Brady questions the townspeople about Cates and uses his favorable reputation to encourage Rachel, a friend of Cates and daughter of Reverend Brown, to trust him and tell him about Cates. He is hypocritical because he acts gently toward Rachel in order to get the information he wants, but once he has that information, he disregards her feelings and requires her to appear as a witness for the prosecution. When she is on the witness stand, he forces her to divulge private conversations she had with Cates. When she becomes distraught, Brady appears unaffected, underscoring the fact that he is simply using her to make an example of Cates.
Brady, the hero of the common people, looks forward to the trial. In that he never questions whether he can win the case or his own position in the battle, he displays hubris, or overreaching pride. He arrogantly uses every opportunity to pontificate, to express his opinions. He is certain that he is on the "right" side — the side of fundamentalism — and he sees the trial as a challenge in which he can "test the steel of (his) Truth against the blasphemies of science." As the trial begins, Brady "sits grandly . . . with benign self-assurance." He is confident because the majority of the spectators in the courtroom revere him, and he has their total support.
Brady's character is dynamic, changing as the action of the play unfolds. He is unaware that he has become overzealous about denouncing evolution. Ironically, when he hears Reverend Brown pray for retribution for his own daughter, Brady steps forward and tells him that, "it is possible to be overzealous, to destroy that which you hope to save — so that nothing is left but emptiness." And then he quotes from the Book of Proverbs: "He that troubleth his own house . . . shall inherit the wind."
