Although Lawrence and Lee used the Scopes trial as the basis for their play, Inherit the Wind is a work of fiction. In their introduction, Lawrence and Lee make clear that the play is not history. "Some of the characters of the play are related to the colorful figures in the battle of giants; but they have life and language of their own — and, therefore, names of their own." The names Lawrence and Lee chose for their main characters are similar in sound and number of syllables to those who participated in the Scopes trial: William Jennings Bryan is now Matthew Harrison Brady. Clarence Darrow is Henry Drummond. John Scopes has become Bert Cates. And, H.L. Mencken of the Baltimore Sun is E.K. Hornbeck of the Baltimore Herald. The characterizations of all but one character, that of E.K. Hornbeck, however, bear no resemblance to the participants of the Scopes trial. The following illustrates other differences between the play and the trial.
The Scopes trial took place in Dayton, Tennessee, in July 1925 The play takes place in the "summer, in a small town (Hillsboro, Tennessee) not too long ago."
The Scopes trial originated when the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in New York placed an advertisement in Tennessee newspapers offering to pay the expenses of a teacher willing to test the new anti-evolution law. The goal of the ACLU was to repeal the Butler Law. Dayton community leaders responded to the ACLU's announcement for economic reasons. They assumed the publicity of the trial would attract business and industry and would "put Dayton on the map." In the play, there are no ulterior reasons for the trial in Hillsboro. A man is simply arrested for breaking the law.
