Shutter Island

At the beginning of Shutter Island, readers believe Andrew Laeddis to be an arsonist who set the fire that killed Dolores. And that is where readers’ knowledge of Laeddis begins and ends; there is very little explication of his character beyond the laundry list of his crimes. That is because Lehane uses Andrew Laeddis to position Teddy as the novel’s anti-hero. Like most anti-heroes, Teddy is not imperfect, and his motivations are sometimes questionable. But he also seems to be pushing toward admirable—or at least, justifiable—goals. At the beginning of the novel, Laeddis’ job is to give Teddy an enemy and reinforce Teddy’s position as the novel’s flawed protagonist.

That is, until Cawley reveals that Teddy is Andrew Laeddis. That revelation moves Laeddis from an external to an internal antagonist. Teddy has made Laeddis into his enemy in his delusion because he cannot cope with his actions. Laeddis’ horrific physical appearance represents Teddy’s self-perception. Laeddis represents the worst of himself, so he constructs the character of Teddy Daniels—not a perfect hero, but a hero nonetheless—to defeat the man who let his children die and killed his wife. On a psychological level, he hopes to subsume Laeddis, become Teddy, and free himself from his past. 

Dr. John Cawley is a well-respected psychotherapist, carried out classified missions in World War II, and is now the lead doctor at Ashecliffe Hospital. He and Teddy have a tense relationship during Teddy’s time on the island. At first, Teddy views Cawley with suspicion. They are able to find common ground around their shared military service and losing loved ones, but that changes as the novel goes on. Teddy thinks Cawley deliberately tries to stymy his investigation, and later, he believes Cawley wants to falsely accuse Teddy of insanity to protect the hospital’s research.

During the novel’s climax, readers learn Cawley has orchestrated Teddy’s whole experience on Shutter Island to try and help Teddy break from his delusion. Cawley lays out his case piece by piece: Teddy is actually Andrew Laeddis, and he killed his wife, Dolores, after she drowned their three children in a pond. But Cawley has another motivation beyond helping Teddy. As a psychotherapist, Cawley believes talk therapy is better than medicine or surgery when it comes to treating the mentally ill. He has staked his professional reputation on pulling Teddy from his delusion, but if he fails, Teddy will be lobotomized and everything Cawley has built at Ashecliffe will crumble. 

Lehane initially introduces Rachel Solando as a missing woman who murdered her children, but there are actually three versions of Rachel Solando in Shutter Island. The beautiful (but deranged) murderess is the first iteration of her character. The second time readers meet Rachel, she is a doctor who has fled Ashecliffe Hospital because she knows the truth about the doctors’ experiments. And the last iteration of Rachel Solando is Teddy’s wife, Dolores Chanal. As Cawley points out in the novel’s climax, Teddy constructs Rachel because he cannot deal with the fact that his wife murdered their children.

Most importantly, there is no real Rachel Solando at the end of Shutter Island. She is made and remade by Teddy’s delusions, but she never truly exists. Instead, Lehane uses Rachel as a metaphor for a discussion of the truth. While there may be such a thing as an objective truth, Shutter Island does not offer one. Lehane argues that what people call “truth” is often just a strong belief shaped by their own perspective. His book shows readers that the truth can be so hidden as to be undiscoverable. Consequently, Lehane uses Rachel’s character to argue that sometimes—no matter how hard one looks—the truth can never be known. 

Dolores Chanal is Teddy’s wife who allegedly died in an apartment fire set by Andrew Laeddis. The name “Dolores” comes from the Spanish word dolor, which means pain. Literally, “Dolores” translates to “sorrows,” and she lives up to her name in Shutter Island. Dolores becomes a source of pain for almost every major character in the novel. She kills her children in an act of literal pain and violence, and she asks Teddy to “‘free’” her by murdering her, which pushes Teddy into a mental break (362). She even becomes a source of pain for Cawley and Sheehan, who need Teddy to let her go, both for his own good and for the future of their psychotherapy practice.

Dolores’ character is also an excellent example of how perspective shapes the understanding of the truth. It is important to remember that the only image readers get of Dolores are from Teddy’s perspective. Since Dolores died two years before the events of Shutter Island take place, she only appears in Teddy’s memories and dreams. Teddy’s love for Dolores is sincere, deep, and powerful. One of the more poignant characterizations of Dolores comes from Teddy’s description of her on the night they met, where he paints the picture of an “‘outrageously pretty’” woman who seems nervous to be at the club (202).

Teddy’s perspective shifts at the end of Shutter Island. Once he understands that Dolores killed their children, he looks back on their meetings at the Cocoanut Club and realizes he had it all wrong. Teddy thought it “had just been…her insecurity about wearing such a fine dress in a fine club. But that wasn’t it. It was terror, barely suppressed, and it was always there” (359). The truth of Dolores—that she was a gorgeous, loving, if not slightly paranoid woman—changes as Teddy’s perspective changes, which brings up the question of how readers can know whose “truth” is the real one. 

Chuck Aule is a U.S. Marshal and Teddy’s new partner. Teddy characterizes him as affable and charming, and Teddy envies his happy-go-lucky attitude. Chuck’s likability makes him sympathetic and easy to trust, and Teddy finds an immediate rapport with him despite being naturally suspicious. As Teddy and Chuck spend more time on Shutter Island, readers suspect that Chuck is an unsuspecting participant in Teddy’s quest to exact vengeance on Andrew Laeddis.

Additionally, Chuck serves as the catalyst for the climax of Shutter Island. Once Chuck disappears—or rather, once Cawley tells Teddy his partner never existed—Teddy knows he must get off the island. More importantly, readers are forced to pick a side. Is Cawley trying to trap Teddy to protect Ashecliffe, as the “real” Rachel Solando suggests? Or have grief and guilt pushed Teddy over the edge? Either is a possibility, and readers’ perspectives will shape their interpretations of both Cawley’s big reveal and the novel’s final chapter. 

The novel opens with one of Dr. Lester Sheehan’s diary entries, in which he confesses that he remains haunted by Teddy Daniels’ story and wants to put it to paper. This is called epistolary writing, which means part or all of a novel takes on the format of letters or other documents. This creates verisimilitude; in other words, it gives the novel a sense of authenticity and makes it feel more real. The prologue also fleshes out Sheehan’s character. He is a man nearing the end of his life and looking down the tragedy of losing his own wife, which stirs up sympathy for Teddy, whose story revolves around the loss of his spouse.

However, most of Sheehan’s character comes by virtue of Chuck, who is incredibly sympathetic. When he re-enters the lighthouse and reveals himself to Teddy, he maintains most of the same personality attributes. He introduces himself with a self-deprecating joke, and he explains that as Teddy’s primary psychiatrist, he only lied “‘to keep an eye on [Teddy], to make sure [he] was safe’” (342). The camaraderie that Teddy and Chuck have comes by virtue of Sheehan’s diligent work with Teddy over the course of two years. Teddy’s immediate trust of Chuck is a subconscious acknowledgement of his positive relationship with Sheehan, and it speaks to Sheehan’s sincere concern for his patient. 

In many ways, George Noyce is the catalyst for the actions of Shutter Island. Teddy goes to Ashecliffe Hospital because Noyce claims that its doctors are conducting illegal, unethical experiments on their patients. Teddy uses this as justification for investigating Ashecliffe—it gives him plausible deniability if anyone finds out he is also searching for Andrew Laeddis.

Teddy tells Chuck that although Noyce had become schizophrenic because of a drug trial gone wrong, he was nearly sane when they last spoke. But readers only hear about Noyce second-hand until Teddy encounters him in the basement of Ward C. There, in the darkness of the basement, Noyce becomes the voice of Teddy’s subconscious. He tells Teddy the truth: Teddy is actually Andrew Laeddis, everything on the island is a set-up, and Teddy cannot escape until he lets Dolores go, which gives a concrete voice to the truth of Teddy’s dreams. In that way, Noyce serves as a Cassandra character; like the Greek prophetess whom no one would believe, Noyce reveals the reality of Teddy’s situation, only to be ignored. 

Dr. Jeremiah Naehring is a psychotherapist and one of Cawley’s colleagues at Ashecliffe Hospital. Naehring serves as a red herring, or a decoy, to mislead readers and create complexity and suspense in the plot. Teddy’s experiences as a soldier in World War II make him skeptical of Naehring, a German immigrant. Lehane purposely positions readers against Naehring when the doctor aggressively psychoanalyzes Teddy and Cawley over-drinks. Naehring’s brusque and pugnacious attitude draws readers’ suspicions, though they are ultimately misplaced.

Naehring also provides a counterpoint in Lehane’s exploration of the future of the mental health field. Unlike Cawley, who advocates for talk therapy, Naehring believes medication is the best means of treating mental illness. The two ideologies come into direct conflict as the doctors discuss the treatment plan for Doris Walsh, another of Ashecliffe’s patients. Naehring’s position wins out despite Cawley’s vocal opposition, and in this moment, he represents the ways the tides are changing in mental health care.