On the surface, the plot of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt is quite simplistic. It's the perplexing tale of a priest who has been accused of molesting an eighth-grader. But underneath this curtain lies a chilling complexity. Shanley gives his audience no facts and no answers. The wry Sister Aloysisus believes that Father Flynn is abusive. Father Flynn allows her to evoke Senator McCarthy, portraying her as a witch on the hunt. Thus, Shanley has spun a parable about the existence of doubt in life.
At the end of the day, all we want is to feel a sense of security in our lives. We find that security in varying capacities, both tangible and intangible. The securities that we create for ourselves come in false pretexts because we ignore the pressing issues. When we make things easier for ourselves in this matter, we make ourselves weak, ignorant even.
What Shanley teaches us is that certainty is a term that we have created for ourselves. Yet, it is the most relative term that life deals us, because it does not and will not ever exist in any capacity that our limited knowledge as humans can comprehend. Certainty is, in fact, what we make of it and nothing more.
That's the trouble with society today. It used to be that the man who questioned society and his own beliefs was the wise and learned man, the philosopher like Socrates and Plato. Now, as Shanley noted, we are living in a "courtroom society." Those who question the world are considered to be weak people. If we aren't certain, we are indecisive and vulnerable.
Although Shanley was certainly able to capitalize on the abuse scandals that kept the Catholic Church in the media, his decision to set his play in this context isn't quite that simplistic. Ironically, faith is the central question of our lives. To believe or not to believe are the questions that have plagued man since his very existence. And, Shanley knows that faith is used as a scapegoat by many.
The question raised by Doubt is a very pivotal one for our age group. We have spent our entire lives up to this point formulating a belief system. This system was heavily influenced by our families, our faiths, our friends, and our hometowns. College is the first moment in our lives where we are living on our own. There is so much pressure to know exactly who we are and to know which major or career path we will chose - all at such a young age.
It is here that the foundations of our belief systems are reaffirmed, shattered, and redefined. We learn that there are other forms of thought that exist outside of our own. While these thoughts are perceived as threats, they are actually beautiful blessings in disguise that help us grow and become better people. And, after we graduate, our beliefs will continue to change and evolve over time.
I, for one, have been verbally attacked by my friends here at school for being a weak person, because my belief system is changing, and I don't understand why I believe in the things that I do any more. I am a mere 18 year-old, just beginning to understand who I am as a person.
What gives us the authority to reach such conclusions? We're all one in the same, just as confused as the next. The irony turns out to be that I am the strongest of them all, because I am not afraid to question what I do not understand. I am restless, because I know that everything is not black and white anymore.
After seeing Doubt, I have been able to come to terms with the complexity of life. I know that when I wake up in the morning, I will never know with 100 percent conviction why the world exists as it does. I will never completely understand my faith. I will never know if weapons of mass destruction were in Iraq. I will never know how many students are victims of rape on campus every year. And, I will never know if Father Flynn abused one of his gym students. I know what I percieve as certain, but as the play closes, "I have doubts. I have such doubts."
I extend to you Shanley's invitation in a recent Boston Globe editorial, "I invite you to passionately doubt everything that you believe in."
Be the wise man. Question everything that you do. Deny yourself the ability to be comfortable. We fail ourselves when we try to be the person of truth, because we trap ourselves and don't allow ourselves to grow. Even those who seem as though they have it all together, as Shanley's Sister Aloysius does, don't know all of the answers. n
Even those who seem as though they have it all together, as Shanley's Sister Aloysius does, don't know all of the answers.
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