Wicked Witch of the West

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Wicked Witch of the West
Oz character
The Wicked Witch of the West (illustration by W. W. Denslow)
First appearanceThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
Created byL. Frank Baum
Portrayed by
Voiced by
In-universe information
Alias
Species
Winkie descent
RoleAntagonist

The Wicked Witch of the West is a fictional

children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), created by American author L. Frank Baum. In Baum's subsequent Oz novels, it is the Nome King
who is the principal villain; the Wicked Witch of the West is rarely even referred to again after her death in the first book.

The witch's most popular depiction was in the classic

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995) and its musical stage adaptation Wicked (2003), the 2013 film Oz the Great and Powerful, and the television series Once Upon a Time
.

In Baum's books

The Wicked Witch of the West is the malevolent ruler of the Winkie Country. Her castle is described as beautiful instead of being the sinister fortress shown in the 1939 film. In all versions, she is

cyclops
. Usually, she is shown wearing an eyepatch; however, some illustrations show her with two eyes.

Most of her power resides in the creatures she controls. She has a pack of 40 great wolves, a flock of 40 crows, a swarm of black bees, and an army of Winkies.[1] She possesses the enchanted Golden Cap, which compels the winged monkeys to obey her on three occasions. First, the witch commanded the creatures to help her enslave the Winkies and to seize control of the western part of the Land of Oz. Second, she made the winged monkeys drive the Wizard of Oz's army out of the Winkie Country, when he attempted to overthrow her.

When Dorothy Gale and her companions Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion were sent by the Wizard to destroy her, the Witch attacked them with her various creatures. Each of these attempts was thwarted with the Tin Woodman killing the 40 great wolves, Scarecrow killing the 40 crows, the black bees dying upon trying to sting the Tin Woodman, and the armed Winkie slaves being scared off by the Cowardly Lion. The protagonists are eventually subdued by the Witch's third and final permitted use of the winged monkeys. Nevertheless, the old witch cannot kill Dorothy because the girl is protected by the Good Witch of the North's kiss. She, therefore, settles for enslaving Dorothy, and tries to force the Cowardly Lion into submission by starving him, though Dorothy sneaks him food. Upon seeing the Silver Shoes on the girl's feet, the Wicked Witch decides to steal them, and thereby acquire even more power.

When she succeeds in acquiring one silver shoe by making Dorothy trip over an invisible bar, the little girl angrily throws a bucket of water onto the Wicked Witch. This causes the old witch to melt away. The Wicked Witch's dryness was enumerated in some clues before this. Furthermore, when Toto had bitten her, she had not bled; her wickedness had dried her up long ago. Unfortunately, L. Frank Baum did not explain precisely why water had this effect on her, nor did he ever imply that all evil witches could be likewise destroyed. However, the wicked witch Mombi is similarly disposed of in The Lost King of Oz and the wicked witch Singra is clearly afraid of the same fate in the early chapters of The Wicked Witch of Oz.

Personality and characterization

In the film, the Witch is iconic for her green skin, pointed hat, broom, boisterous, dramatic (yet nasty) personality, and cackle; in the books, her personality is somewhat more subtle: she is not as obviously sadistic, she is not as antagonistic to Dorothy and only is once she sees Dorothy has intruded on her land, and her appearance is described very differently. In the novel, she also does not carry a broom, rather an umbrella, which she uses on one occasion to strike Dorothy's dog Toto.[2] Her nature is a volatile and yet somewhat cowardly one when compared to the film version. Despite her immense power, she avoids face-to-face contact with her enemies, and is frightened of Dorothy at first when she sees the girl wearing the Silver Shoes. She is also afraid of the dark in Baum's original story for reasons unknown. For that reason, the Witch never tried to steal the Silver Shoes while Dorothy was sleeping. Despite her fear of water and the dark, the Wicked Witch of the West was one of the most powerful witches in all of Oz.[citation needed] However, the movie states that the Wicked Witch "has no power [in Oz]". She admits it, saying, "It's true, I can't do to you in Oz as I would like." In ensuing Oz books, her power is described as having been so great that even Glinda the Good Witch of the South feared her.[citation needed] She was described as being so cruel that the blood in her body dried up and that when she was struck, she did not bleed. In the novel, she also owns slaves to do her bidding, a characterization which is kept in "The Wiz", in which she is much more dramatic than in the original film and forces her slaves to refer to her as beautiful.

In other books

  • In
    Alexander Melentyevich Volkov's 1939 novel The Wizard of the Emerald City, her given name is Bastinda. March Laumer uses this name for the witch in his novel Aunt Em and Uncle Henry in Oz. Like in the 1939 movie, she is the sister of the Wicked Witch of the East. Sherwood Smith uses this name for a new Wicked Witch of the West in her 2005 book The Emerald Wand of Oz
    .
  • Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West takes the familiar Oz story and inverts it, with the Wicked Witch (given the name Elphaba in homage to L. Frank Baum) as the novel's protagonist and Dorothy as a hapless child. The name is retained in the musical Wicked
    .
  • In the novel The Unknown Witches of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West is named Old Snarl-Spats.
  • In Dorothy of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West's ghost appeared. When Princess Gaylette's Jester gets his hand on the Wicked Witch of the West's wand, he gets possessed by the Wicked Witch of the West's ghost. When Dorothy starts to do a trick to fool the Jester that Glinda is in china doll form, the Wicked Witch of the West's ghost continues to warn the Jester of Dorothy's trick. When the Jester gives the Wicked Witch of the West's wand to Dorothy, the Wicked Witch of the West's ghost disappears. It was also mentioned in this story that Wicked Witch of the West once cast a curse on the Gillikin Country town of Purplefield where it was turned into a maze that causes anyone who fails to make it through to disappear. Her curse on Purplefield was undone when Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion made it through the maze by hearing Tugg's foghorn.
  • In the comic book series Grimm Fairy Tales Presents Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West is named Lynessa.
  • In the novel The Living House of Oz there is a witch named Mordra who comes from an alternate Oz, but looks identical to the Wicked Witch of the West who lived in the regular Oz.
  • In Cheshire Crossing after reforming years after being melted by Dorothy, the Wicked Witch of the West, also known as Miss West, confronts her alongside Alice Liddell and Wendy Darling, becoming allied and romantically involved with Captain James Hook.
  • In the graphic novel adaptation of How the Wizard Came to Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West is named Morella.
  • In the 2021 novel Oscar Diggs, The Wizard of Oz, the Witch of the West is named Theodora Elphaba, a combination of the names from
    Wicked
    .

In dramatic representations

1910 film

The 1910 silent film

Wizard
, who promises his crown to anyone who can release him from Momba's power. Momba captures Dorothy and her companions, evoking the events in Baum's original novel, and is destroyed when Dorothy throws a bucket of water over her.

1914 film

Mombi's likeness and costume in the 1914 silent film, His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz is based on Denslow's illustrations of the Wicked Witch of the West.

1939 film

Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz (1939).

In the 1939 version of

Glinda, the Good Witch of the North (not the South as in the book), as "worse than the other one". She actively seeks revenge against Dorothy for killing her sister, even though it was "accidental". However, as soon as the Witch is reminded of the ruby slippers, all interest in her sister's death vanishes and all she cares about is obtaining her slippers, which will enable her to conquer Oz. She is more menacing than her literary counterpart, making Dorothy too afraid to ever lose her temper with the Witch. She makes sure that Dorothy knows her power when Dorothy meets the Scarecrow by throwing a ball of fire at them. Before Dorothy and her friends get to the city, the Witch casts a sleeping spell over a field of poppies through which the group must pass. Glinda remotely counteracts the spell with snowfall. The Wicked Witch then flies on her broom over the Emerald City, demanding that the citizens of the Emerald City surrender Dorothy to her, and the Wizard demands the destruction of the Witch, with her broom as proof, in exchange for granting the wishes of Dorothy and her companions. Unlike Baum's original depiction, the Wicked Witch sends the Winged Monkeys as the first wave of attack. She is killed when Dorothy throws a bucket of water on her, in attempt to put out a fire the witch bestowed on the Scarecrow. In the novel, Dorothy simply throws it on her in a fit of anger. There is no prior mention of the Wicked Witch's vulnerability to water in the movie, save for a split-second before the water actually douses her when she screams "Don't throw that water!" (this line does not appear in the film's shooting script). After the Wicked Witch of the West is dead, her soldiers are glad to be free of her power, and quote "Hail to Dorothy! The Wicked Witch is dead!" The character ranks No. 4 in the American Film Institute's list of the 50 Best Movie Villains of All Time alongside Darth Vader, Norman Bates, and Hannibal Lecter,[4] making her the highest ranking female villain, as well as placing 90th on Empire magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.[5]

Hamilton's other role in this film is the Witch's Kansas sepia tone counterpart, Miss Almira Gulch, created for the film by screenwriter Noel Langley. Gulch is a socialite who owns half the county, seeking to have Dorothy's dog Toto taken to the sheriff and destroyed after being bitten. This prompts Dorothy to call her "a wicked old witch." Miss Gulch takes Toto away in her basket, but he escapes. In the tornado scene, Dorothy sees Miss Gulch on her bicycle transform into a Wicked Witch flying on a broom.

Gale Sondergaard was originally cast as the Wicked Witch of the West, but withdrew from the role when the witch's persona shifted from sly and glamorous (thought to emulate the Evil Queen in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) to the familiar "ugly hag".[6]

Hamilton's other appearances

Margaret Hamilton and Oscar the Grouch in 1976

On a 1976 episode of the American children's TV show Sesame Street, the Witch, once again played by Hamilton, drops her broom and falls onto the street. Big Bird and a Sesame Street resident, David, have the broom and refuse to give it back because of her nasty and disrespectful attitude (Oscar the Grouch is the only Sesame Street resident who finds her pleasant; he even develops a crush on her). Enraged, the Wicked Witch threatens to turn them into a feather duster and a basketball, respectively, unless they comply with her wishes; she also makes it rain inside of Mr. Hooper’s store as an intimidation tactic. Realizing that threats and intimidation have failed to yield the desired result, she resorts to trickery, disguising herself as a sweet old lady in an effort to steal the broom back. David turns the tables on her by willingly giving it back after talking her into asking for it politely and with respect. Unfortunately, she does not learn the lesson about being nice and heads home on discourteous terms with the locals (except, perhaps, for Big Bird, who says he will miss her because the events of the episode were an exciting change). The Wicked Witch accidentally drops the broom again while showing off on her flight home, and David, again in possession of it, laments his prediction that the whole ordeal will now repeat itself.

This episode received a very negative reception. After it was aired, the Children’s Television Workshop (CTW) and series creators Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett received numerous letters from parents, who complained that the Wicked Witch was too scary for their children, using phrases such as "screams and tears" and "the threat of the witch's power remains in children's eyes." As a result of these complaints, Anna Herera, of the CTW Research Department, told the creators of Sesame Street to not re-air the episode. The episode was considered lost but was leaked anonymously on June 18, 2022.

The Museum of the Moving Image in New York City screened part of the Wicked Witch episode on November 24, 2019, as part of a "Lost and Found" event that celebrated the 50th anniversary of Sesame Street. It was accompanied by many other clips, including the unaired episode "Snuffy's Parents Get a Divorce", along with a discussion panel with Jim Henson Legacy president Craig Shemin, former Sesame Street head writer Norman Stiles, and Sesame Workshop's Rosemarie Truglio.

Hamilton also played the Wicked Witch of the West in

St. Louis Municipal Opera
.

Hamilton also appeared as herself on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood three times between 1975 and 1976. In these appearances, she demonstrated how her costume and acting skills made her appear to be the Witch, and assured her young viewers that there was nothing about her to be feared, because her portrayal in the film was only make-believe.[7]

Wicked

Myra Ruiz as Elphaba in the original Brazilian production of Wicked

The story line of the stage adaptation "goes far afield" from the 1995 novel. As Winnie Holzman observed in an interview with Playbill, "It was [Maguire's] brilliant idea to take this hated figure and tell things from her point of view, and to have the two witches be roommates in college, but the way in which their friendship develops – and really the whole plot – is different onstage."[8] Schwartz justified the deviation, saying "Primarily we were interested in the relationship between Galinda – who becomes Glinda – and Elphaba...the friendship of these two women and how their characters lead them to completely different destinies."[9] In addition to this change in focus, other major plot modifications include Fiyero's appearance as the scarecrow, Elphaba's survival at the end, Nessarose using a wheelchair instead of being born without arms, Boq having a continuing love interest for Glinda – and eventually becoming the Tin Woodman instead of Nick Chopper, the complete cutting of Elphaba's years in the Vinkus, the deletion of Liir's birth, Fiyero not having a wife and children, and Doctor Dillamond not being murdered.[10]

Oz the Great and Powerful

Mila Kunis as Theodora in Oz the Great and Powerful

Mila Kunis portrays the Wicked Witch of the West, who's named Theodora, in the 2013 film, Oz the Great and Powerful. In this version, she is portrayed as a 'good witch' and as the younger sister of Evanora (Rachel Weisz), who is at war with Glinda (Michelle Williams) for control of Oz; Theodora wants nothing more than for peace to come back to their land. She falls in love with Oscar Diggs (James Franco), but her feelings for him are one-sided; Theodora wants to be Oscar's queen when he rules Oz. After Oscar goes to meet with Glinda, Evanora convinces Theodora that Oscar had betrayed her, offering her a magic apple that will help Theodora forget her disappointment. Theodora immediately takes a bite from it, but she realizes too late that Evanora had deceived her. Before Theodora can do anything, she starts feeling great pain and delirium as the apple, tainted with dark magic, causes her heart to wither and her skin to turn green. Though Evanora offers to cover up Theodora's new appearance with an enchantment, Theodora embraces her new appearance and helps her sister attempt to kill Glinda, get revenge on Oscar, and take control of Oz. However, she and Evanora are defeated by Oscar's illusions. Theodora is forced to flee the city on her broom, but she threatens to return. Oscar tells her he knows her wickedness isn't her doing and, if she ever finds the goodness within her, she is welcome to return. However, she refuses and flies off to the West, vowing revenge.

Once Upon a Time

The Wicked Witch appears as the main antagonist of the second half of the

Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle). Wishing for familial love, and growing increasingly jealous of Regina's past success at infiltrating the royal family, Zelena works to collect ingredients to create a time-travel spell to create a more favorable trajectory for her life. She is eventually stopped by Emma Swan
as well as Regina's new mastery of light magic in time to oppose her, before seemingly killed by Rumplestiltskin.

It was later discovered that Zelena's soul successfully went back in time, where she revived herself and assumed the identity of

Robin Hood (Sean Maguire), primarily to make Regina suffer (Regina and Robin had started a relationship before the perceived survival of Maid Marian). After Emma becomes the Dark One, she speeds up Zelena's pregnancy so she can have an unhampered ally. However, Zelena begins to bond with her new daughter, though after Emma is cured, Zelena is sent back to Oz, while Regina and the others assume custody of the child.[12]

On Zelena's return to Oz, she confronts Dorothy, stealing her silver slippers to travel back to her daughter in Storybrooke. By this point, the heroes had been transported to the Underworld to deal with

Hades
, one of Zelena's former lovers. Zelena, trying to change for her daughter, begins to repair her relationship with Regina, though she still shares True Love's Kiss with Hades. However, Hades kills Robin Hood with the Olympian Crystal, and Zelena makes her choice to fight for good, killing Hades with the same weapon, and naming her daughter Robin after the child's father.

Emerald City

The Witch of the West appears as one of the main characters in the television series Emerald City, portrayed by Ana Ularu. Here she is one of the last Cardinal Witches of Oz and the "Mistress of the Western Fields, Vessel of Truth and Solace", along with her sisters Glinda of the North and the Witch of the East. West seemingly obeys the Wizard of Oz's law against magic, owns a brothel in the Emerald City and is a poppy opium addict, deteriorating her magical skill. She is very emotional, especially when compared to the reserved behavior of Glinda's. Despite claiming to hate magic because it could not save her mother and sister witches during the Beast Forever's last attack, she resorts to it quickly when in pursuit of Dorothy after she accidentally killed East.

Minor roles in other adaptations

References

  1. ^ L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
  2. ^ "AFI's 100 Years ...100 Heroes & Villains".
  3. ^ "90. The Wicked Witch of the West". Empire. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  4. from the original on August 1, 2020. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  5. ^ Potempa, Philip (October 27, 2017). "Wicked Witch of the West not always a fright sight". Post-Tribune. Crown Point, IN: Chicago Tribune Media Group. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
  6. ^ Buckley, Michael (June 6, 2004). "STAGE TO SCREENS: A Chat with Wicked Nominee and TV Veteran Winnie Holzman". Playbill. Archived from the original on November 21, 2007. Retrieved November 8, 2007.
  7. ^ "Wicked – Script". MusicalSchwartz.com. Retrieved November 8, 2007.
  8. .
  9. ^ "Once Upon a Time: Rebecca Mader Is Playing The Wicked Witch of the West! See the Incredible First Photos". E!. December 15, 2013. Retrieved March 11, 2014.
  10. ^ "Zelena". ABC. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  11. ^ Shazam! Vol. 3 #11. DC Comics.
  12. ^ Shazam! Vol. 3 #13. DC Comics.
  13. ^ Shazam! Vol. 3 #14. DC Comics.
  14. ^ "Space Jam 2 Leaks Include Joker, Mask, Pennywise". 10 March 2020.
  15. ^ "Space Jam 2 Footage Leaks: Harry Potter, Wicked Witch, Joker, Mask". 11 March 2020.
  16. .

External links