Shutter Island

Cawley has invited Teddy and Chuck to his house, and when the marshals arrive, they realize another of Cawley’s colleagues is also in attendance. Dr. Jeremiah Naehring is the chief liaison to Asheville Hospital’s board of overseers, and Cawley has invited him to meet the marshals and further discuss Rachel’s case.

When Teddy asks for a soda and water, Naehring asks why Teddy does not drink. Teddy deflects Naehring’s questions and the doctor compliments his evasiveness, but when Naehring remarks that he is “‘fascinated by men of violence,’” the comment hits home (77). Naehring’s offhanded statement, coupled with the classical music Cawley has put on for the evening, remind Teddy of the liberation of Dachau. He remembers walking into the office of a Nazi subcommandant who had shot himself in the mouth but was still alive. The man had been clutching a picture of his family, but “Teddy took it away from him” and watched the Nazi grasp for it until he died (76).

Naehring continues to psychoanalyze Teddy and Chuck. He asks them whether they were schoolyard brawlers—they were—before correctly guessing that both men had lost their fathers at a young age. Frustrated with the doctor’s analyses, Teddy pushes once again for the hospital’s personnel files. Naehring refuses to turn them over, and Teddy responds by calling off the investigation. He tells the doctors they will leave in the morning and file reports when they return to the mainland, but otherwise, their work on Shutter Island is done.

Teddy and Chuck return to their bunks where they play poker with a few of the orderlies before going to bed. Teddy wins some cigarettes, but Chuck cleans the table because he can read each player’s tell, including Teddy’s. Before the marshals go to sleep, however, Chuck asks Teddy whether they are really leaving the island with the Solando disappearance unsolved. Teddy does not give a definitive answer, but he tells Chuck that they “‘haven’t heard the truth once’” and have no leverage “‘to make these people talk’” (85). Chuck calls Teddy’s bluff before the two drift to sleep. 

That night, Teddy dreams of Dolores. When he sees her, she is angrily waving an empty whisky bottle at him, asking him if he is ever sober anymore. Teddy notices her back is charred, but by the time he reaches her at the living room window, she’s become soaking wet. Teddy asks her what she has done and why she is wet, but Dolores’ only response is to keep staring out the window. Teddy suddenly realizes they are not in their apartment, as he imagined; instead, they are in a cabin they stayed in once that had a small pond and a gazebo in the backyard. He and Dolores are looking at “small logs floating” in the pond, and Teddy “notices how smooth they are, turning almost imperceptibly” in the moonlight (88).

Dolores asks Teddy if he drinks because of all the people he killed in the war before abruptly telling him that Rachel is still on the island. She tells Teddy he cannot leave the island, but Teddy thinks she means that she does not want him to leave her behind. Teddy wraps his arms around her in a desperate attempt to keep her with him, but a hole appears in Dolores’ stomach and water starts pouring out. Teddy begins crying and begs Dolores not to go, telling her he needs to hold her just a little longer (89). Teddy “holds her and holds her” until he wakes up and realizes once again that Dolores is gone (89).

Teddy is emotionally hungover from his dream, and he cannot help but wonder if “this was the day that missing her would finally be too much for him” (90). But he instead turns his attention to Rachel’s code, and by the time Chuck wakes up a few hours later, Teddy has it solved.