Shutter Island film analysis,of the narrative and its overall style

Shutter Island analysis

In shutter Island it is quite hard to tell whether it is non linear or linear. There are many flashbacks during the film but this doesn't nessasarily make it non-linear. I would say it was slightly more linear,although the film has many diffrerent flashbacks,flashforwards and people could argue that it doesnt follow a  chronological and linear order.It is slightly more linear because we realise  at the end , the flashbacks and all those things happening never happened  and they were supposively part of Teddys hallucinations.

This technique of flashbacks etc was probably used in the film to help the viewers   understand the characters more and it creates enigma yet sympathy for them,especially Teddy. During the flashbacks and Teddys dreams we learn of his traumatic past experiences but they are purposely not entirely clear  which makes us qustion his past more which is benefitial as towards the end of the films we realise that he is actually in a mental hospital due to his traumatic past. We learn that he has lost his wife through a fire and that he used to be a soldier. The flashbacks do  verify the possible twist in plot  which we understand more towards the end of the film,that Teddy was infact a traumatized soldier, who was mad and  who did not want to accept his wifes death and it was infact a hospital for the mental and Teddy was a patient all along.
An equilibrium in Shutter Island is when Teddy is on a boat and all we know and think at the time is that he is going to investigate the dissapearence of Rachel Solando on Shutter Island.A significant event in shutter island is when we start to realise that his investigation is obstructed by the management of Shutter Island because Teddy and his partner Chuck are refused access to the records of employees and patients.We also start to question what is real and what isnt real rather than simply wondering where Rachel Solando is. Another significant event is when Teddy gets stranded on the island due to a storm.

At the end of the film the disequilibrium is when Teddy finally accepts that he is mental so that he can get lobotomized and forget his past,he wants to forget about his wife and flashbacks.Teddy says "Which would be worse - to live as a monster? Or to die as a good man?".Perhaps this is referring to being lobotomized.

Even though we realise towards the end of the film that Teddy is actually insane and that the mental hospital on Shutter Island is not as corrupt as we thought it was,we still see the antagonist as the employees and especially the lead psychiatrist,Dr. John Cawley.This is due to the story being told through Teddys eyes,we see his life traumas through his flashbacks and he seems as if he is trying to help people so we feel sympathetic towards him.All the physicatrists and employees want  to move Teddy through the exper­iment , trying to help Teddy. Chuck also known as Dr Sheehan,according to Propps theory would be "the dispatcher" because he  is always the one to push Teddy along in a particular direction. In the scene where they are sleeping in their bunk beds, he nudges Teddy to continue the inves­ti­gation. When we meet the character George Noyce,he suggests that Laeddis is in the light­house and puts this idea into Teddys mind. When they get close, Dr Sheehan, most likely as an act of reverse psychology, tries to stop  him from going purposely so that Teddy becomes more suspicious about what could be in the lighthouse at which point Teddy becomes suspi­cious of Chuck’s identity and we see this when he tests him  by asking Chuck how the weather is in Portland, knowing that Chuck is actually supposed to be from Seattle. We learn at the end of the film that Teddy’s movement throughout the entire film is influ­enced by key players,so infact according to Propps theory there are many "dispatchers", this is  a reminder to us that he didn’t go down this journey with free will-he has been controlled by others.

Barthes Enigma code is hugely important throughout Shutter Island.The mystery of where the  woman,Rachel Solando is and how she could escape intrigues the viewers as it almost seems impossible  that the woman could have escaped. Later on in the film the enigma is more about if Teddy is actually sane or insane.