Inherit the Wind

Inherit the Wind Study Guide

Act 1

1. What does Howard call Melinda and her whole family?

Worms

2. Why did Rachael go to the courthouse?

To visit Bert

3. Why was Bert Cates in jail?

For teaching evolution in class

4. What did Darwin’s Origin say?

Man was not just stuck here like a flower in a geranium pot. We evolved from a lower species

5. Why did Rev. Brown want the sign put up?

To show Matthew Harrison Brady what kind of town Hillsboro was

6. Who is E.K. Hornbeck?

A newspaper reporter from the Baltimore Herald

7. What kind of a man does E.K. Hornbeck appear to be?

Sarcastic, on the side of Drummond and Cates, a cynic

8. Who is Matthew Harrison Brady?

3-time presidential candidate sent to prosecute Cates/A well-known public speaker and proponent of the Bible and fundamentalist Christianity

9. How does Brady want the Mayor and Reverend to look for the picture?

Hopeful

10. How does Mrs. Brady treat Mr. Brady?

Like a son as opposed to a wife/She treats him like a child

11. Who is the Baltimore Herald sending to Hillsboro (besides E.K. Hornbeck?)

Henry Drummond

12. What does Drummond accomplish on the first day of the trial?

He evens out the playing field. He makes humorous remarks about Brady and gets some of the jurors to change their attitude about him.

13. What explanation does Drummond give Bert as to why people look at him “worse than a murderer”?

Because he is not merely killing a person, but killing a pillar of their belief system

14. What warning does Bert give Rachael?

That Brady will twist her words to make Bert’s questions seem like answers

Act 2

1. What does Rev. Brown pray for when Rachael asks him not to damn Bert?

To cast down the same curse on those who ask grace for the sinner

2. What is Brady’s reaction to Brown’s damnation of his own daughter? Why?

“He that troubleth his own house shall...