[britEl]

Okay so at the end or Shutter Island where he finally realizes that he is crazy and that he made up all that fake stuff because he couldn't deal with his wife drowning the kids and him killing his wife. After all that at the VERYY last scene where it seems like he went right back into being crazy, that one sentence where he asks the psychiatrist if it was better living a monster or not knowing (I don't exactly remember what he said but it was around those lines) Is he just going along with being lobotomized so he doesn't have to live knowing that he is a monster (because he is back to his normal Andrew self)? Or do you think he just went back to being crazy?

[clkaroma]

Haven't seen the film but read the book bloody good story I think he was just plain old cuckoo

[madman81]

My wife and I had the same disscussion. I think he said "Is it better to live as a monster or die as a good man". Which makes me think that he wants to live but excepts the fact that he is crazy

[dgdenoux]

I can't believe so many did not get it! "Is it better to live as monster or die a good man?" This line tells me he knew he killed his wife AND blamed himself for his kids death (because he did not see that his wife was sick and get her help before she killed the kids). He does NOT want to live with that knowledge but is no longer in his "make believe world of being Teddy" where he can "escape" the truth. So he fakes slipping back into that world so that he would not be "cured" and therefore they would lobotomized him (and he would not be aware of anything any more). It is pretty obvious, at least to me, he chose to pretend to be Teddy the "good man" and die (although not literally) via lobotomy. This was as close as he get to dying. His self imposed punishment for and escape from, what he did.