Inherit The Wind Analysis

Everyone has an opinion on just about everything. We have evolved due to beliefs; mankind has needed to know whether they should act a certain way, and their beliefs and opinions have a great impact on what they end up doing. Sometimes, however, the reasons behind believing something are faulty. We may believe something only because we were told to believe that when we were young, or we do not know any other explanation for the world around us, therefore, there must be a higher power controlling every aspect of our lives. These faulty ways of thinking have influenced the way we act towards the world and people around us. In Inherit the Wind, by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, the townspeople of Hillsboro are faced with a man who does

At first, when they hear Drummond, the defendant, is an agnostic, they automatically assume he is ungodly and evil. They take the fact that he is refraining from speaking about God and twist it so they are able to portray him as evil. These people are afraid of what they do not know, fearing that Drummond will say something against their God. When they hear Drummond is coming to town, they panic, worried about what he will say and do to confirm their ideas that he is a villain. A young girl, Melinda, sees Drummond as he comes to the town, and upon laying eyes on the man she says in a terrified manner, “It’s the Devil!” Due to the fact that the people around her have often taken the man’s beliefs and simplified it so much, she now views him as something incredibly evil. The townspeople also refuse to listen to what Cates really said, saying that he is not of the Lord. When Cates’s fiance, Rachel Brown, is trying to defend him, the people take what he said and simplify it so much that it portrays Cates in a negative manner. When Rachel says that he stated that “God didn’t create man, man created God,” the townsfolk refuse to take into account that Cates was angry from the death of a young boy when he said that. This shows that they simplify what he says to what they want it to mean. In addition, when

Initially, these people felt personally attacked by what Cates had done, and they believed that his teaching was aimed at them. In regards to Darwin’s book, Cates says, “I opened it up, and read my sophomore science class Chapter 14, Darwin’s Origin of Species.” The way Cates says this conveys that he was simply doing his job; teaching his students what the textbook says. He did not intend for any drama to happen. Despite this, people called him heathen and evil because they believed he was deliberately trying to hurt them by what he did. After people began to hear about what Cates really did, they resorted to insulting him. They felt that if they called him names and said he was lost and evil, it would support their case. What they did not realize was that, in calling him names, they were showing that they had no true evidence against him. They feel that if he does not do what they say, he is automatically wrong, and by insulting him, they are proving their point against him. Similarly, when Henry Drummond comes for the defence, the townspeople are afraid, and they begin to yell insults at him as well. Because Drummond is agnostic, they do not know how to approach the situation. Their confusion and ignorance leads them to resort to what they are able to do easily: call someone names and insult them. They call Drummond and all those who support him the