Andrew is the smart, decent, good person who can’t handle the guilt and pain of knowing what he lost.

Teddy is the delusional and volatile persona created by Laeddis as a defense mechanism to escape the pain of knowing he murdered his wife after she annihilated their kids. This is Shutter Island indicating to the viewer we need to think about who is present in that moment. Which is why Sheehan reacts with such surprise, saying, “Teddy?” with a questioning tone. That moment is meaningful as it’s a break from the delusional script that Sheehan and Dr. Sheehan (aka, Chuck), “Which would be worse? To live as a monster or die as a good man?” At the end of the movie, right before the lobotomy, Shutter Island reveals its true thesis. That all changes once you realize that Teddy Daniels really is Andrew Laeddis, has been a psych patient at Ashecliffe for the past 24 months, and is in extreme and aggressive denial about what happened to his wife, Dolores, and their kids. Shutter Island initially presents itself as a cautionary tale about paranoia relating to government, psychology, and the powers that be.

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