The Play and the Trial: How They Compare
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.
John T. Scopes, who was well-liked by Dayton community members, volunteered to be arrested for teaching evolution to test the constitutionality of the Butler Law, and he was never jailed. After his arrest, he was freed on $1,000 bond. His counterpart in the play, Bert Cates, is arrested for teaching evolution to his sophomore science class and is imprisoned throughout the duration of the trial. Furthermore, he is treated unkindly by the people of Hillsboro, as though he “has horns growing out of his head” and is “a pariah in the community.”
Scopes did not request an attorney. When Darrow heard that Bryan would be assisting with the prosecution, he volunteered to serve as Scopes’ attorney. In the play, Cates writes to a Baltimore newspaper to request an attorney, and the Baltimore Herald sends Drummond to Hillsboro to defend Cates.
The people of Dayton were portrayed as charming, friendly, polite, and open-minded, and the atmosphere throughout the trial is festive and circus-like. The citizens of Hillsboro, however, are portrayed as rude, narrow-minded religious fanatics. Although the atmosphere in Hillsboro is circus-like, it is sinister.
