Scarlet Witch and the monstrous feminine in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

Abstract

Background: This study examines the narrative transformation of Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, from a female superhero to a villain in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), positioning the transformation within current debates on gender representation in superhero cinema. Purpose: Drawing on Susan Lanser's feminist narratology, the study examines how narrative techniques carry gendered ideological meanings that reshape women's subjectivity within patriarchal storytelling conventions. Methods: This study employs a qualitative descriptive-analytical approach. Objects were gathered through close reading of visual cues, cinematic techniques, and dialogue across twenty-two purposively selected scenes, with attention to narrative order, focalization, and mise-en-scène. Result: The results show that the movie systematically uses narrative order and masculine focalization strategies as the rational eye to construct Wanda's character, pathologized as hysterical, while the male heroes were framed as heroic sacrifice. Conclusion: The analysis found that motherhood was used as an instrument of the monstrous feminine, by which women’s emotional power is recast as an existential threat to a male-governed cosmic order. Implication: The findings extend feminist film criticism by showing how narrative order functions as a structural device for the cinematic deconstruction of maternal agency in mainstream superhero films.