However, in a radical twist, we find that Teddy is himself a patient at the asylum. He suffers from Delusional Disorder, creating a false world to escape the dark reality of his past.
Only Teddy is not a real person but a delusion created by inmate Andrew Laeddis. The ending of “Shutter Island” reveals that DiCaprio's character is a patient himself, committed to the Shutter Island facility after murdering his wife (Michelle Williams) because she went insane and killed their children.
The ending of Shutter Island seems ambiguous to many people, but on second viewing, it's pretty clear-cut. Teddy wakes up to the reality that he is actually Andrew Laeddis, though he is warned by Dr. Cawley and Dr. Sheehan that he has regressed into his fantasy world before.
Was Cawley really drugging Teddy in Shutter Island?
Cawley denies that he has drugged Teddy, and explains that Teddy is experiencing withdrawal symptoms from the anti-psychotic medication that he has been taking for the last two years. Cawley explains that Teddy is in fact Andrew Laeddis, the most dangerous patient in Ward C.
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.
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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. It turns out that Dolores drowned their three children.
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.
When Teddy dreams about Laeddis, Laeddis sits beside the fire in an armchair. Teddy's version of Laeddis; a scarred and disfigured man, then lights a match and proceeds to light Teddy's cigarette. This act of Teddy accepting the light from Laeddis is symbolic of Teddy accepting this fantasy as reality.
The title comes from his delusion and his masculinity problems. Teddy doesn't want to face what he did or be vulnerable by allowing his doctors to help him, so he creates another identity that allows him to feel powerful and in control of his life.
Why does Leonardo DiCaprio have a bandaid in Shutter Island?
It is unclear why he wears the band-aid, but it stays with him until nearly the end of the film. He only gets rid of it while taking a shower after John Cawley informs him that he actually showed up on the island alone.
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.
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.
It turns out that Andrew is actually an inmate at Ashecliffe, and that the film's events up until this point — Cawley's allowing Andrew to play the role of Teddy — were designed to cure his insanity that stemmed from murdering his depressed wife after she drowned their children at their lake house.
Was Andrew faking it at the end of Shutter Island?
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.
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.
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.
In this thriller, Lehane created a fictitious hospital island with nefarious happenings. Though the later film used Peddocks Island as the backdrop, Lehane's true inspiration likely comes from other islands that have long histories in institutions and social services, such as Rainsford Island and Long Island.
He then reveals that Teddy's real name is Andrew Laeddis (Teddy's full name being an anagram of Andrew's). Andrew was imprisoned on the island after he murdered his wife Dolores (her name is an anagram of Rachel Solando), who drowned their three children while suffering from manic depression.
In the story told that Andrew is a veteran U.S marshal in World War II who became getting a mental disorder because he has some traumatic events after the war in Dachau. There were some main events those to be traumatic and brought him to indicated his schizophrenia symptoms and became delusional acute.
Water in the film is used in opposition to fire, it is used to represent Teddy's sanity, the truth, reality. Water in this case often gets in Teddy's way of finding the truth. The truth of what is going on, what Teddy is really looking for.
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.
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."
Teddy comes to terms with reality and accepts that he killed his wife and only served as a US Marshal in the past. At the end, he recovers, but fakes his insanity in order to be lobotomized.
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.
The ending reveals that Teddy's partner "Chuck" is actually his doctor, Lester Sheehan. As part of the roleplaying exercise, Sheehan pretends to be Teddy's partner so the former can keep an eye on him.
