Tragedy In The Crucible

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One's characteristics play a major role in the way they think, to the way they act. The play Inherit the WInd, written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, is a fictionalized account of the 1925 “Scopes Monkey Trial”. In the play, Matthew Harrison Brady is the prosecuting attorney of the trial and demonstrates that someone's nature can cause extreme bias in their conduct during a trial or simply their general behavior. There are three specific aspects of his character that influenced his conduct of the trial, he is extremely arrogant, he is intolerant, and ignorant.

The first of his atrocious traits is his arrogance. Matthew Harrison Brady is the epitome of arrogance because he is overconfident with his beliefs and abilities in court. Before …show more content…
As the trial progressed, Brady’s ignorance emerged further to the audience and led him to look foolish. His lack of knowledge and perspectives caused him to hurl into an imminent trap constructed by Drummond. This caused him to lose all of the respect he had gained before the trial. An example of this is when he was on the witness stand and Drummond asked him whether he had ever wondered about where Cain’s wife came from if in the beginning there was only Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel. Brady replied “The Bible satisfies me, it is enough.” (pg.81). This quote demonstrates how Brady’s ignorance about holes in The Bible can lead to flaws in his arguments. Furthermore, Brady’s lack of curiosity and drive to learn more is what makes him seem ignorant, uneducated, and simple-minded to his audience. The next example of Brady’s ignorance is when he denounces credible and professional scientists, Stating they are “Evil-utionists”, “Bible-haters”, and “brewers of poison” (pg. 63). He is discrediting the opinions and viewpoints of others with zero to no knowledge of their perspectives. This emphasizes the foolishness of his judgement, which causes the townspeople to lose their admiration and appreciation of his
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