Holy Disbelief In John Patrick Shanley's Doubt

Holy Disbelief The world would be much different if every accusation was deemed true through gut feelings and intuition. However, that is not the way the world works. In the play Doubt by John Patrick Shanley, a nun feels that an inappropriate relationship is forming between the Priest and a student at her school. She believes her intuition to be true because of the unusual actions the Priest takes and how vacates the situation after confrontation. Father Flynn is known to partake in unusual actions with his male students. Flynn takes Donald, a student; aside for a private talk alone. Later he defends his actions: “Well. If I had judged my conversation with Donald Muller to be of concern to you, Sister, I would have sat you down and talked to you about it” (Shanley 32). Father Flynn defends his actions, which gives reason to believe that he is hiding something. At such a strict school it would be considered mandatory to alert the principle if a student needs special attention. Because he does not do so it causes Sister Aloysius to be suspicious. Father Flynn also made contact with a different

It is true that Sister Aloysius does not have any evidence to back up her accusations. She has to admit when talking to Mrs. Muller what the situation really is: “I’m concerned, to be frank, that Father Flynn may have made advances on your son… but I can’t be certain” (Shanley 45). Without any proof it could be argued that Sister Aloysius had a personal vengeance for Father Flynn or was reading too far into a simple situation. Nevertheless, the Priest had no proof of innocence either. Father Flynn has no one but God to collaborate his story: “Whatever I have done, I have left in the healing hands of my confessor. As have you! We are the same!” (Shanley 54). The Priest has no way to prove his innocence and therefore cannot be trusted. Because of this, it is far more believable to think that Father Flynn is in the