The History of the Wicked Witch of The West
What originally started as "What are the effects of Wicked in popular culture?" and quickly became "Why we need Wicked as a society."
I wish to preface this with the fact that (A) this piece was not worked on for several weeks and when picked up again I did not reread the entirety and rather focused on my new perspective of this “think piece”, therefore (B) the writing may be slightly choppy as I change gears midway through the redaction and for this I apologize. I hope it reflects the nature of my conflicting perspectives, even if it makes the piece a bit more difficult to read.
Welcome to the Yellow Brick Road
We all have heard the story of ‘The Wizard of Oz’, the technicolor movie a classic in all childhoods as we grew up hearing of the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow who accompanied Dorothy to the Emerald City. Dorothy, a girl so similar to the viewer that if you closed your eyes you could feel the wondrous world of Oz. The tale of a girl tired of her boring hometown who finds release when a tornado takes her to an alternate world of magic and color.
I dressed as Dorothy at least twice for Halloween, carrying my favorite dog plush in a wicker basket as I screamed ‘trick-or-treat' among the neighborhood children. Dorothy was a special character to me, a girl who finds something acute to my childhood definition of true happiness. Which child wouldn’t love to abandon the mundane for the mystical? Point me to the direction of one adult who can testify for their lack of interest in the magical as a child and I will find a liar.
The tale of the Wizard of Oz is simple: When a tornado rips through Kansas, Dorothy and her dog, Toto, are whisked away from their house to the magical land of Oz. They follow the Yellow Brick Road toward the Emerald City to meet the Wizard, and during their travels, they meet a Scarecrow who wishes for a brain, a Tin Man in need of a heart, and a Cowardly Lion who dreams of courage.
The wondrous world of Oz was quick to become a classic, the fantasy plot and visually stunning use of color cementing it as a key piece of cinema for years to come. Childhood nightmares became plagued with images of the boogeyman and ‘the Wicked Witch of the West’ for generations to come. The presentation of the ‘Wicked Witch of the West’ created a shift in the way popular culture would remember witches from then forward.
Alexandra Hohmann in her thesis “Elphaba Lives!: Reimagining the Witch in Wicked” introduces the preconceived notion of the witch as follows: “We have all been presented with the figure of the witch at some point in our lives, whether we encounter the witch in a fairy tale, book, television show, or movie. Most often the witch is evil and seeks to destroy the protagonist; perhaps the best-known witch in American literature and cinema is L. Frank Baum's Wicked Witch. However, in his novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Gregory Maguire makes the witch herself the main character, shattering the reader's preconceived notions.”
Wicked - the novel - was initially published in 1995 by Gregory Maguire, this novel received fairly positive reviews during its publication. Publishers Weekly called it a "fantastical meditation on good and evil, God and free will" which combined "puckish humor and bracing pessimism”. (Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, n.d.) This novel was praised for the reimagining of the Wizard of Oz, as a captivating and morally grey approach to one of the most feared figures of popular culture at the time.
The New York Times was a notable outlier, criticizing the novel's politics and moral relativism. Reviewer Michiko Kakutani argued that Maguire "shows little respect for Baum's original story." Wicked, she felt, "turns a wonderfully spontaneous world of fantasy into a lugubrious allegorical realm, in which everything and everyone is labeled with a topical name tag. (Kakutani, 1995)
Today, if you were to look at the reviews of Wicked you would receive varying opinions, with users praising or criticizing the novel at varying extremisms. According to Gazette (2021), “The novel has sold more than 5 million copies, 80 percent of them since the musical bowed in 2003. The story is now largely seen through that lens as a feel-good friendship between two very different empowered women. But at its root remains the cautionary tale planted by Maguire about what happens when we as a society decide to label anyone who differs from the norm as evil. Like Elphaba, whose only crime (at first) was being of a different color.”
With the re-release of Wicked in different artistic mediums the perception of this classic novel has changed, but to understand current opinions, we must look back at the original version of Wicked.
The Thoughtless Scarecrow
Gregory Maguire revealed in an interview with the Denver Center for Performing Arts the inspiration behind Wicked, in which he references the nature of crime. Nature or nurture is a common conundrum within criminological spaces, unsure whether someone is born evil or is molded into it. In the words of Gregory Maguire: “I became interested in the nature of evil, and whether one really could be born bad. I considered briefly writing a novel about Hitler but discarded the notion due to my general discomfort with the reality of those times. But when I realized that nobody had ever written about the second most evil character in our collective American subconscious, the Wicked Witch of the West, I thought I had experienced a small moment of inspiration. Everybody in America knows who the Wicked Witch of the West is, but nobody really knows anything about her. There is more to her than meets the eye.” (DCPA Press, 2024)
In “The Death of the Author” Roland Barthes shines a light on the modern consumption of literature, the essay was originally published several years before the release of Wicked, yet the sentiment still pertains. “The modern writer (scriptor) is born simultaneously with his text; he is in no way supplied with a being which precedes or transcends his writing, he is in no way the subject of which his book is the predicate; there is no other time than that of the utterance, and every text is eternally written here and now.” (The Death of the Author, 1967)
For this reason, I wish to delve lightly into the political climate of the 1990s in the United States before broaching the political themes within Wicked.
According to An Outline of American History (1994) “For most Americans the 1990s would be a time of peace, prosperity, and rapid technological change. Some attributed this to the "Reagan Revolution" and the end of the Cold War, others to the return of a Democrat to the presidency. During this period the majority of Americans - political affiliation aside - asserted their support for traditional family values, often grounded in their faiths. New York Times columnist David Brooks suggested that the country was experiencing "moral self-repair," as "many of the indicators of social breakdown, which shot upward in the late 1960s and 1970s, and which plateaued at high levels in the 1980s," were now in decline.”
The 1990s marked the polarization of politics within the US. House Speaker Newt Gingrich's use of "asymmetric constitutional hardball" led to increasing polarization in American politics driven primarily by the Republican Party. “From 1994 to 2014, the share of Americans who expressed either "consistently liberal" or "consistently conservative" opinions doubled from 10% to 21%. In 1994, the average Republican was more conservative than 70% of Democrats, compared to more conservative than 94% of Democrats in 2014. The average Democrat went from more liberal than 64% of Republicans to more liberal than 92% of Republicans during the same era.” (Doherty, 2024)
Economically, the 1990s started with a recession. The unemployment rate rose from 5.4% in January 1990 to 7.8% in June 1992. Unemployment remained above 7% until July 1993, and above 6% until September 1994. It was not until technological advancements and various forms of public investment that the economic climate changed. The total number of jobs in the U.S. grew by 28 million from 1990 to 2000.
These are important aspects to keep in mind when delving into the themes of Wicked, for art will forever be a reflection of the socioeconomic and political climate of the author during the piece's creation.
The most evident theme within Wicked is the nature of good and evil. The question of “nature or nurture”. On the 80th page of the novel we can come across this quote - “When goodness removes itself, the space it occupies corrodes and becomes evil, and maybe splits apart and multiplies. So every evil thing is a sign of the absence of deity.”
Quoting Themarlenamarie (2024), “Regardless of the truth, Elphaba becomes the Wicked Witch of the West. She falls into ‘evil’ while trying her best to be good. With all that she is, she becomes what others define themselves as evil.” This leaves the question, what is evil?
Howard S. Becker in his novel “The Sociology of Deviance” argues that crime (in this case, what I will use as a concept comparable to evil for the sake of argument) is no more than the typification of conduct. Crime, and therefore, “outsiders” are merely a result of the societal norms within the space and time they find themselves present in.
Likewise, Emile Durkheim in his theory “Fundamental Structuralism” argues that no community will find itself “free” from crime. Even when in a society of saints we will find those who commit acts that will be considered antisocial, the only difference between these individuals and us will be the standards they are upheld by.
The evilness - or lack thereof - of the characters is a central point of the story, the novel is inspired by the nature of this arbitrary force that cannot be determined where it came from.
“To the grim poor there need be no pour quoi tale about where evil arises; it just arises; it always is. One never learns how the witch became wicked, or whether that was the right choice for her — is it ever the right choice? Does the devil struggle to be good again, or if so is he not a devil? It is at the very least a question of definitions.” page 231.
Although this is not the only theme within Wicked, it becomes the most well known as this novel is adapted into other mediums.
The themes within Wicked are very showing of the times. The radicalized religion as demonstrated by Nessa and her unnamed god, racism as shown between Animals (capital A), animals (lowercase A), and humans, as well as the differences between the human races: Winkies, Quadlings, Gillikinese, Gilikuns, and Munchkins.
Political undertones carry throughout the novel, quoting Foster (2024) “Maguire’s book reimagines Oz as a society riddled with oppression and injustice where the ‘wonderful’ wizard himself is an Adolf Hitler-esque dictator. Themes of systemic discrimination and oppression permeate the story, with the famous yellow-brick road being built by munchkin slave labor and the plight of the animals which many have equated with the Holocaust. To further make his point, the names ‘Wicked’ and ‘Hitler’ both have two syllables and six letters with two of them in common. When asked in an interview if readers could infer a connection between the title of his book and the world’s most reviled villain of the past century, Maguire made clear that ‘that was no accident’.”
The Heartless Tin Man
“Wicked” also serves as a Broadway musical crafted by Stephen Schwartz, it consists of a nearly 3-hour musical performance divided into two acts. It was performed for the first time on October 3rd, 2003 before an official opening on October 30th.
The idea of Wicked as a musical surged in 1996, when Stephen Schwartz was on vacation, and he quickly realized the possibility of the novel's dramatic adaptation. However, Universal Pictures already obtained the rights from the author, planning to produce a live-action movie. In 1998, Schwartz successfully persuaded Maguire to obtain stage production rights. He also made an ‘impassioned plea’ to Marc Platt, the Universal producer for obtaining permission. The pitch convinced Platt who subsequently came on board as the joint producer of the entire project, with David Stone and Universal also joining as producers. (The Story Behind the Popular Musical “Wicked,” n.d.)
Wicked, through its adaptation maintained its political edge. In the words of Gregory Maguire: “I will say that a great deal of what I think of as the dark serious part of the book has been retained. It has been touched with another kind of magic so that it passes unto the eyes in a different way”.
Since 2003, there have been over 8000 performances of Wicked, and is currently considered one of the longest-running Broadway musicals. Wicked throughout the years has collected a very devoted fanbase at a worldwide level. The original actresses - Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth - remain renowned figures within the musical theater industry.
The Cowardly Lion
Wicked hit theatres on November 22nd, 2024 with a 2-hour 40-minute film adaptation of the beloved musical. As of today, it has an 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 73% on MetaCritic cementing this film as a favored release among fans and newcomers alike. In the 2024-2025 award season, Wicked (part one) was awarded 106 accolades, and as of writing this, it holds approximately 40 nominations pending.
Ariana Grande - cast as Glinda - and Cynthia Erivo - cast as Elphaba - took the world by storm coming the release of the movie. Praised online for their vocals throughout Wicked and the phenomenal presentations of both characters. Both actresses previously worked on Broadway, their love for Wicked present throughout filming and press tours.
When I began writing this, I wished to question why Wicked became such a cultural phenomenon and its effects on popular culture. After watching the movie I was captivated by this world, anxious to save every cent I could to order the novels and it did not take long for this essay idea to come to mind.
I am picking this piece back up after several weeks of not working on it, after this break I can say with confidence the correct question to ask was never why Wicked was so important to us, but rather why we need media like Wicked in our society.
In “The Portrait of Dorian Gray”, Wilde redacts a series of prose for the preface. It is no surprise I managed to tie my favorite novel to this topic, yet I would argue that this preface can offer insight into the world of Wicked in popular culture. As follows are a few excerpts from this novel I wish to dissect.
“The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography.” Human bonds are formed based on sharing experiences. The theory of symbolic interactionalism argues that an individual is no more than the daily interactions that are repeated from the moment of birth until death. This theory then delves into the concept of neological barbarism, which considers the most important form of interaction as language. Language has become a fundamental aspect of our modern and ancient societies. Phonetics and writing became methods to share our thoughts and form bonds, but also, methods to store memories and create art. It is part of the human experience to indulge in different forms of media, sticking with those that evoke specific sensations within our souls.
We will read hundreds of stories by the time we die yet will only remember those we found ourselves in. I will forever be able to quote Dorian Gray and Tiny Beautiful Things for I have absorbed these pieces into my identity in a way. If you were to read my reviews on these books you would further see how much of myself I insert into the novel. My philosophical views or perspective on life mended into the words of the author respectively.
I believe one of the reasons we need pieces like Wicked is due to the impartiality these provide. It becomes easier to critique a political system detached from our society. It is easy to root for characters we see become targets of a system when we live in a society where most will become victims at a certain point in time.
“All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.” Wicked is at a surface level, a retelling of The Wizard of Oz. Regardless, we know this novel serves as a socio-political critique of the climate it was written in. This novel continues to be praised as it reflects the reality of the reader. Art mirrors the spectator more than the artist himself. Art does not interpret itself. We do not interpret art if we do not wish to.
It is for this reason I have changed my stance on Wicked, and therefore the thesis of this essay midway through writing. I do not wish to redact this piece again in all honesty, so it will maintain its raw form the moment I publish it.
Art pieces like Animal Farm, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Wicked, and Fahrenheit 451 are not praised solely for their impact on popular culture. These pieces are praised because we need them. I believe this is why criticism of these novels is always stark, and why analyzing these pieces forever involves reflecting on aspects we do not wish to acknowledge.
Those who go beyond the surface, do so at their peril.
Although Wicked has become a cultural phenomenon with hits like Popular and Defying Gravity and the iconic movie poster, it serves as a phenomenon of our culture in a way. Art reflects the climate in which the piece was created, but what happens when the climate does not change? Or changes, but never at its core? We live in societies based on socio-political power structures, regardless of where you are in the world you will find yourself drawn to a specific theme found within Wicked - a theme that is most likely present in your reality.
Art forms such as Wicked serve as a way for our subconscious to view aspects through a different lens, hence a deep feeling of comfort or discomfort when reading something we feel to our very core. This essay began with what the cultural impacts of Wicked were on our society, and I planned to dissect this by going through the three phases this piece of media has become. It is through this process I realized it was not how Wicked affected us, but rather how we affected Wicked.
The way we interpreted the themes within this novel changed slightly throughout the distinct periods of time. The original heavily influenced by the horrors of the Holocaust and the socio-political climate of the 1950s. The Broadway adaptation maintained its political edge because the political powers changed throughout its redaction. Wicked the Movie became such a hit not only due to the talented actresses but also because it has become the easiest form of media out of the three we can insert ourselves in.
The movie has made Wicked so easily available to the general population, and through the visual aspects provided by this art form, we can be quick to insert our reality into theirs. The question was never how art impacted us. The question will always be how we impact art.
It took me 5 pages to realize my grave error while redacting, I hope others do not make the same mistake.
“There is no such thing as a moral or an inmoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all” - Oscar Wilde, The Portrait of Dorian Gray (Preface)