The Scarlet Witch, Hannah, and the Direction of Our Grief

That is what I loved. I often forget that America Chavez is even in this movie, because for me it’s an accurate and true portrayal of a mother’s grief and how, left to its own devices, would turn anybody bitter, anybody cold, anybody evil; because of that America Chavez takes a backseat as I’m awash with the reality that without God, one tragic thing could lead me to be the witch. 

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness captures so accurately how the mama bear qualities of motherhood can easily be twisted to see everybody as an enemy to the cubs. When that happens the mother herself becomes the villain. What’s even greater, is mothers, who have this unique ability to nurture and grow, will crush and destroy, when given into this twisted portrayal of protection.  What do we see when Doctor Strange visits Wanda? She makes an illusion of an orchard, but when the facade is removed we see only destruction and death. There is no life where grief cannot be processed.  Instead of letting that part of her die in order for something new to grow, she holds onto her sons and thus becomes bitter and terrible, and a danger to everybody in her path, even, eventually, herself. 

I’ll fully admit I do not know all of her myriad of backstories in the Marvel universe, and how sometimes she’s good and sometimes she’s bad, just depends on which version you’re reading. However, I can see, as a mother, as a pregnant mother, our children can become for us an idol. It wasn’t her parents death that sent her over, her brothers, or her lover, it wasn’t even the boys being ripped away. It was the idea that she could have her boys back and that obsession was the pathway away from the ‘mother’ and to the ‘witch.’

Whether or not the MCU meant to take Wanda’s story and morph it into these known mythological tropes I do not know. What I do know is that they brilliantly showed us how unresolved grief can completely wreck a person and create in them something so unrecognizable that the person they used to be would be horrified by the person they became. 

And yet, we have hope, even when motherhood seems out of reach, we have a pathway that leads us to become resilient and strong, and that is through our God. We see this clearly displayed with Hannah, her story written out for all believers to read in 1 Samuel chapters 1 and 2. Not having a child in many ancient civilizations wasn’t just a sadness, it was seen as a curse. Even in 1 Samuel it says “… the Lord had closed her womb.” (ESV). Through her despair she wept before the Lord and begged him for a son, promising she’d dedicated him to the Lord. Hannah never stopped going before the Lord to display her grief, so deep was her pain that the high priest, Eli, assumed she was drunk.

And how does the story go? Hannah gave her despair to God, she did not turn inward or become ‘the witch.’ Better yet- what a great gift, what a great woman we see- for when she conceives and bears a son, what does she do? She dedicates him back to God.  All of her attention is turned in one direction, God. Grief goes to God; joy goes to God; and thanks be to God.

Wanda’s attention, however, is completely inward. Focused only on her and her pain, not focused on anything else. She’s literally willing to destroy anything and anybody to achieve her goal of kidnapping her sons, she’s even willing to hurt herself. Let us use Hannah as the archetype we strive to be when our children, or lack there of, cause so much grief. Turn that towards our Lord, and save yourself from becoming the witch.