Why does Elphie melt??? — Page 2

In my opinion (and who really cares about that?), if you're saying this is the story about what happened before (and after) Dorothy dropped into Oz, you should honor the truth of what happened, as we know it, while Dorothy was in Oz. If you start undoing what came before (or ignore it altogether), that's just cheating.

This is a musical based on (and capitlizing on!!) iconic material.

To really be clever and satisfying, it would need to be true to it's source material - so you could go watch (or read, pick a source any souce) The Wizard of Oz, and find all the seeds every-so-deftly laid in Wicked.

I think the show is a big, glitzy, techno-Vegas fun-fest, but story-wise, it's a cheap and easy disappointment to the Oz-tales that precede it.

BTW, if you like Oz - read L. Frank's other 13 books - Scarecrow, Tin-Man, and the rest got nothing on Tik-Tok, H.M. Wogglebug, Ozma, Pip, and co!

I'm sorry but I find this question to be just plain dumb. I mean haven't you ever seen the wizard of oz?

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She DOES melt in the book. MacGuire sort of manages to make the end of the book the end of the movie as well.

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Clarification:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum:

"You are a wicked creature!" cried Dorothy. "You have no right to take my shoe from me."
"I shall keep it just the same", said the witch, laughing at her, "and some day I shall get the other one from you, too."
This made Dorothy so very angry, that she picked up a bucket of water that stood near and dashed it over the Witch, wetting her from head to foot.
Instantly, the wicked woman gave a loud cry of fear, and then, as Dorothy looked at her in wonder, the Witch began to shrink and fall away.
"See what you have done!" she screamed. "In a minute I shall melt away!"
"I'm very sorry, indeed," said Dorothy, who was truly frightened to see the Witch actually melting away like brown sugar before her very eyes.
"Didn't you know water would be the end of me?" asked the Witch, in a wailing, despairing voice.
"Of course not", answered Dorothy. "How should I?"
"Well, in a few minutes I shall be all melted, and you will have the castle to yourself. I have been wicked in my day, but I never thought a little girl like you would ever be able to melt me and end my wicked deeds. Look out - here I go!"
With these words the Witch fell down in a brown, melted, shapeless mass and began to spread over the clean boards of the kitchen floor. Seeing that she had really melted away to nothing, Dorothy drew another bucket of water, and threw it over the mess. She then swept it all out the door.


The Wizard of Oz film:

The witch lights the scarecrow on fire. Dorothy, to save him, throws a bucket of water on him, splashign the witch in the face. She screams.

Witch: Oh, you cursed brat! Look what you've done! I'm melting! Melting! Oh - What a world! What a world! Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness? Ooh...Look out! Look out! I'm going...Ohhh...

SHE DOES NOT MELT!
Melting would involve luiquidating.
She evaporates.

Wicked; Teh Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire:
(After a piece of the burning broom falls on Elphaba's dress)

"Oh, will this nightmare ever end," screamed Dorothy, and she grabbed a bucket for collecting rainwater that, in a sudden flare up of light, had come into view. She said "I will save you!" and she hurled the water at the witch.
An instant of sharp pain before the numbness. The world was floods above and fire below. If there was such a thing as a soul, the soul had gambled on a sort of baptism, and had it won?
The body apologizes to the soul for its errors, and the soul asks forgiveness for squatting in the body without invitation.
A ring of expectant faces before the light dims; they move in the shadows like ghouls. There is Mama, playing with her hair, there is Nessarose, stern and bleached as weathered timber. There is Papa, lost in his reflections, looking for himself in the faces of the suspicious heathen. There si Shell, not quite yet himself despite his apparent wholeness.
They become others; they become Nanny in her prime, tart and officious; and Ama Clutch and Ama Vimp and the othe Amas, lumped together now in a maternal blur. They become Boq, sweet and lithe and earnest, yet unbowed; and Crope and Tibbett in their funny, campy anxiety to be liked: and Averic in his superiority. And Glinda in her gowns, waiting to be good enough to deserve what she gets.

...skip...

And of the Witch? In the life of the Witch, there is no after, in the ever after of a Witch, there is no happily; in the story of a Witch, there is no afterword. Of that part that is beyond the lifestory, beyond the story of life, there is - alas, or perhaps thank mercy- no telling. She was dead, dead and gone, and all that was left of her was the carapace of her reputation for malice.

"And there the Wicked Witch stayed for a long time."
"And did she ever come out?"
"Not yet"


Wicked: The Musical:

Many a foreshadowing takes place: in "Thank Goodness"

Fiyero: Do you hear that? Water will MELT HER??? People are so empty heade, they'll believe anything.

"As Long As Your Mine"
Fiyero tells Elphaba to hide out in his castle, where there are many tunnels and hidded passages.

Therefore...in the musical - She does not melt. She goes to another world, where no one can harm them.


P.S.
In the book it is QUITE clear that Fiyero is NOT the Scarecrow.
Also, the original book, the MGM film, Maguire's book, and the musical are ALL very different pieces of work. None of the latter three stay true to the actual story by L. Frank Baum, nor do any of the others stay true to each other.

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Updated On: 4/29/05 at 10:54 AM