Although The Shawshank Redemption devotes surprisingly little screen time to the death of Andy Dufresne’s wife, the crime does have a satisfying explanation. The Shawshank Redemption was adapted from Stephen King’s novella “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption,” but the movie changed a few details of the author’s original story. Most famously, The Shawshank Redemption’s perfect ending is unique to the movie. In the novella, Red ends his story hoping to be reunited with Andy. In the movie, the pair embrace on a sunny beach in Zihuatanejo, confirming that Andy successfully evaded the authorities and met with his old friend.
Similarly, although the reason The Shawshank Redemption‘s Red is in prison remains the same in the movie and the novella, this crime receives a lot more attention in the story. The movie proves that Red is penitent via Morgan Freeman’s moving soliloquy about the nature of rehabilitation at his parole hearing, but doesn’t dwell on the cause of his incarceration. The Shawshank Redemption cannily trimmed a lot of details from King’s story, resulting in a more streamlined narrative. This approach sidelines some important subplots, like the mysterious fate of Andy’s late wife before the movie’s story begins.
Despite what some fan theories claim, Andy Dufresne did not kill his wife in The Shawshank Redemption. The Shawshank Redemption’s ending finally frees Andy from the eponymous institution and questions how effective retributive justice is even for the guilty, but Andy’s innocence is clarified midway through the movie. The hardened, unhinged criminal Elmo Blatch confesses to his cellmate Tommy Williams that he murdered a married woman and her golf pro lover and says this crime was pinned on the woman’s husband. From context clues, Tommy discerns that this woman is Andy’s wife, and he offers to testify to this.
However, when Andy tells the Warden of Shawshank the good news, the hypocritical religious zealot isn’t eager to help him out. At this stage, Andy has spent years laundering money for the Warden, and he fears that the prisoner could expose his corruption and embezzling once free. Warden Norton has Tommy killed by a prison guard, crushing Andy’s hopes of clearing his name. Andy secretly steals the Warden’s money and plans an escape after this, realizing that he will never be able to prove that he didn’t kill his wife. Elmo Blatch presumably gets away with her murder.
Although he didn’t kill her, a lot of evidence pointed to Andy being his wife’s murderer. Andy’s wife cheated on him with a golf pro and was with this lover when they were both killed, which made their deaths look like a crime of passion. It seemed as if Andy exacted revenge on the pair after tracking them down and exposing their affair, and one particularly unfortunate bit of bad luck didn’t help Andy’s case here. The gun that was used to kill Andy’s wife and her lover happened, by coincidence, to be the same model Andy already owned.
One of the main reasons many people believe Andy Dufresne was guilty is that the opening of The Shawshank Redemption sees him load a Colt Detective .38 Special revolver. This is the gun used to kill his wife and her lover, and Andy openly admits in court that he owned the gun, knew about his wife’s affair, and even loaded the gun while considering his next step. Andy said that he then threw the gun in the river while drunk, but had no way of proving his innocence to the court. Thanks to rotten luck, he was found guilty.
The reason that Elmo Blatch is never tried for the murder of Andy Dufresne’s wife changes between the novella and its adaptation. In the movie, the Warden has Tommy killed to cover up Elmo’s role in the murders since he has a vested interest in keeping Andy within Shawshank’s walls. While The Shawshank Redemption’s ending is more hopeful than the book’s ambiguous coda, this scene is harsher than the novella’s version of events.
In the book, Tommy doesn’t get killed, but it is suggested that the warden ensures an early release for Blatch instead. This serves the same purpose of keeping Andy in prison but spares Tommy’s life. In both cases, this event is the catalyst that drives Andy to steal the Warden’s money and plan his audacious escape attempt. However, in the movie’s version of events, Tommy’s death is more of a crushing blow to Andy’s last hopes. This makes The Shawshank Redemption’s eventual ending all the more inspirational and triumphant.