from
Inherit the Wind
by
Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee

This page:

Inherit the Wind

Category:

Drama

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Inherit the Wind

Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee

Copyright © as an unpublished work, 1951, by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Copyright © 1955 by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee

Act One Scene I

Meeker:
[...] Seems kinda queer havin’ a school-teacher in our jail. Might improve the writin’ on the walls.

Topics:

Teachers

Jail

Hornbeck:
May I ask your opinion, sir, on Evolution?

Storekeeper:
Don’t have any opinions. They’re bad for business.

Topic:

Opinions

Scene II

Brady:
Unless the state of mind of the members of the jury conforms to the laws and patterns of society—

Drummond:
Conform! Conform! What do you want to do—run the jury through a meat-grinder, so they all come out the same?

Topic:

Law

Cates:
People I thought were my friends look at me now as if I had horns growing out of my head.

Drummond:
You murder a wife, it isn’t nearly so bad as murdering an old wives’ tale. Kill one of their fairy-tale notions, and they call down the wrath of God, Brady, and the state legislature.

Rachel:
You make a joke out of everything. You seem to think it’s so funny!

Drummond:
Lady, when you lose your power to laugh, you lose your power to think straight.

Topic:

Humor

Drummond:
[...] It’s the loneliest feeling in the world—to find yourself standing up when everybody else is sitting down. To have everybody look at you and say, “What’s the matter with him?” I know. I know what it feels like. Walking down an empty street, listening to the sound of your own footsteps. Shutters closed, blinds drawn, doors locked against you. And you aren’t sure whether you’re walking toward something, or if you’re just walking away.

Topic:

Individuality

Rachel:
[...] I remember feeling this way when I was a little girl. I would wake up at night, terrified of the dark. I’d think sometimes that my bed was on the ceiling, and the whole house was upside down; and if I didn’t hang onto the mattress, I might fall outward into the stars. I wanted to run to my father, and have him tell me I was safe, that everything was all right. But I was always more frightened of him than I was of falling.

Drummond:
The man who has everything figured out is probably a fool. College examinations notwithstanding, it takes a very smart fella to say “I don’t know the answer!”

Act Two Scene I

Brady:
[...] What happened between us? There used to be a mutuality of understanding and admiration. Why is it, my old friend, that you have moved so far away from me?

Drummond:
All motion is relative. Perhaps it is you who have moved away—by standing still.

Topic:

Conservatism

Scene II

Brady:
[...] Does Right have no meaning to you, sir?

Drummond:
Realizing that I may prejudice the case of my client, I must say that “Right” has no meaning to me whatsoever! Truth has meaning—as a direction. But one of the peculiar imbecilities of our time is the grid of morality we have placed on human behavior: so that every act of man must be measured against an arbitrary latitude of right and longitude of wrong—in exact minutes, seconds, and degrees!

Topics:

Truth

Morality

Rachel:
[...] What he said was: “God created Man in His own image—and Man, being a gentleman, returned the compliment.”

Topic:

Creation

Brady:
[...] Is it possible that something is holy to the celebrated agnostic?

Drummond:
Yes! The individual human mind. In a child’s power to master the multiplication table there is more sanctity than in all your shouted “Amens!”, “Holy, Holies!” and “Hosannahs!” An idea is a greater monument than a cathedral. And the advance of man’s knowledge is more of a miracle than any sticks turned to snakes, or the parting of waters!

Brady:
We must not abandon faith! Faith is the important thing!

Drummond:
Then why did God plague us with the power to think?

Drummond:
The Bible is a book. A good book. But it’s not the only book.

Topic:

Scripture

Act Three

Drummond:
[...] I was seven years old, and a very fine judge of rocking horses. Golden Dancer had a bright red mane, blue eyes, and she was gold all over, with purple spots. When the sun hit her stirrups, she was a dazzling sight to see. But she was a week’s wages for my father. So Golden Dancer and I always had a plate glass window between us. But—let’s see, it wasn’t Christmas; must’ve been my birthday—I woke up in the morning and there was Golden Dancer at the foot of my bed! Ma had skimped on the groceries, and my father’d worked nights for a month. I jumped into the saddle and started to rock— And it broke! It split in two! The wood was rotten, the whole thing was put together with spit and sealing wax! All shine, and no substance! Bert, whenever you see something bright, shining, perfect-seeming—all gold, with purple spots—look behind the paint! And if it’s a lie—show it up for what it really is!

Topic:

Rocking Horses

Drummond:
Radio! God, this is going to break down a lot of walls.

Radio Man:
You’re—you’re not supposed to say “God” on the radio!

Drummond:
Why the hell not?

Radio Man:
You’re not supposed to say “Hell,” either.

Drummond:
This is going to be a barren source of amusement!

Topic:

Technology

Hornbeck:
Something happens to an Also-Ran.
Something happens to the feet of a man
Who always comes in second in a foot-race.
He becomes a national unloved child,
A balding orphan, an aging adolescent
Who never got the biggest piece of candy.
Unloved children, of all ages, insinuate themselves
Into spotlights and rotogravures.
They stand on their hands and wiggle their feet.
Split pulpits with their pounding! And their tonsils
Turn to organ pipes. Show me a shouter,
And I’ll show you an also-ran. A might-have-been,
An almost-was.

Drummond:
You don’t suppose this kind of thing is ever finished, do you? Tomorrow it’ll be something else—and another fella will have to stand up. And you’ve helped give him the guts to do it!

Rachel:
Mr. Drummond, I hope I haven’t said anything to offend you. You see, I haven’t really thought very much. I was always afraid of what I might think—so it seemed safer not to think at all. But now I know. A thought is like a child inside our body. It has to be born. If it dies inside you, part of you dies, too! Maybe what Mr. Darwin wrote is bad. I don’t know. Bad or good, it doesn’t make any difference. The ideas have to come out—like children. Some of ’em healthy as a bean plant, some sickly. I think the sickly ideas die mostly, don’t you, Bert?

Topic:

Philosophy

Drummond:
I’m getting damned tired of you, Hornbeck.

Hornbeck:
Why?

Drummond:
You never pushed a noun against a verb except to blow up something.

Drummond:
A giant once lived in that body. But Matt Brady got lost. Because he was looking for God too high up and too far away.

Hornbeck:
You hypocrite! You fraud!
You’re more religious than he was!

Topics:

Gods

Hypocrisy

text checked (see note) Jan 2005

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Graphics copyright © 2003 by Hal Keen

The chain of monkeys is roughly based on the classic Milton Bradley “Barrel of Monkeys” toy, now apparently marketed by Hasbro.