Inherit the Wind

Inherit the Wind is a 1955 play by American playwrights Jerome Lawrence (1915-2004) and Robert E. Lee (1918-1994). It is based on the 1925 Scopes trial, where schoolteacher John T. Scopes was put on trial for teaching the theory of evolution at a time when doing so was illegal. Although Inherit the Wind draws from the events of the Scopes trial, it deviates significantly from the details of the case, as Lawrence and Lee were really writing about McCarthyism, using the Scopes trial as a backdrop. The play delves into issues of critical thinking and intellectual freedom in the face of censorship. Inherit the Wind received excellent reviews during its original Broadway run. It had two Broadway revivals in later years, most recently in 2007. It has also been adapted for film four times (including three television movies). The most famous film adaptation was the original 1960 version.

This guide uses the 2007 Ballantine Books trade paperback edition e-book.

Plot Summary

The play opens on a hot summer’s day “not too long ago” (14). The entire play is set in and around the courthouse in Hillsboro, a Bible Belt town in middle America. A young boy, Howard, taunts a girl, Melinda, with a worm, telling her that she is descended from worms.