Elphaba, a Wicked Failure

1381 Words6 Pages
In the novel Wicked, Gregory Maguire states, “Virtually every campaign she’d [Elphaba] set out for herself had ended in failure” (Maguire 362). No other statement could depict the life of Elphaba as clearly as this. She never once succeeded in a single obstacle that she set out to accomplish. Throughout the novel this theme is clearly illustrated when she attended school, became an assassin, tried to kill again, sought forgiveness from Sarima and tried to gain possession of Nessarose’s shoes. Elphie’s primary goal in life was never even reached. During her years at Shiz University, Elphaba’s initial goal was to assist Dr. Dillamond in his research for gaining Animal rights. She spent many semesters, including her summers, devoted to Dillamond’s research on finding similarities between Animals and humans. She even recruited other students to aid in the research. This was the first long term goal Elphaba had ever devoted all of her time to, and she pursed it enthusiastically. Regrettably, Elphaba did not accomplish her mission. After the shocking murder of Dr. Dillamond, the movement for Animal rights was almost nonexistent. The information that the doctor had acquired from his research was destroyed, leading to the downfall of the rest of the Animal rights that may have remained. The Animal rights movement never gained the momentum that it once had; therefore, Animals were never granted the rights equal to humans. The total deterioration of their rights can be seen through an observation made by Fiyero, regarding the Gale Force trying to constrain a group of Bears, “Below, because the Bears had not stood to join the line up, the soldier raised his cudgel and it came down on the skull of the cub” (Maguire 203). It was made very apparent that an innocent Animal could be battered for not complying with the orders of the humans. In conclusion, it can be seen that
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