Wicked: Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Part 3 explores the dynamics of sex, love, and power. Notably, Elphaba is her own role model for autonomy and self-confidence. Though lonely, Elphaba works tirelessly to make Oz a better place. Her most radical act of self-preservation is to cut off her entire past. She becomes estranged from her friends and family, with no guilt or desire to return to the people who showed her care. Just when Elphaba was finally making connections with people, she threw those relationships away to live more authentically and without boundaries. Lacking context for her decisions, Elphaba’s friends and family interpret her extreme independence as selfishness. As always, she remains an enigma to the people who desire her friendship.

In her relationship with Fiyero, she finally lets down her walls. In their increasingly intimate encounters, Maguire uses sex as a means to foster intellectual connection and demonstrate power dynamics. Fiyero uses sex to extract information from Elphaba about her terrorist organization, and Elphaba uses sex to connect without sentimental words. Sex is also a means for Elphaba and Fiyero to expend the urgent energy of their relationship. Both know that the relationship can’t last, what with Fiyero married and Elphaba in hiding. Their sexual connection allows them to exhaust their relationship before it’s too late.

Fiyero wants to help Elphaba, but she is reluctant to trust anyone. This is due in large part to the despotic political atmosphere of Oz. The Gale Force, a militant security force that targets Animals and defectors, has spies and informers everywhere. Even though she shares her space, body, and heart with Fiyero, Elphaba is always at risk of discovery. But her suspicion of other people is not a strength. Rather, Maguire depicts Elphaba as a young woman who sacrifices individual needs for a greater communal good. There is surely a middle ground between apathy and radical activism in which Elphaba can work toward the greater good while belonging to a loving community, but she gives herself wholly to her work. In keeping Fiyero away from her whole self, she dooms herself to a life of unhappiness.

Regardless, Fiyero is a good partner to Elphaba, particularly in his willingness to challenge her. By pointing out her hypocrisies, Fiyero demonstrates respect for Elphaba’s intellect and passions. His criticisms are important, as Elphaba’s isolation from society brings her further away from reality. Ironically, Elphaba, who always derided her father’s zealous religiosity, has made her own religion out of Animal Rights. Her life is so devoid of human company that she has lost touch with the human part of her that craves love, affection, and understanding. Fiyero reignites these desires, but he is not enough for her to reconsider her missions. Elphaba only realizes how important he is to her after his murder.

Maguire uses this section to emphasize his messages about community and social justice. He equates the ban on Animal Rights to historical events like the Holocaust, highlighting how easy it is for society to look the other way when governments commit genocide. Even the Gale Force officers are characterized by their youth and blond hair, evoking the Nazis’ Schutzstaffel (SS) paramilitary organization, which was widely feared for rounding people up and sending them to death camps. Maguire also points out how willful ignorance keeps society in chains. When Fiyero witnesses the attack on the Bear and her cub, he realizes that perhaps these horrific events have always occurred around him, but he chose to ignore them. It is easier for people to disregard the darker realities of society, particularly when they are not themselves the victims. Because Fiyero is well educated, intelligent, and compassionate, it is notable that good people like him are trying to see past the Wizard’s dictatorial policies.

Maguire also questions the value of the individual over society. Elphaba justifies the violence inherent in her work because she figures that the loss of one individual at the benefit of an entire society is acceptable. She includes herself in this prioritization of what should be sacrificed for the good of all. But Elphaba is also not honest with who or what the community she protects really is. Because Elphaba separates herself from society, she loses touch of exactly what her fight is for, and she does not witness the human ramifications of her work.

Her experiences working against the Wizard proposes an interesting backstory for the original Wicked Witch of the West. In Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West is depicted as a terrorist, and in this chapter, Maguire challenges his reader’s understandings of that characterization. Historically, underground alliances of paramilitaries are seen interchangeably as heroes or terrorists, depending on perspective. While some people may see Elphaba as a hero, others may justifiably call her a terrorist.

The chapter ends with the third reintroduction of Yackle. Yackle was the sorceress Nanny visited to get a potion for Melena’s second pregnancy, and Yackle was the sorceress who acted in seedy club and bar shows for Elphaba’s friends. Now, Yackle is a nun charged with caring for Elphaba. In this full-circle moment, Maguire points out that Elphaba can try to escape her past, but her past will always follow her.