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7. Child’s Play
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
One fall evening, as Turtle Heart tells Melena, Frex, and Nanny about the “horrors” he left behind in Ovvels, Elphaba suddenly speaks her first word: “horrors.” He explains that officials from larger cities—especially the Emerald City—have started surveying Quadling Country, looking to develop the land without consulting its people. The Quadlings fear that construction will upset the natural balance of the swamps. Turtle Heart reveals that the marshes sit on top of valuable rubies, and once those are discovered, the land will be exploited and chaos will follow.
Elphaba speaks her first word as Turtle Heart describes the Emerald City’s cruel exploitation of Quadling Country, foreshadowing future interests. The word she fixates on—“horrors”—adds a darkly humorous, self-aware note to the scene, and her repetition of it points to her innate understanding of injustice. This passage highlights how she learned from a young age that humanity can be cruel and selfish.
Active
Themes
Turtle Heart goes on to say that it won’t be Ozma or her Regent, Pastorius, who bring destruction to Quadling Country, but a foreigner—a “cruel and mighty” king. He claims he knows this because the Quadling people are attuned to omens, and he has seen the signs in his looking glass. This vision is what drove him to leave Ovvels and set out for the Emerald City, where he hopes to warn the Ozma Regent of the danger. Elphaba’s repetition of the word “horrors” has reminded him of his purpose. He resolves to leave Illswater immediately.
Turtle Heart’s vision, as told by his looking glass, may seem far-fetched to skeptics like Frex, but readers familiar with The Wizard of Oz may gather that this “cruel and mighty” king is none other than the Wizard himself. As Turtle Heart sees it, this figure is already on his way to Oz, and Pastorius must be warned. Though the Quadlings may be less formally educated than those in other regions, they possess an invaluable ability to read and interpret signs from the universe. But the further Oz creeps into modernity, the less it values older, sacred systems of knowledge like theirs.
Active
Themes
When Frex suggests to Melena that they travel to Quadling Country to minister to its people, Melena tells him she can’t—she’s pregnant. She doesn’t know whether the father is Frex or Turtle Heart, and she doesn’t much care. Nanny pulls Melena aside and reveals something of her own: months ago, she went traveling, searching for information about Elphaba’s green skin, and met an old woman named Yackle. Yackle gave her a nine-month supply of herbal medicine to prevent Melena’s next baby from being born green. She gives Melena the first capsule and tells her that Yackle predicted both daughters would be destined for greatness.
Active
Themes
After helping Melena to bed, Nanny realizes Elphaba is missing. She gets Frex and Turtle Heart to help search. Eventually, they find her beneath the dock, sitting in a dry patch of earth with Turtle Heart’s looking glass in her hands. She’s curled up against the body of a strange wild creature—maybe a tiger, maybe a dragon—repeating the word “horrors” with one eye fixed on the glass. Turtle Heart understands what she’s seen: the foreigner who will bring Oz to ruin, arriving in a massive crimson balloon. The Ozma family line will fall, and Elphaba has already seen it happen.
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