Compiled By: Shubhanshi Gaudani Wednesday, 13 September 2017

Dramatic Devices Inherit the Wind

Literature
- Catharsis : The purging of the feelings of pity and fear that, according to Aristotle,
occur in the audience of tragic drama. The audience experiences catharsis at the end
of the play, following the catastrophe. (Ex. The feeling when Brady falls down, ill in
Inherit the wind)

- Catastrophe: The action at the end of a tragedy that initiates the denouement or
falling action of a play. (Ex. When Brady falls down, ill in Inherit the wind, and narrates
his speeches)
- Foil: A striking contrast between two characters. (Ex. Act II, Scene 2, when Brady
takes the witness stand, it becomes apparent that Drummond serves as a foil for
Brady. Drummond remains patient and methodical as he cross-examines Brady, but
Brady becomes frustrated, confused, and bitter. Each character is intensified by the
presence of the other, and their differences are magnified. As Brady crumbles,
Drummond becomes the hero of the townspeople, saving them from censored
knowledge and narrow-minded thinking.)

- Monologue: A continuous thread of dialogues by one character (Ex. Drummond

narrating his golden dancer incident, and the ‘An idea is a greater monument than a
cathedral dialogue’)
- Romance Motif: a romance motif, a conventional subplot, to portray the conflict
between bigotry and enlightenment. (Ex. Rachel, the daughter of a fundamentalist
preacher, falls in love with Cates, an evolutionist. Rachel is torn between her own
fundamentalist beliefs and love for her father and her love for Cates.)
- Chorus Character: A Greek chorus reduced to one character. In classic Greek
drama, the chorus sings its lines as it comments on the action of the play and predicts
the future of the characters.

- Comic Relief: The use of a comic scene to interrupt a succession of intensely tragic
dramatic moments. The comedy of scenes offering comic relief typically parallels the
tragic action that the scenes interrupt.