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Doubt By John Patrick Shanley

780 Words4 Pages

In Doubt by John Patrick Shanley, morality is sacrificed to seek the truth. A nun is suspicious of Father Flynn’s relationship with the boys. Sister Aloysius scours the campus for evidence to prove Father Flynn and in her eyes protect the children. To convict him she will try her own morals. Father Flynn is innocent of the supposed crimes. He just cares for the boy’s like a father and Sister Aloysius’s accusations are biased. Father Flynn did not commit the crimes that Sister Aloysius convicted him of. She mistook his caring, father-like attitude as inappropriate. Sister Aloysius thought he had ulterior motives in his acts. In reality, Father Flynn really cares for the boys and desires to support them. While arguing with Sister Aloysius Father …show more content…

Sister Aloysius does this behind the guise of protecting the children but really she doesn’t like Father Flynn. She wants to get rid of because he isn’t the kind of role model Sister Aloysius wants. She is an old-fashioned woman who hates change and wants things to stay the way they have been forever. Father Flynn threatens this atmosphere of nostalgia that she is trying to maintain, so she seeks to ruin him with this conviction. Father Flynn knows this at shouts, “You’re insane... got it in your head that I’ve corrupted this child... nothing I say can change that” (Shanley 51). Father Flynn is exposing Sister Aloysius’s desire to take him down whether or not she is right. She made a lie in her head so real she believes it herself. She wants to condemn him for a wrong she has no physical proof of. She breaks her morals to get him condemned. This Catholic nun even admits to lying, “I had called a nun... I was lying I made no such call” (Shanley 58). Sister Aloysius wants a conviction so much that she lies and cheats to try and force a confession. She had no real evidence, her argument was based on assumptions and lies. Through all of her searching, she couldn’t prove him guilty to anyone but

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It is agued that Father Flynn is indeed guilty. He is so worried about how he looks to others he might do or say anything to cover something up. “I feel as if my reputation has been damaged through no fault of my own” (Shanley 39). Flynn states that he shouldn’t have to worry about a damaged reputation because Sister Aloysius is the one damaging it. Still, he is worried about how is image will be perceived by others.

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Sister Aloysius; she 's in charge of the other nuns, as well as head of the school. Sister James; who is a young an inexperienced nun and teacher. Father Flynn; the head priest. Mrs. Muller and Donald Muller; who are a black mother and her young son. The over all plot follows a controversy between Father Flynn and Sister Aloysius.

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He is the only one capable of fulfilling his mother's wish. Even Cash is no match at that point. And Darl the observer describes the situation but his words are not useful like actions. This scene testifies to Addie hatred of words and those who use

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(Shanley 32). After all the arguing, Father Flynn threatens Sister Aloysius and Sister James starts to believe Flynn. A common argument against this position is that Father Flynn was really trying to help Donald be successful in school. Father Flynn may have been helping the only Negro in the school. Flynn says, “That back boy needs a helping hand or he’s not going to make it here!”

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After Father Flynn leaves and it seems that victory has been achieved for Sister Aloysius she overcame with doubt herself which brings it back to opening scene of the sermon that Father Flynn gives about doubt. Even the most hardened and sure people experience doubt about something and Sister Aloysius is left in doubt after all that has happened. Also since Father Flynn left after the false call it leaves his possible wrongdoings still in the air and along with Sister Aloysius’ doubts it leaves the readers and audience in doubt with the ending. This a clever action by John Patrick Stanley as not only does he name his play Doubt but leaves up for speculation for the

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For example, while it is obvious that Sister James is comprehensive, optimistic and delicate, because she wants the approval from her superiors and students; Sister Aloysius, on the other hand, presents herself as determined, strict and a calculating person, due to the fact that she presents extreme care about details and thinks they are very important for knowing the truth. Maybe age plays an important role on defining how both of them behave. Sister Aloysius is an older woman, which makes her more experienced than Sister James; perhaps, this is why it was easier for Sister Aloysius to find Father’s Flynn sermon quite suspicious and instructs her fellow nuns to address her if they know of anything shady about the priest actions or behavior, while Sister James didn’t though that there was something behind the sermon about

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His flaws have started to prevail over his mind but he holds strong This is a serious burden as father Flynn struggles to meet the criteria for being good. Throughout the movie, the nun named sister Aloysius constantly views Father Flinn as a curse to her church. Flynn shows his attentiveness to the church by preaching to the people and connecting with the boys. He’s a mentor and coach

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Father Flynn is also innocent because of Sister Aloysius’s different personality combined with the fact that she does not contain enough evidence to properly convict him. She exemplifies this role because she is a nun, and nuns are traditionally strict in the Christian Church. Sister Aloysius is also a principal for the school, which further implements her position as a strict nun. It is obvious that she uses her power to punish the students in the school: “Sister Aloysius: When William London gets a nosebleed, be skeptical. Do not let a little blood fuddle your judgment” (Shanley 12).

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Throughout John Patrick Shanley’s play Doubt, Sister Aloysius tries to expose the truth about how Father Flynn could be having an inappropriate relationship with Donald Muller. Sister Aloysius becomes aware of this possibly inappropriate relationship after Sister James tells Sister Aloysius that Father Flynn had a private meeting with Donald. Then, Sister Aloysius talks to many people to see if her speculations are true, and by doing that, she hopes that the truth will cause Father Flynn to leave St. Nicholas. After reading the play Doubt, I believe that Father Flynn is having an inappropriate relationship with Donald Muller because of Father Flynn’s behaviors and Sister Aloysius’ conversations with many

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When Christopher’s father, Ed Boone, lied to him about his mother’s death changing his perspective about one of the closest people who constantly impacts his life and his choices. Another occurrence surfaced when Gene, blinded by jealousy, pushed Phineas out of the tree at their club meeting. Both events causing mental or physical harm to the two of the boys. In the end both boys forgave those that have hurt them, but it was Phineas’ untimely death that ended the short lived celebration.

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(Shanley 58) She is not sure if her own claims were the truth or not which leaves us to wonder if Father Flynn was innocent or guilty. I believe that Father Flynn was falsely accused and never actually committed those kinds of acts with Donald Muller. With the lack of evidence and the small habits that can cause Sister Aloysius to dislike someone it is hard to believe that she actually had any reason to accuse him other than personal dislike towards Father Flynn.

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Even Sister James’s desire to be safe in her assumption of Father Flynn’s innocence and Mrs Muller’s similar assumption of a position of comfortable indifference places them appropriately in the grey realm between virtue and vice. If Sister James’s intellectual error was to concede to Sister Aloysius’s instruction to “be on the look out”, which unduly wrecked havoc on her innocence, Mrs Muller operates from a position of mortal flaw with her tendency to subtract the priest’s possible molestation of her child to avoid courting controversy and risking further damage, psychological and physical, to Donald. In Chapter XIII of Aristotle’s Poetics, his explanation of hamartia, “some great error or frailty”, which contains a range of meaning in Greek literature, are contested

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Ernest Hemingway is known to be the master of the “one true sentence” and if he had to sum up his life in one he might have said this, “An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.” (Ernest Hemingway Quotes- BrainyQuote) Hemingway’s life reflected in his writing as an author who contributed to the American literary canon and brought the Byronic hero into the 20th century with a more modern with a realistic twist, such as his character Harry in the following short story. Hemingway expresses his work through a male’s perspective with Harry for he discusses how he received his injury from the War while drinking alcohol. (Hemingway 3) Hemingway’s perspective has caused men around the world to think that literature

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He said a few times in the story that it would be better for this not to get out so Sister Aloysius can save her job. Father Flynn might actually be looking out for Sister Aloysius and trying to help her keep her job as the principal. Another reason Father Flynn could be innocent is maybe he was just trying to give Donald Muller a friend. Donald is the only black kid in school and has no friends. In the conversation with Donald’s mom and the principle it is known that Donald gets beat by his father.

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Having the courage to stand up to a higher figure for something that isn’t right is a difficult task to accomplish; there is the fear of what will happen if someone argues against a more powerful group, or just the fear of being judged or punished. Sister Rose was fearless and determined to make the Jews feel more respected by all Catholics. She saw that what was being taught about Jewish people in the church was wrong, and she strived to make a difference. Sister Rose inspired me to be an Upstander because of how fearless she was when standing in front of the many powerful Catholic church members, telling them how their beliefs of Jewish people were unfair; she also loved the Jews, even though she was a devoted Catholic; I want to be as brave as Sister Rose, and stand up for people who are being treated unfairly. Sister Rose wanted to help the Jews even though her religion taught her not to like them.

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