themes of the drama "inherit the wind"
fundamentalism vs intelectasim
this themes refers to the controversial thoughts of progressive thinkers and clock-stoppers
ignorance
man vs society
Horn Beck
Henry Drummond
Cates
The townsfolk of Hillsboro were greatly ignorant, they never really accepted anything that was new or controversial to the ideas that were already drilled into their thoughts and brains, the new ideas of Cates seemed controversial to their pre-assumed thoughts, thus they were ready to put ups whole legal case to make Cates charge with guilt.
the townspeople are also ignorant as they were never really involved into the real happening of the case, all they thought about was business, which depict the ignorance they had for the use they had pulled upon.
Right to think
Bertram Cates
The character of Bertram Cates evidently supports the theme of right to think, as he takes the daring decision to speak out his thoughts which were illegal in the books of hillsboro.
Henery Drummond
Henry Drummond brings out the theme of the right to think into the ignorant townspeople by the end of the play even after he had legally lost the case to M.H.Brady.
the absence of such theme is depicted in the townspeople as they were not ready to think anything new they were not exposed to. The were confined by the ideas that revolved around them, and feared to think anything that seemed controversial to such pre-defined thoughts.
Cates prominently depicts the the theme of man vs society, as Cates readily stands in the opposite direction of the entire town to support his ideas and the freedom he was given to think
Bertram Cates
Cates depicts this theme and represents the intellectualism part of it, as he was ready to move with the progressing time and new ideas that had associated with it,
Reverend Brown, M.H.Brady and the townspeople
these character strongly portray fundamentalism, as they were resistant to new ideas, they had found it illegal to think out of the box and anything that controverted the pre-defined ideas were completely wrong, this ideas the fundamentalist carved with them were prohibiting their movement towards process along with time.
Horn-beck from the start of the play is disliked by the people of Hillsboro, Drummond and all other characters, due to the sarcasm he had carried with him for everything, this helps him portray the them of man vs society as he was distanced from all the characters due to his behaviours which he was proud of and didn't want to change for other's satisfaction.
Henry Drummond also portrays this theme as his arrival into the town of Hillsboro was dislike by everyone, they all had called him "devil" during his arrival, which had created a distance between himself and the society, which aided to accentuate this theme through his character.
Mathew Harrison Brady
At the end of the play, even the most popular characters like Brady depict this theme, even though Brady had legally won over Drummond in the case, Brady failed to maintain the attention he had received from the population for the entire drama, this loss of control over his audience shows how he was slowly distancing away from the society of Hillsboro, at the end of the play there is no one left to listen to the personal remarks of Brady, this loss of attention kills Brady at the end as he was unprepared to take in such a drastic change