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Who Is Sister Aloysius's Doubt

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John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt” tells the story of Sister Aloysius, a nun who is the principal of the St. Nicholas school. Throughout the play, Sister Aloysius starts to be concerned with the possible inappropriate relationship between Father Flynn and Donald Miller. While other nuns aren’t skeptical about the relationship, Sister Aloysius keeps believing her suspicion is true based on her certainty. However, having said suspicion is not enough for her to be happy, as she comes up with more beliefs against Father Flynn, but she begins to change. Even worse, Sister Aloysius’ desire to “prove” that Father Flynn has done wrong eventually impacts everyone around her. Ultimately, Shanley uses Sister Aloysius’ drive to prove Father Flynn to suggest …show more content…

In the beginning, Sister Aloysius was at first a controlling person as she demanded “That barrette out of your hair, Miss Horan.”(14) This shows that Sister Aloysius liked to have power and control over the students in the school, as well as having things be her way. Sister Aloysius is consistent with her certainty, concluding “But I have my certainty, and armed with that, I will go to your last parish, I’ll find a parent Trust me, Father Flynn, I will.”(85) This illustrates that Sister Aloysius was courageous about Father Flynn so much so that she started to cause destruction within herself. Sister Aloysius ends up crying to Sister James when they had a conversation at the end of the play, stating “‘Oh, Sister James!’... ‘I have doubts! I have such doubts!’ Sister Aloysius is bent with emotion” (93). This proves that Sisyer Aloysus is no longer certain about Father Flynn, instead, she has doubts about her beliefs. Sister Aloysius comes to realize throughout the story that her actions were wrong and harmful and her personality and ways start to …show more content…

During her confrontation, Sister Aloysius stepped away from God to try to prove Father Flynn had done wrong, noting “In the pursuit of wrongdoing, one steps away from God. Of course there is a price.” (93) This demonstrates that Sister Aloysius will have consequences for being dishonest just to try to prove someone guilty. At the end of the play, Sister Aloysius cries to Sister James while talking about Father Flynn, stating “‘Oh, Sister James!’... ‘I have doubts! I have such doubts!’ Sister Aloysius is bent with emotion. Ister James puts out a hand of comfort. She kneels before Sister Aloysius” (93) This further explains how Sister Aloysius realizes that her being confident with her certainty might not have been worth it in the end. Sister Aloysius finally comes to terms with the fact that being over-certain about something can cause some outrageous effects on people. Her conversation with Sister James at the end of the play symbolizes Sister Aloysius's understanding of her

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Talking to Father Flynn about the whole incident with Donald, Sister James tell him that she believes him and not Sisters Aloysius’ accusations. Father Flynn tried to get anyone to believe him. But I argue that was just his way of clearing his name. He wanted to see the truth he was

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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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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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Sister Aloysius finds it odd that Father

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Father Flynn works very hard to defend himself when he was getting accused. Sister Aloysius and Sister James called Father Flynn for a meeting about the winter pageant, but they have an underlying cause. Sister Aloysius brings up the suspicions she has about his relationship with Donald Muller. Father Flynn gets very offended and defensive of his actions to the sisters. He goes on about how he is different when it comes to discipline compared to the iron fist of Sister Aloysius.

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Stepping away from God to do things that are wrong is not worth it. Sister James made bad choices every time she had stepped away from God. Sister James is the ego in between Father Flynn and Sister Aloysius, as the ego Sister James is the

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Sister Aloysius actually reveals to Sister James that she never was able to actually prove that Father Flynn was guilty, but she still claimed she was certain that he was guilty. Furthermore, Sister Aloysius even tells Sister James that she lied about Father Flynn’s previous history in a phone call just so that she can remove Father Flynn from St. Nicholas

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1486 Words | 6 Pages

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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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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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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845 Words | 4 Pages

Although Sister James felt like Sister Aloysius was just trying to destroy her spirit and love for history it is actually nothing like that. Sister Aloysius is trying to teach her how to strong in this world that oppresses women to dial down their intelligence and to bow at the feet of men. As displayed through the conversations before between Father Flynn and Sister Aloysius, Sister Aloysius stood up against him acting as if she was questioning her authority and she was the boss or they were on the same level. She is one of those women who would stand against a man and question him without feeling threatened or

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1141 Words | 5 Pages

(23) Flynn is deft at explaining abstract ideas by imaginary scenes. He never explicitly tells his feeling towards his father, but he hides it in the fictitious episodes. In the section “Two Hundred

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It is there, but one would rather turn a blind eye than confront it. Sister Aloysius has to decide if she and Sister James let it go or seek it out to find the truth or to let it go. She knows that because the school year is coming to a close that they “simply have to get him through, out the door, and then he’s somebody else’s project.” (8) But the moral struggle between right and wrong haunts her, knowing that if she lets it go she will look back and know that she could have done more. Sister Aloysius does not know what Father Flynn is doing but she doubts that it is a good thing.

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Flynn states that Sister Aloysius should have spoken to the pastor not the nuns in his last parish. Why does it seem like he doesn’t want Sister Aloysius to talk to the nuns? Did he really have a secret? It makes me very suspicious when he says, “You have no right to go rummaging through my past!” (Shanley 53)

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