44 pages • 1 hour read
Jerome Lawrence, Robert E. LeeInherit the Wind
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1955A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Act IIIChapter Summaries & Analyses
Act III, Pages 136-144 Summary
The following day, the court waits for the jury to deliver its verdict. Bert asks Drummond what he thinks is going to happen and worries that he will be sentenced to prison. He observes that Brady seems sure of what the verdict will be. After years of practicing law, Drummond has a sense of what is going to happen; he can “smell the way the jury’s thinking” (139), but he does not tell Bert his opinion. He fantasizes about taking an easy court case one day. He tells Bert about a golden rocking horse that he coveted as a child. When his parents finally saved enough money to buy the horse, it broke as soon as Drummond tried to use it, and he discovered that the rocking horse was made out of rotten wood. Through this story, he urges Bert to look closer at things that appear perfect and beautiful and uncover the lies that might hide behind a veneer of perfection.
A radio man sets up a two-way radio in the courtroom to broadcast the verdict as it is announced. The Mayor approaches the judge and tells him that the state capitol is worried about what will happen if Bert is found guilty. An election is approaching, and no one wants “voters gettin’ all steamed up” (141). He urges the judge to “go easy” when handing down a sentence. Drummond is enthusiastic about the presence of the radio in the courtroom and believes that it will “break down a lot of walls” (142). The radio man tells him that he is not supposed to say “God” or swear on the radio, which dims Drummond’s enthusiasm somewhat. Brady is also enamored with the radio; he is looking forward to everyone hearing him win the case. The jury returns to the courtroom, ready to deliver their verdict.
Act III, Pages 145-154 Summary
A member of the jury hands the Judge their decision. They have found Bert guilty as charged. There is a hubbub in the courtroom. The judge calls for order and is about to deliver his sentence, but Drummond interrupts, insisting that Bert be given a chance to make a statement, as is customary. The judge apologizes, and Bert is allowed to speak; he is not much of a public speaker but vows to oppose the law that he has been found guilty of violating. He gets a smattering applause, and Brady is worried; he has not achieved the sweeping victory he expected.
The judge delivers Bert’s sentence. Since there is no precedent for a sentencing of this kind, he decides only to fine Bert $100. Bert will not go to prison. Brady protests the leniency of the sentence. Drummond swears that Bert will not pay any of the fine; they will take the case to the Supreme Court. He asks for 30 days to prepare an appeal, and the Judge agrees to it. He sets bond at $500 and tries to adjourn the court. Brady interrupts him and asks to be allowed to read a prepared statement. Drummond objects, saying that Brady can make any statement he wants “in a Chautauqua tent or in a political campaign” (149), but that the business of the court should be adjourned. The judge concurs and adjourns the court. There is a bustle of confusion.
Melinda asks Howard which side won; Howard is not sure. Hawkers begin to sell food and lemonade in the courtroom. The judge attempts to quiet the crowd so that Brady can make his statement, but only a few people turn to listen to him. Brady starts his speech, but the radio man cannot hear him properly over the noise. He asks Brady to turn to face the enunciator, resulting in Brady facing away from his audience. He yells loudly in an attempt to make people listen, but all of a sudden he freezes. He cannot make sound come out of his mouth and eventually collapses. Chaos ensues as Davenport calls for a doctor and Mrs. Brady screams. Some men hoist Brady up and carry him out of the courtroom. As they go, Brady rambles through parts of an unused presidential acceptance speech.
Act III, Pages 154-164 Summary
With most people gone from the courtroom, Drummond wonders what it must be like for Brady to have so many “undelivered inauguration speeches” in his head (154). Bert tells Drummond that he is unsure if he won or lost the case. Drummond assures him that despite being found guilty, he won the case because he “smashed a bad law” (156). Though life will not be easy for Bert, he has made it easier for the next person to stand up to that law. Meeker tells Bert that he doesn’t have to go back to jail while they prepare their appeal, because Hornbeck paid the $500 bail.
Rachel enters the courtroom with a suitcase. She tells Bert that she is leaving her father. She feels responsible for the jury’s guilty verdict. She has read Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and admits that she does not understand much of it and does not like the parts that she does understand, but that is beside the point. Ideas, she believes, cannot stay inside people; they have to come out into the world, whether they are good or bad. She believes that most of the bad ideas will die. Bert and Drummond are proud of her for reaching this conclusion.
The Judge enters the room and announces that Brady has died. Everyone is sobered by this news except Hornbeck, who questions why they should mourn “a Barnum-bunkum Bible-beating bastard” (159). Drummond is furious; he says that Hornbeck has no right to spit on Brady’s religion, just as he has no right to spit on Drummond’s own religion, or lack thereof. He believes that there was greatness in Brady and reminds Hornbeck of the Bible quote “he that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise in heart” (161). Hornbeck is disappointed by Drummond’s brand of agnosticism and accuses him of being sentimental. Drummond insists that he is only giving Brady the same right that he fought to give Bert: the right to be wrong. He laments that Brady got lost while looking for God in the wrong places. Hornbeck is disgusted that Drummond appears to believe in God. He leaves.
Bert worries that taking his case to the Supreme Court will cost him too much money, but Drummond says he will work the case for free. He wants to leave to make his train, and Rachel suggests that she and Bert catch the same train and leave Hillsboro for good. They leave to collect Bert’s things. Drummond calls after them that Rachel left her copy of On the Origin of Species, but they don’t hear him. He picks up the Bible in one hand and Darwin’s book in the other, placing both in his briefcase.
Act III Analysis
As the play concludes, characters spend less time talking about religious doctrine. It turns out that much of The Tension Between Science and Religion was illusory after all, as many of the religious people of Hillsboro end up sympathizing with Bert’s viewpoint. Once Drummond successfully persuades people that Bert is just a person with the right to ask questions, it becomes easier for the court’s audience to sympathize with him. Once again, Drummond’s arguments do not really get at the heart of the trial: He successfully establishes that Bert has a right to question creationism, but he does little to establish whether Bert has the right to teach evolution in class. This, again, is because the play is using the Scopes trial to talk about McCarthyism, which is an altogether different issue. The final scene of the play, where Drummond places the Bible and Darwin’s book in his briefcase, confirms that there does not necessarily need to be tension between science and religion; the two can coexist, side by side.
Drummond proves The Value of Critical Thinking with the verdict of the case. On paper, Bert has lost, but the trial has persuaded many townspeople of the importance of asking questions and challenging the status quo. Drummond insists that Bert has not lost at all, because so many people will learn from this trial and stand up to their own injustices because of what Bert has accomplished. Even Rachel comes to understand why critical thinking is important. She suggests that bad ideas do not stick around, so thinking about new things is not dangerous. This is essentially a way of imagining evolutionary theory: Maladaptive mutations are less likely to remain in a population than adaptive ones are. Despite the risk of maladaptive mutations, random mutation is the only tool through which evolution is able to operate. It is therefore still worth producing new mutations (thoughts), because some will be adaptive. Drummond’s success in convincing the townspeople to open their minds lends credence to Rachel’s view that good ideas will win out in the end.
The introduction of the radio man is a major adjustment in the theme of Intellectual Freedom and Censorship. Until now, the trial has taken place exclusively in the courtroom, meaning that the audience and the available perspectives have both been very limited. Although the radio man admits that the radio itself is not totally free of censorship, in broadcasting the results of the trial to anyone who might wish to hear, he upholds intellectual freedom. Bert’s final statement, and the initial error of not letting him speak, come directly from the real Scopes trial. The same is true of the appeal, which was ultimately successful, if only on a technicality. At the end of the play, the script is flipped when Brady is not allowed to give his closing remarks before the court adjourns. He is not exactly censored, as he can still voice his opinion, but his ability to do so within the context of a court of law has been curtailed.
Each character in this play has a different relationship to religion, though their beliefs are sometimes rather obliquely implied. Hornbeck seems to be an atheist, though he does not use the word to describe himself. Drummond is agnostic; his specific beliefs remain private. Brady is a fundamentalist Christian, as is the Reverend. Rachel remains Christian at the end of the play, but she has decided to explore alternative viewpoints. Bert’s religious views remain ambiguous: He no longer attends church, he has a lot of questions about the Bible, and he believes Darwin’s theory of evolution. However, he never explicitly denounces Christianity either.
The titular Bible quote comes up twice in the play. The second time, it is Drummond who quotes it to Hornbeck. Unlike Brady, he includes the second part of the quote about foolish and wise people. Taken together, the whole quote contains two commands. The first command is to refrain from attacking people, particularly in one’s own family or community. The second command is to be wise instead of foolish. Drummond quotes this passage sincerely; he believes that at least some of the advice given in the Bible should apply to everybody. Whereas Hornbeck is derisive, Drummond is a balanced character who refuses to completely dismiss either belief system.
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