Doubt By John Patrick Shanley

In Doubt by John Patrick Shanley, morality is sacrificed to seek the truth. A nun is suspicious of Father Flynn’s relationship with the boys. Sister Aloysius scours the campus for evidence to prove Father Flynn and in her eyes protect the children. To convict him she will try her own morals. Father Flynn is innocent of the supposed crimes. He just cares for the boy’s like a father and Sister Aloysius’s accusations are biased. Father Flynn did not commit the crimes that Sister Aloysius convicted him of. She mistook his caring, father-like attitude as inappropriate. Sister Aloysius thought he had ulterior motives in his acts. In reality, Father Flynn really cares for the boys and desires to support them. While arguing with Sister Aloysius Father

Sister Aloysius does this behind the guise of protecting the children but really she doesn’t like Father Flynn. She wants to get rid of because he isn’t the kind of role model Sister Aloysius wants. She is an old-fashioned woman who hates change and wants things to stay the way they have been forever. Father Flynn threatens this atmosphere of nostalgia that she is trying to maintain, so she seeks to ruin him with this conviction. Father Flynn knows this at shouts, “You’re insane... got it in your head that I’ve corrupted this child... nothing I say can change that” (Shanley 51). Father Flynn is exposing Sister Aloysius’s desire to take him down whether or not she is right. She made a lie in her head so real she believes it herself. She wants to condemn him for a wrong she has no physical proof of. She breaks her morals to get him condemned. This Catholic nun even admits to lying, “I had called a nun... I was lying I made no such call” (Shanley 58). Sister Aloysius wants a conviction so much that she lies and cheats to try and force a confession. She had no real evidence, her argument was based on assumptions and lies. Through all of her searching, she couldn’t prove him guilty to anyone but