Within the Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum the perceptions and perspective of the narratorand other characters portray the goodness of the four companions. The Wicked Witch of West is already preconceived as wicked because of her actions in the Wizard of Oz; however through Gregory Maguire’s specific use of perspective and narrator point of view, in Wicked, the view of the Wicked Witch as Elphaba and her “good” counterpart Galinda, the "Good Witch", is completely changed. In The Wizard of Oz Elphaba represented wickedness and the main obstacle that hindered Dorothy and her friends from achieving their noble goals. Therefore, while reading Wicked, Elphaba is already thought of as evil. The Wizard of Oz is written mostly in third person. However, when Dorothy kills the Wicked Witch of the West or Elphaba the description of the account is in her point of view. This distorts the emotions associated with Elphaba and the situation Elphaba is in with Dorothy. From Dorothy’s point of view Elphaba is evil and is preventing her from going home. To Elphaba, Dorothy and her friends are a rampant gang who have killed her sister and is now coming after her. Baum makes sure to portray an innocent Dorothy because she does not intend to kill the witch. Maguire uses similar perspective in Wicked as Baum did in The Wizard of Oz to portray events in favor of Elphaba.
In the prologue, Maguire uses Elphaba’s perspective to depict Dorothy and her friends as cruel. Maguire especially uses this technique to address why Elphaba is wicked. Through the use of specific situational portrayal, Maguire illustrates the story and Elphaba through the eyes of other characters. What we as the readers find, is that Elphaba in fact is not cruel or wicked in any way. She is instead kind, shy, quiet, and intelligent; that because she was different from the other girls she was treated wrongly causing her to manifest her wickedness. We also discover the warped perception of Galinda. She is, within The Wizard of Oz, the force of go
odness. Portrayed as beautiful and perfect in The Wizard of Oz, Galinda in Wicked is the source of a lot of Elphaba’s pain. Instead of viewing Elphaba as the evil witch she was portrayed as in The Wizard of Oz, she is now someone who you feel sympathy towards. Oppositely, Galinda is now the enemy or “wicked” character. Maguire created a contradictory character portrayal of Galinda because in Wicked she is portrayed as vain and shallow. Through careful consideration for perceptions Maguire is able to change the readers’ already preconceived notions of a character and create a question that drives his entire novel, what is wickedness?
Works CIted
“Dorothy Killing Witch” Image. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Wicked_Witch2.jpg/250px-Wicked_Witch2.jpg.
“Elphaba from Wicked” Image. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5QL6ugmpaxRtNw8sHW0_U1xiPdIuTNIHWrWqaHuAzx5cSIb5zkZX9dtASP_nWtlOdR6gMAVZJR61NZ94JQU1ldWVGU9WXptsvl5C_kb8eIywS92LevG9MJ-g85Gjm-wYcsKh4gGgbP0sd/s320/DougSmith_wicked.jpg
“Four Companions” Image. http://www.flickr.com/photos/autumnmarie/4080095454/
Maguire, Gregory. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. New York: ReganBooks, 1995.
I really like how you compare Baum's style of characterization of Dorothy to Maguire's style for Elphaba. I never though of that and can see many of the similarities now. Agreed Baum makes Dorothy very innocent and in a way Maguire also makes Elphaba seem innocent, however there are instances where see is quite harsh. For example when talking to Boq. Do you think it was Maguire's intention to start Elphaba as innocent and perhaps show her slowly corrupting? Or do you see any ways that Dorothy is a little corrupt?
ReplyDeleteI agree that the roles in "Wicked" switched. Galinda, who is supposed to be the good one, easily gives in to persuasion of Madam Morrible- the "Horrible Morrible". Though Elphaba is portrayed as shy and studious,as you are proving, her comments are often full of sarcasm. She makes others feel uncomfortable around her by telling the truth and not conforming. I would add to your point that Elphaba's personality is balanced between good and evil, while Galinda's good side is unrevealed.
ReplyDeletePerhaps wickedness is a self-perception. To Dorothy and her friends, the Wicked Witch is wicked because she makes them her slaves. To the Wicked Witch, Dorothy may be wicked because she killed the Witch's sister. In Wicked, Elphaba can be seen as evil because of her odd appearance. On the other hand, Galinda can be wicked for she enjoys gossiping about Elphaba. Wickedness varies in different relationsihps and incidents.
ReplyDeleteAnna--quick clarification: The Wicked Witch of the West has no name in Baum's original story. Can you go back to your article (especially the first paragraph) and take out references to that name when you're discussing TWWoOz, and then explicitly remind/inform your readers that in WICKED, Maguire gives her a name? I think that will help clear up some early confusion in figuring out whose version of the character you're discussing.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea in the end of this post that Elphaba's wickedness has been provoked by the people who have been so cruel to her her entire life. When we look at her from birth to now, we can see that growing up was harsh for her. Her mother was not fond of her and when she was taken to play with other children she was made fun of and not accepted. One of the children was Boq who clearly remembers her based on her green skin. Elphaba does not like that that is the reason that he remembers and is very cruel to him before she leaves his presence. She is treated as an outcast at school and it seems at home as well. I am interested to see how the rest of the novel goes and to see what all happens to Elphaba to turn her into the Wicked Witch of the West. Could it have something to do with Galinda perhaps? We know that she turns int the good witch and that she does not like the Wicked Witch of the West, so what happened?
ReplyDeleteAnna--a follow-up technical note: If the blue, underlined text in your opening several lines are your hyperlinks, they're not working. If they're not, you need to include three. Very cool links could be to definitions of "goodness" and "wickedness."
ReplyDelete