Themes & Conflicts to Consider in PROOF

It would be safe to focus on the following ideas in preparation of your FINAL EXAM:

CATHERINE - How does Catherine see herself as the play opens? How is her identity developed through the play? How does her father, sister, and Hal contribute to her notion that she is/is not insane? Is she more or less stable by the end of the drama? Why?

TITLE - In what way does the title PROOF refer to a mathematical proof, the concept of authentic scholarship and the proof that people seek to reassure themselves of the stability of their personal relationships? How do these all come to bear on the character of Catherine? In what way are the other characters involved?

GENIUS and INSANITY - What determines genius? What is the difference between the way a genius sees a problem or an idea and the way most of us see it? What is the difference between the way a person who is mentally unstable sees a problem/idea and the way most of us see it? Are most creative geniuses borderline (or fully) mentally or emotionally unstable? What does the evidence in the play seem to suggest?

THE IMPORTANCE OF HEREDITY - Are people "fated" to follow in the path of parents? Specifically, is Catherine likely, as she fears in the opening scene, of becoming "nuts" like her father? How has tending to her father the last three years effected Catherine? Has there been a positive outcome of caring for Robert?

SIBLINGS - In what way(s) are Catherine and Claire similar? Different? Where has Claire been? Why has she not helped Catherine care for their father? What is the first thing Claire does when she arrives home? What is Catherine's response? How does this simple act indicate the relationship between the two sisters?

OUTSIDERS - Into the play concerning family, there appears an outsider: HAL. What role does Hal play in the drama? What is his function? How does his involvement with Catherine impact on Claire as well? What IS Hal's motive? Is he genuine or is he motivated by self-interest? How do you know?

Written Assignment for DOUBT - due April 21

Choose ANY 2 of the following questions and answer each in ONE page; use a clear, definite topic sentence and support from the drama:

1. "Doubt" begins with a parable. In the course of a sermon (also called a homily), Father Flynn tells the story of a man who is lost at sea and clinging to the hope that he has set the correct course for home. What happens to the man? Father Flynn doesn’t say, and thus, the play begins on a note of doubt. In what way does the play END on a note of doubt as well?

2. In the “Preface,” Shanley criticizes the fact that “we are living in a culture of extreme advocacy, of confrontation, of judgment, and of verdict.” In what sense might the play itself be considered an attempt to remedy this cultural trend. Provide examples to support your stance.

3. The play’s preface ends with the statement that “The beginning of change is the moment of Doubt. It is the crucial moment when I renew my humanity or become a lie. Doubt requires more courage than conviction does.” Why would Shanley celebrate uncertainty? What does uncertainty give us that certainty cannot?

4. Why does Sister Aloysius favor fountain pens that must be dipped in ink rather than ballpoint pens? How are these two modes of writing symbolic? Why is penmanship important? What does it suggest?

Selected Questions on DOUBT

1. The subtitle of "Doubt" is "A Parable." Parables are very simple stories in which
a character must face a choice and accept the consequences of that decision. In other words, a parable is a brief, realistic story that illustrates a moral or ethical choice. In some parables, the main character, or protagonist, makes the right choice, and in others, he or she takes the wrong path. Parables are metaphors; they make their point indirectly.

2. Father Flynn argues that skepticism can provide a sense of community that is every bit as nourishing as faith. Indeed, he ends his first sermon by saying, “Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty.” Do you agree or disagree? Support your answer with examples from the play and/or personal experience.

3. "Doubt" begins with a parable. In the course of a sermon (also called a homily), Father Flynn tells the story of a man who is lost at sea and clinging to the hope that he has set the correct course for home. What happens to the man? Father Flynn doesn’t say, and thus, the play begins on a note of doubt. In what way does the play END on a note of doubt as well?

4. In the “Preface,” Shanley criticizes the fact that “we are living in a culture of extreme advocacy, of confrontation, of judgment, and of verdict.” In what sense might the play itself be considered an attempt to remedy this cultural trend. Provide examples to support your stance.

5. The play’s preface ends with the statement that “The beginning of change is the moment of Doubt. It is the crucial moment when I renew my humanity or become a lie. Doubt requires more courage than conviction does.” Why would Shanley celebrate uncertainty? What does uncertainty give us that certainty cannot?

6. Why does Sister Aloysius favor fountain pens that must be dipped in ink rather than ballpoint pens? How are these two modes of writing symbolic? Why is penmanship important? What does it suggest?

7. What specific evidence does Sister Aloysius have to support her conviction that Father Flynn behaved inappropriately with Donald? How does Sister Aloyisius go about gathering her proof? What is her view on truth? Father Flynn reminds Sister Aloyisius that “even if you feel certainty, it is an emotion and not a fact.” What is your view on truth? Do you believe in absolute truth or relative truth?
8. Sister Aloyisius points out that the gardener “pruned this bush, which was the right thing to do, but he neglected to protect it from the frost.” How does this statement apply to sister Aloyisius’ own attempts to protect her students? Why is the action of pruning symbolic?
9. One of the principles of our legal system is that one is innocent until proven guilty. Does Sister Aloyisius abide by this? Should she? What is more dangerous in this situation: presuming innocence or presuming guilt?

WRITING PROMPTS FOR Doubt

#1

Which people or events have shaped your world view? Have you become disillusioned in any way? How do you feel about that? Write a brief paragraph about a person or event that caused you to reevaluate your concept of how the world works. Use examples.

#2

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence, and then identify how you know the answers. Are you relying on direct observation? Intuition? Heresay? Other sources? Why are you so sure about the answer? Or are you uncertain?

What color are your mother's eyes?

Whom do you trust?

What color is the ocean?

Is there life after death?

Is it always wrong to steal?

Is there life on other planets?

Opening Discussion for Mon., April 12

The Parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant

"Once upon a time there was a certain raja who called to his servant and said, 'Come, good fellow, go and gather together in one place all the men of Savatthi who were born blind... and show them an elephant.' 'Very good, sire,' replied the servant, and he did as he was told. He said to the blind men assembled there, 'Here is an elephant,' and to one man he presented the head of the elephant, to another its ears, to another a tusk, to another the trunk, the foot, back, tail, and tuft of the tail, saying to each one that that was the elephant.
"When the blind men had felt the elephant, the raja went to each of them and said to each, 'Well, blind man, have you seen the elephant? Tell me, what sort of thing is an elephant?'
"Thereupon the men who were presented with the head answered, 'Sire, an elephant is like a pot.' And the men who had observed the ear replied, 'An elephant is like a winnowing basket.' Those who had been presented with a tusk said it was a ploughshare. Those who knew only the trunk said it was a plough; others said the body was a grainery; the foot, a pillar; the back, a mortar; the tail, a pestle, the tuft of the tail, a brush.
"Then they began to quarrel, shouting, 'Yes it is!' 'No, it is not!' 'An elephant is not that!' 'Yes, it's like that!' and so on, till they came to blows over the matter.
"Brethren, the raja was delighted with the scene.
"Just so are these preachers and scholars holding various views blind and unseeing.... In their ignorance they are by nature quarrelsome, wrangling, and disputatious, each maintaining reality is thus and thus."

What was the lesson—or as Mitch Sanders would say, the moral of the story?

Discussion for the Week of April 12

Doubt: A Parable by John Patrick Shanley

(Just as The Things They Carried was about how people react to the “heart under pressure” more than it was war, Doubt is not so much about the characters in the drama and their situation as it is about all people and the natural inclination we have to complacency--and reluctance to change.)


What is a parable?
Note that many cultures have used parables as a way to teach.

In the Preface, Shanley suggests that our society is now a “courtroom culture.” What does he mean by this?

What hazard exists “in a culture of extreme advocacy, of confrontation, of judgment, and of verdict,” according to Shanley?

According to the Preface, what benefit is produced by doubt? (Consider this interpretation and the uncertainty of Sister Aloysisus at the end of the drama.)

Explain what Shanley means when he declares that, “Doubt requires more courage than conviction does, and more energy; because conviction is a resting place and doubt is infinite--it is a passionate exercise.”
Compare and contrast Sisters Aloysisus and James in regard to their attitude toward students, teaching, and their role in the school and the classroom.

What are the two parables that Father Flynn tells?
What is the “lesson” in each? Is the lesson literal or does it suggest something else?

What strong indications are there that Sister Aloysisus is mired in the past, as a rigid disciplinarian?

How does the talk Sister James has with Sister Aloysisus early in the drama affect Sister James? Why? How does this change by the end of the play?

Poets & Poems for Consideration

Robert Hayden – Those Winter Sundays
Elizabeth Bishop – Manners
Randall Jarrell – Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
Alice Walker - I Said to Poetry
Stevie Smith – Not Waving But Drowning
Judith Ortiz Cofer – Latin Women Pray
Wilfred Owen – Dulce et Decorum Est
Charles Simic – To the One Upstairs
Robert Frost – Acquainted With the Night
Robert Frost – An Old Man’s Winter Night
Jane Kenyon – Surprise
Jane Kenyon – Otherwise
Galway Kinnell – Blackberry Eating
William Wordsworth – My Heart Leaps Up
A. E. Housman – When I was one-and-twenty
Carl Sandburg – Chicago
Theodore Roethke – My Papa’s Waltz
Dylan Thomas – Do not go gentle into that good night
Amy Lowell – Patterns
W.H. Auden – The Unknown Citizen
Paul Laurence Dunbar – We Wear the Masks
Paul Laurence Dunbar – I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Theordore Roethke – Elegy for Jane
Robert Frost – Out, Out—
Robert Frost – Birches
Langston Hughes – Theme for English B
Langston Hughes – Mother to Son