Shutter Island, The Alternative Hypothesis

ladsin

Morning y'all. This is very different from my normal myTakes, but I did a lot of work preparing this so I figured I'd at least write it here for posterity.

So, my roommate made an offhand comment about the movie Shutter Island last night, ~"Everyone acknowledges that "Teddy" or "Andrew" was crazy." Lo and behold I could not abide this statement so I rewatched the movie and am writing this to present the alternative hypothesis, that in fact Teddy was sane the entire movie and in fact was the victim of the conspiracy that he later supposedly denounces. I need to preface this by saying that the obviously "easier" interpretation to come to is that in fact Teddy was crazy, and the film intentionally gives clues that would lead this to being a probable conclusion. I think, however, that those that conclude such are falling into the very trap that the movie constantly states, ~"Once they label you crazy then anything you do or say will lead people to only more strongly believe it." Throughout this myTake I'll try to reference the pros and cons to each of the things I point out as being in favor of my conclusion for fairness.

I know that the book apparently makes it very clear that he was crazy the whole time, but this is a reference to the movie, and I think that the film took a lot of license to improve the story.

Shutter Island, The Alternative Hypothesis

Hallucinations

The first hallucination that our beloved Teddy has (that we're aware of) occurs the first night that he arrives on Shutter Island. This one appears to be a hypnopompic hallucination. These hallucinations are ones that frequently occur when someone is falling asleep or waking up. The main thing to note in this particular scene is that he is hallucinating his wife burning in the fire of their apartment building.

Pro: This hallucination would seem to vindicate his initial statement to "Chuck" that his wife died in an apartment fire. In this hallucination there are also no children, nor does he mention any to Chuck in the opening scene.

Con: While the hallucination starts in his city apartment it appears to end at the lake house from later in the story, and although she turns to ash she is also wet and bleeding before this happens.

-Interruption- Before the next hallucination we see a memory that Teddy has of liberating Auschwitz and most important to note here is that he recalls seeing a young girl dead in the arms of her mother and he expresses remorse over not saving these people earlier.

The second hallucination we see is only after his meeting with the fake Rachel Solando, and directly after being given pills by Dr. Cawley. The psychiatrists inform us that Rachel Solando murdered her three children and "set them at the table for dinner". The psychiatrists also tell Teddy that this woman has been in their care for years, but she doesn't know it. She delusionally believes she's still living at home. In this hallucination he again sees the young girl from Auschwitz, but this time she says, "you should have saved me; you should have saved all of us." Then he sees the fake Rachel Solando with her three dead children (daughter from camp, boys faceless) covered in blood and he helps put them into the water.

Pro: This hallucination is hypnogogic (immediately before sleep) and directly after being given some form of medication by Dr. Cowley. Additionally this hallucination only includes the information given to him by Dr. Cowley and includes the fictional Rachel Solando which differs from his later encounter with Solando, and differs from the "conclusion" that it's his wife Dolores. In this hallucination again only the young girl from Auschwitz is given a face and a voice. The two boys are nothing but props. This hallucination also contradicts the later hallucination or memory that the kids were covered in blood. He also never put the kids into the water, but pulled them out. This is a direct reversal.

Con: Perhaps the therapy is working and as he recalls more about the event his hallucinations become closer and closer to his actual memory of the tragedy. Additionally hallucinating himself putting the children in the water may be his subconscious way of blaming himself as if he killed his kids due to his neglect.

-There are a few brief hallucinations which show his increasing madness, but don't really provide anything informative. I also skipped the Cave Scene here because I'll go into it later on it's own. All of these include his wife or the Auschwitz/ girl scene-

Pro: The longer he spends on the island and takes what they give him the more frequently he hallucinates.

Con: Later in the movie we're informed by Dr. Cowley that he's been off his anti-psychotics for some time and this is why he's hallucinating more.

The third hallucination of import is when he goes to blow up the car to create a distraction. At this point in time he hallucinates a conversation with his dead wife, but upon deciding to go to the lighthouse despite her disagreement the young girl from Auschwitz returns and stands next to the wife. The car blows up and even though the fire engulfs the two they do not burn.

Pro: The fact that his two sons again do not show up are yet again indicative of the fact that he had none. That the fire engulfs his wife indicates that his originally claim, that she was killed in a fire, was accurate. He still does not believe she was shot to death.

Con: Linking the wife with the child from the previous scenes is him slowly coming to the realization that his wife actually killed her and not the Rachel Solando from before.

The final hallucination that he has is the full one in which he "realizes" that it really was his wife that drowned their three children and that he in fact did kill her. In this hallucination, yet again, he only attempts to rescue his daughter performing mouth-to-mouth and merely drags the boys out of the water before killing his wife himself.

-Pro: This hallucination, like the others, only comes after the information was given to him by Dr. Cowley. Similarly the fact that he again tries to only save the young girl is indicative of the fact that she was the only one who was real. The same girl he deeply regrets not being able to save from Auschwitz.

Con: This one isn't a "hallucination" but is actually the memory of the real event.

To conclude this section I think the oddity of his hallucinations having no narrative consistency (other than regret about the girl and a dead wife) and instead each individual episode only contains the information spoon-fed to him by the doctor is unlikely on the conclusion that there was some real memory all of them were pointing to. Also his initial lack of knowledge of having any children, and then only seemingly caring about "his daughter" which we first see at Auschwitz is very strange. Further, that his hallucinations are increasing in frequency after being given the cigarettes and medication (sometimes immediately after) that are supposedly laced is an oddity better explained by my hypothesis than the contrary.

Solando Cave Scene

I did not put this scene into the last section of hallucinations because I believe it is better explained to be an actual experience rather than a hallucination. My main reasons for believing so is because of the incredible difference between these and the other hallucinations throughout the movie. I'll give three examples that I find quite conclusive.

1) If this was an hallucination then it would be the only one in the entire movie that involved a person that he had no prior knowledge of. In the first it was only his wife and people from his past. The second included a woman he had just met, the girl from his past, and two faceless boys because he had not seen pictures of them. The third hallucination only included his wife and the girl from before, and the final hallucination was the only one to include the entire family and occured just after he was shown the pictures of all of them. When he meets Solando here he had been told about her, but only knew of her as being a different woman. This would again be the first time he hallucinated a person out of whole cloth.

2) If this was a hallucination it was the only one in the entire film which did not include either his wife or supposed daughter I won't reiterate all of them, but look above and this is a consistent theme throughout all of them.

3) If this was a hallucination then it would be the only one to have proffered independent information that Teddy himself was unaware of. In this scene he learns that Rachel Solando was actually a doctor, what a lobotomy was, what pain is, about psychotropic drugs (which were never mentioned), that the cigarettes and aspirin were drugged, that the doctors on Shutter Island were conducting experiments that they had learned "from the Nazis" and more.

Rule Of 4, Who's The 67th?

Dr. Cowley's explanation of these two issues were less than satisfactory for two reasons.

1) Dr. Cowley informs us that the "rule of 4" is an allusion to the anagram, or changing of the names from Dolores Chanal to Rachel Solando & Teddy's name. This is problematic because the anagram relies on Teddy using his wife's maiden name rather than her married name. After he passes out he wakes up and calls her "Dolores Laeddis" but then subsequently changes it to "Dolores Chanal" which is the only way to make the story fit.

2) Dr. Cowley also informs us that "Teddy" is actually the 67th patient on Shutter Island. This actually does not make sense though. We're constantly informed that there are 66 patients, but that Rachel Solando was a staff member, not a patient. So 66-1(RS)+1(Ted)= still only 66. A proponent of the "Teddy's crazy" hypothesis could make an ad hoc explanation that Dr. Cowley was lying to him for some unknown reason to make 67 instead of 66 patients in total, but that does not seem evidenced. Instead, my hypothesis does not require an ad hoc explanation, but instead is Solando referencing that they were going to make another patient like her.

Other Oddities

I could go on, but I'll just do four because this is surely way too long for any of you to actually read.

1)Upon sneaking into Ward C two guards fail to recognize Teddy, and then Chuck leaves him alone. For the guards to not recognize the most dangerous patient is highly dubious, and then for Chuck to leave him alone, again despite being the most dangerous patient, is not feasible.

2) After the cave scene Teddy is picked up by the warden (head of security) and a very strange conversation ensues. The warden informs Teddy that, ~"Crowley thinks you could be controlled, but I know different. You're like me." This would seem to vindicate the claims of Solando that Dr. Crowley was actually trying some form of control.

3) Dr. Crowley strangely breaks character after Teddy refuses a cigarette. He's supposed to still be playing along with the therapy, but instead his response is as to make Teddy think he's crazy. "We marshall? You came alone. Tell me more about, 'your partner'"

4) Lastly, and perhaps most importantly I think that the story, if interpreted literally, seems like an incredibly odd narrative to push. One of the points made throughout the film is that if anyone calls you crazy then any of your actions whether justified or not, are going to only be taken as more evidence of your insanity no matter what. If the producer's conclusion was then to be "yeah, he was crazy the whole time" I would find that strange. Instead a far more interesting end would be for all of the audience to buy into the exact same trap that Dr. Solondo says they would.

Shutter Island, The Alternative Hypothesis

Wow. Normally I would do a concluding paragraph, but this was ridiculous on my part. If you need a good reason to not be my friend... This is surely why.

Shutter Island, The Alternative Hypothesis
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