Masters Theses

Date of Award

8-1984

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major Professor

Allan Yeomans

Committee Members

Faye D. Julian, Albert J. Harris

Abstract

In the 1920s, Christian Fundamentalists and Modernists in America clashed, particularly over "Darwinism," the theory of evolution, When the Tennessee State Legislature passed a law in 1925, making it unlawful to teach any theory which denied the biblical account of creation in state-supported schools, the stage was set for one of the most bizarre civil liberties trials in American history and an outstanding play.

Two large bodies of information are investigated in this thesis. The first section studies the significant historical events leading up to, surrounding, and including the Scopes "Monkey Trial"; it also includes biographical information on playwrights, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, and a report on one of their plays of ideas. Inherit the Wind. The second section compares Inherit the Wind and the Scopes "Monkey Trial."

The procedure involved: (a) studying the internal evidence found in the playscript (characterization, subject matter, setting, and storyline) and in the trial (people, subject matter, setting, and debate) and (b) examining the external evidence, gathered from inter views with the playwrights, critical reviews, analyses, and media reports. The method used for the comparison was a search, in both the play and trial, for similarities and dissimilarities between the characters and their real-life counterparts and between the subject matter, setting, people (in the towns and at the trials), action, and news coverage.

An extremely high degree of correlation was found between Inherit the Wind and the Scopes "Monkey Trial" in all of these areas which were compared. The major difference is between the character, Matthew Harrison Brady, and his counterpart, William Jennings Bryan. Brady's statements and actions are based upon Bryan's but are exaggerated for dramatic effect.

Because of these findings, this paper refutes the playwrights' statement that their play is fiction, not historical drama.

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