Sister Aloysius's Doubt: A Parable

Doubt: A Parable is a story that follows Sister Aloysius, the principal of the St. Nicholas school. She approaches situations with suspicion and doubt. Suspicion refers to perceiving someone as untrustworthy. On the other hand, doubt is an absence or lack of confidence in someone, or a fear or a dread of something. In most scenarios, these words are substantially synonymous. In its entirety, the play has an ambiguous plot with an ending that depicts suspicion and doubt as perceived in Sister Aloysius as a nun.
In her endeavors, Sister Aloysius is determined to protect her students and offer them a good learning environment, free of any harm. She makes an investigation on Father Flynn interactions with Donald Muller, the only black student in

school. She is suspicious that Father Flynn had made him drunk by giving him a beer (Shanley 44). However, it turns out that Muller had drunk the altar wine in Flynn’s absence, creating doubt in Sister Aloysius. Sister Aloysius appears convinced that Flynn is guilty of attempting to take advantage of a lonely and lost boy. On his part, Father Flynn strongly argues for his innocence. Caught in the middle is the naïve Sister James, a young teacher who experiences unsettling hints at what might be evolving but remains uncertain. To confront Father Flynn, Sister Aloysius recruits Sister James to collect any possible evidence. Driven by suspicion, Sister Aloysius has the will to do whatever it takes to expose Father Lynn. However, she lacks proof that can make her justify her convictions (Shanley 46).
In another instance, Sister Aloysius is suspicious and stern and thus shows the students no weakness by discouraging any signs of weakness in the nuns under her.

However she remains doubtful if the nuns are in line with her expectations. When she is first introduced, her suspicious nature appears excessive. She is suspicious about William London, the schoolboy who went home with a nosebleed and offers that he might have deliberately inflicted it on himself, and she feels that ballpoint pens, unlike the fountain pens, offer students the easy way out (Shanley 15). Nonetheless, she has no evidence to base her convictions on. Her doubtful attitude makes her insensitive, and audiences are left wondering if, as Sister James and Father Flynn speculate at different times, she is suspicious of Father Flynn only due to her personal dislike of his compassionate

demeanor.
Whatever Sister Aloysius motives might be, for charging Father Flynn for his misconduct, she partly portrays her concern on children so they cannot be harmed.

However, she exhibits over zealousness in her vendetta against Flynn, and it is this unrelenting attack, with basis on little evidence, that brings up the specter that she experienced abuse in her past. At some point, she confesses to Flynn painfully explaining that she has some sin in her past. However, she says she has confessed and had been forgiven (Shanley 49). Her sins remain unexplored, leaving in doubt what roles this might have played in her certainty about Father Flynn.
The big question is: Is it doubt in her suspicion that Father Flynn was guilty? Is it doubt with respect from church that "promoted" Father Flynn when he was confronted with misconduct charges and that is changing in such a way that she cannot? Is it doubt in her God? Whatever doubt it is, the reader is not told. However, her suspicion and doubts portray her awareness that charging Father Flynn had bad effects and good as

well.
Even if Father Flynn was guilty, Sister Aloysius was far much extreme in persecuting him. In the play, it is succinct she had sinned in her past of which she argues to have confessed and got forgiven. The same way, we expect her to reason on Flynn’s situation, who appears to be tired of her baseless accusations that taints his image as a priest. Nonetheless, Flynn is determined to work and achieve “a progressive education and a welcoming church” (Shanley 46). For every reason, Sister Aloysius wasn’t supposed to be stringent on Flynn as no truth is revealed. In the end, we find her doubting her suspicion as is seen in the Play’s last line where she tells Sister James that: “I have doubts! I have such doubts!” (Shanley 52).
Conclusively, in the entire play, Sister Aloysius does not waver in her certainty that Flynn has had some improper relations with boys. Towards the end, however, after the priest’s resignation confirms her suspicions, but not her doubts. She confesses to Sister James that she had to lie so as to trap him, referring to lying as a step away from God and the price that one has no alternative but to pay in pursuing wrongdoing. This is found where she offers: “In the pursuit of wrongdoing, one steps away from God…..of course, there must be some price to pay." (Shanley 51)