Inherit the Wind - Prompt 5: The Second Review

   I give the play, Inherit the Wind, by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee a stellar review.  The play is packed with suspense, drama, witty comebacks, symbolism, allusions, characters that have multidimensional traits, and numerous cites from famous works such as the Bible. Personalities that appeared to be one sided were actually multidimensional – making them more realistic.  People oftentimes only show one side of themselves in public when in reality they are much more complex.  Throughout the play readers were able to see this in action.  For example, when Brady exclaims in pure shock and fear, “Drummond?  Henry Drummond?” in Act 1, Scene 1, page 28 in response to the news of Drummond’s involvement with the defense, cracks in his one-dimensional façade become clear.  A new side of Brady can be shown for a split second, one that is not necessarily the confident preacher the world knows him to be.  Soon after, Brady quickly recovers his preacher persona and declares, “If the enemy sends its Goliath into battle, it magnifies our cause.” (Act 1, Scene1, page 29)  In a dramatic fashion, the contrasting qualities within the play’s characters show their true intentions and feelings.  These instances of characterization throughout the play take the entire piece to a new level.  Readers are brought into a new world where characters’ personalities are mysteriously blatant and a courtroom “exists” underneath the town square of Hillsboro.  Overall, the play deserves much praise, for its readers are taken into a strange dimension filled with multidimensional characters. 

          - J. A. Kind