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Major figures in 'Inherit the Wind
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In the film Inherit the Wind, school teacher Bertram Cates, was arrested in Hillsboro, Tennessee for breaking the Butler Law.The Butler Law, was a law that prohibited public school teachers from denying the biblical account of man’s origin in the state of Tennessee. Bertram Cates trial bought two of the top lawyers in the United States at the time to Hillsboro, Henry Drummond, the defense lawyer, and Matthew Harrison Brady, the prosecution.
Even though Bertram Cates went to trial for teaching evolution what was really on trial was the ability to think and share different ideologies freely. In the community of Hillsboro religion is prioritized. Since religion is prioritized in Hillsboro Bertram Cates teaching against the Bible went against
what they believed in. The Butler Law restricted teachers from freely expressing different ideologies in their classrooms. The law restricted students from forming their own ideas, the law was made to enforce the teaching of the bible in the Tennessee public school systems. Most parents in Hillsboro would rather have their children blindly follow teachings of the church, the bible, and Reverend Jeremiah Brown, rather than have them learn different ideologies and form their own opinions. The people of Hillsboro were unintelligent, God fearing people who neglect human progress. Bertram Cates teaching evolution in the public school system could present a change their society which they did not welcome or accept. This change was not accepted because, they believed that Cates’ students would begin to question the teachings of the Bible. The residents of Hillsboro were people who could not accept anything other than God and what Reverend Brown preached. While this is not bad the people of Hillsboro used god to control and install fear into residents. It was for this reason that Bertram Cates separated himself from the church. However just because he separated himself from the church does not mean he separated himself from God.
Summary of the Case On August 1987, Donald Butler opened a store in Winnipeg, Manitoba, called the “Avenue Boutique”. In this store, Butler sold and rented pornographic publications that were considered “hard core” and sexual paraphernalia. A couple weeks later, the City of Winnipeg Police searched and seized Butler’s sexually explicit materials lawfully. From this, Butler was charged with 173 counts under s. 163 of the Criminal Code. These charges included s. 163(1)(a) which criminalizes the distribution and the possession for distribution of obscene materials, as wells s. 163(2)(a) for selling and exposing obscene material to the public.
With such a minor sentence, Darrow is said to be the person who actually won the trial. In the play Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, the character, Henry Drummond, parallels his real-life counterpart, Clarence Darrow, through
The “Monkey Trial” in 1925 was one of the most famous clashes in history between the Bible and evolution. The concept of the play was based on the Scopes Trial, but characters, actions, and words were altered. During the trial, William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow went to court to try John Scopes for illegally teaching evolution, causing major complications in Dayton, Tennessee. In the play Inherit the Wind, the character, Henry Drummond, parallels his real-life counterpart, Clarence Darrow, through ¬his appearance, beliefs, and actions.
Paul Butler says in his article, “Jurors Need to Know That They Can Say No”, “If you are ever on a jury in a marijuana case, I recommend that you vote ‘not guilty’…As a juror you have this power under the Bill of Rights; if you exercise it, you will become part of a proud tradition of American jurors who helped make our laws fairer.” This is in reference to jury nullification. It is an actual constitutional doctrine that is premised upon the idea that the jury (ordinary citizens), not government officials, should possess the final word on whether an individual should be punished. As Butler explains, jury nullification is for the most part a good thing. It was necessary to end prohibition, it has caused prosecutors over the years to change tactics when
In Inherit The Wind, by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, is about a big trial in a small town, and a controversial Creation versus Evolution debate. There are many characters with flamboyant and powerful personalities. Among them are: Matthew Harrison Brady, and Henry Drummond. Although all of these influential people are powerful, not all of them have the same amount of power, not only over other people, but over themselves as well.
John Scopes, a substitute biology teacher was arrested and charged with violating the Butler Act, a Tennessee law which prohibited teachers from teaching the Darwin Theory of Evolution in a science-related course. The American Civil Liberties Union created a plan to find a teacher willing to teach evolution in order to test the Butler Act, which forbade the essence that anyone teaching any theory that shunned the Biblical story of creationism. Scopes agreed to be arrested and have the case be taken to court. However, Scopes had simply reviewed the textbook chapter on evolution. The traditionalists would see this as a threat to their interests and the issue hit the country stronger than a tornado. Everyone was glued to their radios—it was the first broadcasted radio trial--except the campers and hundreds of reporters near the Dayton, Tennessee courthouse. Traditionalists would be outraged by the appearance of speakeasies, flappers, illegal boozing, popular activities of the Roaring Twenties and especially the Darwinian Theory. Their strong Christian beliefs from the Holy Bible stated how God created the world and man and woman. A traditionalist’s beliefs would not accept the idea of evolution because the Bible said that Man did not evolve but was created by God—the Divine Creation in one day.
A large message Kindred sends to the reader is how one individual with a large amount of power can destroy other people's lives solely on their own whim. Rufus is the character who exemplifies this theme the most, especially with Alice. When Rufus begins to pester Dana to speak with Alice, she begins to worry that Rufus will exhibit his power on her: “I had thought that eventually, he would just rape her again” (Butler 110). The most disturbing part of this sentence is the casual tone used towards it. Dana already knows the type of power Rufus takes against Alice, which is constantly sexually violating her. Since he already put her through the abuse once, Dana knows he will do it again. In Dana’s last time travel, she begins to truly reflect
simple terms: either Darwin or the Bible was true.” (265) The road to the trial began when Tennessee passed the Butler Act in 1925 banning the teaching of evolution in secondary schools. It was only a matter of time before a young biology teacher, John T. Scopes, prompted by the ACLU, tested the law. Spectators and newspapermen came from all over to witness whether science or religion would win the day. Yet, below all the hype, the trial had a deeper meaning.
Johnson, Claudia. "The Secret Courts of Men's Hearts: Code and Law in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird." Studies in American Fiction (1991):129-139.
Butler was one of many to be accused of a crime he didn’t commit. In 1993, a woman got
In the play “Inherit the Wind” by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, the defense faces numerous societal injustices, which is why they never had a chance to win the case. One example of the town’s bias is presented through the town’s love for Matthew Harrison Brady. A second example is the extreme conformist and pious attitude of the town’s people. The last instance is the narrow-mindedness of the judge and the jury, which resulted in an unfair trial. In conclusion, the defense suffered through many unfair circumstances throughout the drama “Inherit the Wind.”
William Henry Drummond is a renowned, successful, and acclaimed lawyer. A reaction to his name could be extremely varied, depending on whom you’d ask in the 1925 world. To the majority of the people in Hillsboro, for example, Drummond is perceived as a “vicious, godless man,” who will undoubtedly lose the trial to the beloved Matthew Harrison Brady. The results however, showed otherwise. Countless impressions of him are changed by the end of the trial. Drummond has many positive character traits which influenced his comportment in the “Monkey Trial”. He is a respectful, resourceful, and dignified man, and these traits prove to be accurate through the length of the trial.
In 1925, a teacher named John T Scopes was arrested for teaching the Theory of Evolution as this contradicted religion and their beliefs that God created the world.
Since the time that teaching evolution in public schools was banned as heresy and taboo for contradicting the Bible, most public school systems today take an opposite approach in which creationism is seldom ta...
Ever since the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925, many have viewed Christianity as largely counter scientific. This position is obviously an exaggeration and a desire to portray the Christian faith as unreasoning and unreasonable. Similar situations followed the Scopes trial, such as Epperson v. Arkansas in1968, Lemon v. Kurtzman in 1971, Daniel v. Waters in 1975, Hendren v. Campbell in 1977, McLean v. Arkansas in 1982, and Edwards v. Aguillard in 1987. In recent years, the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District case attracted attention yet again to what many would have thought was beating a dead horse. But the horse apparently is not dead; it never died. Christianity was never defeated in the science lab.