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Doubt Patrick Sannley Doubt Essay

1115 Words5 Pages

Often in life, people try to attain power. In the play Doubt, directed by Patrick Shanley, two characters are fighting to beat each other in a game of authority. Father Flynn’s and Sister Aloysius’s constant efforts to become more powerful than the other significantly affects their vows as leaders and believers of the Catholic Church. In their efforts, they become the epitome of being unChristian.
Father Flynn goes against his vows of vanity and poverty. He goes against his vows of refraining from vanity by showing concern for his nails while talking to the boys in the gymnasium. He speaks about his nails and how he takes care of them by saying “Look at my nails. They’re long, I like them a little long, but look how clean they are.” (16.) In this quote, he not only displays disobedience towards his vows, but incorporates the motif of hands, as it is a consist idea throughout the play. Father Flynn once again goes against his vows of vanity by mentioning the length of his nails specifically to Sister Aloysius, to show he can care about his looks since he is …show more content…

It overall allows each character to step away from God-like acts and do things that are perceived as unChristian. Father Flynn is affected by his desire for power by disregarding his vows of poverty and vanity, while Sister Aloysius uses the sin of lying to gain the upper hand. There is a display of disobedience with both the men and women of the Catholic church, and it was rather difficult for the women to go against the men during this time, which happened to be the 1960s, where men withheld power. Although Sister Aloysius was audacious enough to go against Father Flynn and seems to have won in the end of this chaotic game of power play, the reader is left in Doubt. It is unknown if Father Flynn really did molest Donald Muller or

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