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Guilty In Doubt

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Innocent Until Proven Guilty Innocence is a very tricky subject to cover through the course of a paper. In the play Doubt: A Parable by John Patrick Shanley there is one fundamental question. Throughout the story a woman named Sister Aloysius is the principal of St. Nicholas School, and she is suspecting the pastor, Father Flynn, of having inappropriate relations with one of their students, Donald Muller, and wants to have Father Flynn kicked out the church. I am arguing that Father Flynn is an innocent man through the way that he treats and cares about the boys and that Sister Aloysius is a crazed, hell bent woman willing to do anything to get him out of the church. Throughout the story Father Flynn shows compassion for all the kids in the …show more content…

When Father Flynn confronts Sister Aloysius one on one about the topic he finally figures out what had started Sister to think this way of him: “On the first day of the school year, I saw you touch William London’s wrist. And I saw him pull away.” [Father Flynn responded] “That’s all?” [and Sister Aloysius confessed] “That was all” (Shanley 52). Towards the end of the conversation between the two it starts to seem that Sister Aloysius is realizing how crazy it sounds of what she is accusing him of based on this sole fact that she saw. The fact that she sounds defeated not only through the way a person can read it but also how in the film when she said the last line she sounded defeated. It started to grow when Sister James told Sister Aloysius that she believed that Father Flynn was innocent after he was able to provide the reason he wanted to keep it a secret, and Sister Aloysius responded by saying: “I’ll bring him down. With or without your help” (Shanley 35). With this one simple sentence you can see that Sister Aloysius is not willing to stop at anything in order to get Father Flynn kicked out of the church. With all of the evidence pointing to his innocence and every person agreeing with Sister James; Sister Aloysius is still as stubborn as a bull in order to prove him guilty on her own. Even when Mrs. Muller says that she …show more content…

The other common point is in the end when it seems that Father Flynn is bargaining and compromising in order to receive a less dire punishment. When Father Flynn hears that Sister Aloysius called his last church he responds by saying: “You have no right to act on your own! You are a member of a religious order. You have taken vows, obedience being one! You answer to us!” (Shanely 54). Father Flynn seems enraged by hearing that Sister Aloysius when through his past, this could imply that he has something to hide. On the contrary no one likes when people dig through their past even Sister Aloysius doesn’t like talking about her past husband who died in the war. Other people would also say that when Father Flynn leaves the church that is a confession of his guilt, while they couldn’t be more wrong. When your back is against the wall and someone offers you a chance to leave you take it no matter if you are innocent or guilty. However the major reason that Father Flynn is innocent is proven in the very last line of dialogue by Sister Aloysius: “I have doubts! I have such doubts!” (Shanely 58). Through this ending you can see that even the one woman who was the only one convinced that Father Flynn was guilt; doubts if he was in fact guilt. The lengths she went to, the vows she broke, and how deep she dug all on

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(Shanley 6). Father tells the congregation that he has done something wrong but he does not tell anyone what he did. This sermon is right before Sister James finds out about Flynn and Donald’s relationship. When Sister James and Sister Aloysius confront the situation to Father Flynn, He denies everything. He says, “It was a private matter.”

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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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Brandon L. Garrett used a lot of evidence to support his claims in Convicting The Innocent. Garrett used many facts to support the claims he made and represented his findings with many charts, graphs, and percentages. He reviewed police reports, interrogation transcripts and recordings, prosecution files, trial transcripts, and court opinions. Just like Garrett 's Convicting the Innocent, William Stuntz 's, The Collapse of American Criminal Justice, he talks about how prosecutors now decide whom to punish and how severely they will be punished. Garrett wrote about this in his book about how the judge and jury believed the prosecutors even though before the trial they recalled a different image of their attacker then the image they have of them during

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First off, Father Flynn is being victimized by the fixated principal Sister Aloysius. She accuses him of inappropriately having relations with a child. Every action Father Flynn makes, Sister Aloysius seems to have a certain reprisal for his decision. Sister James, the history teacher for the 8th graders realizes that Sister Aloysius is adjudging Father Flynn’s opinions and calls her out on it: You just don’t like him!

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Therefore, people should not have to prove their innocence. In the play there have been many situation that concluded with no solutions that lead the character to betray their own belief. For example, in act one Tituba confessed to working with the devil to prove that she didn’t want to be a witch anymore.

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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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Reflecting back to his situation with Sister Aloysius, Father Flynn knows that the damage has already been done and ignoring it would no longer be an option he had to prove his innocence, but Sister Aloysius doubt is so strong he is uncertain that he would be able to change her mind on what she thinks of him. When someone’s doubt is as clear to them as certainty they act without rationalizing the situation. This scene occurs after Sister Aloysius had accused Father Flynn of conducting inappropriate things with Donald Muller. In his sermon, Father Flynn says, “You ignorant, badly brought- up female! You have borne false witness against your neighbor, you have played fast and loose with his reputation you should be heartily ashamed” (Shanley 35).

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Also, the main theme that is underlined by the playwright of Doubt: A Parable is the abuse of the power. Shanley suggested an up-to-date topic, considering several scandals about the Catholic Church’s priests who had had sexual relations with young parishioners. This play with no proofs and it ends with an open-ended. Although in the play Sister Aloysius and Sister James try to judge whether the priest –

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Father Flynn’s action is contrasting from what he said to Sister James. He shows that he cares about Sister Aloysius and Sister James in the church, but, later on, he forces himself

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Those that he loved the most had abandoned him. The author demonstrates the beginning of this abandonment when he writes, “On Wednesday after Gloria left with the kids and a U-Haul trailer, I was sitting on the front steps, it was summer, and I was watching cars go by on the road” (Dubus 17). I believe this quote gives an active insight into the background as to why he makes the decisions that he does. He upholds Catholic doctrines and values in which he builds his faith and relationship with God. The main conflict in “A Father’s Story”, is a personal conflict.

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Sister Aloysius and Sister James talk to Father Flynn who soon becomes very defensive. Father Flynn was asked about why he and Donald had a secret meeting after gym class. Flynn states, “It was a private matter.” This statement is concerning in the Sister’s eyes, because what can a private meeting be about with a 12 year old boy. This exemplifies that Father Flynn has something to hide because why would he hide the fact that a 12 year old kid drank he church wine from the principal.

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She is being a hypocrite because her marriage to Lord Bracknell was mainly because of his money. In addition, Lady Bracknell encouraged Cecily to marry Algernon because of money alone, but that wasn’t enough for Jack to marry Gwendolen (Litcharts, Hypocrisy). However, after she discovered Jack was in fact well-born she no longer questioned his sincerity. Also, the issue on who was really “Ernest” was another form of hypocrisy. “Neither Jack nor Algernon is ‘really’ earnest or Ernest, and the fact that they can both become Ernest, one by a late baptism and one by reverting to an identity lost in infancy, suggests that their being seen as or deemed earnest is as much a matter of appearance and acceptance as their being deemed Ernest, that is, a matter of hypocrisy (Byrne

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Father Flynn’s reputation causes him to stay out of trouble with Monsignor Benedict. Father Flynn is also very corrupt; he has worked for four different churches including St. Michaels. He wouldn’t need to keep relocating to different churches if he wasn’t guilty. After Sister Aloysius lied about calling his old parish Father Flynn gave up his title at St. Michaels. “You have no right to go rummaging through my past!

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