Henry Drummond's Trial In Inherit The Wind

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Inherit the Wind was a play written in 1979, by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. The play is fiction but was based on an actual trial “The Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925.” The defense attorney in the play; Henry Drummond portrayed the historical person Clarence Darrow. In the play Henry Drummond was a well known attorney that was un-liked because his defense had freed two young boys accused of murder. Drummond believed in the idea of freedom of beliefs. He came to Tennessee to defend the rights of this belief. The Historical character Clarence Darrow had actually defended those two young boys in the 1924 Illinois v. Nathan Leopold and Richard Leob murder trial. Darrow also believed in the freedom of beliefs. Since Childhood Clarence Darrow…show more content…
Both Drummond and Bryan knew each other as did Darrow and Brady. Darrow even supported Bryan in one of his runs for President – he just didn’t believe in Bryan’s religious beliefs. Darrow had been wanting to debate Bryant on science and religion for years but Bryant wouldn’t have it. When Drummond questioned Brady he did so in a small courtroom. When Darrow questioned Bryan it was actually on a platform in the front of the county courthouse with over 2000 people present. Darrow’s character in Inherit the Wind evolves as the play progresses. He is witty and very intelligent and the further we go into the play the more we realize that he is defending this case because he has been battling these issues for years. Drummond would not give up in the case, he could not bring any Scientific resources, teachers or anything to do with the study of evolution, so he turned the tables and used the bible against Brady’s arguments bringing into question the line of reasoning how does he know that a day in the bible is the same as a calendar day. The Calendar wasn’t even invented at the time of creation. In the historical trial Darrow was not allowed to bring any scientific evidence and he did use the bible as his only

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