Tackling Issues Of Doubt, Skepticism And Certainty

John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt: A Parable tackles issues regarding certainty and skepticism through accusations cast on a priest’s behavior towards a young schoolboy. Its two protagonists, Father Flynn and Sister Aloysius, battle over her allegations of his alleged improprieties, fueled through their conflicting beliefs on the expanding role of the church. From the ballpoint pens that Aloysius despises because they ruin penmanship, to the secular elements that Flynn wants to include in the Christmas play, Aloysius rejects the new for the traditional. Instead, she believes Flynn’s open-mindedness to reform to be a justification for an inappropriate relationship with an impressionable schoolboy, Donald Muller. Their differences in morality and beliefs are exemplified in the fifth scene, where Aloysius and Flynn meet under the pretense of discussing the Christmas pageant, but truly for Aloysius to gather information on Flynn’s interactions with the children. Shanley adds strength to Aloysius’s argument by using diction to connect Flynn’s stance on institutional reform with his desire to abuse young children. Stanley further illustrates conflicts between the characters with powerful images of wind, mirroring contrasting views reform within the Church. Finally, Stanley insinuates Flynn’s guilt through his inferiority in speaking with Aloysius, whose use of syntax elevates her in the church’s chain of command.

It is inferred from the second scene that money is tight around Saint Nicholas school. Aloysius explains this to fellow nun Sister James when she tells her, “Ordinarily, I assign my most experienced sisters to eighth grade, but I'm working within constraints” (Shanley 15). When Flynn is offered tea in the fifth scene, he immediately holds his cup out to ask for sugar as well. Aloysius is astounded by his request for three cubes, a monetary waste. Since sugar is an additional product, simply a means of making something else sweeter, another value of wastefulness is present. For this reason, Aloysius deems sugar sinful enough to give up for Lent, a religious holiday where believers make sacrifices to parallel those of Jesus Christ in the desert. Father Flynn’s excessive use of sugar cubes in his tea paints him as a man who will stop at nothing for satisfaction. Flynn replies to his request for sugar with the short phrase, “Sweet tooth”, which paints him as a person who takes what he wants, regardless of the consequences (Shanley 29). This implication aligns with Aloysius’s suspicions of his abuse, which explains her shock at his refusal to restrain his appetite in this social setting. The audience can also make the connection that since Flynn does not restrict himself from eating sugar, even though it is not good for him, he does not hold the power to hold back on his desires for young boys. The image stands to represent both Flynn’s insatiability and shamelessness about what he wants. Hiding behind his belief for reform, Flynn can manipulate positive messages while simultaneously using them to discredit opposing arguments. He calls the notion to introduce these songs as “fun” as opposed to the cruelty embodied by the opposing school of thought (Shanley 30). In the fifth scene, Flynn, Aloysius, and James discuss changes for the upcoming Christmas pageant. Flynn suggests that including a secular song, such as Frosty the Snowman, to the pageant, would be “fun” and would help the church “take on a more familiar face” (Shanley 30). Flynn later uses this same desire to become relatable to justify his close relationship with the schoolboy. In scene seven, Flynn explains to James, “It’s an old tactic of cruel people to kill kindness in the name of virtue. Don’t believe it. There’s nothing wrong with love” (Shanley 39). Here, Flynn reveals his belief that Sister Aloysius is “cruel” because she refuses to embrace her students; however, it is his diction that inadvertently points to him as guilty of sexual abuse. In this way, Shanley conveys a deeper meaning that sometimes the most positive messages can have malicious intent and be used for evil.

Further, the protagonists contrasting views on the role of the church are brought to life through changes in wind and weather. Shanley addresses the reform of the catholic church with allusions to wind ravishing the garden between the two characters it drives apart: the rectory where Flynn resides and the convent which Aloysius is apart of. As Aloysius intensifies in her pursuit of Flynn, the wind becomes increasingly powerful and begins to appear more throughout the play. Shanley uses this image to represent that the force that reform has already entered St. Nicholas school because wind is a product of nature: it cannot be stopped.

In scene five, Aloysius calls Mr. McGinn to tell him of a fallen tree limb in the church’s courtyard. In informing him of the destruction that has occurred, Aloysius tells him, “No, I didn't know there was a Great Wind in Ireland”, which denotes that she is unaware that this wave of reform has already begun to replace the old ways (Shanley 27). Moreover, Sister Veronica, who is going blind, trips on the fallen tree limb. This indicates Aloysius’s lack of knowledge of the changes that are to occur. When asked if he had heard the wind, Flynn ponders what it would have been like to hear that sound in the olden days, saying to Aloysius, “Imagine what it must've been like in the frontier days when a man alone in the woods sat by a fire in his buckskins and listened to a sound like that. Imagine the loneliness! The immense darkness pressing in! How frightening it must've been!” In concluding that the wind/reform would be frightening without knowledge of it, the audience makes the connection that Flynn is certainly aware of these changes and that Aloysius is alone in not knowing what is to come. This inference is supported later in the scene, where Flynn tells Aloysius, “I think a message of the Second Ecumenical Council was that the Church needs to take on a more familiar face” (Shanley 30).

Unlike James, who is open to change and finds an alternate path around the fallen limb, Aloysius is set in her habits. She defends how she is set in her ways by explaining, “What with our being in black and white, and so prone to falling, we're more like dominos than anything else” (Shanley 28). This reference to a domino effect reveals that Aloysius and Veronica would always trip on the limb if it is situated on their established path because that is the way their beliefs fall.

Following his conversation with Aloysius, Flynn delivers a sermon regarding the nature of gossip. Here, he tells a parable of a woman who spoke badly of a man she hardly knew. He instructs her to gut a pillow on top of her roof, and notice how she would never be able to return all of its feathers. Here, Flynn’s sermon is directed at Aloysius and serves to condemn her actions and conservatism by appealing to her spiritual beliefs. The image of wind increases conflict and drama between the characters by introducing a direct example of Flynn using his position to deliver an intimidating message to Aloysius.

From the play’s start, Shanley’s characters are forced into a rigid chain of command within the church system. In the second scene, Aloysius scoffs at the appropriability of asking the priest of his sermon’s true meaning, telling a fellow nun, “No. That would not be appropriate. We do not share intimate information with priests” (Shanley 20). Aloysius begins to suspect that Flynn is sexually abusing a young boy, but knows that her role within the hierarchy of the church would make it difficult to bring this forward. In scene four, Aloysius confesses her evolving belief to fellow nun Sister James, but informs her that, “Here, there’s no man I can go to, and men run everything” (Shanley 25). Shanley implies that it will be very difficult for Aloysius to question the authority of her superiors, even if she becomes certain in their abuse of power.

In scene five, Aloysius comes to realize that her allegations would hold no weight over the words of her male superiors. As a result of this, she decides to go against the church’s chain of command to force a confession from Flynn. This change can be seen in her syntax, where Aloysius suddenly places herself in a position of power: investigating, confronting, and reprimanding the priest. She begins by placing herself in the scene, asking Father Flynn concise questions to establish a chain of events. This can be seen in her attempts to piece together events in the rectory, where her questions mirror those of a direct examination: calm, and free-flowing. When father Flynn deflects the response to her question with an objection to her tone Aloysius transitions to calling the priest out on this action. To do this effectively, Aloysius relies on direct, single subject-verb compositions to necessitate direct responses. “You know what I'm talking about. Don't you? You're controlling the expression on your face right now. Aren't you?” (Shanley 32). It is in this instant where Aloysius fully disregards all relationships within the church and is no longer held back by ingenuine formalities. As a result of this change in tone, Flynn explains why the boy’s breath smelled of alcohol, even though the event was previously “a private matter” and “not to be of concern to [Aloysius]” (Shanley 32).

When Aloysius attempts to get an admission from Flynn, he reminds her of his authority by saying, “If I had judged my conversation with Donald Muller to be of concern to you, Sister, I would have sat you down and talked to you about it. But I did not judge it to be of concern to you” (Shanley 32). If Flynn’s reference to the chain of authority is not obvious, he reminds her of her place when he remarks, “I’m not answerable to you” (Shanley 33). Despite constantly reminding Aloysius that she has no place asking him to explain himself to her, Father Flynn responds to all of Aloysius’s pressing questions. Here, Flynn makes Sister Aloysius aware that she has overstepped certain boundaries; however, Aloysius is no longer confining herself to her role and is not allowing Flynn to hide behind the power structures which protect him. The repeated mention of Flynn’s claims of power signifies Aloysius’s success in transcending social boundaries within the church. As a result of this, Flynn’s role in the conversation becomes subordinate: overshadowed by Aloysius’s claimed dominance. Aloysius’s argument is strengthened in Flynn’s inability to enact his patriarchal authority over her.

Shanley offers a deeper connection for the audience in this scene, highlighting the difficulty for those in subordinate roles to get higher powers to confess to wrongdoing. Further, he underlines the importance of being held accountable for your actions, regardless of who you are and the power you hold. Shanley masterfully makes the connection, that so stuck in traditional reforms, Aloysius has to have moral certainty in her truths to stand against the very institution she places her livelihood in. For Aloysius, believing in the institution means seeing to it being run how it was designed: serving others, even if it costs her everything. In this sense, the doubt experiences across the play doubles as a form of commitment to the church.