Wicked

One of the highlights of my winter vaca was the chance to go see Wicked at Proctor’s theater. I received tickets for my birthday and I was eagerly anticipating the show. As I suspected, it was fantastic. The sets were incredible, the story was poignant and beautiful, and the music was simply inspiring. I left the theater thoroughly pleased and wishing I could see it again. I liked the show so much I started talking about it with anyone that would listen. The one question everyone asked me after I blathered on about the show was – Did you read the book? The answer was no, I had not read the book. In fact I had put off reading it for a long time thinking that it was wordy and dense. But I felt ridiculous saying this, particularly because I am an English teacher, so this week I picked up Wicked, and this time, I didn’t couldn’t put it down.

For those of you that don’t know, Wicked is the story of Elphaba (aka the wicked witch of the west) before Dorothy shows up in Oz. As I initially suspected, the book is dense and it can take some serious time to get through it. However, I have also realized that it is worth it. The story focuses on the beginnings of Elphaba’s life, her time at Shiz university where she befriends Glinda (aka the good witch of the north) and how their friendship and personalities develop through their numerous encounters. There are so many themes that are pertinent throughout the text it is impossible to discuss them all in one post. There are allusions to scapegoating, intolerance, racial and gender prejudices, theological battles, and-the most ubiquitous of them all- the question of the nature of good and evil. Gregory Maguire has an intense and incredible imagination, and his story, though fantastical in nature, is  timeless.

The idea that you can’t escape from as you read the book is the question: What is the true nature of evil? It seems like a straightforward idea but the more one reads about Elphaba the more difficult the question becomes. Elphaba is idealistc, intelligent, serious and of course, green. She encounters loads of intolerance for her strange color from everyone, including her parents, and this has a serious effect on her persistent and hardened nature. She cannot be classified as entirely good but it is also impossible to describe her as a bad (or wicked) individual. She fights, terrorist-like, for the rights of Animals as they are slaughtered and silenced; her passion is overwhelming and incredibly moving. But at the same time she has an affair with a married man and is most likely responsible (to some degree) for his supposed death. So, is she admirable for protecting living beings from genocide, or a cold blooded terrorist that kills for the greater good? Is her love affair for Fiyero beautiful and pure or is she a mistress, keeping a husband from his family and putting him in harms way? Hard to determine, isn’t it? It is difficult to hate her and very easy to admire her ideals and convictions, but even this can be somewhat confusing. Even Elphaba herself constantly questions her own motivations and actions. This is proven when Elphaba thinks to herself, ”But the witch stopped herself short, hearing her words about Madame Morrible-she had a choice-and echo of what the Elephant Princess Nastoya had once said to her: No one controls your destiny. Even at the very worst-there is always a choice.”

Elphaba questions her choices the same way that we do after we have had time to reflect. This makes her very human and imperfect. It’s all the more endearing because, as the dwarf says to her, “You try very hard at life.” It’s true. Elphaba tries very hard at life, just like the rest of us. I question the choices I make or have made and wonder if I am a good person in this world. What does it mean to be a good person in this world? Do we really do anything purely for good without some kind of benefit to ourselves? These are tricky questions, ones that we can ask over and over again without ever really finding a satisfying answer. The sad fact is that there is, and always will be, good and evil present in every human being. Elphaba is not perfect, but she tries. Over and over again she tries to stand up for others and to stand up for herself. I think this is what I love about her character the most. She may fail but she never stops trying.

One of the most admirable aspects of this book is that Gregory Maguire forces readers to ask themselves some very deep questions. As I said earlier it can be a bit dense at times but it is worth it. It will, no doubt, reinvent your thinking about the wicked witch of the west as you knew her, and perhaps get you to  think about your own life, and just how much goodness or wickedness you may have within yourself.

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