Doubt : A Parable By John Patrick Shanley

Notable in the play, is the choice of soliloquy in lieu of dialogue to develop the story. The tale unfolds as the characters communicate their personal viewpoints directly to the audience with little dialogue between characters. The actors did a fine job, with Jimmy Castro, as the trainer, Austin Eastlee as the preacher, and Allison Garcia, as the ballet girl being the most compelling.

This is a must watch Broadway show that makes your fine, terrible, or even boring day, an absolute blast. The Play That Goes Wrong has finally made its way to America and right at the heart of New York City near Times Square at the Lyceum Theatre. Therefore, the experience is a win-win situation for the audience. The Lyceum Theatre’s architecture is astonishing as it is filled with ornaments, I also realized the letter ‘L’ around the theater, but the most interesting fact is that it is a landmark. It has a proscenium stage while the audience is in the orchestra, balcony, or the mezzanine seats, like where I sat, and there is barely any space if you are a tall person. My seat was near the far end of mezzanine, I couldn’t see a part of the left side of the stage, so I found myself bending sideways to see what was going on, but I saw nothing. I found the side stage lights and a side balcony blocking my view and yet I had a great time.

     While the film is in color, sometimes it appears to be in black and white. There are no bright colors in the film. Most of the colors are either browns, beiges, whites, blacks, and grays, so that even when the characters are outside or in daylight, there are contrasts between lights and darks. For example, at the beginning Mr. Gettes is seated in a somewhat dark office, yet he is wearing an all-white suit. Later, when he goes to examine the dried up river bed, his black suit contrasts with the bright sunlight and light colored sand.

Also he writes that the man is surrounded by the darkness of the theater, consumed by it, and with the white light ahead and on stage he is alone, and lonely in the darkness, playing the game. These are all references to how invisible and alone the man is.

Most adults would do anything to protect a child. Sister Aloysius did everything she could to make sure Father Flynn would not hurt anymore child. In the play Doubt: a Parable by John Patrick Shanley, Father Flynn, a priest at St. Nicholas, a Catholic church and school in the Bronx, New York, 1964 is questioned whether or not he has been in an inappropriate relationship with an 8th grade colored kid named Donald Mueller. One of the nuns at the school, Sister James tells the principle of the school, Sister Aloysius, her suspicions of the relationship between Father Flynn and Donald and that she smelt wine in his breath. Sister Aloysius questions the priest of the relationship but he denies it and tells her Donald, who was also an altar boy who had access to wine, took some and the priest told no one because he wanted to keep Donald safe. Sister Aloysius meets with Donald’s mother to inform her of the situation but she overlooks it because she needs him to finish 8th grade at the school and Father Flynn is the only one who is friendly to Donald. Father Flynn and Sister Aloysius meet again and she threatens Father Flynn to confess because of information she got from a nun at his last parish. Father Flynn still denies the relationship but he then goes to a different school to be a priest. Based on the evidence in Patrick Shanley’s play, Doubt: A Parable, I conclude Father Flynn is guilty based on his behavior and other evidence against him.

Innocent until proven guilty is a phrase that applies to our judicial system in modern times; however, when the play Doubt by John Patrick Stanley was written this phrase did not always apply. The play is a parable that makes you think about how gossip and rumors can cause havoc and potentially ruin someone’s career. In the play the rumors that are flying are rumors about whether or not Father Flynn is innocent or guilty to the crime of molesting a young boy named Donald Muller. Critics still argue whether he was innocent or guilty to the crime today, and no answer is known. However, based on the evidence in Patrick Shanley’s play Doubt: A Parable, one could conclude that Father Flynn is innocent due to the fact that he had reasonable evidence

How Brecht achieves producing this state of consciousness is more subtle and elegant than the previous technique of having actors walk out with blatant placards to remind the audience that they are watching a play. One of the marks of Brecht’s epic theater is his alienation effect, or “a representation which allows [the audience] to recognize its subject, but at the same time makes it seem unfamiliar” (Brecht 1948, 8).

Father Flynn gives two sermons, one before he is accused by Sister Aloysius and one after he has been accused. In the first sermon, he speaks of doubt and wears green and gold vestments. These colors represent the way in which Father Flynn is viewed at St. Nicholas, as in the tradition of the church, green symbolizes “renewal of vegetation; the promise of new life,” and gold represents “majesty, the presence of God.” He is an admired figure at the school; the children all idolize him, and according to Sister Aloysius, “Monsignor Benedict thinks the sun rises and sets on Father Flynn.” This is a stark difference to the colors he wears at the sermon after the sisters have accused him of making advances on Donald Muller, a sermon focused on the subject

Doubt is a parable created in 2005 about the efforts of Sister Aloysius, a strict older women who is in here 50’s or 60’s who the principal of St. Nicholas Catholic School, who tries to help a young boy by the name of Donald Muller, who is the first black child to enroll in St. Nicholas Catholic School during the peak of the civil rights era. Donald Muller is a poor, black child living in Bronx, NY with his controlling mother and abusive father trying to fit in an Irish catholic school during the peak of the civil rights era. Sister Aloysius attempts to do the near impossible and find out if the head priest, Father Flynn, has done the unspeakable act of molesting Donald Muller. The play doesn’t establish if Father Flynn was guilty or innocent, thus giving the audience a role of creating their own conclusion of what happened. With the events that become apparent during the time of the incidents, the

Parable, as defined by the dictionary, “A short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth,religious principle, or moral lesson.” The dictionary has a second definition for it, “A statement or comment that conveys a meaning indirectly by the use of comparison, analogy, or the like” (Collins English Dictionary). The use of parables dates all the way back to the time of Jesus, between 4 BC and 30 AD. They are a way of simplifying complicated ideals into a lesson people of all ages can understand and look to for guidance. Patrick Shanley’s play, Doubt, is set in Bronx New York in the year 1964. Around that same time, many aspects of the United States were changing and moving in a direction that left many Americans feeling uneasy.

The outline of the painting is contrast of dark dull depressing colors. These colors will help make the white pop out to show some symbols. The colors on the background and the people's clothing have a mixture of blue, light blue, orange, red, and brown. This helps enhances the pale skin, the background sky, and the flying soul.

The novel “Doubt; A Parable” by John Patrick Shanley, creates doubts and mystery in readers minds that have us turning the pages, curious of what will happen next. “Doubt” creates a lot of different opinions and perspectives, and raises a lot of important discussions. You see that values play a big part in the way that we think, and the way that we see others. It blocks our perspective on people, and makes things seem very one-sided, in order to live life to it’s fullest potential you need to not just look at your own beliefs but others as well. It creates doubt in readers’ minds whether or not Father Flynn is guilty by showing us different sides of characters and making us feel uncertain about our beliefs.

As regards the delineation of the characters on stage and outside, the spectator is invited to pay attention to what is said and what is left unsaid, to what is revealed consciously or what is betrayed by the delivery of each of them, their gestures whether coordinately or impulsively performed.

All the colors in the scene have an earthy tone, meaning there is a lot of browns, dark greens and yellows. This works because they’re supposed to be at a boy scout camp, and are learning to be experts in the

Color being one element, was really used in the film helped and played a major role to help the viewer see the obscurity and wickedness that lied within all of the characters. The colors were used to also manipulate the way your mood fluctuated throughout the movie. Another strong element used was the set design. The set was used to show what time period the movie was set in, but also where the Mafia was mainly located throughout the movie. The dialogue furthermore showed and helped the viewer really get the feel of where the characters are from, and their culture. The costumes additionally played a major role in showing where the characters were from in the movie. The costumes helped audiences get the full ambiance of the time period and moods of the characters. Also, there are many scenes in the movie that make you anxious and on the edge of your seat. A specific example would be the scene of the shooting of Sollozo and Mcclusky. This scene makes you question many things and you do not know what is happening when Sollozo is speaking in Italian, which just adds suspense to the viewer’s emotions. The camera pans out of Michael’s face and then, BOOM! Sollozo and Mcclusky are dead. This is just one of the scenes that kept you in the verge of your seat and through all of these elements, there was a permutation that worked in harmony to make