`Wicked, The LIfe and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West` by Gregory Maguire

Wicked Review

When Dorothy triumphs over the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz , the reader rejoices with the same excitement as the rest of Oz . The notion that the Wicked Witch of the West might be a victim of circumstance isn 't even seen as an option , not until Maguire published his take on the story , Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West . At first glance a simple fairy tale , or a the continuation of a classic novel , Maguire 's book turns out to

be a feminist text in how it addresses the nature of sexual ideology and its ability to destroy women who don 't fit the criteria . More than just a victim , Maguire manages to turn the Wicked Witch into a heroin , a martyr killed by sexual prejudice

Maguire opens the text with two very powerful and significant quotes from two other great novelists , Daniel Defoe tis very strange men should be so fond of being wickeder than they are ' and Leo Tolstoy 's famous line from War and Peace In historical events great men - so-called - are but labels serving to give a name to the event , and like labels they have the least possible connection with the event itself Every action of theirs , that seems to them an act of their own free will , is in an historical sense not free at all , but in bondage to the whole course of previous history , and predestined from all eternity Defoe 's line simply implies that all men have the quality to be wicked and prepares the reader to sympathize with a character that until now they had been programmed to despise . Tolstoy 's line however implies a much deeper take on the book . This quote from War and Peace suggests that the role the Wicked Witch plays is predestined . This notion has a dual irony , one in that yes the character 's future is predestined because the story is a retelling of another tale , but her fate is predestined by the nature of Oz and its acceptance of her appearance By her actions being a product of society rejecting her , she becomes less wicked and more of a victim

These significant lines setup the message of the novel , which ironically has a plot that is already set in stone , giving the book even more depth and meaning . The question Maguire poses with these lines is whether good and evil really exist . There is no doubt that he depicts the Wicked witch as a heroin / victim , with which the reader has no choice but to sympathize . This is further demonstrated in the novel when Maguire shows other characters pitying the witch . The tin woodmen argues to the Lion that the Wicked witch was castrated at birth , and born hermaphroditic , the Lion argues that she was born deprived of a mother 's love , and the Scarecrow implies that she might be lesbian They say this all while the Witch listens from...