Wanda, Trauma, and the Shadow

What Could be a Perfect World?

How would you design your very own pocket dimension? Throughout Wandavision, we immerse in the reality that Wanda creates (referred to as the Hex), which substentially reflects Wanda's psyche. I find it particularly interesting to navigate the building blocks that Wanda uses to put together what she regards as "the perfect world": the black-and-white sitcon of the 60s, the surbub, her husband Vision, her two children Tommy and Billy, and so on.

The very fabrics of this reality reflect Wanda's key values and trauma. Watching TV series such as I Love Lucy, Bewitched, and The Twilight Zone, was Wanda's collections of positive childhood memories with her family; the fact that these TV series crystalizes into the most fundemental theme of Wanda's reality shows just how much childhood experineces exert influences on our development. The life in the surbubs conveyes her desire to fit in and to flourish as a normal being. Wielding one of the most destructive forms of magic, Wanda has been experimented on, feared, and blamed throughout her life. As a result, being able to live as a "normal" human being becomes Wanda's notion of a comforting life.Through the main characters that appear in Wanda's reality, we also see the reflections of her griefs throughout different stages of her life; Pietro was the last member of her family that was killed in the Age of Ultron, and Vision is the romantic partner that she lost in Infinity War. The two children represents her wish to start a family, which was never fulfilled because Vision was an android. In short, the ways Wanda furnishes the reality within the Hex allow us to see that, what we pursue and what we desire in life are framed simultaneously by happiness and sufferings, two symbiotic entities that shape each other; just as how Vision puts it: "What is grief if not love persevering?"

Defence Mechanism

One reason that I'm obssessed with Wandavision is the symbolic meaning of various elements that resemble one's psyche in response to stress and trauma. The world (referred to as the "Hex") that Wanda creates is very much like the physical body with its built-in immune system.The most fundemental defence structures are the five walls of the Hex ( which resemble our skin, the first line of defence for our body) that draw the boundaries between Wanda's reality and the real world. Whatever enters the Hex becomes "recoded" into something that fits with Wanda's reality: a S.W.O.R.D. agent would be transformed into a clown; a helicopter would be transformed into an air-balloon; a town resident would trnasform into a brain-washed actor/actress who is compelled to play along with Wanda's "script". Wanda's Chaos magic, which sustains the spontaneous creation and maintanence of her reality, basically acts like the white blood cells that neutralize or extinguish any foreign entity that make its way through the boundary.

Making our way beyond the physical representation of the walls, it's fair to say that one Freudian defence mechanism that manifests throughout the series is humor. This is evident because the foundation of Wanda's reality is designed as a comedy. As we watch Wanda and Vision's life play out in the surburbs, we frequently hear the laughter track in the background; furthermore, the silly plot and lines, and the exaggerated body gestures and facial expressions also echo the iconic elements of the television comedy from the 60s to the 90s. Humor is perhaps the most relatable technique we used to mask fear, awkwardness, embarresment, and othe negative emotions; it helps us alleviate tension by trivilizing a subject. Thus, integrating the idea of humor into the Hex is not only symbolic of Wanda's desire to cover up her past trauma, but it also effectively contrasts the chaos that lurks behind her "perfect world".

Another two major Fresudian defence mechanisms are repression and denial, which both have to do with pushing unwanted memories out of one's perception or conscious awareness. During the talent show, Wanda and Vision uses a closet as their main prop for magic tricks, which not only resonates with these defence mechanisms, but also symbolizes Wanda's attempt to conceal (her trauma and identity). There are multiple points in the series where we see these mechanisms are triggered. During the dinner with Mr. Heart (Vision's boss) and Mrs. Heart, Wanda unwittingly makes Mr. Heart choke on his food when he asks about the time of her marriage and why they have no children. We also see Wanda using her reality warping ability to "edit" the scene where Vision becomes suspicious about this manufactured reality. Furthermore, when Monica Rambeau accidentally makes a note of the death of Wanda's brother, Wanda immediately cast her out of the Hex. Finally, one notable characteristic of Wanda's reality is that there are no children present; we later learn that Wanda actually uses mind-control to ensure that all children of Westview are imprisoned and kept out of her sight. Wanda's actions communicate her attempt to block out and delet anything that contradicts the harmony within the Hex or reminds her of her past trauma - her brother's death, her inablity to procreate with her significant other, and the fact that this reality is merely a manufactured fantasy. However, in later episodes we also see that many elements within the Hex start to crumble: the furnitures in her house start to glitch, the stork uncontrollably interrputs the scenes, etc. These phenomena symbolize the backlashing of her undealted trauma, which has grown into something so choatic that even Wanda can't force into her unconsciousness anymore.

Confronting with the Shadow

Wanda's interaction with Agatha, the main "villain" of this series, is especially intriguing to me. Towards the end of the series, we realize that, with the intention to understand and steal Wanda's power, Agatha has been an imposter in the Hex who secretly pulls the strings to manipulate her. However, it is also through Agatha's interrogation that Wanda is forced to face her past traumas furthermore, it is also through the conversations with Agatha that Wanda probes key information about her purpose of becoming the Scarlet Witch and how to cast the runes (which became the key incantation she used to defeat Agatha at the end). Through the nuances of this character development, I realized that, if the Hex represent Wanda's psyche, then Agatha is the physical menisfetation of the Shadow in Jungian Psychology. According to Jung, the shadow is the unkown, dark side of the psyche that consist of our inferior, repressed self; meanwhile, the Shadow also contains undiscovered potential of the self that can only be harvested if one is willing to confront and dive into this unkown, choatic realm of the psyche; it is through "having conversations" with and integrating the shadow that we can unmask our true potential and become whole. This substentially correponds to Wanda's relationship with Agatha: Agatha initially serves as a corrupting force that manipulates Wanda; however, as Agatha attempts to uncover Wanda's past memories through a magical portal, she basically walks Wanda through every stage of her trauma and treasurable moments. Furthermore, it's also through Agatha that Wanda learns about her own potential (such as manipulating Choas magic and being destined to become the Scarlet Witch). Here, the Shadow has transformed from an enemy into a mentor. Eventually, Wanda was not only able to gain the courage to make peace with her trauma (by unmaking the Hex), but she was also able to absorb Agatha's power, making her stronger than ever.

Now, let's shift the focus onto ourselves. Don't we all, just like Wanda, attempt to create our own Hex when we encounter sufferings in life? We build "walls" to isolate out things that trigger unwanted memories; we surround ourselves with people who verify and play along with our script; we turn away from the Shadow of the self despite it's disruption of our mind and behaviors. We use alcohol, psychoactive drugs, and hedonistic lifestyle to grant a temorary escape to a reality where all the troubles don't exist. We attempt to gain superiority over our trauma, but ironically, the harder we try to eradicate these trauma or furnish them into something they're not, the more they haunt us.

The more we ignore the Shadow, the more susceptible we are to become its slave. The true way to resolve trauma is to acknowledge their existence and direct them outward through healthy behaviors. In this way, we progressively integrate and coexist with the shadow, from which we would draw strength and finally become able to fulfill our purpose in life.