Shutter Island Scene Reviews and Diagnosis
Psychological disorder: Grandiose and Persecutory Delusional Disorder
Movie title: Shutter Island Movie rating: 3.5/5
Character name: Teddy Daniels (Aka. Andrew Laeddis) Actor’s name: Leonardo DiCaprio
Andrew Laeddis’ wife went insane and drowned their children, so he murdered her. He feels guilty about neglecting to get his wife help, which could have saved their children, and guilty about killing her as well; the two of these add up heavily on his conscience, so much so that he creates an alternate personality (Teddy Daniels) to get away from the terrible reality that is his life. I will refer to him as Teddy throughout my character diagnosis.
Scene one: Teddy experiences a nightmare about his wife. The fire symbolizes not only how she first tried to commit suicide, but also the death of his sanity. The nightmare begins with his wife scolding him about his drinking problem, which is a repressed regret that only comes out in his dreams where he is vulnerable. She says she never left, and she walks to the window where you can see the lake; the one where she drowned her children and was murdered (by Teddy) at. She tells him he needs to wake up, but she really means he needs to see reality, she says she’s not really there, and that he needs to face that. She says “Laeddis” is still there, which is who he was before he invented the Teddy persona to avoid feeling the guilt, since he would inevitably blame himself for their deaths.
Scene two: Teddy has a flashback about his traumatic experience in Germany during World War II. He has post-traumatic stress disorder from his time spent there and his repressed memories span from killing guards to seeing thousands of innocent people turn to frozen corpses. He has guilt, shame and self-hatred induced psychosis from his involvement in the war. He sees his nurse (he replaces the image of his wife with the image of his nurse because it’s easier
Movie title: Shutter Island Movie rating: 3.5/5
Character name: Teddy Daniels (Aka. Andrew Laeddis) Actor’s name: Leonardo DiCaprio
Andrew Laeddis’ wife went insane and drowned their children, so he murdered her. He feels guilty about neglecting to get his wife help, which could have saved their children, and guilty about killing her as well; the two of these add up heavily on his conscience, so much so that he creates an alternate personality (Teddy Daniels) to get away from the terrible reality that is his life. I will refer to him as Teddy throughout my character diagnosis.
Scene one: Teddy experiences a nightmare about his wife. The fire symbolizes not only how she first tried to commit suicide, but also the death of his sanity. The nightmare begins with his wife scolding him about his drinking problem, which is a repressed regret that only comes out in his dreams where he is vulnerable. She says she never left, and she walks to the window where you can see the lake; the one where she drowned her children and was murdered (by Teddy) at. She tells him he needs to wake up, but she really means he needs to see reality, she says she’s not really there, and that he needs to face that. She says “Laeddis” is still there, which is who he was before he invented the Teddy persona to avoid feeling the guilt, since he would inevitably blame himself for their deaths.
Scene two: Teddy has a flashback about his traumatic experience in Germany during World War II. He has post-traumatic stress disorder from his time spent there and his repressed memories span from killing guards to seeing thousands of innocent people turn to frozen corpses. He has guilt, shame and self-hatred induced psychosis from his involvement in the war. He sees his nurse (he replaces the image of his wife with the image of his nurse because it’s easier