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.
Themes
The Tension Between Science and Religion
On its face, Inherit the Wind is about a debate between creationism and evolutionary theory. Most characters in the play start out with strong feelings one way or the other; some maintain their convictions, and others start to change their minds. The people of Hillsboro are, by and large, very threatened by Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. They feel that the theory of evolution is incompatible with the Bible, which states that God created the world in just seven days and implies that the world is only around 6,000 years old. If Bert Cates teaches his students about evolution, they might stop believing in God, lose their sense of morality, and get confused about how the world really works. The people of Hillsboro feel so strongly about this issue that Bert thinks they are imagining him sprouting devil horns on his head.
Drummond does not attempt to completely dismantle creationism during Bert’s trial. Instead, he tries to open up room for doubt and questions. Instead of dismissing evolution out of hand, he suggests that the first “day” of creation might have lasted for millions of years. He points out that the Bible omits certain details, and says that trying to fill in those details with science is not necessarily counter to religious thinking. Drummond also tries to disconnect religion from morality when he suggests that Howard has not lost his moral compass after learning about evolution. If God gave people minds with the power of critical thought, then they must use those minds to seek the truth instead of remaining complacent.
At the end of the play, the tension between science and religion weakens. Characters who were once vehemently against Bert start to sympathize with him. They come to respect Drummond’s line of reasoning, accepting that Darwin’s ideas do not have to destroy their religious belief or threaten their community. When Rachel reads On the Origin of Species, she finds that learning about new ideas has not shaken her faith. She does not agree with Darwin, but she has benefitted from engaging with his work. In the end, the tension between religion and science is revealed to be fear of the unknown and fear of what might happen when new ideas are introduced to the community. The only characters who continue to insist on a tension between science and religion are Hornbeck and Brady, a relic of the past whose death ushers in a new era. In this new era, science and religion can coexist, as Drummond illustrates when he places the Bible and On the Origin of Species together in his briefcase.
The Value of Critical Thinking
Inherit the Wind is about the importance of remaining open to new perspectives, even when they seem threatening or uncomfortable. Drummond says several times that this is a case about whether people should have the right to think for themselves, or whether they must uncritically accept the dominant cultural narrative. Drummond doesn’t say that people ought to come to any particular conclusion in the debate between creationism and evolutionary theory. Uncertainty on this issue is, in fact, a good in and of itself, because uncertainty means that one is thinking critically about a complex issue. Drummond believes that uncertainty and critical thinking can be a virtue not only for adults but for children as well. Learning about evolution in school does not turn children into amoral murderers, and it does not make them abandon all religious belief, as his questioning of Howard proves. It simply exposes them to a new way of looking at things.
The opportunity to think critically and to question established narratives was a major issue in the McCarthy era. People could come under suspicion for no reason at all, or for displaying even an academic interest in left-wing politics or communism. McCarthyism was, in essence, about whether people’s personal beliefs or even their interests and thoughts might make them fundamentally immoral, a danger to national security, or a threat to the American way of life. Lawrence and Lee use their fictionalized version of the Scopes trial to argue that asking questions, even uncomfortable questions that challenge the status quo, is a good thing to do. Questioning the dominant narrative helps people re-evaluate their perspectives, enabling society at large to think more critically about important topics.
At the end of the play, Rachel recognizes that critical thinking is not dangerous, as she had always believed. Ideas, good or bad, ought to be expressed and examined. When those ideas are correct, or at least backed up by strong evidence, they are more likely to persist. When ideas are incorrect or poorly thought out, they are less likely to take hold in people’s minds. It is therefore not dangerous to learn about evolutionary theory, even if one has been raised as a creationist. Likewise, it is not dangerous to learn about creationism even as an atheist or agnostic. The final image of the play, where Drummond weighs the two books and ultimately brings both with him, solidifies this theme.
Intellectual Freedom and Censorship
Inherit the Wind centers around a simple but important question with far-reaching implications: the question of whether people have the right to think freely. The play, written during the McCarthy era, is not actually all that interested in evolution, creationism, and the realities of the Scopes trial. Instead it uses this framework to explore the persecution of various individuals for their alleged connections to communism. Some people were targeted merely on the suspicion that they might hold left-wing views, that they were building a labor union, or that they were gay. Any of these things might make them a threat to American security, according to the logic of McCarthyism. As a result, many people felt that they could not express ideas that might be considered controversial because doing so might cost them their livelihood or reputation.
Because the play focuses on the censorship and repression of the 1950s, it positions Bert’s crime as a thought crime. Drummond repeatedly says that he wants to determine whether people have the right to think what they like without being censored and punished. This is why, when Drummond questions Brady about the Bible, Davenport erroneously says that his line of questioning is illegal. Inherit the Wind exists, on a meta-narrative level, in a world with harsher penalties for discussing the theory of evolution than existed in the real Scopes trial. Although Drummond’s questions are not illegal, he does face harsh censorship, which was also the case in the real trial. Scientific knowledge is considered so dangerous that Drummond is not permitted to call any scientists as witnesses. The subtext of this scene is that scientific knowledge could destabilize the status quo.
Bert faces censorship for exercising his intellectual freedom because he challenges established cultural narratives. In Hillsboro, unquestioning Christian faith in the Biblical creation story is positioned as the only correct, moral, and American perspective. Deviation from that norm has the power to corrupt children and weaken faith, so it must be harshly punished. At the end of the play, Rachel realizes that censoring new ideas is not the right way forward. The alternative to censorship is freedom of speech. If someone puts forward a new idea that is not popular, not backed up by evidence, or not suited to public discourse, it will likely die out. Only ideas of substance will stand the test of time, according to her view. Similarly, learning a new idea does not immediately convert someone to a new way of thinking. It is perfectly possible for someone to learn about new ideas without abandoning their pre-existing convictions.
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