During the first act of Molly
Sweeney the characters all had hopes, they all were wondering, “what if?”
What if Molly’s operation works? What if it doesn’t? All the characters were
curious as to what would happen during Molly’s operation and after. Molly’s
sight would change all of their lives in a way that they could only imagine.
The second act takes on a whole other set of what if questions, specifically
for Molly when she should be asking herself at the end; what if I was wrong to
do the operation?
In Doubt the question remains the same,
however the question is explored at different times by different characters.
Sister James constantly asked the question, flip-flopping between Father Flynn
and Sister Aloysius; What if she’s right? What if he’s right? Sister James
could hardly make up her mind, and when she did she only chose Father Flynn’s
side because she had a naïvety about her
that was shown through her innocent judgments and innocent facial expressions.
Sister Aloysius calls her inexperienced by claiming that she typically has her “more
experienced teachers teach 8th grade,” when Sister Aloysius goes to
inspect Sister James’ room. Sister Aloysius even has her own what if statement,
only hers doesn’t surface until the end of the movie when she states that she
has doubt. Her what if statement would be; what if I was wrong about Father
Flynn?
Both Molly and Sister Aloysius had what if statements at the
wrong time, after the fact. Both of the leading women were so aggressive in
their pursuits, but struggled to comprehend what they had actually done once it
was over. Both of their worlds crumbled under them by the end of their stories.
However, Molly seems to have built a whole new world for her by the end of her
story.
In Molly’s last monologue she talks of her life months after
the operation and how she lives in the same hospital her mom stayed in. She
speaks of visits made by her mother, father and even Dr. Rice. Her reality is
clearly blurred with fantasy seeing as how both her mother and father are
deceased. Molly realizes this as well with her last paragraph:
“I think I see
nothing at all now. But I am not absolutely sure of that. Anyhow my borderline
country is where I live now. I’m at home there. Well…at ease there. It
certainly doesn’t worry me any more that what I think I see may be fantasy or
indeed what I take to be imagined may very well be real – what’s Frank’s term? –
external reality. Real – imagined – fact – fiction – fantasy – reality – there it
seems to be. And it seems to be alright. And why should I question any of it
any more?” (57)
Molly questions
the very world she lives in now. It’s an inbetween world that she has had to
make up, not belonging to the sighted world or the blinded. The world she knew
of the blinded is lost to her, an exile of what she has always known. The sighted
world rejected her, if not she surely rejected it. Although she has come to
terms with it to some extent by the end of the play, it took a while to get
there. She struggled with the fainting spells, anxiety attacks,
blindsightedness, and dealing with Frank’s darn engrams. Molly had to end up in
the same hospital that her mother went to for her nerves. The things she knows she doesn’t truly know. She has a life
between fact and fiction, just as she says above.
Sister Aloysius
knows what that feels like as well. Sister Aloysius doesn’t struggle as Molly
does throughout the movie. The audience sees Sister’s road to confusion and
doubt. To get there, Aloysius is strong-willed and aggressive as Molly was when
Molly lived in a world she knew. Aloysius takes what she believes is certainty and relates it to fact. When
Father Flynn and Aloysius have their final encounter Aloysius screams at him
after he claims she has no proof, “But I have my certainty.” This certainty
melts away once some time has passed.
When Sister
James comes home from visiting her family she finds Aloysius on a bench
outside. They speak of the incident and Aloysius finally voices her concern that
she has doubts. Doubts about what she has done and doubts on whether she was
right or not regarding Father Flynn.
This
is the shot where Aloysius confesses to James about her doubts. Throughout the
movie she was resilient and forceful. She did not let up on anyone she always
struck full force. With this attitude she always held a stick-straight back and
a posture that says “don’t get on my bad side.” She conducted herself to show
who was the boss, but looking at this shot no one would guess that. Right
before she breaks down she suggests, quite ambiguously, to Sister James that
she (Aloysius) pays or will pay consequences; possibly that she will go to hell
and to make James understand she then grabs her cross. At this moment is where
she diminishes; crumpled (literally) from the weight of her doubts. Her face
one the audience has never seen before, vulnerability by crying in front of
someone else openly. Her hunched forward posture though, gives way to another
image; the one of the Virgin Mary. There in the back, behind and above Aloysius
is the Virgin Mary. She looks down upon Aloysius a symbol of purity with her
arms open. The Virgin Mary looks as if she is holding Aloysius up with her
hands open around Aloysius’ head. She looks encouraging.
Aloysius’
world is breaking, but the best hope for her is to find an in-between as Molly
found, somewhere in the middle where she can become at ease. Aloysius feels
lost, she is looking for guidance and support by one of the youngest sisters of
the parish, who she has looked down upon the whole movie for the beliefs James
has held. The world Aloysius creates must be one filled with doubts, because
her certainty is the thing that leads her to breaking. Just like Molly, Sister
Aloysius’ world is rocky between what she believed to be true and what she thinks
could be false, a rocky edge of fact and fiction that can be brought back to
what if.
