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Prologue: On the Yellow Brick Road
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Wicked, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Nature of Evil
Power and Oppression
Identity and Otherness
Destiny vs. Free Will
Guilt, Blame, and Forgiveness
Summary
Analysis
As Frex, a minister, prepares to deliver the day’s sermon, his pregnant wife, Melena, wonders if she will give birth today. Frex dreads the idea of missing the birth of his first child while off performing his sacred duties. He’s preoccupied with what he sees as rising “idolatry” and a decline in “traditional values” in Rush Margins, and he feels it’s his moral responsibility to speak out. While he spends the morning dwelling on society’s problems, Melena tunes him out, focused instead on the happiness she expects her baby—whom she assumes is a boy—will bring. Frex often directs his preaching at Melena, a dynamic she dislikes but has learned to tolerate throughout their marriage.
Frex’s conflict is one between public and familial duty, though he seems incapable of recognizing the cost of prioritizing preaching over his wife—his fixation on morality eclipses even Melena’s pregnancy. The way he often ministers at her makes their marriage seem like yet another place where he gets to exercise his authority, and she accepts a role she might not necessarily want. It’s critical to note that Melana seems certain her baby is a boy. Readers may already suspect her baby is female and is in fact the Wicked Witch of the West, setting the stage for Melana to perhaps suffer disappointment.
Themes
