Rachel Solando

Not only does Teddy subconsciously acknowledge that he murdered his wife, he also recognizes deep down that his wife drowned his three children. However, because the memory is too painful to tolerate, his mind has transposed Dolores’ reality by projecting it onto Rachel Solando, the imaginary patient whom Teddy was supposedly investigating. For much of the book, Teddy is in denial that he and Dolores ever had children, “We were supposed to grow old together, Dolores. Have kids. Take walks under old trees” (Lehane 91). This thought implies that Teddy has clearly suppressed the existence of his offspring from memory. Rather than face the truth, he has developed the fictitious persona of Rachel Solando, whose name is not-so-coincidentally an anagram

Dr. Cawley especially hopes that by walking through the script that has been constantly replaying in Laeddis’ mind, he can help him recover his own grasp of reality. Dr. Cawley even goes as far as to assign other coworkers to play the fictional characters of Chuck Aule and Rachel Solando. Surprisingly, Dr. Cawley’s plan works and Andrew Laeddis momentarily wakes up from his never-ending dream world. After being punched in the face with the realization that Cawley is telling the truth, Laeddis begins to weep profusely. He verbally admits to who he is and why he has been institutionalized. When Dr. Cawley asks him why he invented Rachel Solando, Laeddis’ response is, “’Because I can’t take knowing that I let my wife kill my babies. I ignored all the signs. I tried to wish it away. I killed them because I didn’t get her some help’” (Lehane 365). Since he was overcome with grief and unable to cope with the guilt that he felt for not stopping Dolores from murdering their children, he temporarily erased the memory from his mind. Nevertheless, even though Dr. Cawley’s experiment seemingly works, the effects are only temporary. When Laeddis wakes up the following morning, he has sadly regressed back into Teddy and will receive a lobotomy after