Are bigotry, prejudice, and ignorance influential in the play? “Henry Drummond is an agent of darkness. (With resolution) We won’t let him in the town!” (Lawrence and Lee 27). Reverend Brown spoke these words when he discovered that Mr. Drummond was going to be the defense attorney for Bertram Cates. The town of Hillsboro brought a case against Cates; they accused him of heresies and breaking the law because he taught evolution theory which goes against the town’s traditional Biblical beliefs of the creation of man. Consequently, this led to the town discriminating against Cates and his secular thoughts and ideas. Bigotry, prejudice, and ignorance are influential in the play because the townspeople are against worldly ideals, their discrimination further assisting Brady in the court case against Cates, which thusly affects the judge’s ruling in the trial. Throughout Inherit the Wind, the townspeople are ignorant to the changing times and modern ideals. They are prejudice to anything, or anyone, that is worldly and that challenges their traditional Biblical beliefs. The town of Hillsboro were aghast when they had discovered that Bertram Cates had been illegally teaching children the theory of evolution. The hypothesis behind this belief is that modern organisms, or living things, had evolved from the early, primitive life forms of the past. The part of this theory that undoubtedly piqued the townspeople was the thought that man came from a primitive ape-like life form, not formed by …show more content…
Hillsboro’s strict biblical views gave Brady a major upper hand in the judicial proceedings against Cates. Brady feeds off of the hatred of the claimed-agnostic Cates, easily using his expert wordplay to influence the jury and the judge. Brady uses this advantage in the trial by influencing the judge to dismiss one of Drummond’s witnesses by