Moral Responsibility Theme Analysis

In Doubt, a play about a catholic nun who suspects a priest of sexually abusing an altar boy, John Patrick Shanley suggests that people conceive of their moral responsibilities in different ways. Sister Aloysius, for one, sees it as her duty to find out whether or not Father Flynn has had inappropriate relations with the Catholic school’s only black student, Donald Muller. Although she lacks concrete evidence, she refuses to dismiss the possibility that something immoral has taken place. In stark contrast to her determination, though, seemingly everyone around her would prefer to ignore this possibility. People like Sister James and even Donald’s mother insist that blindly trusting Father Flynn is the right thing to do, despite the fact that this means possibly overlooking a deeply immoral act. Unsatisfied with this approach, Sister Aloysius does everything in her power to find out what really happened, believing that it has fallen to her to protect Donald. And though she ends up lying in order to confirm her suspicions, she assures Sister James that it is sometimes necessary to “step away from God” to “address wrongdoing.” Consequently, Shanley implies that doing the right thing isn’t always easy or even morally straightforward.

Although Sister James is the one who originally suggests that Father Flynn might have an inappropriate relationship with Donald Muller, it is Sister Aloysius who takes the matter seriously. Sister James, for her part, downplays the situation when she reports it to Sister Aloysius, but Sister Aloysius urges her to admit that she’s suspicious of Father Flynn. “I want to be guided by you and responsible to the children, but I want my peace of mind,” James says to Sister Aloysius, explaining that Aloysius’s influence on her has made her uncomfortable, since the older woman’s “suspicion” has unsettled her. “I must tell you I have been longing for the return of my peace of mind,” she adds. “You may not have it,” responds Sister Aloysius. “It is not your place to be complacent. That’s for the children. That’s what we give them.” By saying this, Sister Aloysius suggests that it is their job to be hypervigilant when it comes to caring for the children and ensuring their safety. This is their responsibility, regardless of whether or not it’s unpleasant to be in a constant state of “suspicion.”

Sister James is not the only person who feels uncomfortable accusing Father Flynn of wrongdoing. Even Donald’s mother, Mrs. Muller, would prefer to ignore the possibility that her son is at risk. This is mostly because she’s worried that pursuing the matter will keep her son from graduating the eighth grade and, as a result, prevent him from getting into a good high school. She’s especially concerned about this because Donald is the school’s only black student, so she doesn’t want to do anything that might interfere with his chances of securing a good education and, in turn, upward mobility. “My son doesn’t need additional difficulties. Let him take the good and leave the rest when he leaves this place in June,” she says. This appalls Sister Aloysius, who finds it unfathomable that a mother would willingly turn a blind eye to her own son’s abuse. “You accept what you gotta accept and you work with it,” Mrs. Muller says, fearing that her son will be the one who gets in trouble if Sister Aloysius pursues this matter, not Father Flynn. Nevertheless, Sister Aloysius refuses to ignore what’s happening, an indication that she believes certain injustices simply must be stopped, regardless of the potential fallout.

Sister Aloysius is willing to act on her suspicions because she believes there’s more at stake than Donald Muller’s academic future. Of course, she cares about Donald and doesn’t necessarily agree that pursuing this matter will hurt him, but she’s also focused on the fact that her failure to stop Father Flynn would enable him to abuse other children, too. “I’ll throw your son out of this school,” she tells Mrs. Muller when it becomes clear that Mrs. Muller doesn’t want to do anything to help her son. “Because I will stop this whatever way I must,” she adds. When Mrs. Muller accuses Sister Aloysius of “hurt[ing]” Donald just to “get [her] way,” Sister Aloysius says, “It won’t end with your son. There will be others, if there aren’t already.” In this moment, then, the audience sees why Sister Aloysius is so unwilling to overlook Father Flynn’s monstrous behavior. For her, nothing could be more immoral than knowingly letting a rapist continue to abuse children. Accordingly, she will go to great lengths to fulfill what she sees as her ethical responsibility.

In keeping with her unfailing determination to protect her students, Sister Aloysius demonstrates that sometimes a person has to make compromises to do the right thing. For instance, in her second confrontational conversation with Father Flynn, she discovers that her suspicions about him were correct, but she makes this discovery by telling a lie. Claiming to have called his former parishes, she says that she spoke to a nun who revealed that he has a history as a sexual abuser. This is a lie, but it disarms him, and his reaction is enough to convince Sister James that he is, in fact, a pedophile (though she still has no concrete evidence). When she tells Sister James about this interaction, James is beside herself. “I can’t believe you lied,” she says. However, Sister Aloysius believes that sometimes a person must make small moral sacrifices to address greater wrongs. “If I could, Sister James, I would certainly choose to live in innocence,” she says during another conversation. “But innocence can only be wisdom in a world without evil. Situations arise and we are confronted with wrongdoing and the need to act.” It is this “need to act” that drives Sister Aloysius forward. Though it's never clear if Sister Aloysius is actually in the right, the possibility that she could be right about Father Flynn demonstrates that acting morally may mean prioritizing large-scale ethical convictions over smaller concerns about what’s right and what’s wrong.