Shutter Island Essay Questions

At the end of the novel, are you convinced that Teddy is really Andrew Laeddis, or do you believe he has been brainwashed into believing this by Dr. Cawley?

Both scenarios are plausible. The author has done such a skillful job of portraying Teddy as a US Marshal investigating a suspicious mental hospital that it is difficult to believe Dr. Cawley's assertions that he is Andrew Laeddis. For example, the content of his dreams could have been shouted out in his sleep, or confided to "Chuck," allowing Dr. Cawley to use these details to construct a plausible narrative. At the same time, the glimpses that the reader gets into the life at the hospital Shutter Island suggest that Dr. Cawley is in fact on the outs with the other doctors, and he consistently shows more sympathy to the patients than do the other doctors. Fundamentally, each ending suggests a different novel, and it is up to the reader to decide which he or she has just read: a novel about a vain struggle against institutional forces, or a novel about overwhelming grief.

Teddy states several times that the patients on Shutter Island remind him of the prisoners he liberated from Dachau. What other similarities does he draw between Shutter Island and the Nazi death camps?

Teddy hints that he believes Dr. Naehring was a Nazi who has come to America to continue his experiments into mental disorders and psychopathy. Many of the experiments with the effects of various drugs were begun in the death camps, and also various lobotomy experiments were undertaken there as well. The camps also changed Teddy forever as he was haunted by what he saw and the experience unnerved him. At the same time, participating in the execution of Nazi criminals permanently changed Teddy's sense of justice, making him suspicious of any violence done for a cause.

How does the hurricane affect the plot of the novel?

The hurricane shorts the electrical circuits on the island, disabling all of the locks and electrical fences. This enables Teddy and Chuck to roam the island without being detected, and also leads to the confrontation between Teddy and Noyes. Without the changes in terrain, the men would have been far more confined and the search that Teddy begins of the island would have been impossible. The hurricane also adds psychological coloring that underlines the theme of reality being formed by the mind. The rain picks up in intensity as the action does; it rages just when Teddy is laying out his suspicions to Chuck; it hits a tense lull during the moment when Teddy is trying to get on the ferry.

Assume that Dr. Cawley and Dr. Sheehan are telling Teddy the truth. How does it change our perception of the events of the novel to know that everything up until that point has been staged? Why do you think Lehane bothered telling you this story?

If we believe Dr. Cawley—that everything Teddy has experienced so far is a role-playing reality set up to have him reach the realization that he killed his wife—then the novel becomes less about institutional abuse and more a reflection of grief. Rather than adding suspense about whether Teddy will expose the doctors at Ashecliffe, the reader is reading to see if Teddy will ever come to grips with what happened with his wife, and achieve a measure of peace. Since he does not, we can read the story less as a mystery and more of a tragedy. Stylistically, instead of describing schizophrenia, the novel's twist effectively tries to simulate its feeling in the reader.

Dr. Cawley and Dr. Sheehan claim to be humanitarians. But the novel is filled with brutality. Where does the novel find glimmers of humanity? What do these moments tell us about the novel's worldview?

Despite the novel's heavy emphasis on madness, imprisonment, and violence, Lehane carefully preserves several moments of humanity. Teddy's love for Dolores, and the feeling of mutual shelter they gave one another from the violence and cruelty of the world is one such moment—though it is turned tragic by Dolores's killing of their children. Chuck's ease and friendliness with the orderlies, and his loyalty to Teddy, is another such moment, together with the recollections of camaraderie during the war. Finally, Cawley's humanitarianism, and his compassion for the patients on Shutter Island, is another such moment. Altogether they show that though the forces of brutality and inhumanity might not be defeated, humanity survives in small gestures and moments.