Doubt play vs. movie - Essay Example

As mentioned earlier, Doubt is a story revolving around a nun’s qualms about a priest’s sexual involvement with an African-American Altar boy. Sister Aloysius is the head nun and principal of a catholic school called St. Nicholas. Father Flynn is a new teacher at St. Nicholas; he has an affable personality and is highly articulate. The character list includes another member of the faculty, Sister James; an impressionable and inexperienced teacher; she is highly obedient. Therefore when Sister Aloysius commands everyone to keep their eyes open for unusual behavior, she is the first one to suspect Father Flynn.

(Brantley, 2006) The main source of the suspicion is triggered when Sister James observes the intimacy between Father Flynn and the only African American student Donald Muller. There are a number of other factors that eventually lead her to confirm her suspicions such as, when Donald is summoned by Father Flynn during Sister James’ class and when he returns, he seems upset and intoxicated, and finally Sister James notices Father Flynn putting a white shirt in Donald’s locker, during a dance lesson.

Sister James confides her suspicion to Sister Aloysius, who later confronts Father Flynn. Father Flynn provides a plausible explanation that he had found Donald drinking and wanted to help him get over his drinking problem. However, Sister Aloysius is still unsatisfied and decides to talk to Donald Muller’s mother. Mrs. Muller seems completely ambivalent and asks Sister Aloysius not to pursue the matter any further. She mentions that Donald is currently coping with his abusive father and also hints that it is because of his sexual orientation that causes Mr.

Muller to beat Donald up. She pleads with her to remain silent and not take any action against Father Flynn and tries to rationalize their relationship, but Sister Aloysius remains adamant. Despite the fact that she was unable to collect any hard evidence against Father Flynn to substantiate her allegation, she confronts Father Flynn again and threatens to him to tell her the truth or she will approach her superiors. Father Flynn denies but finally succumbs to her demands and requests for a transfer when Sister Aloysius tells him that she telephoned his previous parish and discovered ample amount of evidences regarding his dubious past.

She told him that she knew he had changed a few parishes because of misconduct; however, the details of misconduct were not specified and there are several nuns, who are willing to testify against him. (Brantley, 2006) The story ends with Father Flynn getting transferred to a different school and Sister Aloysius confiding in Sister James that she found nothing against him and her telephoning the authorities was a mere fabrication.. In the end, she breaks down in to tears and says, “I have doubts… I have such doubts”.

The film and play adaptation followed the same plot and even the dialogues were near verbatim; which shows the strong correspondence between both the play and the movie. However, in case of differences, there are countless differences but the changes are only minor and subtle and nothing too plot-altering. The most ostensible difference is the fact that there are more characters in the movie than in the play. (Brantley, 2004) The depiction of the story deviates from the normal four-character play by Mr.