Shutter Island is essentially about Andrew falling into a delusion that he is a better man who didn't kill his wife and that his time on the earth has meaning because he's looking for a way to avenge her rather than live with the guilt of having killed her.
Shutter Island forces its characters — and viewers — to question what is real and what is imagined, but even more importantly, it raises the question of what it truly means to be insane. Is it a mental imbalance? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?
In that respect, Shutter Island is a complex study of grief and trauma, and the lengths the human mind will go to in order to medicate itself from harsh reality. Guilt and hurt are what cause Andrew to invent a secondary persona — one in which he is still a war hero and a federal Marshal named Teddy Daniels.
In 1954, U.S. Marshal Edward "Teddy" Daniels and his new partner Chuck Aule travel to Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane on Shutter Island, Boston Harbor, to investigate the disappearance of Rachel Solando, a patient of the hospital who had previously drowned her three children.
It is complicated and has several possible avenues of plot (and you can't tell what is really going on with all those avenues presented) but that is what makes it a mystery. Once you get to the end you understand what happened and confusion floats away.
SHUTTER ISLAND Breakdown | Ending Explained, Easter Eggs, Hidden Details & Things You Missed
Is there a mistake in Shutter Island?
Revealing mistakes
Obvious green screen images when Teddy and Warden are in a jeep coming back from the hidden cave. Obvious green screen images when on the ferry boat and when entering the island on a jeep passing in front of several buildings.
To keep quiet for the sake of all those he could still save if the results of the roleplay are a success. "Shhh. Keep quiet. You can't run from what you've done, but that's okay."
During the ending scene, Andrew and Dr. Sheehan sit down on some steps for a smoke. Andrew was just told that he had made up his entire identity as US Marshal Edward "Teddy" Daniels in order to escape from the reality that he had killed his wife. Andrew, in short, had realized who he really is.
Some believe that the Rachel Solando in the cave was real; others believe that she was a figment of Teddy's imagination. It is possible that he fabricated the Rachel Solando in the cave, because what she says was everything he wanted to hear, which gives him a reason to find everyone suspicious on Shutter Island.
Shutter Island is a film that shows so many evidences of hallucination experienced by the main character, Teddy Daniels. Teddy Daniels had bad experiences in the past which lead him to change his identity in order to forget his past.
This condition make him always has hallucination and has delusional acute which is identified as the schizophrenia symptoms. created a new identity as Edward Teddy Daniel who as a detective that come to shutter island with the big mission to find the patient number 67.
Climax: Teddy/Andrew finally remembers that his wife burned their apartment and drowned their three children—and that he shot her. Climactic Moment: Teddy/Andrew speaks to “Chuck” in ambiguous terms that seem to indicate he has relapsed into his delusions—which leaves no other option for him than a lobotomy.
Water, on the other hand, represents the reality of what happened to his wife and children. This is why Andrew/Teddy has a consistent aversion to water throughout the film. Using cinematography in subtle ways, these symbols are present throughout the film to allude to the fact that Teddy is living in a dream world.
Dolores Laediss (née Chanal), also known as Dolores Daniels and Rachel Solado, is the main antagonist of the 2010 psychological thriller film Shutter Island. She was the manic-depressive wife of Andrew Laediss/Teddy Daniels, who set their apartment on fire and eventually drowned their three children.
So, finding the cave, was in itself a manifestation of Teddy's own mind using "survival instincts" and the rats were most possibly, remnants of his past life during his days at the German Camp, where he may or may not have been a part of and witnessed mass shooting and the pile of the corpses laid alongside the path.
There is no Rachel Solando. There is no Chuck, at least as we see him. It's all a trick on the person we know as Teddy for the entirety of the story, right up until the end. Teddy, not the arsonist of his fantasy, was the one who killed his wife after she had drowned their three children.
In the end of "Shutter Island," it's revealed that the main character, Teddy Daniels, is actually Andrew Laeddis, a patient at the mental institution. He has been experiencing delusions and hallucinations, which were orchestrated by the staff to help him come to terms with the truth of his past.
Andrew created the Teddy persona as a result of his guilt for not helping his wife sooner, and the events of the film were all part of a role-play designed by Cawley to help Andrew accept reality. Chuck was in fact a hospital staff member called Dr. Lester Sheehan, and a nurse played the role of Rachel Soldano.
He explains that Andrew Laeddis is an anagram of Edward Daniels and that he murdered his wife, Dolores Chanal (an anagram of Rachel Solando), two years before after she drowned their three children during a manic episode. This is the answer of the code "the law of 4" and Laeddis is the 67th patient at Ashecliffe.
What did George tell Teddy while they were in Ward C?
Teddy & Chuck get into building C. Teddy finds George Noyce, He tells Teddy that the only way he can save Noyce is to forget his wife and Laeddis. Noyce tells him that Laeddis is no longer in C building, but that they have taken him to the lighthouse, where they are planning to do a lobotomy on him.
Cawley explains that Teddy is actually Andrew Laeddis, their "most dangerous patient." He was sent to the island after murdering his manic-depressive wife, Dolores.
The quote suggests that Edward knows who he is now but is continuing to act as Teddy because he can't face murdering his wife. Edward is saying he would rather be lobotomized, which he is comparing to the death of his old self, than accept that he is really Edward and live his whole life knowing that he is a murderer.
Teddy begins to face reality when he meets the woman he believes is Rachel Solando. In the cave, she prods him to reflect on his time on the island, but he doesn't quite put the pieces together until he meets George Noyce in the lighthouse.
Why did he call him Teddy at the end of Shutter Island?
Instead he moved the family to the lake house where she tragically killed their children. Andrew then created the persona of Teddy out of guilt for not helping his wife, and Cawley designed a role-play around it an in attempt to get Andrew to accept reality.
What was wrong with Teddy's wife in Shutter Island?
Dolores was bipolar, and she killed her children during a moment of mental crisis. Dolores had been living with bipolar for quite a while in Shutter Island, and it turns out that Andrew refused to seek help for his wife, instead deciding to ignore her struggles even when she burned down their apartment.
