Doubt: A Parable

Scene 3 is comprised of another short monologue by Father Flynn, who addresses his basketball students. He begins by discussing how they should approach shooting from the foul line. He cautions them that the danger is psychological, and advises them to come up with a small physical routine of shifting weight in order to avoid overthinking. He then speaks about the preponderance of dirty nails among the boys, asking them to keep their hands clean. Father Flynn, he says, had a childhood friend with dirty nails who, after putting his dirty fingers in his mouth, got spinal meningitis and died. “Sometimes it’s the little things that get you,” he says (16).

Sisters James and Aloysius meet in a garden. As they chat, Sister Aloysius reveals that she was married before becoming a nun, but that her husband died in World War II. Sister James, meanwhile, went straight into the convent. They speak about the distance between the convent and rectory, and Sister Aloysius describes Monsignor Benedict as “oblivious” and “otherworldly in the extreme” (19).

Sister Aloysius asks about the new student,