“People always did like to talk, didn't they? That's why I call myself a witch now: the Wicked Witch of the West, if you want the full glory of it. As long as people are going to call you a lunatic anyway, why not get the benefit of it? It liberates you from convention.” ~(Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West). After reading this prompt, the first thing that popped into my head was the Broadway play, Wicked, where the we, the audience, get to experience the Wizards of Oz from the viewpoint of the wicked witch herself. This modern adaptation of the classic book of the same name written and published in 1995, clearly expresses the view of witches in our time. While this view may now be outdated, it should still hold water in the eyes of a casual observer or reader.
To take an easy stab at a comparable view of witches in the Broadway adaptation of the book, one can look to the opening number, 'No One Mourns the Wicked'. The play opens with this number and depicts a celebratory time now that the wicked witch of the west has been slain. Lyrics of this song, while seemingly celebratory, are contradicted by the verses sung by her sister, the good witch. Her verses seem to be an attempt to create sympathy toward her sister, the evil witch. The number concludes with an inquiry, "Are people born wicked, or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?" and continues to reveal that Elpheba, the evil witch, her sister, was conceived illegitimately and born green-skinned (after her mother drank a potion simply called "Green Elixir"), and consequently rejected by her father and cursed to a difficult childhood. In terms of Palmer, the depiction of Elpheba as a witch due to her metaphorical green coloring as well as the illegitimacy of her birth could be attributed to a comparative society of peasants and all associations of hallucinogenic food items.Further, this can be considered a metaphor for how such a child would be viewed in the eyes of those truly committed to the more extreme religious beliefs during the Inquisition and prior to that time. Since no time point is given for the Wizard of Oz and by extension, Wicked, that the the society of Oz can be used comparatively for a society dealing with witches between the 14th to 16th centuries.
Many equivalencies can be drawn between the motifs in Wicked to actual historical contexts. While this is a work of fiction and not actually an account of past, possible witch experiences, whether exaggerated or not, it speaks to the a modern interpretation of witches as the author or even the producers of the Broadway play intended. Further, the production of Wicked also speaks to the softening of the image of the 'witch' as two witches of varying alignments(good/evil) are present and either one can be viewed through either viewpoint(good/evil) with enough consideration.
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