What Should Have Happened In John Patrick Shanley's Doubt

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848 priests have been stripped of their status for sexual abuse since 2004, and that’s only them amount that got caught. (dailynews.com) Which is what should have happened in John Patrick Shanley’s play Doubt when Sister Aloysius had suspicions that Father Flynn was having inappropriate relations with a student, Donald Muller. Donald had alcohol on his breath after being alone with Father Flynn, when accused of this Father barely put up a fight. These suspicious events combined together prove Father Flynn is guilty.

When an adult and a child are alone together sometimes flags are waved. Add suspicious underage drinking to the mix and something is not right. This is an exact situation that happened in Doubt. “‘He took Donald to the rectory.’ ‘For what?’ ‘A talk.’ ‘Alone.’ ‘Yes.’ ‘He looked frightened and ....he put his head on the desk in the most peculiar way. And one other thing. There was alcohol on his breath.’”(21.) Many concerns arise from this situation, such as an older man should not be with a young child alone doing who knows what. Someone else …show more content…
He never shut down the accusations directly. “‘You will tell me what you’ve done.’ ‘Oh I will?’”(52.) He simply shuts down the questioning like he did in the example to Sister Aloysius. “‘Did you know that Donald’s father beats him?’ ‘Yes.’”(52.) As well as completely changing the subjects in hopes that Sister will forget about his wrongs and in turn focus on another issue. An average person would provide effective evidence as to how they did not do what they are being accused of, by providing an alibi. “‘I did not speak to the pastor. I spoke to one of the nuns.’ ‘You should have spoken to the pastor.’” (53.) When Sister Aloysius contacted Father’s previous parish and unconventionally spoke to a nun instead of a pastor he got very upset. Concluding that Father Flynn must have had an agreement with the pastor so no one would find out about his
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