel, will shift from Brady’s group to Drummond’s other over the course of the play.
The trial is very theatrical, and it will only become more so. Drummond does not simply rely on the facts of the case to make his point. Like many good lawyers, he uses emotion and humor to connect to the audience and the jury. He tries to undermine Brady by making fun of his hometown, and he is successful. However, the audience is heavily prejudiced in Brady’s favor, so it is not easy for someone like Drummond to get them to change their minds.
The play continues to use imagery associated with the Devil. Bert uses the image of horns to describe how people treat him now that he is on trial: Bert feels that people perceive him as the Devil, and other characters have said that Drummond is the Devil because of his past legal cases. The play raises the question of who the real Devil is. Of course, the real answer is hiding in plain sight: Hornbeck has “horn” in his name, evoking popular imagery of horned devils and demons. Though nobody pays him much attention, he is the real Devil figure in the play. Unlike Drummond, he is not trying to find common ground with anybody; he is here to antagonize anyone he comes into contact with.
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