Through Sister Aloysius's contradictions and ambiguous motives, John Patrick Shanley demonstrates that the audience can’t know what she is thinking. Therefore, his play, Doubt: A Parable implies that humans are contradictory and mysterious by their very nature. Throughout the play, Sister Aloysius contradicts herself in her statements, demonstrating that an audience can’t know what she is thinking. When she first brings up the subject of Donald Muller, Aloysius tells Father Flynn that they “must neither hide Donald Muller, nor put him forward,” in other words, they must treat him differently from the other students (Shanley 30). Yet, when Flynn mentions that he was giving Muller special protections, she insists that Muller “must be held to the same …show more content…
Aloysius has doubts about Father Flynn, yet her motive for prosecuting him remains ambiguous. Sister James accuses Aloysius of one possible motive, bias against Flynn: “You don’t like it that he uses a ballpoint pen. […] You don’t like it that he likes ‘Frosty the Snowman’! And you’re letting that convince you of something terrible, just terrible!”(35). James believes that Aloysius is prejudiced against Father Flynn because of his disregard for her traditional values. Aloysius makes her hatred of ballpoint pens clear to Sister James by telling her that “the students really should only be learning script with true fountain pens”(9). Sister Aloysius believes her way, the fountain pen, is superior to Father Flynn's way, the ballpoint pen. In a similar sense, she tells Flynn directly that “[Frosty the Snowman] should be banned from the airwaves”(29). Again, Aloysius views Flynn’s methods as inferior. As Sister James fears, Aloysius could be letting her distaste for Father Flynn cloud her judgement. This could be her motive for accusing Flynn of something terrible, but the audience can’t be
In the beginning of the novel, Alyss is characterized as bratty, imaginative, and a little too playful. She said to Bibwit Harte, “I won’t need any lessons” (Beddor 25). She thinks she is too smart for Bibwit and already knows everything. Alyss
“I thought that I had worked it all out in the book, “ she says. “But seeing this play has had a cathartic effect.” The skeletons no doubt, are out of the closet.”
Firstly, Father Flynn is much more modern than Sister Aloysius would like him to be. Father Flynn suggests that in the Christmas Pageant the school should, “include a secular song” (Shanley 28). The reader is now aware that Father Flynn is not a traditional priest. The reader now thinks that Father Flynn wants to modernize the church. This statement is significant because it reveals the gap in ideals between Father Flynn and Sister Aloysius. Sister Aloysius does not want modern ideas in the church because she thinks that the corrupt the good nature of the current traditions. Also, Father Flynn uses a ballpoint pen. Sister Aloysius found a ballpoint pen in Sister James’s room once and commanded Sister James to take away any ballpoint pens she found because ballpoint pens do not promote good penmanship. Because Father Flynn uses a ballpoint pen, Sister Aloysius has a hatred for Father Flynn. Finally, Father Flynn adds sugar to his tea. While this fact may seem insignificant, it is not that way at all. Sister Aloysius and Sister James do not add sugar to their tea because it is considered sinful. It is more traditional to drink tea without sugar. However, Father Flynn puts three spoons of sugar into his tea. This contemporary style to drinking tea enrages Sister Aloysius because she does not want any modern customs in her
In The Parable several characters are presented to the reader. Each one has their own behavioral characteristics which one may or my not approve of. The two characters whose behaviors I most approve of are Lee Pai and Hernando. The characters whose behaviors I do not approve of are Sven and John. There are several reasons why I approve of the behaviors of Lee Pai and Hernando and do not approve of the behaviors of Sven and John. All of these reasons I have based on my interpretation of the story, The Parable.
A reputation can be so well established that if one person in power does a wrongdoing people will not believe it. For example when Mrs. Muller says, “Let me ask you something. You honestly think that priest gave Donald that wine to drink?” (47). Donald’s mother is questioning sister Aloysius because she does not believe Father Flynn would do something like that. He has a reputation of being a great priest and his reputation is better than Sister Aloysius’. Mrs. Muller states, “You’re not going against no man in a robe and win, Sister. He’s got the position.” (47). Just by Father Flynn being a male he has a higher reputation than a nun, which he knows and can accumulate for his actions. In the hierarchy of the Church, the head male priest is the most dominant. Therefore, nobody questions what he is doing; he has a reputation of being this influential priest who gives great sermons. He knows that he has the power to do what he wants and has his fellow Monsignor and other men in the ...
Othello, Hamlet, and Henry IV, Part 1 explore these concepts in various ways. Shakespeare’s plays show that people are not black and white. They react and act differently to situations. Their motives can either be transparent or ambiguous. Their masks may hide the truth for a time, but reality has a way of coming back around. The complexity of humans seemed to greatly intrigue Shakespeare, yet with characters like Iago, Hamlet, and Hal, Shakespeare realized that he could never fully figure out the human puzzle; so he created his own puzzles of the will, motive, and
...’ accusations/suspicions. Sister Aloysius holds power in title only, for her authority within the church is diminished when her male colleagues come into play.
... and ambiguity. Shakespeare uses the ironies found in the play so that we will remember his play's limits. It cannot produce an ideal, nor can we as an audience.
John Patrick Shanley creates a movie as a whole I feel was more informative than the play. In the play you have 4 characters Sister Aloysius, Father Flynn, Sister James, and Mrs. Muller. While the movie introduces a few other characters, for instance the children. For me the children made a difference because they for one made me understand what kind of kids Sister James was dealing with. I really thought that being able to see the way Father Flynn interacted with all of the young boys including Donald Muller was really helpful when trying to draw your conclusion of Father Flynn versus when reading it your left to imagine for instance; what some of the kids are like. The way the book sets you up your left leaning to Father Flynn being exactly what Sister Aloysius accuses him to be. We also get to see how sister James interacts with the kids and how Sister Aloysius influences her to change the way she deals with and teaches her class.
The lack of authority Sister Aloysius faces is due to the strict policy imposed by the Catholic religion. In the Catholic religion there are rules that must be follow at all times, even in the rectory the readers can conclude that
Wendell Berry’s “A Jonquil for Mary Penn” is set on a farm in a small, tight-knit community near the beginning of the twentieth century. The story opens in pre-dawn’s swarthy darkness on a cold March morning. Mary Penn wakes to find herself sick for the first time since she married Elton a year and a half previously at age seventeen. Mary attempts to hide how she feels from her husband as he eats before he heads out to help plow his neighbor’s corn ground. Mary finds herself spending the day engulfed in uncharacteristic self-pity and reflecting on her life. She reflects on how her upper-class family did not accept her marriage to Elton and rejected Mary for as good as dead. She compares
Father Flynn tells Sister Aloysius, “Even if you feel certainty, it is an emotion and not a fact.” I think he means that without concrete evidence, you cannot rely on your emotions for the truth. In Father Flynn’s sermon he discusses doubt and truth. He says, “Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty.” Sister Aloysius treats her doubt as the truth, and ignores any uncertainty she has. Throughout the story, Father Flynn denies and wrong doing and cites that there is no evidence of any misconduct. Doubt becomes battle with two viewpoints. When questions are asked, they are answered with more questions, leading to more
It is easy to accept one character’s version of reality as true and Woolf periodically warns us, through the confusion of her characters...
The characters of the play are in no way able to comprehend what may lie
This essay will discuss the part that illusion and reality plays in developing and illuminating the theme of Shakespeare's The Tempest. This pair of opposites will be contrasted to show what they represent in the context of the play. Further, the characters associated with these terms, and how the association becomes meaningful in the play, will be discussed.