Wicked Witches

In line with the general trend of role reversal that has seemed to overtake modern day iterations of classical stories, the contemporary witch has become more a role of empowerment and celebration of the breaking of societal norms than a cautionary tale of transgressiveness.  “Consorting with the devil, who in turn urged all to violate God’s commandments, women were seemingly natural recruits to a culture of ultimate defiance in which the consecration of witchcraft was the Sabbat’s copulation with the devil and his worshipers, an unrestrained orgy of intercourse, sodomy, fellatio, mutual masturbation, incest, and group sex (Palmer 56).  During the time of the witch hunts when such thoughts of what witchcraft signified ran rampant, society thought of transgressive attitudes as untoward and wholly unacceptable.  As described in Palmer’s writings such individuals were thought to have committed such unnatural actions and sexual acts that many described as deeply sinful and possibly even satanic.  This attitude converses greatly with the more modern iterations of the witch that treat such attitudes of self-empowerment and strength.  One such modern witch, Elphaba from the play Wicked offers a perfect example.  Whereas in the original characterization of the Wicked Witch of the West the green-skinned deviant acted as the antagonist to, the for the most part normal, Dorothy, in the more recent retelling the witch is given a name, a life, and a cause that the audience can admire.  Instead of an advocate of chaos and evil she acts as a rebellious free spirit who fights for what she believes in without a care for what others might think.   Like the witches in the readings Elphaba is looked down upon.  The people around her, the society in which she resides see her as monstrous.  Seen as evil and very much hunted down.  So on the surface there is little difference between this modern witch and the historical ones.  Deviation instead comes into play when one takes the audience of such tales into consideration.  When pamphlets and cautionary tales of witch hunts and burnings spread across Europe they had the intention of instigating social control and warnings to not stray from the social norm, because to do so meant straying to evil.  With this new wicked witch of the west however, instead what once society oppressed and denounced as evil now presents itself as something to celebrate.  A symbol of courage, of steadfast belief, and resilience.  Somewhere the goal became not to oppress, but to admire those who stand against oppression.  And when that shift occurred witches changed from the antagonist to the protagonists.