What Does The Ending Of Shutter Island Really Mean?

Teddy/Andrew Is God's Lonely Man

Scorsese draws not just on cinema's legacy with Shutter Island, but his own. Guilt, for one, is a pervasive Scorsese theme that rears its head once again in Shutter Island. It's a concern of Scorsese's going all the way back to his early films, with the director's Catholic faith once more having a bearing on his work thematically. Another, more crucial idea drawn upon by Shutter Island and that's been repeated time and again through Scorsese's work is the concept of God's lonely man, mentioned outright in Taxi Driver and a recurring Scorsese protagonist. Whatever your interpretation of Teddy/Andrew's fate, Scorsese positions him as another one of his martyrs, abandoned by God in his mind but ultimately responsible for his own downfall. Though Teddy meets numerous characters - many of whom reach out to him in an attempt to help him heal - along the way to his apparent lobotomy in the final scene, Teddy repeatedly and ultimately chooses to isolate himself. The doctors at the facility, some of the patients (George Noyce: "You have to let her go") and even the figments of Teddy's imagination encourage him to move on, but he pushes on with his 'investigation' regardless. Among Scorsese's brood of leading characters, Teddy Daniels becomes just another one of God's lonely men, a protagonist that becomes a martyr by his own design.