March 12, 2020 Tiffany Guerriero Professor Weinstock English 112 DFW Inherit The Wind Essay The play Inherit the Wind, by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, is based on the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial. Inherit the Wind is a fictional tale that explores the controversy between these two major ideas: evolution and creationism. The idea that various types of living organisms modified and evolved into different species, as articulated by Darwin in Origin of Species (1859), is sometimes referred to as "Evil-ution" in the play. The belief that beings, including man, were created by a Divine Creator in their current natural state, as expressed in the Creation Story contained in Genesis of the Holy Bible, is known as creationism. Other important themes in the play include: the right to freely express one's ideas; the power of the human mind to think; prejudice or bigotry. The right to freely express one’s ideas is a major theme in Inherit the Wind. Henry Drummond demonstrates this theme by saying, “With all due respect to the bench, I hold the right to think is very much on trial and it is fearfully in danger in the proceedings of this court. This man is threatened with fine and imprisonment because he chooses to speak what he thinks.” To support Drummond's defense, he decided to call several scientists to the stand to explain topics such as the Theory of Evolution or geology
