MovieChat Forums > Shutter Island (2010) Discussion > Teddy is an innocent man.

Teddy is an innocent man.


What is he guilty of exactly? As Gleamy-Jog has pointed out in his posts, being in an institute for the criminally insane, then he would be not guilty by reason of insanity. Teddy is not a threat to society, and a strong case would be made that he performed a mercy killing on his wife, or even for self-defense.

The only real monster is Doctor Cawley, who uses the barbaric technique of lobotomizing his patients instead of helping them.

~ I'm a 21st century man and I don't wanna be here.

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I also wondered...

Given the situation and what we saw, could they (the law and all) also at least somewhat conclude that his killing of his wife was somewhat accidental, given the emotional situation she put him through by killing his kids and then standing near him with a loaded gun and him having pushed the trigger probably UNINTENTIONALLY but impulsively and accidentally, maybe the wife INTENDED for it to happen that way, and could these circumstances be, even as far back as the 1940s, somewhat MITIGATING?

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