Shutter Island Essay

In the movie Shutter Island, Leonardo DiCaprio is portrayed as a U.S. Marshal brought to Ashecliffe to investigate the disappearance of a patient but it is later brought to his attention that he is in fact a patient at Ashecliffe. DiCaprio, also known as Teddy Daniels or Andrew Laeddis is haunted by a horrible past that has caused psychological problems to develop and surface. Throughout the movie, DiCaprio’s character is constantly affecting the people around him in a harmful way due to his illness. He also conjures up stories and has delusions so that he does not have to deal with the truth about his life and what he had done in his past. Lastly, he does come to the realization of the truth but it does not last long and all of his progresses regresses.

Someone watching this movie would not find out until close to the end that Teddy/Andrew went through things in his past that could have triggered these psychological problems. In the movie, we learn that he was a soldier during the Battle of Normandy and invaded a death camp but found it was too late to safe many people’s lives. He and his unit executed many German soldiers at this camp. We also learn that Teddy comes home to his wife one afternoon after work and he discovers that his wife has murdered their children in the lake behind their house. Upon seeing his children floating face down in the water he rushes in and brings them back to the yard but it is already too late to save them. Dolores asks her husband to bring the children into their home so they can become dolls to play with and Teddy takes it into his own hands to kill his wife for killing their children.

Much of the movie is about how DiCaprio’s character affects other people. He goes to all measures to get to t...

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...t his life from himself. Lastly, when Teddy finally does realize the truth he quickly loses all his progress and forgets everything. Throughout the movie, it seemed as though Teddy was a normal guy until the end of the movie where he ends up to an actual patient at Ashecliffe and the majority of the movie was his delusions. “[Teddy’s patient file stated] patient is highly intelligent. Highly delusional. Decorated army veteran. Present for the liber...liberation of Dachau. Former U.S. Marshal. Known proclivity for violence. Shows no remorse for his crime because he denies the crime ever...ever took place. Highly developed and fantasical narratives which preclude facing the truth of his actions.” (Scorsese, 2010).

Works Cited

Lahey, B. (2012). Psycology: An introduction. (11 ed., p. 480). New Youk: McGraw-Hill.

Scorsese, M. (Director) (2010). Shutter island [DVD].