Wicked the Musical: Wickedness of prejudice system in Oz.

In Stephen Schwarts's 2003 broadway smash hit Wicked, the musical presents

audiences with another side of the magical world of Oz that questions if wickedness comes from

who you are or what society has labeled you to be. One of the musicals themes portrays

conflicts of discrimination and prejudice throughout the differences of people in Oz from the

treatment of Sentient Animals to the vilification of the main character for her green pigmented

skin color. The musical world-building of prejudice eerily reflects the current issues of

globalization on discrimination and stereotyping of neighboring countries. Audiences will get to

learn from this musical the dangers of prejudice as they get to experience the backstory of the

central character Elphaba and how her title the wicked witch of the west was unfairly given to

her.

The main character Elphaba is portrayed as a flawed woman whose character has been

shaped by a lifetime of facing the prejudices of her peers and the brutality of the Ozian

government. At her birth, the first words given by her father were that Elphaba's existence was

“Nothing but obscene”. This is due to Elphaba being born with unusual green skin color. Due to

her unique color which makes her different no one accepts her as normal. The citizens of Oz’s

reactions to her skin color are metaphors of racial prejudice against a very specific minority.

Thus, with Elphaba’s parents being in the position of Eminent Thropp, the highest social class in

munchkinland, they refused to consider Elphaba as part of the family even if she is extremely

talented in magic. Later on in the story the audience gets to know Elphaba doesn’t disdain her

family, instead blames herself to be the reason for the misfortunes as her mother's death and

her sister's disability were said to be because of her skin. Elphaba grew up believing she was

hideous and decided to embrace being an outcast as she becomes pessimistic towards those

who scorn her. The character was never the antagonist of the story as her point of view shows
kindness towards those she loves but is seen as one due to citizens' prejudice and her initial

problems of socializing. This conflict can also be addressed on how many people globally see

each other in first impressions on their ethnicity and base their behavior behind it.

In all of Act l, the University of Shiz showcases how prejudice in a community can

oppress a minority. We see how much of an outcast Elphaba is from her peers as she attends

Shiz University with her sister Nessarose and is immediately called names and vilified by the

students for her skin color. The environment and population of the school are very prestigious

for it only allows nobles from the different nations of Oz. The students that attend are very

protective of their status, so they are picky with choosing groups of friends. This mentality of the

students of Shiz especially affects Elphaba as the students try to distance themselves from her.

They even go so far into creating rumors about her existence. In contrast, when the students of

shiz hear that a very prestigious girl from Gilikin named Galinda (later renamed Glinda) they

immediately surround her with praise and condemn Elphaba for being her roommate. The

strongest scene of the musical that exemplifies the prejudice in Elphaba’s life is in the song

What is this Feeling?. This song shows Glinda and Elphaba singing hyperboles about their

judgments about each other's appearance and perception even if later on in the story they are

very much alike when they get to know each other. The two initially disliked each other because

they only saw one another for the extremes of what they are; Elphaba as a green monster and

Glinda as a “snobby blond girl”.

The story does give a message on how people can get past prejudice by seeing the

development of Elphaba and Glinda’s relationship. In the beginning, they started as mortal

enemies that hated their personalities and flaws. However that all changed when Glinda

realized the act of kindness Elphaba did for her as she invited her to the wizarding track in Shiz.

By realizing that her roommate isn’t as heartless as her friends tell her, Glinda decides to bond
with Elphaba by teaching her how to fit in with the crowd. Ever since then they both begin to

understand each other and grow from their relationship, instead of belittling each other. Both are

close to getting their dreams to come true and helping each other out their time in shiz.

However, when meeting the wizard and learning their schemes, they learned their dreams aren’t

perfect and they made them out to be. Both of them had to be there for each other as to try to

help each other throughout the situation. This culminates in the musical's hit song Defying

Gravity, where the two make a choice after learning the injustice made by the fraud that is the

wizard. The symbolism is clear in its name that Elphaba declares that she was content in being

labeled as wicked because she and Elphaba know that whatever decision they make is on their

own terms. Elphaba wants to take the risk and fight the Wizard's unjust rule of controlling

animals, while Glinda wants to stay silent to protect who she loves. Instead of seeing each other

as monsters for what they do next, they instead understood why they made their decision and

ultimately wished each other the best in their chosen life. At this point of the story, the audience

learns that understanding a person will always be better than choosing to know them for what

they did or who they are.

In Act ll, the audience learns how understanding one another can bring a significant

impact on their lives as we get to see how Elphaba and Galinda go forward with their choices.

Both characters get what they want in the end as both live their best lives but still face the

consequences of their choice. Oz has become more hostile towards Elphaba’s actions as it has

been misinformed through rumors and the Wizard that she is committing evil actions. Glinda on

the other hand is lying to herself about her happiness as she regrets being silent and leading on

the lies for so many years. When they had their reunion, they still questioned the decisions they

made since none of it led them to be happy. However, both of them still care for each other till

the end of the story when they have to say goodbye to each other for the sake of Oz. Elphaba
has to fake her death so that the citizens of Oz can calm down and the Wizard can be

blackmailed to leave Oz. In their last song together, For Good'', they reflect on their relationship

as it was presented in multiple metaphors such as “like a seed dropped by a sky bird In a

distant wood”, as to say thanks for having an impact on their lives. It is because of their time

together they have been changed for good. In the context of today’s society, if all of us try to

understand one another, who can say that the impact will be good or bad? What matters is that

the chance to communicate with one another can bring change to the world.

One of the elements of the story that felt lacking was the missed opportunity for the

wicked to teach the audience how to speak out against prejudice by learning from the character

Doctor Dillamond. During Elphaba’s time at the University, she had an encounter with Doctor

Dillamond, a talking goat who is the history professor for the college. He was the only animal

professor in Shiz, so he was regularly subjected to discrimination by the students. In one of his

classes with Elphaba, one of the students put on the board “Animals should be seen and not

heard”, as it tells dillamond that he should not be teaching. It is clear to see that there is a

problem in Oz with the treatment of sentient animals and their place in human society. He even

states that something bad will happen to the animals in the future, which is proven to be true as

the Almighty Wizard is trying to strip them of their rights and remove their ability to speak. His

goal is to speak out against the issue until his dying breath. The only person that is sympathetic

toward Dillamonds situation was Elphaba because she also has experienced discrimination, but

asks to brush the feeling off. However, before any development of his character, he was

imprisoned and stripped of his voice by the Wizard. The only contribution of Doctor Dillamond

was to foreshadow the Wizard's plans that happened in Act II and ultimately become a static

character as we last see him do nothing in rebelling against the wizard. The ending ultimately

concludes that the world of Oz still has prejudice and the conflict of animal oppression is still
unknown. We only get a glimmer of hope as Glinda the Good witch tells the story of Elphaba,

the wicked witch of the west, to the curious citizens. At first viewing people who watched the

musical can forget the advocacy to spread what they learned from wicked because it was a

passing and not an explicit mention in the beginning. If the idea was reinforced more by Doctor

Dillamond in the second Act the audience would be happy to spread the underlying message of

the story.

Overall, The underlying theme of prejudice in wicked is relevant in the current situation of

globalization. We see through its story how discrimination is created through a clash of seeing

people's differences and the hesitance of others to accept them. It is only until we try to

understand each other that every nation on earth can live together in harmony. It is ironic to say

that Elphaba’s green skin was represented as evil by the people of Oz. Throughout the story,

most of her actions were selfless and good. This truly brings a new meaning to “don’t judge a

book by its cover”.