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1. The Root of Evil
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 leaves Illswater for the nearby Rush Margins, he pulls out two letters from a cousin—also a minister—and reads them again. His cousin warns about the Clock of the Time Dragon, a traveling puppet show powered by magic that supposedly reveals the future, often through dramatic and scandalous performances. The show has started attracting larger crowds, and to Frex, it’s a clear example of the idolatry he’s trying to stop. He thinks about all the weeks he left Melena alone while he traveled to spread the word of the unionists’ Unnamed God, and how much he’s sacrificed to keep society from falling into what he sees as corruption.
To Frex, the Clock of the Time Dragon is the pinnacle of sin, a symbol for everything that threatens to destabilize his sense of righteous order. His commitment to the Unnamed God is a sacrifice that feels noble to him but mostly hollow to Melena, who is left isolated by her husband as a result. Frex’s battle is as much against imagined enemies as real ones, and in obsessing over society’s corruption, he fails to see how his absence impacts his own household.
Themes
