10 Stephen King Fan Theories That Make Appalling Sense

This theory doesn’t work to well with Stephen King’s novella as it puts more emphasis on Andy Dufresne’s innocence, but a few clues in Frank Darabont’s adaptation could suggest that Andy is in fact guilty as sin.

Firstly, we only have narrator Red to vouch for what a stand-up guy Andy is although he does tellingly say, “He strolled, like a man in a park without a care or a worry in the world, like he had on an invisible coat that would shield him from this place.” Does that sound like the swagger of a truly innocent man acclimatising to his new prison surrounds and all that entails – sadistic, corrupt wardens and shower-based encounters included?

Then there’s the relationships Andy forms while incarcerated. Yes, he’s BFFs with Red but only approaches him once he learns he’s a “man who knows how to get things”, namely the rock hammer and Rita Hayworth poster needed for his escape. Likewise, it’s Andy who offers his financial expertise to prison guard Hadley which kickstarts the money laundering scheme Andy and warden Norton set up, which in turn allows Andy to accumulate money to aid in his prison break.

And perhaps most telling is the opera Andy blasts from Shawshank’s PA system, a duet from The Marriage of Figaro about a duplicitous love letter designed to expose infidelity – not too unlike the circumstances that landed Andy in prison in the first place.

Of course, there’s the lingering question of why a hardened wife-killing psychopath like Andy would cunningly plot his escape and then invite Red to join him in his Mexican hideaway. That’s because Red is about to become his next victim. That touching closing scene in which the two ‘friends’ embrace on an impossibly beautiful Mexican beach ended in a bloodbath for sure.