Although all three of the main characters: Sister A, Sister James and Father Flynn share the same religion they have very opposite basis for their faith. Through the book of Doubt Shanley is portraying three different erroneous ways people approach faith. Sister A’s faith is based on her experience in life, not God’s; Sister James’ faith is based on emotions instead of being based on God; Father Flynn’s faith is used as a tool for power. Therefore, the play presents potential ways of engaging with faith as well as some of the problems therein.
Through out Doubt we are able to capture Sister A’s point of view as biased and single minded, this is mainly caused by the fact that her experience dictates her facts. This type of mindset makes any other opinion given to Sister A unvalued, even God’s opinion. By giving Sister James an entire explanation of how the children at school are not innocent …show more content…
“(They come in and sit down. Father Flynn takes Sister Aloysius’ chair. He’s sitting at her desk...)” (Shanley, 29) Father Flynn enjoys being above Sister A and demonstrates this to her by sitting down at her chair. The fact that Sister A cannot object makes him feel powerful. When Sister A confronted Father Flynn about Donald Muller, Father Flynn, again, uses his faith to show power by giving a sermon on gossip, which was meant towards Sister A. Once more, Father Flynn uses his faith to show power when he is speaking to Sister James alone at the garden and states: “The only reason I haven’t gone to the monsignor is I don’t want to tear apart the school. Sister Aloysius would most certainly lose her position as principle if I made her accusations known. Since they’re baseless. You might lose your place as well” (Shanley, 38) Although he does not do such thing he states it to show power over Sister James. Father Flynn does not only use his faith but he also enjoys his faith as a tool for
Through out Doubt we are able to capture Sister A’s point of view as biased and single minded, this is mainly caused by the fact that her experience dictates her facts. This type of mindset makes any other opinion given to Sister A unvalued, even God’s opinion. By giving Sister James an entire explanation of how the children at school are not innocent …show more content…
“(They come in and sit down. Father Flynn takes Sister Aloysius’ chair. He’s sitting at her desk...)” (Shanley, 29) Father Flynn enjoys being above Sister A and demonstrates this to her by sitting down at her chair. The fact that Sister A cannot object makes him feel powerful. When Sister A confronted Father Flynn about Donald Muller, Father Flynn, again, uses his faith to show power by giving a sermon on gossip, which was meant towards Sister A. Once more, Father Flynn uses his faith to show power when he is speaking to Sister James alone at the garden and states: “The only reason I haven’t gone to the monsignor is I don’t want to tear apart the school. Sister Aloysius would most certainly lose her position as principle if I made her accusations known. Since they’re baseless. You might lose your place as well” (Shanley, 38) Although he does not do such thing he states it to show power over Sister James. Father Flynn does not only use his faith but he also enjoys his faith as a tool for