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
everything that is happening seems so unsure to you, and you just cannot catch the accurate moment to make an ascertain statement? In the play, Doubt: A Parable by John Patrick Shanley, Sister Aloysius is accusing Father Flynn of having an unhealthy relationship with one of the students in her school. Based on the evidence in Patrick Shanley’s play, Doubt: A Parable, I conclude Father Flynn is guilty because of his actions and words. Firstly, Father Flynn is guilty because of his actions. First instance
John Patrick Shanley's work, Doubt: A Parable, is a thought-provoking play that makes the reader question his or her thoughts. The story takes place in 1964, at St. Nicholas, a Catholic school and church, where accusations against Father Flynn start to arise. Main characters, Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn get into a dispute over Donald Mueller, the first and only black student in the school. The interactions between Aloysius and Flynn creates the question every reader is dying to figure out: is
Although some people believe Father Flynn is innocent, I have reason to believe that Father Flynn is guilty. In the parable Doubt, Flynn is the priest and a gym teacher who is accused of abusing boys in the Nicholas school. The Principle thinks Flynn has abused Donald Muller, the only black boy in the school, and possibly William London. I believe he is guilty because of his interactions with the boys, how defensive Flynn acts when he is accused, and then explain a counterclaim of his guiltiness
Doubt Based on the evidence in Patrick Shanley’s play, The Doubt: A Parable, Father Flynn is innocent because there is no tangible proof of sexual assault and Sister Aloysius is only trying to hurt Father Flynn for being different. The whole parable is about the term, doubt. It has readers flipping back and forth between the notion of Father Flynn guilty of committing sexual assault, and not being guilty. The end of the parable offers no precise verdict in the case. It leaves its readers confused
Based on the evidence in Patrick Shanley’s play, Doubt: A Parable, I conclude Father Flynn is guilty because of his desire to help boys and his ability to hide his past. Father Flynn has a strange liking of boys. He is the basketball coach at the school and loves spending time teaching kids how to play basketball. Although he is suppose to be teaching the boys about basketball, He tends to boys how to be men. When talking to the boys Father Flynn says, “I’ve noticed several of you guys have dirty
I gathered a lot of evidence throughout Patrick Shanley’s play, Doubt: A Parable, and I conclude that Father Flynn is guilty due to Donald being a very easy target and Father Flynn acting is very odd ways. Donald Muller, the little boy in the story, seems to be a very easy target for a predator. Donald is very isolated in school. He does not have any friends, so he the fact that the priest would accept him would make him feel accepted in the school. Donald is also the only black boy within the entire
In John Patrick Shanley’s play, Doubt: A Parable readers ponder whether or not Father Flynn had a sexual encounter with Mrs. Muller’s son. Throughout Doubt: A Parable, Sister Aloysius continuously tries to find various ways to get Father Flynn to confess that he has had sexual relationship with the alter boy, Donald. However, Sister Aloysius already has a close eye on Donald Muller because of his continuous confrontation “with being bullied, criticized, and taunted by the other boys at school and
In the play Doubt: A Parable, by John Patrick Shanley, Sister Aloysius is a representation of traditionalists as she constantly resists change and progression. Her traditionalist values are highlighted in her scene two conversation with Sister James. She says, “I’m sorry I allowed even cartridge pens into the school. The students really should only be learning script with true fountain pens. Always the easy way out these days” (9). In this instance, Sister Aloysius expresses her dislike for the new
In the layered play, Doubt: A Parable, playwright John Patrick Shanley reveals Sister Aloysius’ alloyed personality, one that is cold yet sincerely caring. After her examination of a suspicious relationship between a student and a priest, she draws conclusions that she believes will protect her students. Without the support of others or even concrete evidence, Sister Aloysius leaves no room for doubt. Similarly to Laertes in The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespare, her concern
until proven innocent. He proves himself to be guilty because he is a harmful and scary man. Father Flynn’s sermon shows the attendees of the church the elements of doubt and suspicion. In his sermon he states that no one knows that he is sick and that he’s done something wrong. The evidence shown in Patrick Shanley’s play, Doubt: A Parable, I conclude Father Flynn is guilty because he’s more than friendly to Donald and he abuses his power at St. Michael’s church. Father Flynn is guilty because he
In the play Doubt: A Parable, John Patrick Shanley tackles the ever-important issues of abuse of power, oppression of minority groups, and, of course, certainty versus doubt in an enthralling account of sexual misconduct allegations within a Catholic school. Shanley explores several avenues of such overarching ideas through his drama and ultimately arrives at the conclusion that certainty and moral obligations ought to override faith and traditional order. This theme is developed through Shanley's
The power of belief shapes events into hardline certainties and creates situations where opinions will define the term success. In John Patrick Shanley’s story Doubt: A Parable, Sister Aloysius forms doubts about Father Flynn’s actions and diligently tries to expose Father Flynn based off of negligible evidence. A Catholic school in the Bronx is stuck at the crossroads as a rigid disciplinarian nun and the liberal parish priest share different views pertaining not only to their religion. The principal
It is however, a skill that is not often mastered. The 2004 play Doubt, A Parable, the
In John Patrick Shaneley’s Doubt: A Parable, exhibits strong assumptions. Deciding weather Father Flynn is innocent or guilty is like a game of cat and mouse. The explanations and evidence keeps you wondering even after the story is over. Father Flynn is treated guilty until proven innocent in sister Aloysius eyes. Sister Aloysius thinks there is a inappropriate relationship going on with Father Flynn and Donald Muller; The first black boy at St. Nicholas. Donald is most defiantly the “black sheep”
Guilt can only eat at someone for so long. Through Patrick Shanley’s play, Doubt: A Parable, a school called St. Nicholas faces some questionable actions, and Sister Aloysius, the principal, attempts to set them right. The Father at the school, Father Flynn, is accused of getting the only black student, Donald Muller, drunk and then molesting him. I conclude that Father Flynn is guilty because of his “clean nails” and resignation. To start, the first reason Father Flynn is guilty is because of his
Based on the evidence in Patrick Shanley’s play, Doubt: A Parable, I conclude Father Flynn is guilty because of his abrupt leaving and his demeanor. In the play, Father Flynn does not seem suspicious in the very beginning, but along the play, there are little bits of evidence that lead me to believe that Father Flynn is in fact guilty. Sister Aloysius accuses Father Flynn of child molesting the new black kid Donald Muller because some of Father Flynn’s actions are questioning. Sister James explains
A tragic hero is a multifaceted, admirable character with a tragic flaw that turns his life from glory into suffering. Hamlet is an example. ‘Born’ personality, shifting mentality, and inevitable fate leads to its tragedy which eventually triggers audience’s pity. Unlike other tragedies where tragic heros discover the truths by their own actions at the end of the story, realizing that the reversal was brought by their own actions. Hamlet begins differently by knowing the truth from things happening
Free as a Weed In Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Ophelia is interpreted to be a weak women, who goes mad over her love for Hamlet. She was generally pictured as a young, beautiful, obedient, and pious girl; she was a girl terrified of her father, her brother, and of her lover (“Teker”). However, this interpretation is incorrect. Just as Emily Thorne said, “there are two sides to every story and there are two sides to every person, one that we reveal to the world and one that we keep hidden”
When Tony Kushner first presented his play Homebody/Kabul to the public in a partial reading at the University of Pennsylvania’s Kelly Writers House in February 2001, the playwright, albeit somewhat tongue-in-cheek, emphasized the title and predicted that academics were going to “be very excited by the slash mark” (“Reading”) separating the two words, ‘Homebody’ and ‘Kabul’. Irony (directed at himself and at academic practice) apart, this remark suggests that Kushner had deeper implications in mind