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Shutter Island Characterization

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"Sanity is not a choice. You can 't just decide to get better." Many different forms of gothic literature contain protagonist 's who are fighting an internal battle. For example, in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" Peyton Fahrquhar refuses to accept his fate, creating a fantasy in which he escapes, only to die as his fantasy reunites him with his loved ones. The narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" mentally turns into one of "those creeping women" she sees out her window. Whilst Andrew Laeddis from Shutter Island is like both of them. His schizophrenia results in a belief that he is Edward Daniels, each time the doctors got through to him he would have a relapse and sink back into his fantasy world. In each literary work the use of …show more content…

Direct characterization describes Peyton Fahrquhar as "an original secessionist and ardently devoted to the Southern cause." The majority of the characterization of narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is indirect, inferred through the different thoughts and emotions she experiences through the duration of the story. The characterization in Shutter Island is a mix of the two, as Andrew Laeddis is at first described by Teddy as "a firebug", an "ugly-looking son of a bitch", with a "huge scar from his right temple down to his left lip", and his "eyes different colors." When it is revealed that the two are the same person, the sense of danger associated with the name Andrew Laeddis combines with the knowledge of how haunted Teddy 's life is, making his mental conflict worrisome to the viewer. He attacked George Noyce in an effort to forget, he is easily "the most dangerous patient" at Ashcliffe. The characterization of the individuals makes their difficulties understandable to the audience. However, the conflict is demonstrated in other …show more content…

There is an evident contrast between John 's method, and the method used by Dr. Cawley and Dr. Naehring. John believes that in order for his wife to heal she must take drugs, ignore her condition, and resist any urges she may feel, to the point where the suffocation causes her to go mad. The doctors at Ashcliffe on the other hand, "try to heal, try to cure. And if that fails, at least [they] provide them with a measure of comfort in their lives." The method used at Ashcliffe is more effective when it comes to recovery, as many of the patients had enough understanding to take part in the role play, and the treatment successfully penetrated Andrew 's fantasy twice. The method John uses causes his wife to have a mental breakdown. Both methods are understandable and illustrate the internal quarrel happening in the protagonist 's

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