Essay Comparing The Scopes Trial And Inherit The Wind

The setting of the Scopes Trial and Inherit the Wind have both similarities and differences. The Scopes Trial took place in Dayton, Tennessee (“Tennessee vs. John Scopes,” 1925). Dayton is a town that normally wouldn’t have been found on a typical map. It is small, quiet, and would be considered insignificant if not for the historical event that took place there in the summer of 1925: the Monkey Trial. Likewise, the setting of Inherit the Wind features a sleepy town in the middle of summer that had never been the center of attention in all its years of existence (Lawrence & Lee, 1955). However, the name of the town is not Dayton. It is called Hillsboro (Lawrence & Lee, 1955). Additionally, while the Scopes Trial took place in 1925, Inherit the Wind does not have a specific date attached to its setting. This gives the story a feeling of timelessness; appropriate since the theme of Inherit the Wind is still applicable today. While the setting in many ways stays the same, it is easy to see the changes that the authors of Inherit the Wind made while writing the story

Another aspect of the Scopes Trial that the authors transformed was the genre.

Both the Scopes Trial and Inherit the Wind document an epic legal battle between some of the greatest lawyers of the age, but the Scopes Trial, being a real occurrence, falls under the category of nonfiction.

However, “Inherit the Wind is not history,” (Lawrence & Lee, 1955, p. 1); therefore, it should be classified as fiction. Historical fiction, perhaps, but fiction all the same. The writers of Inherit the Wind freely admit from the first page of the play that the following story, while it is rooted in the true events of the Scopes Trial, should not be read as an actual occurrence (Lawrence & Lee, 1955). Even though the focus of both are similar, the genres they are classified in are in fact opposites, showing once again the transformations that the authors

made.

An additional example of the authors drawing on and transforming the Scopes Trial into a fictional work is language usage. Bryan, Darrow, and Judge Raulston, among others, all use a plethora of terms that only people in their profession would employ. This is called technical language, and there are many examples of it sprinkled throughout the trial transcript, such as, “Both the state and federal governments maintain courts, that those who cannot agree may have their difference properly adjudicated.” (“Tennessee vs. John Scopes,” 1925). A limited amount of this technical language is also used in Inherit the Wind, but the characters in the play also use figurative language that the participants in the Scopes Trial would not have occasion to use. In Inherit the Wind, one can find similes, metaphors, and verbal irony. An example would be in Act I, when a character sarcastically remarks, “How flattering to know I’m being clipped,” (Lawrence & Lee, 1955, p. 25). The Scopes Trial, being an actual court case and therefore very business-like, simply does not contain any figurative language. This alteration of language use is yet another instance of transformation that the authors of Inherit the Wind are responsible for.