The Responsibility Of Father Flynn's Innocence In The Play '

The play Doubt is a powerful play that pins two religious forces against one another for the sake of a child innocence in the 1960’s. Father Flynn is accused by Sister Aloysius for taking sexual advantage of a young African American boy Donald Muller. There is no strong evidence of any foul play between Father Flynn and Donald Muller but there is not strong evidence of Father Flynn’s innocence either. That is what this play does so well, it leaves an almost impossible answer to the question and this leaves the reader in doubt. It leaves the outcome up to the reader to choose whether or not if Father Flynn is guilty of these terrible acts.Father Flynn throughout the play is never shown doing anything wrong in play but just things that raise suspicion of him and that is why you can

argue that he is possibility innocent.

Father Flynn’s innocent is brought into question pretty early into the play after Donald Muller comes back and is acting strangely after a meeting with Father Flynn in the rectory. He came back with his head down on the desk and the smell of alcohol on his breath. In any school this would automatically start to raise suspicion of someone with a child coming back in the state that he was in. After a meeting with between Sister James and Sister Aloysius, Sister James is ordered to keep an eye for any suspicious acts of Father Flynn. They have a right to be suspicious with what has happened because Catholic Priests have done such heinous acts in the past, but just because something like this could warrant the thought of possible molestation of a child does not mean that it did happen. Donald Muller is the only African American Child in this school in a pressing time of the Civil Rights movement in America and not only that, Donald Muller’s Father is an very abusive one as well. This could very well warrant the private meeting between Father Flynn and Donald Muller over the what has been happening and at home and what

could be happen at the school as well. As far the alcohol on his breath that goes unsolved for the most part so you cannot accurately pin that on Father Flynn. Next Sister Aloysius takes Father Flynn’s kind heart and attention of Donald Muller as another possible reason to why he committed this wrong doing. This is all speculation as well and that is all that Sister Aloysius has against Father Flynn as she leads this witch hunt against him. It is just as easy to say that Sister Aloysius just has a genuine dislike of Father Flynn because of that way that like 3 cubes of sugar in his tea and that he uses a ball point pen as well not keeping his fingernails short. She stickler for properness and Father Flynn does not meet her criteria of properness so this could be a possible motivation to get Father Flynn out of the church.
Father Flynn ultimately ends up leaving the Church after one final battle between himself and Sister Aloysius. After he leaves Sister Aloysius makes it seem like she called a his old parish and talked to nun of his past and she had told him of his past wrongdoings. Just because he left after this final argument with these accusations still on the the table still does not mean he did anything wrong. His vision of helping his church would corrupted if these accusations reached the public so he decided to pack his bags and try again with a new beginning at a new church and was promoted as well. This leaves the reader in doubt of his innocent but it also puts the reader in doubt of his guiltiness as well if you think a little harder. Father Flynn was a good man trying to help a young man in trouble but, with what has gone on in our world it was easier to assume that he was guilty instead of innocent, which is a shame for Father Flynn and Donald Muller.