Doubt: Teacher and Father Flynn Essay

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Huong Mai
Theater 101
Paper #2

Doubt by John Patrick Shanley

Doubt is a play written by Shanley. It is set in 1964 at St Nicolas Elementary School in the Bronx, New York, just one year after John F. Kendy was assassinated. The play is mainly focused on the conversation between Sister Aloysius, the school principal, and other two teachers, Sister James and Father Flynn. One day, Sister Aloysius suspects Father Flynn had inappropriate action to one of the student whose name is Donald Muller. There is a contrast between characters which Sister Aloysius represents faith, certainty when Sister James and Father Flynn represent doubt. In this play, I would believe that Sister Aloysius has a positive doubt. She is a strict principle and everything she wants to do is for the benefit of her own students. Only sister Aloysius cannot let the matter drop. She will do “what needs to be done.’ The problem is that along the way she moves from suspecting Father Flynn when she said to Sister James : “Sister Aloysius: I want you to be alert. Sister James: I don’t believe I’m following you, Sister. Sister Aloysius: I’m sorry I’m not more forthright, but I must be careful not to create something by saying it. I can only say I am concerned, perhaps needlessly, about matter in St Nicolas School. Sister James: Academically? Sister Aloysius: I wasn’t inviting a guessing game. I want you to pay attention to your class.

to being certain that he is guilty, even though she has not found new evidence. Her certainty that Flynn is guilty makes her over-confident in her ability to against him.
When Sister James concerns about the boy , Sister Aloysius assumes that he has been racially motivated bullying. After that when she met Sister James again, she was not expecting to hear a story about Father Flynn’s calling him out of class for a long meeting, from which Donald returned looking upset and with alcohol on his breath. That is the first evidence Sister Aloysius had for this hunt.
There is another evidence against Father Flynn which Sister Aloysius reveals in the final conversation between them. When Father Flynn asked Sister Aloysius “ Why do you suspect me? What have I done?’ Then Sister Aloysius explains “ On the first day of the school year, I saw you touch William London’s wrist. And I saw him pull away. This speech is prompted by Sister James when she concerned about William nosebleed.

This play has taken place in 1964 when woman is not favorable. Father Flynn is a
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