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John Patrick Shanley's Doubt

Decent Essays

Douglas Light said that our imagination is better than any answer to a question. Light distinguished between two genres: fantasy from fiction. He described how fantasy stimulates one’s imagination, which is more appealing, but fiction can just be a relatable story. In the same way, Books and movies are very different entities. In the short parable Doubt, the readers are lured in to the possibility of a scandalous relationship between a pastor and an alter boy. The readers’ curiosity is ignited because they are not given all the details. Therefore, their mind wanders further than the plot to create a story and characters that acted on one’s imagination; thus, the story became entertaining- flooded by the questions of what? Who? How? By …show more content…

In fact, all the details within the play stimulated one’s imagination to create something that was never stated in writing. In no part of the play does it outright say that Father Flynn had any encounter with the alter boys other than during basketball practice and his apparent close friendship with Donald Muller. Yet, through the reader’s imagination, they assume scandalous scenarios between the Donald Muller and Father Flynn while still curious about what the truth is. The viewer was in constant “doubt,” of both characters’ intentions and motives. The parable is filled with indirect notions, assumptions, and gossiping. So why is this specific parable so entertaining? Its simple- the reader used their imagination to piece together a relationship that at multiple times in the play cause them to doubt their own beliefs and consider the opposing possibilities. The play let you feel everything, know everything and live vicariously through the characters. With the play, you can Sister Aloysius, Father Flynn, or even Donald Muller; however, with the movie you are merely an observer.

Books allow you to make up parts of the story(visuals and what people are like) while movies are more direct telling you what to see.

The play involved more character devolement, so the reader was able to learn the

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