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Copyright © as an unpublished work, 1951, by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee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
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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
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Hornbeck: May I ask your opinion, sir, on Evolution?
Storekeeper: Dont have any opinions. Theyre bad for business.
| Topic: Opinions
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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 dorun the jury through a meat-grinder, so they all come out the same?
| Topic: Law
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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 isnt 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 its so funny!
Drummond: Lady, when you lose your power to laugh, you lose your power to think straight.
| Topic: Humor
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Drummond: [...] Its the loneliest feeling in the worldto find yourself standing up when everybody else is sitting down. To have everybody look at you and say, Whats 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 arent sure whether youre walking toward something, or if youre just walking away.
| Topic: Individuality
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Rachel: [...] I remember feeling this way when I was a little girl. I would wake up at night, terrified of the dark. Id think sometimes that my bed was on the ceiling, and the whole house was upside down; and if I didnt 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.
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Drummond: The man who has everything figured out is probably a fool. College examinations notwithstanding, it takes a very smart fella to say I dont know the answer!
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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 awayby standing still.
| Topic: Conservatism
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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 meaningas 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 wrongin exact minutes, seconds, and degrees!
| Topics: Truth
Morality
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Rachel: [...] What he said was: God created Man in His own imageand Man, being a gentleman, returned the compliment.
| Topic: Creation
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Brady: [...] Is it possible that something is holy to the celebrated agnostic?
Drummond: Yes! The individual human mind. In a childs 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 mans knowledge is more of a miracle than any sticks turned to snakes, or the parting of waters!
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Brady: We must not abandon faith! Faith is the important thing!
Drummond: Then why did God plague us with the power to think?
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Drummond: The Bible is a book. A good book. But its not the only book.
| Topic: Scripture
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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 weeks wages for my father. So Golden Dancer and I always had a plate glass window between us. Butlets see, it wasnt Christmas; mustve been my birthdayI woke up in the morning and there was Golden Dancer at the foot of my bed! Ma had skimped on the groceries, and my fatherd 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-seemingall gold, with purple spotslook behind the paint! And if its a lieshow 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: Youreyoure not supposed to say God on the radio!
Drummond: Why the hell not?
Radio Man: Youre not supposed to say Hell, either.
Drummond: This is going to be a barren source of amusement!
| Topic: Technology
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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 Ill show you an also-ran. A might-have-been,
An almost-was.
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Drummond: You dont suppose this kind of thing is ever finished, do you? Tomorrow itll be something elseand another fella will have to stand up. And youve helped give him the guts to do it!
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Rachel: Mr. Drummond, I hope I havent said anything to offend you. You see, I havent really thought very much. I was always afraid of what I might thinkso 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 dont know. Bad or good, it doesnt make any difference. The ideas have to come outlike children. Some of em healthy as a bean plant, some sickly. I think the sickly ideas die mostly, dont you, Bert?
| Topic: Philosophy
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Drummond: Im getting damned tired of you, Hornbeck.
Hornbeck: Why?
Drummond: You never pushed a noun against a verb except to blow up something.
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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!
Youre more religious than he was!
| Topics: Gods
Hypocrisy
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text checked (see note) Jan 2005
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