Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Doubt: A Parable, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Moral Responsibility
Power and Accountability
Doubt and Uncertainty
Tradition vs. Change
Summary
Analysis
Not long after Father Flynn’s sermon about gossip, he encounters Sister James in the garden. He asks why she seems so “subdued,” and she admits that she hasn’t been sleeping well. She then asks if his sermon was “directed at anyone in particular,” and he insinuates that it was aimed at Sister Aloysius. Changing the subject, Sister James tells Flynn that she just received news that her brother is sick. He suggests that she visit her brother, but she says she can’t leave her class. “How’s Donald Muller doing?” Flynn suddenly asks, explaining that he himself has stopped talking to the boy “for fear of it being misunderstood.” This, he believes, is a “shame.” He then asks if Sister James is “against” him, and she confesses that she doesn’t know what to think. “I wish I knew nothing whatever about it,” she says.
In this conversation, Father Flynn tries to appeal to Sister James’s sensitivity. To do this, he presents himself as someone whom Donald Muller depended upon and looked up to. Now, he suggests, Donald has nobody. What he doesn’t say, of course, is that this is partially Sister James’s fault, since she’s the one who brought her concerns to Sister Aloysius in the first place. By showing her the supposedly unfortunate consequences of her actions, then, Father Flynn tries to make her feel guilty about what she’s done.
Themes
Father Flynn tells Sister James that he feels like his “reputation has been damaged.” He then insists that he hasn’t done anything, saying that “the most innocent actions can appear sinister to the poisoned mind.” He also says that he would take the matter to Monsignor Benedict if he weren’t so worried that it would “tear apart the school.” “Sister Aloysius would most certainly lose her position as principal if I made her accusations known,” he says. “Since they’re baseless. You might lose your place as well.” In response, James asks if Flynn is “threatening” her, but he denies this.
Yet again, Father Flynn makes a casual reference to the fact that he is more powerful than both Sister Aloysius and Sister James. By reminding Sister James that Monsignor Benedict would surely take his side if he were to get involved, Flynn tries to make Sister James feel as if she has no resources or support. This is his attempt to encourage her to drop the matter altogether—something she’s seemingly quite likely to do, since she wishes that she “knew nothing whatever about it” in the first place.
Themes
Continuing to defend himself, Father Flynn claims that he cares about Donald’s wellbeing more than Sister Aloysius does. “That black boy needs a helping hand or he’s not going to make it here!” he says. “But if she has her way, he’ll be left to his own undoing.” Going on, he insists that Sister Aloysius only dislikes him because he treats students in a “human way.” This, he believes, is her attempt to keep the parish in “the Dark Ages.” Turning to Sister James, he says, “There are people who go after your humanity, Sister James, who tell you the light in your heart is a weakness. That your soft feelings betray you. I don’t believe that. It’s an old tactic of cruel people to kill kindness in the name of virtue. Don’t believe it. There’s nothing wrong with love.”
When Father Flynn says that people like Sister Aloysius want to “kill kindness in the name of virtue,” he speaks directly to the fact that Sister James hates living in a constant state of suspicion. She wants to be a warm and friendly teacher who approaches her students with kindness, not unyielding authority. Father Flynn seems to know she feels this way, so he appeals to this sentiment by saying that she should nurture “the light in [her] heart.”
Themes
Father Flynn reminds Sister James that Jesus Christ spread a message about love, “not suspicion, disapproval and judgment.” He then asks if she finds Sister Aloysius to be a “positive inspiration,” and she’s forced to admit that she does not. “She’s taken away my joy of teaching,” she says. As she begins to cry, Father Flynn “pats” her and tells her that she’s “not alone” with her feelings. “I’m sorry your brother is ill,” he adds, at which point she tells him that she doesn’t think he abused Donald Muller.
At the end of their conversation, Father Flynn successfully gets Sister James to say that she’s no longer suspicious of him. And though she might be convinced of his innocence, it’s rather apparent that Father Flynn simply manipulated her into saying this by showing her the kind of compassion she so desperately craves from her superiors, which she never receives from Sister Aloysius. Once again, then, Father Flynn uses his position of power to his own benefit.
Themes
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