Inherit the Wind Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee write the play, Inherit the Wind. It is based upon the Scopes (monkey) trial of 1925. Henry Drummond is the defense attorney for Bertram Cates. While Matthew Harrison Brady is the prosecuting attorney. Cates was on trial for teaching the theory of evolution, rather than the popular majority choice of creationism, to his sophomore class. When speaking to Brady, Drummond says, “An idea is a greater monument …showed first 75 words of 552 total…

…showed last 75 words of 552 total…matter. A thought can change mankind; it produced fire, and created the telephone. Darwin’s thought, changed the mind of scientists everywhere. To be able to design a thought process complicated enough to change society now, as we know it, didn’t come from counting on religion; it came from evolving as a species. So in conclusion, this quote best presents itself as proving the theme of this play, the importance and right to think.