What makes you think? What makes you question? What makes you doubt? As demonstrated in Doubt, the smallest inklings and observations can form the basis of one's beliefs and actions. In this section appear quotes and bits of information that do not fit into any other section on this website but are intended to make you look at the complexity of the play in multiple ways. Here you will find quotes not only from Doubt and Shanley but quotes discussing the thematic and cultural issues present within the play and Ball State's production. Hopefully these will get you thinking.
Quotes from Doubt
Preface (written by Shanley in Brooklyn, New York March 2005)
“What’s under a play? What holds it up? You might as well ask what’s under me? On what am I built? There’s something silent under every person and under every play. There is something silent under every person and under every play. There is something unsaid under any given society as well.”
“… deep down under the chatter we have come to a place where we know that we don’t know … anything. But nobody’s willing to say that.” “Let me ask you. Have you ever held a position in an argument past the point of comfort? Have you ever defended a way of life you were on the verge of exhausting? Have you ever given service to a creed you no longer utterly believed? Have you ever told a girl you loved her and felt the faint nausea of eroding conviction? I have. That’s an interesting moment. For a playwright, it’s the beginning of an idea. I saw a piece of real estate on which I might build a play, a play that sat on something silent in my life and in my time. I started with a title: Doubt.” “… It is Doubt (so often experienced initially as weakness) that changes things.” “The play. I’ve set my story in 1964, when not just me but the whole world seemed to be going through some kind of vast puberty. The old ways were still dominant in behavior, dress, morality, world view, but what had been organic expression had become a dead mask. I was in a Catholic church school in the Bronx, run by the Sisters of Charity. These women dressed in black, believed in Hell, obeyed their male counterparts, and educated us. The faith, which held us together, went beyond the precincts of religion. It was a shared dream we agreed to call Reality. We didn’t know it, but we had a deal, a social contract. We would all believe the same thing. We would all believe.” “Doubt requires more courage than conviction does, and more energy; because conversation is a resting place and doubt is infinite – it is a passionate exercise. You may come out of my play uncertain. You may want to live with a full measure of uncertainty. There is no last word. That’s the silence under the chatter of our time.” |
2. What parts of the preface are present within the play? 3. Do you think Shanley's preface is specific to any of the characters or compliant with their beliefs? 4. How is the preface represented in Ball State's production? 5. Though written in 2005, do you believe the preface is an accurate to today? The 1960s? |
Before the Play
"The bad sleep well."
--Title of Kurosawa film "In much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." --Ecclesiates "Everything that is hard to attain is easily assailed by the mob." --Ptolemy |
2. What parts of these quotes connect to the characters and the journey each one of them takes during the play? |
Scene 1
"It was a time of people sitting together, bound together by a common feeling of helplessness. But think of that! Your bond was your despair. It was a public experience, shared by everyone in our society. It was awful, but we were in it together!"
--Father Flynn |
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"Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty. When you are lost, you are not alone."
--Father Flynn |
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Scene 2
"Always the easy way out these days. What does that teach? Every easy choice today will have its consequences tomorrow." -- Sister Aloysius |
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Scene 3
"Now the thing about shooting from the foul line: It's psychological. The rest of the game you're cooperating against your teammates, you're competing against the other team. But at the foul line, it's you against yourself."
--Father Flynn |
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Scene 4
"When you take a step to address wrongdoing, you are taking a step away from God, but in His service. Dealing with such matters is hard and thankless work."
--Sister Aloysius |
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"If I could, Sister James, I would certainly choose to live in innocence. But innocence can only be wisdom in a world without evil."
--Sister Aloysius |
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Scene 7
"What actually happens in life is beyond interpretation. The truth makes for a bad sermon. It tends to be confusing and have no clear conclusion."
--Father Flynn "Children need warmth, kindness, understanding! What does she give them? Rules, That black boy needs a helping hand or he's not going to make it here! But if she has her way, he'll be left to his own undoing. Why do you think he was in the sacristy drinking wine that day? He's in trouble! She sees me talk in a human way to these children and she immediately assumes there must be something wrong with it. Something dirty. Well, I'm not going to let her keep this parish in the Dark Ages! And I'm not going to let her destroy my spirit of compassion!"
--Father Flynn |
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Scene 9
"In the pursuit of wrongdoing, one steps away from God. Of course there's a price."
-Sister Aloysius |
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Modern Views of Catholic African Americans
"To be black and Catholic is often to be discounted and devalued, usually deemed irrelevant and insignificant, repeatably trivialized and patronized, habitually overlooked and ignored, infrequently endorsed and celebrated, sometimes supported and embraced, but seldom fully appreciated, valued and welcomed at the table." --Fr. Bryan Massingale, professor at St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee and the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University, from "Black Catholics: Life in a 'Chilly Church' " |
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