Previous
Frex
Melena, Frex’s wife and mother to Elphaba, Nessarose, and Shell, is born into Munchkinland aristocracy and set to inherit the title of Eminent Thropp upon her grandmother’s death. Though she dies before that ever happens, she never wanted the title in the first place; marrying Frex offered her a kind of freedom, away from the gaze of her controlling family. But over time, Melena grows disillusioned with his rigid Unionism and frequent prolonged absences. Restless and lonely, she turns to drinking and casual affairs. One encounter, with the Wizard, occurs under the influence of a “magical elixir” he feeds her to prevent her from remembering, and he is ultimately revealed by the Clock of the Time Dragon as Elphaba’s biological father. Melena later falls for Turtle Heart, a Quadling glassblower whose companionship comforts her during Frex’s travels. Melena is both well-intentioned and neglectful. She favors the beautiful, “normal” Nessarose while avoiding the green-skinned Elphaba. Her tragic death while giving birth to Shell leaves the children largely in Nanny’s care, whose steadiness contrasts with Melena’s instability. Though absent for much of Elphaba’s childhood, Melena’s choices shape the Thropp family’s fate.
Melena Quotes in Wicked
The Wicked quotes below are all either spoken by Melena or refer to Melena. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
1. The Root of Evil Quotes
“We stand at a crossroads. Idolatry looms. Traditional values in jeopardy. Truth under siege and virtue abandoned.”
He wasn’t talking to her so much as practicing his tirade against the coming spectacle of violence and magic. There was a side to Frex that verged on despair; unlike most men, he was able to channel it to benefit his life’s work.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
4. Maladies and Remedies Quotes
“But I remember once when a tinker with a funny accent gave me a draft of some heady brew from a green glass bottle. And I had rare expansive dreams, Nanny, of the Other World—cities of glass and smoke—noise and color—I tried to remember.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
15. Uprisings Quotes
Nanny reported that Nessarose had grown to be far cleverer than anyone anticipated. She kept her cards close to her chest and issued vague statements about the revolutionary cause, statements that could be read several ways, depending on the audience.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
[...] Nanny began to attend to Liir’s needs more lovingly than she did the needs of Nor and Irji. Elphaba registered it with shame, for she also saw how willingly Liir responded to Nanny’s attention.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Wicked LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Melena Character Timeline in Wicked
The timeline below shows where the character Melena appears in Wicked. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
1. The Root of Evil
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...
(full context)
2. The Clock of the Time Dragon
...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...
(full context)
3. The Birth of a Witch
...woman rushes in and helps him escape, promising to hide him and send help for Melena.
(full context)
Back at home, Melena is in labor, assisted by two midwives—a fishwife and a crone. They give her medicine...
(full context)
...a girl. Disturbed by her appearance, the women consider killing her out of mercy; with Melena still unconscious, this is their opportunity. But when the baby suddenly bites off the tip...
(full context)
4. Maladies and Remedies
Days later, Melena writes to her childhood home, Colwen Grounds, asking for Nanny—the woman who helped raise her—to...
(full context)
...appearance is punishment for his failure to save Rush Springs from sin. But Nanny pulls Melena aside and asks if she had been unfaithful—maybe that’s the real reason Elphaba is green....
(full context)
5. The Quadling Glassblower
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...
(full context)
6. Geographies of the Seen and the Unseen
...Nanny’s request, bringing her back to Illswater with him. He’s relieved to be home with Melena and Elphaba—and even this foreign stranger, Turtle Heart—though Elphaba is still wary around him. When...
(full context)
7. Child’s Play
...other children to help her come out of her shell and begin speaking. She insists Melena take Elphaba to a daycare in Rush Springs run by a woman named Gawnette. By...
(full context)
8. Darkness Abroad
One fall evening, as Turtle Heart tells Melena, Frex, and Nanny about the “horrors” he left behind in Ovvels, Elphaba suddenly speaks her...
(full context)
When Frex suggests to Melena that they travel to Quadling Country to minister to its people, Melena tells him she...
(full context)
After helping Melena to bed, Nanny realizes Elphaba is missing. She gets Frex and Turtle Heart to help...
(full context)
11. The Charmed Circle
...the room next door, Glinda asked Elphaba about her past. Elphaba explained that their mother, Melena, died giving birth to her and Nessa’s younger brother, Shell, who’s now about 10 years...
(full context)
...by villagers incited by the Clock of the Time Dragon. Feeling it was their duty, Melena and Frex moved to Turtle Heart’s homeland to work as missionaries. Elphaba adds that Nessarose—a...
(full context)
15. Uprisings
Nanny later tells Elphaba that Melena had wished for sons because the family title of Eminent Thropp passed through the female...
(full context)
...He says that Turtle Heart was a victim of this sacrifice and that he and Melena had loved and “shared” Turtle Heart in a polyamorous arrangement. Elphaba asks Frex to return...
(full context)
16. The Murder and Its Afterlife
...rid Munchkinland of the pleasure faith. He also admits that Nessa was the result of Melena’s adultery. For Elphaba, these admissions suddenly make everything perfectly clear: Frex has always been able...
(full context)
...the Time Dragon’s machinery just for her. The show reveals a stranger long ago giving Melena a bottle of some mysterious liquid, and their ensuing affair while Frex was away—a stranger...
(full context)
...sees a scene play out from her childhood. She’s in Quadling Country with a pregnant Melena, and Frex, who seeks forgiveness for Turtle Heart’s death. But Turtle Heart’s family refuses forgiveness,...
(full context)
...over her. As Elphaba, in unbearable pain, begins to die, she sees figures from her past—Melena, Nessa, Frex, Boq, Glinda, Doctor Dillamond, Madame Morrible, Fiyero, the Wizard, Yackle—before everything fades away.
(full context)
