Freudian(Psychoanalytical) Literary Analysis of Doubt
Doubt by John Patrick Shanley is about a nun who is entirely convinced that a priest had done something inappropriate with one of the students and taken advantage of the fact that the student (Donald Muller) is an African-American. Sister Aloysius Beauvier, the nun, concluded that Father Flynn, the priest, had been forcing Donald Muller to drink wine and molesting him. With the help of a naïve nun named Sister James, Sister Aloysius attempted to investigate her assumption of Father Flynn’s actions even if it meant contacting Donald’s mother. Sister Aloysius is a stereotypical splenetic Catholic School nun who believes that being an unsympathetic and oppressive person to the students is the
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most effective method to make the students oblige to her commands. The literary theory chosen for this literature work is the Freudian literary theory. The Freudian literary theory is based on the works of Sigmund Freud and the workings of the mind and instinct as well as sexuality. The Freudian Literary Theory can be used to analyze the play Doubt because Freud’s work reveals the id, ego and superego and how it affects a person. Id is a natural instinct. Ego ensures that the impulses of the id are expressed in an acceptable behavior. Superego provides guidelines and morals for making judgments. (Brizee) Sister Aloysius’ id desires to get rid of Father Flynn immediately. Her superego is diminished since she lied to Father Flynn. Her ego is shown when she talked to Donald’s Muller since it was an appropriate action to be done. The personality traits of the main character, Sister Aloysius, in the bidding of the play is that she is strict, stubborn and overly confident in herself. She is so self-assured to the point that she doesn’t have the ability to understand from an opposing perspective and will only half-heartedly listen to beliefs and statements that contradicts her opinion because she believes that only the claim from her point of view is the ultimate truth. She would ignore what others would have to say and only uses the evidence that would further support her claim, which is confirmation bias. Sister Aloysius is the type of person who would let her emotions and feelings interfere with her assumptions. This was revealed in her thought process. She believes that nuns and priests should act cold heartedly to the students and be vigilant. Hence, she wasn’t admired even though she was respected. In Weighing Doubt: One Playwright’s Measured Look at the Crisis in the Catholic Church, Bogle mentioned that, “... the audience is left to ponder the uneasy soul of an upright woman whose determined battle for justice is dismissed by Church authorities, leaving her friendless and unlovely to behold.” In contrast, Father Flynn would be warm and caring to the kids and Sister Aloysius isn’t amused by that. (Shanley 47) Thus, when Sister James told her about the situation involving Father Flynn and Donald Muller, she instantaneously assumed the worst due to her desire to remove Father Flynn from the school, which is influenced by her a part of her unconscious mind known as the id. However, towards the end of the play, she became doubtful of her decision as her level of confidence decreased. This was shown in her behavior. According to an article called A Nun Who Is Certain, Even if Truth Is Not, “A steely effortfulness courses through her clipped, brisk speech; her tautly set mouth; her way in conversation of hugging herself into a sloped, stony barricade against the words of others. Sister Aloysius is a triumph of hard-won conviction over human indecisiveness. She is also a testament to the pressures of remaining sure in a world where, to borrow from Oscar Wilde, the truth is never pure and rarely simple.” (Brantley) The author’s portrayal of Sister Aloysius is meant to cause problems, especially with Father Flynn.
Their personalities are drastically different. Sister Aloysius was shown to be the not most agreeable person. Father Flynn was considerate and wanted to have a warm and loving relationship with the students so that the school will be a welcoming environment. "I think the message of the Second Ecumenical Council was that the church needs to take on more familiar face. Reflect the local community. We should sing a song from the radio now and then. Take the kids out for ice-cream." (Shanley 47) Sister James is naïve and innocent which allows her to be easily influenced. From the way that other characters relate to Sister Aloysius, it is learned that she is a fearful person. The students are afraid of her and Father Flynn is standing up for the students. Father Flynn is the type of person who liked his nails long and sugar in his tea. Sister Aloysius is so strict and she even mentioned how Frosty the Snowman shouldn’t be performed due to the magical element of the snowman coming to life. (Shanley 44) This causes an obstacle between the relationship of Father Flynn and Sister Aloysius. The conflict was worsened when Sister James reported to Sister Aloysius that Donald Muller was called out of class by Father Flynn and came back with alcohol in his breath and was acting unsettled. (Shanley 37) Sister Aloysius presented her id impulse, for Father Flynn to leave in an acceptable way …show more content…
by talking to Donald Muller’s mother so that way they can team up and complain about Father Flynn so he would get in trouble. This is more socially acceptable than demanding him to leave just because she despises him. Based on the text Freud’s Theory of the Id, Ego, and Superego, a CommonLit staff asserts that, “He (Sigmund Freud) believed that all human behavior could be explained by what kinds of fears and desires are stored below the surface of our consciousness.” The symbols used in Doubt are Father Flynn’s fingernails and notebook, ballpoint pens, sugar, Frosty the snowman, the wind, the meat, and a crow. Father Flynn liked to keep his fingernails and said that it was fine because they were clean. The fingernails might be representing a certain action, such as his interest in Donald Muller which is not acceptable, just like his fingernails, but it is “okay”. Father Flynn’s notebook can be a symbol of his secrecy with his activities (possibly inappropriate) and his ideas for sermons. This is suspicious because he will typically not show what is written in the notebook with anyone. The ballpoint pen is a symbol of how Father Flynn embraces the modern world. Frosty the snowman and Sister Aloysius not liking the idea of it reveals that Sister Aloysius is a woman who holds traditional values and is a conservative person. Father Flynn likes plenty of sugar in his tea. (Shanley 43) This shows that he is unable to control himself of elements and circumstances that gives him pleasure, even though it is considered wrong according to the church, giving into his irrational impulse of id. Crows have been associated with bad omen. The crow provided an atmosphere of darkness when Sister James and Father Flynn were conversing. The crow symbolizes as a sinister activity that is possibly done by Father Flynn that makes the reader doubt his innocence. The bloody meat shown during the film eaten by Father Flynn shows his predatory nature. Lastly, there was the wind swirling around Sister Aloysius in the film. It might possibly be the Holy Spirit in Christian thought. It may be that as Father Flynn wanted to make some reforms to the traditional Catholic school, the Holy Spirit disrupts the plan. The issue of the play is doubt versus certainty. In the beginning of the play, Father Flynn said during his sermon, “Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty.” (Shanley 8) Sister Aloysius was usually doubtful of others and mistrusts them. When Sister Aloysius confronted Father Flynn of her suspicions in front of Sister James, he furiously disagreed. Sister James was then quickly convinced that he was innocent, but Sister Aloysius still didn’t trust him. Sister Aloysius then lied to Father Flynn that she called one of the nuns from his last parish and discovered his past infringements. She then blackmailed him and said that if he doesn’t resign, then she will spread the news of his past infringements as well as what happened with Donald Muller and he will become notorious.(Shanley 84) Father Flynn gave up defending himself and called a bishop for a transfer so he can be a priest at a different school. He then received a promotion at that school and was offered to be a pastor. Father Flynn’s id would’ve wanted to attack Sister Aloysius but his ego intervened, which is why he was only yelling at Sister Aloysius. In that situation, Father Flynn’s superego influenced him by allowing him to understand that Sister Aloysius will not change and it is a better option to transfer to another school. Towards the end of the story, Sister Aloysius confessed to Sister James that she never called Father Flynn’s last parish and lied with the intention of getting rid of him only with the reason that she doesn’t like Father Flynn’s character. (Shanley 93) Subsequently, she regrets her decision and is left with doubts with her faith as well as herself. She is unsure whether Father Flynn might actually be innocent and that she had caused him trouble, which makes her a bad person according to her faith. Sister Aloysius had mentioned that doubt is a weakness and everything must come to the truth. This portrays inner conflict in Sister Aloysius since it was a hypocritical statement and she had doubts at the end of the play. Her superego made her feel guilty since she didn’t live up to her standards of model of behavior. Throughout the play, she believed that she had known the truth, however, she cannot see past her own beliefs. This revealed that she was just a human being. She had sinned by lying as a result of being too obsessed with uncovering the truth that she took extreme measures just to prove her point. The conflicts were not resolved due to the fact that she had doubts at the end of the play. (Shanley 95) To summarize, with the findings of Sigmund Freud, it can be arrived to the conclusion that the id, ego, and superego all play a role in the portrayal of a majority of the human behavior.
According to Freud’s New Model of Mind, it was indicated that, “... the Id (the essentially biological element), the Ego (the socializing element), and the Superego (the dispenser of rewards and punishment) interact dynamically.” (Landow) As shown in the play Doubt by John Patrick Shanley, Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn’s different personalities used conflicts between them due to the fact that their morals were contrastive. Ergo, Sister Aloysius suspected that Father Flynn had been molesting Donald Muller, which was based on her own judgements and inability the point of view of Father Flynn. Even though instincts are controlled by societal standards, they can become unmanageable and disorderly if the desires are too
intense.
The play “Doubt” by John Patrick Shanley began with a sermon by Father Brendan Flynn, a well liked and enlightened neighborhood priest, who says, "Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty". (Shanley 6) Sister Aloysius Beauvier is a strict traditional nun, who was declared to protect and secure St. Nicholas Church School. Father Flynn seems to be the protagonist in the play and Sister Aloysius is the antagonist. The whole play, sister Aloysius Beauvier suspected Father Flynn of molesting a 12-year-old boy named Donald Muller, who is the first African-American student in the St. Nicholas Church School. I think that Sister Aloysius’s overreacting, because Father Flynn is innocent. In the middle of these two characters, Sister James is a young and innocent teacher who wants to be neutral between the conflict of Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn.
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.
In the preface to “Doubt: a Parable,” John Patrick Shanley describes a significant factor to consider when reading his play: “I’ve set my story in 1964, when not just me, but the whole world seemed to be going through some kind of vast puberty” (Shanley viii). During that period in time, America experienced vast growth across all areas of life- from the home, to schools, to politics. Even the Catholic Church seemed to be embrace this time of change with the new attitudes developed from the Second Vatican Council. The Church set out to break from the old, rigid structures of the past and take on a more relatable and approachable presence for its surrounding community. In spite of welcoming these radical changes, a big part of the old order within the Church structure was more than firmly rooted and, to this date, has not undergone much change- the Catholic Church has continued to operate under a strict patriarchal hierarchy. In Shanley’s play, Sister Aloysius holds a position of power being the principal of St. Nicholas School, but within the church structure, that power is relinquished to the men based upon the mere detail that she is a woman. When Sister Aloysius encounters a predicament that she doubts will be dealt with appropriately under the established patriarchal hierarchy, she is driven to go beyond the limits of the structure in order to prove her suspicions right, trespassing against herself and her convictions in the process.
...der further than what we have in front of us. We want to impose our opinion on everything. We want to relate to it in a way that can only be done through out imagination. So, due to this, when we are not given the flexibility, then the context no longer becomes entertaining. The viewers do not want to be told how to think. Given these points, if they are influenced to believe that Sister Aloysius is a cruel individual like the movie portrays, then at the end of the movie and book when Sister Aloysius says, “ I have doubts! I have such doubts!” they will take that as a confession from her, and be further lead to believe that the accusations against Father Flynn are false. I think John Patrick Shanley chooses specific diction to create a conflict that has no precise resolution,he wanted the reader get lost in story and enter into their own story manifested within.
In Doubt by John Patrick Shanley is a short play that takes place in a catholic school. The main characters of this play are Father Flynn t the priest at the school. Sister Aloysius Principle of the catholic school and the head nun. Sister James a young nun and teacher at the catholic school. Lastly Donald Muller the first black student to enter the catholic school. The conflict that arises is if Father Flynn is having sexual relations with Donald Muller. Sister James is worried when Donald Muller arrives back to class after Father Flynn called him to the rectory. Donald seems uneasy as if something happened to him and sister James said his breath smelled of alcohol.
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
Often times a struggle for power causes people to go against their own moral standards and negatively affects others. In the play Doubt by John Patrick Shanley, the characters Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn engage in a power play seeking the upper hand in the Catholic Church in which they are clergy. Sister Aloysius is more clever and effective than Father Flynn in their constant struggle for power.
He helps the schoolboys and looks out for them, including Donald. Flynn teaches the boys to play basketball and how to be a man. Sister Aloysius finds it suspicious that Flynn took only Donald out of class. She questions Flynn about talking to Donald alone in the rectory. Flynn’s reasoning is very credible:
Sigmund Freud’s theories on the construction of the mind are simple, but fundamentally changed the field of psychology. He proposed, among other things, that the human mind is composed of three parts: the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. The preconscious consists of information, such as a telephone number, that is “accessible to consciousness without emotional resistance” (Schellenberg 21). In Freud’s estimation, the unconscious is the most important area of the mind. The information stored within it has “very strong resistances” to becoming conscious (Freud 32). Residing in the unconscious is the id, which “contains everything…that is present at birth… – above all, therefore, the instincts which originate from somatic organization” (14). From birth, all action is instinctual, from the id. The id recognizes and entertains no desires but its own and is impatient to have its needs met. This phase lasts until a part of the id changes “under the influence of the real external world” (14). This changed portion b...
Sigmund Freud believed that adults seduced children and this is where their problems came up in adulthood. As for all things, many people did not agree with Freud’s theory. “Freud believed that people could be cured by making conscious their unconscious thoughts and motivations, thus gaining insight” (McLeod, “Psychoanalysis”). According to Freud’s Psychoanalytical Theory, there are three elements of personality the id, ego and superego. The id is an individual’s inner child.
One reason Father Flynn is innocent is because he is a kindhearted man. First, he is not guilty of an improper relationship with Donald Muller because priests are supposed to care for others. If somebody is in need of advice, people should trust the priest and be able to go to him for words of wisdom. However, Sister Aloysius questions the extent of the priests kindness and follows strict church
Sigmund Freud believes the id is innate in a child, it acts on pure immediate pleasure. As the child grows older, it develops the regulatory ego which confronts the self-indulgent id with logical choices. As some people age, their ego might not develop as expected. Lorelai Gilmore is Freud’s idea of the id, embodied. When she makes choices, logic is usually an afterthought as she generally thinks only of her happiness. Throughout ...
The basis of this approach is that psychological factors play a major role in determining behaviour and shaping personality. Freud argued that personality is composed of three major systems the id, the ego, and the superego. The id (biological part of personality) is present at birth and consists of inherited instincts and all psychological energies. The id operates according to the pleasure principle, seeking to reduce tension, avoid pain and obtain pleasure. The ego (executive part of personality) is conscious part of the mind, the “real” us.
Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory was based on the belief that human personality is made up of three components: the id, ego and superego. These three components are arranged in a hierarchy order with the id at the basal end, the ego in the middle and the super ego at the pinnacle. The id at the base, seeks instantaneous pleasure and fulfillment, driven by the pleasure principle. The id wants what it wants, when it wants it regardless of whether or not it is possible to satisfy that particular want or need. The presence or logic of reality or societal behavior has no effect on the id. For example, if an infant is thirsty and sees a bottle of water, he will take the bottle and drink even if it belonged to someone else and he did not have permission to drink, all that matters is that the needs have been met.
“Psychological - or more strictly speaking, psychoanalytic -investigation shows that the deepest essence of human nature, which are similar in all men and which aim at the satisfaction of certain needs... [are] self-preservation, aggression, need for love, and the impulse to attain pleasure and avoid pain...” At its simplest form, this quote perfectly explains Sigmund Freud’s theory on human nature. Human beings, according to Freud, are in a constant state of conflict within themselves; trying to satisfy their animalistic instincts, while also maintaining a socially appropriate life. Freud termed these animalistic tendencies that we have, the Id. The Id is essentially our unconscious mind, it is the part of us that has been there since the day we were born and is what drives our life’s needs and desires. The Id simply aims to satisfy our sexual or aggressive urges immediately, without taking into account any further implications. On the other hand, Freud used the term, the Superego, to describe man’s conscience and sense of morality. It is the Superego’s job to keep the Id in check by combatting the desire to satisfy urges with the feeling of guilt or anxiety. Finally, the Ego, is the conscious representation of the constant battle between the Superego and the Id. It must work to satisfy human’s instinctual tendencies while taking into account their conscience and doing what is rational and acceptable. Freud argues that these internal process that are constantly at work in our mind are what shape humans to do the things that they do. Thus, he believes, the goal of human nature is to satisfy our basic aggressive and sexual desires while adhering to cultural and social standards.