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4. Maladies and Remedies
Themes
and Colors
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
About a year and a half later, a tipsy Melena tries to get Elphaba to eat breakfast when a handsome stranger shows up at their home. With Frex away, Melena invites him in. The man introduces himself as Turtle Heart, a glassblower from Ovvels in Quadling Country. After Melena fixes him a meal, he blows a piece of glass in front of her and Elphaba. When he finishes, he peers into the round glass disc and, somehow seeing the future, predicts that Frex will return that evening with an old woman. Elphaba seems especially drawn to the glass. Melena and Turtle Heart spend the rest of the day in bed together, and by evening, Frex comes home, as foretold.
Turtle Heart’s arrival infuses warmth into the Thropp household, as Melena, who is starved for affection, begins an affair with the first handsome stranger to show her kindness. Though Turtle Heart is from remote Quadling Country (seen as poorer and less “civilized” than regions like Munchkinland), Melena’s attraction is largely an attempt to escape the monotony and loneliness of her daily life. Meanwhile, toddler Elphaba’s fixation on Turtle Heart’s looking glass is something readers should keep in mind for later.
Active
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