Inherit The Wind Monologues

Rachel:

Bert, it's my fault the Jury found you guilty. (He starts to protest.) Partly my fault. I helped. (Rachel hands Bert the orange book) This is your book, Bert. (Silently he takes it) I've read it. All the way through. I don't understand. What I do understand, I don't like. I don't want to think that men come from apes and monkeys. But I think that's beside the point. (Drummond looks at the girl admiringly)

Mr. Drummond, I hope I haven't said anything to offend you. (He shakes his head) You see, I haven't really thought very much. I was always afraid of what I might think - so it seemed safer not to think at all. But now I know. A thought is like a child inside our body. It has to be born. If it dies inside you, part of you dies, too! (Pointing to the book) Maybe what Mr. Darwin wrote is bad. I don't know. Bad or good, it doesn't make any difference. The ideas have to come out - like children. Some of 'em healthy as a bean plant, some sickly. I think the sickly ideas die mostly, don't you, Bert?

Meeker:

Sit down, Rachel. I’ll bring him up. You can talk to him right here in the courtroom.  Long as I’ve been bailiff here, we’ve never had nothin’ but drunks, vagrants, couple of chicken thieves. (A little dreamily) Our best catch was the fella from Minnesota that chopped up his wife; we had to extradite him. (Shakes his head) Seems kinda queer havin’ a schoolteacher in our jail. (Shrugs) Might improve the writin’ on the walls.

Imagine, Matthew Harrison Brady, comin’ here. I voted for him for President. Twice. In nineteen hundred and again in oh-eight. Wasn’t old enough to vote for him the first time he ran. But my pa did. (Turns proudly to CATES) I seen him once. At a Chautauqua meeting in Chattanooga. (Impressed, remembering) The tent-poles shook! (CATES moves nervously) Who’s gonna be your lawyer, son? …….He better be loud.


Drummond:

Yes there is something holy to me! The power of the individual human mind. In a child's power to master the multiplication table there is more sanctity than in all your shouted "Amens!," "Holy, Holies!" and "Hosannahs!" An ideas is a greater monument than a cathedral. And the advance of man's knowledge is more of a miracle than any sticks turned to snakes, or the parting of waters. But are we now to halt the march of progress because Mr. Brady frightens us with a fable? (to the jury) Gentlemen, progress has never been a bargain. You've got to pay fo rit. Sometimes I think there's a man behind a counter who says, "All right, you can have a telephone; but you'll have to give up rivacy, the charm of distance. Madam, you may vote; but at a price; you lose the right to retreat behind a powderpuff or a petticoat. Mister, you may conquer the air; but the birds will lose their wonder, and the clouds will smell of gasoline!" Darwin moved us forward to a hilltop, where we could look back and see the way from which we came. But for this view, this insight, this knowledge, we must abandon our faith in the pleasant poetry of Genesis.

Rev. Brown:

Brothers and sisters, I come to you on the Wings of the Word. The Wings of the Word are beating loud in the treetops! The Lord’s Word is howling in the Wind, and flashing in the belly of the Cloud! ….And we believe the word. Hearken to the Word! (He lowers his voice) The Word tells us that the World was created in Seven Days. In the beginning, the earth was without form, and void. And the Lord said, “Let there be light!”
And there was li

ght!  And the Lord saw the Light and the Light saw the Lord, and the Light said, “Am I good, Lord?” And the Lord said, “Thou art good!”


The Lord said, “Let there be Firmament!” And even as he spoke, it was so! And the Firmament bowed down before Him and said, “Am I good, Lord?” And the Lord said, “Thou art good!”


On the Third Day brought He forth the Dry Land, and the Grass, and the Fruit Tree!

And on the Fourth Day made he the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars- and He pronounced them Good!

On the Fifth Day He peopled the sea with fish. And the air with fowl. And made He great whales. And He blessed them all. But on the morning of the Sixth Day, the Lord rose, and His eye was dark, and a scowl lay across His face. (Shouts) Why? Why was the Lord troubled?


He looked about Him, did the Lord; at all His handiwork, bowed down before Him. And He said, “It is not good, it is not enough, it is not finished. I . . . shall . . . make . . . Me . . . a . . . Man!”


The Lord said, “Yea, thou art good! For I have crated ye in My Image, after My Likeness! Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the Earth, and subdue it!”

Do we believe?


Do we believe the Word?

Do we curse the man who denies the Word?

Do we cast out this sinner in our midst?

Do we call down hellfire on the man who has sinned against the Word?

O lord of the Tempest and the Thunder! O Lord of Righteousness and Wrath! We pray that Thou wilt make a sign unto us! Strike down this sinner, as Thou didst Thine enemies of old, in the days of the Pharaohs!

Let him feel the terror of Thy sword! For all eternity, let his soul writhe in anguish and damnation-

(after Rachel protests)

Lord, we call down the same curse on those who ask grace for this sinner- though they be blood of my blood, and flesh of my flesh!

HORNBECK :

Wake up, Sleeping Beauty. The ordinary people played a dirty trick on Colonel Brady. They ceased to exist. (RACHEL looks puzzled) Time was when Brady was the hero of the hinterland, water-boy for the great unwashed. But they’ve got inside plumbing in their heads these days! There’s a highway through the backwoods now, and the trees of the forest have reluctantly made room for their leafless cousins, the telephone poles. Henry’s Lizzie rattles into town and leaves behind the Yesterday-Messiah, standing in the road alone In a cloud of flivver dust...

Mrs. Brady

MRS. BRADY (In frustrated anger, as she faces RACHEL) Oh, stop it. Stop it! Youth can be so pure. What do you know of good or evil? What do you understand of the sum of a man’s life? You betrayed yourself. You see my husband as a saint, so he must be right in everything he says and does.  And then you see him as a devil, and everything he says and does must be wrong. Well, my husband is neither a saint nor a devil. He’s just a human being and he It’s not Matt I’m defending. I’m defending the forty years I’ve lived with this man and watched him carry the burdens of people like you. If he’s been wrong, at least he stood for something. What do you stand for? Do you believe in Bertram Cates? I believe in my husband, what do you believe in?


Brady

BRADY Friends- and I can see most of you are my friends, from the way you have decked out your beautiful city of Hillsboro——- Mrs. Brady and I are delighted to be among you! (BRADY takes his wife’s hand and draws her to his side)—— I could only wish one thing: that you had not given us quite so warm a welcome!—— My friends of Hillsboro, you know why I have come here. I have not come merely to prosecute a lawbreaker, an arrogant youth who has spoken out against the Revealed Word.—— I have come because what has happened in a schoolroom of your town has unloosed a wicked attack from the big cities of the North! –—- an attack upon the law which you have so wisely placed among the statutes of this state.—— I am here to defend that which is most precious in the hearts of all of us: the living Truth of the Scriptures! ———

(Applause and emotional cheering.)