Fear During The Scopes Trial

Darrow creates a lasting mental impression and invokes fear through his use of graphic imagery and word repetition. The transition from guilt to fear drills deeper into their emotions . During the Scopes Trial, where a man was condemned for teaching evolution, Darrow defends science over religion, as he states that:

If today you can take...evolution and make it a crime to teach it in the public school, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools, and the next year you can make it a crime to teach it to the hustings or in the church. Soon you may set Catholic against Protestant and Protestant against Protestant… (“Attorney for the Damned”187).

Slippery Slope makes successive conclusions but creates an intense tone

He threatens them with a return to the past when primitive beliefs led to senseless executions. The polysyndeton creates a rhythm with the repetition of “and” to emphasize the irrationality that man killed those who had different ideas. During Darrow’s Loeb case, he warns the jury: “You may hang these boys... But in doing it you will turn your face toward the past. In doing it you are making it harder for every other boy who in ignorance and darkness must grope his way through the mazes …(“Leopold & Loeb” par 32). His choice of words like maze and grope again create a mental image that induces fear. The emphasis on you, further burdens the jury with a frightening responsibility as he threatens them with illustrative scenes that their decision to bring death to the defendants may cost them their future. Finally, Darrow’s references to the past and of the future evoke a sense of fear, as he depicts terrifying

He ends with placing his trust in the hands of jury's. In Darrow’s closing speech of the Haywood v. Idaho trial, he states that “Out on the broad prairies where men toil with their hands...thousands of men and of women...who labor...the poor, the weak, and the suffering of the world will stretch out their hands to this jury, and implore you to save Haywood's life” (“Essential Words and Writings” 56). The lawyer empowers his audience to visualize suffering workers through the words “poor” and “weak.” He next uses an encouraging tone and powerful imagery to ignite the audience's sense of responsibility; he enables them to feel important by saving a man’s life. During the trial between the African American, Henry sweet, and the people, Darrow’s closing speech ends with declaring his hopes for the jury “That [they] are strong enough, and honest enough, and decent enough to lay it aside in this case and decide it as [they] ought to”( “The People V. Henry Sweet” par 29). He uses diction, in this case, human virtues to lure the jury into siding with the defendant. He believes “It is not often that a case is submitted to twelve men where the decision may mean a milestone in the progress of the human race. But this case does. And, I hope and I trust that you have a feeling of responsibility...as citizens of a great nation…” (“People V. Henry Sweet” par 30). Darrow again creates an encouraging tone as he uses his ethos through the word “I hope” to