Elphaba is the name given to the Wicked Witch of the West in
the novel Wicked: The Life and Times of
the Wicked Witch of the West and soon after, the Broadway musical hit,
Wicked. You can consider this a sort of
re-visioning from the classic outlook of a traditional evil antagonist from the
original piece of writing known as The
Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
The story of Elphaba is born with green skin. She goes through a childhood filled with
discrimination and loneliness in a way while making choices leading up to
become one of the most “evil” (misunderstood) villains in their world. If one were to consider this in relation to
the decade this work was created, you can view this topic of discrimination as
one of the common facts of most schools in America. Many people who looked different were simply
discriminated as a whole due to the simple fact they were different. It seems to be human nature to simply not
include those different from the norm although they may be similar to us than
they appear. This is in turn making a
historical statement that although people may LOOK different from us, does not
mean that they are and we should not make quick judgements.
If one were to take this in parallel to Palmer’s writing on
witches of the early modern period, you can see Elphaba as one of the classic
views in olden times. She broke many
rules and laws of society in order to simply have a happier time at life. She may have not been a witch filled with
lust for Satan or Satanic beliefs though it did run counter to society’s norms
creating fear due to the unknown and the want to eliminate such
difference. Relating to Palmer’s reading
is the fact he brings up The Wonderful
Wizard of Oz’s representation of the wicked witch of the west in order to
prove his point about witches being subject to evil, repulsive, and highly
eroticized. This differs greatly from
the new work that Elphaba is placed in.
That difference can show how much the culture has changed into making a
witch who was known for placing fear into the unknown and the olden
discrimination of witches in check, into one that represents modern
discrimination (although it has happened throughout history anyways) due to
race or possibly gender roles.
I thought the comparison of the original motion picture to the modern retelling Wicked was very interesting. The classic story of an evil unknown and powerful woman who needs to die is flipped on its head when the background of the wicked witch Elphaba is given. The detailed look into Elphaba’s education and the way she was treated by her peers tells a much different story. In the Wizard of Oz she gets no background story and is even made green to exemplify a racist comparison. Recently there has been a trend in powerful witches being thought of as good or at least not necessarily evil. The Wizard of Oz and Wicked is a very similar story to my post comparing Sleeping Beauty to the recent movie Maleficent. Half a century of social change can be very clearly demonstrated by watching either of these productions.
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