Theme Essay

In Gregory Maguire’s Wicked, time turns back and readers are transported to a different

kind of Oz than Frank L. Baum remembers: before the wizard ruled, before the man of tin was

metallic, and before the loathsome witch was wicked. Maguire paints a delicate yet frightening

depiction of the childhood and young adulthood of an opinionated, passionate, and essentially

good girl named Elphaba, who grows to be that Wicked Witch. This novel proves that Elphaba’s

turn for the worse is no hand dealt by fate; it is the characters she interacts with along the way

that change her, encourage her to become who she became. Elphaba’s case is perfect proof that

one individual can change the course of another’s life.

Elphaba’s college years are probably the most eventful as far as personages go, meeting

many teachers and student alike who are drawn to her, or she to them. Dr. Dillamond, a Goat

professor at the University of Shiz (Goat being capitalized to indicate that this animal has human

qualities, such as speech and thought), quickly takes her under his hoof, so to speak, employing

her a scribe for his research. Enraptured by his discoveries, Elphaba goes above and beyond,

recruiting other students to help the Doctor discover the differences between animals and

Animals in hope of reversing the newly applied restrictions on Animal rights. However, with the

apparent murder of Doctor Dillamond, deemed as an accident by the school’s administration, the

research is permanently stopped, with no one qualified enough to continue his studies. This

tragic “accident” sends Elphie into her first downward spiral, leaving the college and devoting

her life to the Animal Relief League as an undercover agent. She once says to her short-term

lover Fiyero of her dedication to the cause, “I am married, just not to a man” (Maguire 245). Dr.

Dillamond, even in death, proved to alter her life in a drastic manner, leading her down a path of

violent opposition to central authority and a general resentment for rules. Even when the phase as
an extreme Animal activist is through, her love for Animals is evident throughout the novel,

showing the lasting effects of Dillamond and his research.

While some characters similar to Doctor Dillamond influenced Elphaba heavily towards

the path of destruction and her eventual demise, other characters swayed her on a smaller scale,

affecting a single decision she made or a sentence she said. When the foreigner Dorothy arrives

and dumps the water on Elphaba’s head, the woman’s life flashes before her not in events, but in

faces. Elphie recalls as her last memory, “A ring of expectant faces before the light dims… they

become others… and the ones whose stories are over… and the ones who fell to the Wizard…

and the creatures of makeshift lives… the Goddess of Gifts last” (Maguire 514-515).

In the final drowning moments of her life, Elphaba remembers every face and name that

affected her, some of those she had not seen for many years. The lasting effects friends, family,

critics, and colleagues had on her changed one young preacher’s daughter with a birth defect into

one of the most infamous people in Oz. Individuals can alter the course of another one’s life,

making every encounter an inerasable mark on someone else’s slate.