Three Questions on Doubt: A Parable
As a parable, this play teaches that acting as if someone's morality is certain when there is reasonable doubt is wrong. Sister Aloysius speaks as though she is positive that Father Flynn has molested Donald Muller, and she not only confronts him about it but also confides her suspicions to Sister James. Ultimately, she has him removed from his post and transferred to another parish based on her moral certainty that he has acted inappropriately with Donald, and this has not only forced Father Flynn to remove Donald from being an altar boy but also damaged his reputation. In the end, when she confesses to Sister James that she has doubts, the reader realizes that Sister Aloysius is probably wrong about her suspicions. In her zeal to protect the children from molestation, she has overshot the mark and impacted two lives negatively, not to mention all of the other boys that admired Father Flynn and whose confidence in him was shattered as a result of the issue. The parable teaches that where doubt exists, it cannot be ignored; it must be honored for the sake of fairness.
The closing lines of the play reveal Sister Aloysius's doubt in her own faith and her doubt in what she has done. Her overly critical moralizing seems to be her view of what strict faith should be like throughout most of the play. There is no compassion, love, or kindness in her thoughts, actions, or words that suggests that she sees religion as loving service to a loving God. In the end, she has doubts about this viewpoint, and as a result, she has doubts about how she handled the issue of Father Flynn's supposed molestation of Donald. In addition, she has doubts about Father Flynn's guilt and the real impacts of what she has done to him and to Donald, whose acceptance as an altar boy was critically important to him. In her moral certainty, she was stern and zealous, but when she finally experienced doub...