Wicked

Wicked tells the story of Elphaba Thropp, the so-called Wicked Witch of the West, one of Western culture’s most enduring villains. At the story’s core lies one of humankind’s oldest philosophical questions: how much of what we do is really within our control? Ironically, readers likely know the Witch’s fate before the novel begins, which makes her path already feel somewhat preordained—at least on a narrative level. But Elphaba has good reason to believe that unseen forces are steering her life, as too many events feel orchestrated to dismiss as mere coincidence. Madame Morrible’s binding spell on Elphaba, Nessarose, and Glinda plants one of the earliest seeds of doubt, rendering the girls unable to speak of their secret potential recruitment into the Wizard’s service and leaving Elphaba unsure whether her choices are ever truly her own. This unease only deepens as Yackle and the dwarf repeatedly surface at key moments, subtly influencing events and people around Elphaba. Yackle gives Melena pills meant to prevent another green-skinned child—and may also cause Nessarose’s disability—then later positions herself at pivotal junctures, and even appears as an illustration in the Grimmerie, as though her influence was written into Elphaba’s story from the start.

Still, Wicked resists a clean verdict on whether destiny alone truly controls Elphaba or any of the characters within the story. At times, the novel hints that she might have more power over her life than it seems: the dwarf who operates the prophetic Clock of the Time Dragon leaves the final act of Elphaba’s life unwritten toward the end of the novel, and the wise Princess Nastoya tells Elphaba that she alone determines her own fate. But these assurances are undermined by the sheer number of invisible influences shaping her world and her fear that even rebellion against the Wizard might be part of someone else’s design. Elphaba dies never knowing if the tragedies that shadow her life—Doctor Dillamond’s murder, the deaths of Fiyero, Sarima, her sisters, and Irji, Nor’s imprisonment—were the result of her own actions or a cosmic script she could never escape. Wicked presents destiny and free will as entwined, suggesting that choice may exist, but always under threat from ambiguous forces ready to bend it toward their own vague purposes.