*Spoiler Alert*
Shutter Island is an American psychological thriller directed by Martin Scorsese in 2010 and is based on Dennis Lehane's 2003 novel of the same name. The film follows the US Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner (Mark Ruffalo) investigating the escape of a patient at Ashecliffe Hospital, an insane asylum located on a remote island. At first glance this film just seems like a mystery of the escape of the patient Rachel Solando, however, it turns out we uncover along with Teddy Daniels the truth behind his dark fears.
I will be analysing the film and all of the hidden meanings and details that may not be spotted during your first watch. I will also be explaining my understanding of the films ending and the meaning of the final line: "which would be worse to live as a monster or to die as a good man?" which brought about a lot of confusion of what it meant about the mental stability of Teddy Daniels.
Throughout the film we follow the character of Teddy Daniels trying to uncover the truth behind Ashecliffe hospital and the secret lobotomies that he believes to be taking place. However, we learn that Teddy (Edward) Daniels real name is Andrew Laeddis (an anagram of his name). Andrew Laeddis suffered a mental breakdown after the death of his three children due to his wife's insanity which led him to kill his wife Dolores (Michelle Williams). Andrew was unable to live in the reality that his family is dead and that it is his fault; this is due to the fact that Andrew would come home from work and drink, never seeing the signs that Dolores was mentally ill. This is shown in a flashback scene when Dolores burns down their apartment in a suicide attempt, instead of Andrew admitting to himself the signs of her instability he moves the family to a Lake House. One afternoon when he comes home from work he sees Dolores all wet, and as he looks at the lake he sees his 3 children floating in the water, as he runs to them and picks them up it is clear that he was too late and they are dead. When Andrew realises Dolores killed them (thinking that she was saving them) he shoots her, killing her and losing his whole family. This scene was the most disturbing to watch out of the whole film, presenting the pain that Andrew has gone through and the guilt that he feels. This leads him to suppress his emotions and memories as he is unable to deal with his reality so he creates a complete new personality that of Teddy Daniels due to his dissociative identity disorder. Andrew gets sent to Ashecliffe Hospital where he was a patient for two years, and the doctors tried to get him to remember what happened and come to terms with it.
Teddy Daniels is part of Andrew's fantasy that he constructed in his mind to come to terms with his family's death and his guilt. Andrew creates new roles for all the hospital staff giving them a new part in his fantasy narrative. Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) believes that role playing is a way of getting Andrew to remember what happened, so he stages an elaborate roleplay as one final attempt to breakthrough into Andrew's subconscious, getting all the hospital staff to play along. This was Cawley's attempt to prove to Teddy that his fantasy is fake leading him to face his past.
Even as the persona of Teddy, Andrew blocks specific things that he relates to his family's death- water and fire. With his fear of water, we first see Teddy throwing up on his boat ride onto the island; this fear of water occurs due to his children being drowned by his wife. In a later scene, Teddy and his partner Chuck are interrogating some patients and a blocking of reality occurs when the patient asks Chuck for a glass of water and it disappears from her hand. This presents how much Andrew cannot stand the sight of water, removing it from his memory like he removed his children's death. Andrew/Teddy overcomes his fear of water towards the end when he swims to the lighthouse to uncover the truth, illustrating that he is slowly overcoming his fears. Andrew has a fear of fire because of his wife's suicide attempt by setting their apartment on fire; up to a point in the film Teddy never directly interacts with fire, having other people light his cigarettes for him. In a later scene we see Teddy lighting a match himself, presenting that he is confronting and learning to control his fear. Andrew gets over his phobia of fire by creating a distraction when escaping to the lighthouse by setting a car on fire, illustrating that the role play scenario is allowing him to come to terms subconsciously.
In the lighthouse Dr Cawley is waiting for Teddy and explains to him the truth that he has been a patient here for two years and that if they don't have a breakthrough now this style of treatment will be a failure and they will have to lobotomise him. Cawley also explains the meaning behind the note that was found earlier on in the film ("the law of 4. who is 67?"), the law of 4 being the fictional and real life people in Andrew's memory- Edward Daniels being Andrew Laeddis and Rachel Solando being Dolores Chanel (another anagram), and that the 67th patient is himself. This presents the confusion between fact and fiction in Andrew's mind which is finally proven to himself when he shoots Cawley and it creates an exit wound in his fantasy, however in reality the gun is just a toy which crumbles to pieces. Cawley shows Andrew pictures of his dead children, and the picture of his daughter (called Rachel) affects him the most leading him to become overwhelmed and collapse. We learn that the experiment was able to bring him back to reality and he admits what he has done and his guilt for not getting his wife the help she needed, proving that the experiment worked. However the next day, still pretending to be his partner Chuck goes over to see if it continued to work and Andrew resorts back to his conspiracy talk suggesting that he has relapsed back into the Teddy persona. Chuck shakes his head at Dr Cawley, illustrating that it has failed and now he must be lobotomised.
One reason the ending of this film has caused much confusion is due to the final line said by Andrew in the film: "which would be worse to live as a monster or to die as a good man?". I would argue that this line indicates that the experiment did work and Andrew remembers what happened to his children and killing his wife. However, the side effect of remembering this is that he is forced to live with this guilt, which he can't bear. This leads Andrew to pretend the experiment did not work, knowing that he would be lobotomised which he sees as his form of suicide. In the end he decides to continue living his fantasy, choosing to die as a good man. This simple sentence changes what we perceive to happen at the end, as without this line we would believe that the experiment failed, however the line illustrates that he just couldn't live with the guilt of being a monster.