Character Study of Elphaba Thropp

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Tim Grindle Instructor Hazel English 111-400 24 March 2012 No One Mourns the Wicked Many of us grew up reading L. Frank Baum’s classic tales of Oz and fans watching the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz afraid of the Wicked Witch. Wicked the hit Broadway musical tells the back story of the two witches of Oz named Elphaba: the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good. Wicked, the musical, was originally written as a novel by Gregory Maguire called, Wicked: The Life and Time of The Wicked Witch of the West. The book and the musical bring a better understanding to Elphaba’s life behind the iconic green skin and pointed black hat. You will soon realize that Elphaba is not as wicked as everyone thought she was. One of Elphaba’s passions is her relationship with the talking Animals of Oz. The Animals are capitalized with an “A” because they hold civil rights equal rights to humans. Dr. Dillamond is one of the Animals, a Goat professor with whom Elphaba grew very close. Her strong support as an activist for Animal rights speak out immediately when the message on the blackboard showed up, “Animals should be seen and not heard.” Another example to her supportive action is, when a baby Lion Cub is brought to class in a cage after Dillamond’s removal from the University. Elphaba was not too happy about the idea of the Animals kept in cages and never speaking, so she rescued the Lion Cub and set him free. Later we will discover that the Lion Cub, was indeed the Cowardly Lion. Elphaba’s actions speak just as loudly as her words. Her first day at Shiz University with her disabled wheelchair bounded sister Nessarose, was very straightforward with the other students. Knowing she was going to be stared down on, Elphaba got straight to the point and let everybody know that she has always been green, with a little bit of a sarcastic input not caring

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