It is difficult to make the decision if Father Flynn is innocent or guilty. In John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt; a parable, he eclipses the truth very well. The scenes about the toy, the camping trip and the undershirt cause much confusion; causing the audience to go back and forth in their minds and doubt Father Flynn. Law says that people are innocent until proven guilty although; realistically, everyone knows that people are guilty until proven innocent. It is very possible that Father Fynn is only helping Donald, because he is less fortunate than the other students at his school; and it is also very possible that he is hurting the child by molesting him. The decision is left to the audience as the jury.
Father Flynn gave Donald Miller a toy. It was no big deal, just a little dancing ballerina that spun in circles with magnets. "That’s for you, take it." (Shanley, 2008) Donald liked the toy, and found it fascinating. Father Flynn gave him the toy, possibly because he was an underprivileged child, and did not have many toys at home. However, maybe Father Flynn gave it to him with ulterior motives. Perhaps he gave it to him just to give the boy a gift, to make Donald like him. It was a girl’s toy, and Father Flynn, being a priest, giving a little boy a toy is slightly inappropriate when the purpose of why he did this is unclear. "Every perfect gift has its origin in God- it comes from above." (James 1:17, King James Bible) Shanley leaves it completely open for interpretation. The segment is brief and vague of Father Flynn’s intent. Later on, there is a scene where the toy was stepped on and broken by the other kids at school. Father Flynn helped him pick it up and gave him a hug; comforted him. Either in a parental way, or a roma...
... middle of paper ...
... Nonetheless, the signs also point to Father Flynn hurting him, because he was violating him. People’s assumptions are based upon personal experience and gut feeling, also on their upbringing; nature and nurture. Shanley uses inference in this play to create doubt in the audience’s minds'. The verdict is never in, on Flynn; guilty or not guilty. Shanley’s audience is left to be the jury.
Works Cited
Rossetti, S. J. (1996). A tragic grace: the catholic church and child sexual abuse. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=JAgyfIkgNSoC&dq=A+tragic+grace+:+the+Catholic+Church+and+child+sexual+abuse+/+Stephen+J.+Rossetti.&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Shanley, J.P. (2005). Doubt, a parable. New York,
NY: Theatre Communications Group, inc.
Shanley, J.P. (Writer). (2008). Doubt, a parable [DVD].
Available from
http://www.zshare.net/video/571620053fc03455/
Finally, Sister Aloysius never proved that Father Flynn is guilty and accuses him without any proof. Sister James asks Sister Aloysius that if she “ever prove it [to]… [Her] self?” (57) And Sister Aloysius tells her “no” (57). Sister Aloysius never proved that Father Flynn is guilty, but she tells Sister James that she “was sure” (57) that Father Flynn is guilty of giving the altar wine to Donald Muller. She makes Father Flynn resign from the school by lying about his past. Sister Aloysius demanded the truth of what happened in the rectory and Father Flynn told her that Donald Muller was with him in the rectory to tell him not to be removed from the altar boys because Donald Muller was caught drinking the altar wine. After telling her the truth she still looks at Father Flynn as guilty.
For the duration of the play, Miller uses static characters to portray how pride affects their behavior. To begin, Judge Danforth makes judgements that the accused characters must be guilty, regardless
Most people have had some sort of conflict affect their lives at least once. That conflict could alter a person’s views of the world around them. In the play Doubt by John Patrick Shanley, conflict is used to grasp the reader’s emotions and cause the reader to rethink their preconceived notions about the characters in the play. Doubt takes place in 1964 in St. Nicholas, which is a school and Catholic Church in New York. The play focuses on a priest named Father Brendan Flynn and a nun named Sister Aloysius Beauvier. The conflict highlighted in this play is between these two characters. After Father Flynn starts taking an African American student under his wing, named Donald Muller, Sister Aloysius suspects Father Flynn is up to no good. She
“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.”
meanings along with what is going on in the plot of the play, it is
JB Priestley uses dramatic devices to make An inspector calls a modern day morality play, to do this he uses dramatic devices, such as dramatic irony and tension in order to convey the message through the entire play. They are used accurately considering the time in which the play is set. Priestley also uses the characters as dramatic devices, they symbolise the dramatic devices, an example of this is Priestley makes us hate Mr. Birling because he symbolises capitalism, and in Priestley’s eyes capitalism is wrong. Throughout the pl...
In the play, Priestley is trying to show that there is a change in the
McCown, Robert. Flannery O?Connor and the Reality of Sin in the Catholic World. Missionary Society of St. Paul, NY. 1959. Vol. 188. 285-291.
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.
Giovannoni, J. M., & Becerra, R. M. Defining child abuse. New York: Free Press, 1996.
The play is pretty clear that Father Flynn is innocent. Father Brendan Flynn is a very conservative priest, who wants to help the students. He also tried to make changes such that student would use ball pen and sing frosty the snowman. In the other hand, Sister Aloysius is a progressive nun, who does not like the school to change. Father Flynn caught Donald drinking wine, and to save the boy from getting discharged as an altar boy, he made a promise to Donald to not to tell anyone. Sister Aloysius drove Father Flynn to the point that he had to tell the truth about Donald drinking the altar wine. The church will now have to discharge Donald as an altar boy, which Father Flynn had been trying to avoid this entire time. Before leaving Sister Aloysius’s office, Father Flynn tells her that, “He is displeased with her handling of the situation.”(Shanley 35)
Rossetti, S, (1995). The Impact of Child Sexual Abuse on Attitudes Toward God and the Catholic
...eives nothing from the children. It should be obvious to the reader at this point that the children are obviously in no way doing any wrong and are telling the truth to the best of their knowledge. The continual obsession of the governess over maintaining the protection and innocence of the children gets so severe that it causes Flora to come down with a serious fever and Miles grows seemingly weaker and sicker without his sister there with her.
7. Kadushin, A., and Martin, J. Child Abuse: An Interactional Event. Columbia University Press 1981.
[9] Sgroi, Suzanne M. Handbook of Clinical intervention in Child Sexual Abuse. Lexington Books, Toronto, 1982. 9.