Megan Foxxe

Dr. Rich

Eng 4800

December 2009

XFreewill22x@aol.com

Somewhere Over the [Broken] Rainbow:

Jung, the Chakras, and Elphaba in Gregory Maguire’s Wicked

“Of course, to hear them tell it, it is the surviving sister who is the
crazy one [. . .] What a Witch. Psychologically warped; possessed
by demons. Insane. Not a pretty picture.”
~The Cowardly Lion
GREGORY MAGUIRE, Wicked Prologue

WHAT A WICKED IDEA

She was raised a missionary child. She came from a prominent, powerful family, and

was first in line to inherit its authority. She was an activist for rights of the persecuted. She

lived silently as a holy woman and nursed the sick and dying for nearly a decade. And, she

became a legend after her death. Now, conjure up an image of a witch in your head. Chances

are, you imagined images similar to the ones associated with the Hollywood version of the

Wicked Witch of the West: green skin, prominent facial features, black hat and cape, magic

broom, perhaps even accompanied by some flying monkeys. The images associated with a witch

are naturally opposed to the images of the first woman described above. Paradoxically, all of the

previous statements, applicable to a Mother Theresa, can be used to describe Elphaba from

Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. How can this
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be? Chakra development and the role of the unconscious can explain the evolution of Elphaba’s

image and the persona of the Wicked Witch of the West.

Wicked is Maguire’s modern interpretation of L. Frank Baum’s well known book The

Wonderful Wizard of Oz; more specifically, it is the detailed life of Baum’s antagonist, the

Wicked Witch of the West. Maguire has taken, for argument’s sake, an archetypal identity and

deconstructed it. He created a rogue character who is sympathetic and misunderstood. The

seven chakras and Jung’s matrix of energetic qualities parallel the structure of the novel.

Analyzing different trauma and power struggles throughout Elphaba’s life enlightens readers,

rationalizing her actions and reactions. These analytic categories will enable us to account for

the evolution of Elphaba’s character.

Chakras: The Personal Rainbow

What exactly is a chakra? Anodea Judith, author of Eastern Body, Western Mind:

Psychology and the Chakra System as a Path to the Self, describes chakras “like feelings or

ideas, they cannot be held like a physical object, yet they have a strong effect upon the body” (5).

She continues to say, “Chakra patterns are programmed deep in the core of the mind-body

interface and have a strong relationship with our physical functioning” (5). There are seven

chakras aligned with the spine. Journey into the Consciousness: The Chakras, Tantra and

Jungian Psychology, written by Charles Breaux, literally defines a chakra, and explains how this

energy can impact the body so intensely:

The Sanskrit word chakra means wheel [. . .] The chakras translate

communication from all levels of the psyche into electrochemical stimuli of the

nervous system and endocrine glands. [. . . They] therefore encompass the entire
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spectrum of the consciousness, from the most primitive (instinctual and sense

based) to the most sublime. (28)

Each chakra holds a lot of information about a person’s personality. By studying various

levels of chakra progress, different patterns begin to emerge, and it forms an understanding of

the Self. Elphaba created alternate personalities. Her own personal experiences contributed to

her deficient/ excessive chakras, which shaped her Self. It was unquestionably society who

created the persona of the Wicked Witch of the West; Elphaba was left so damaged from chakra

trauma that her Self was torn. I do not believe Elphaba was wicked, yet that is not what I am

trying to prove. Breaux said, “Through each chakra specific archetypal functions and images are

expressed. Together, the seven chakras form a psychic matrix in which the unique form of the

body-mind is created” (31). There were divides within Elphaba, and chakra trauma can explain

how, when and why they occurred. Table 1 organizes the chakra characteristics needed to

explain who Elphaba was to herself and others, and why the Wicked Witch of the West is not the

same person.

7-Year Cycle1
Chakra/ Location (Ages)
Issue Color/ Element
Root/ Base 0-7 Survival Red/ Earth
Emotions/
Sacral/ Abdomen, Genitals 8-14 Orange/ Water
Sexuality
Solar Plexus 15-21 Power/ Will Yellow/ Fire
Love/
Heart 22-28 Green/ Air
Relationships
Throat 29-35 Communication Blue/ Sound
Brow 36-42 Intuition Indigo/ Light
Crown/ Top of Head 43-49 Awareness Violet/ Thought
Table 1

                                                            
1
 From The Chakra Bible, written by Patricia Mercier 
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Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961): Depth Psychology

To accomplish an in depth analysis on Elphaba’s psyche, Jungian theories further explain

specific patterns and archetypes of personality. C. G. Jung was a theorist/ psychologist who

worked closely with Sigmund Freud; although they both formed well-known theories about the

unconscious, Jung went farther to explain not just how, but where personality types develop. “In

1917 he spoke for the first time of ‘dominants of the collective unconscious,’ by way of stressing

the significance of those ‘nodal points,’ especially charged with energy, the totality of which

constitutes the collective unconscious,” as noted in Complex/Archetype/Symbol in the

Psychology of C. G. Jung, written by Jolandi Jacobi (33).

Jung believed that “most people confused ‘self knowledge’ with knowledge of their

conscious ego personalities [. . .] But the ego only knows its own contents, not the unconscious

and its contents,” as he points out in his book The Undiscovered Self (US,6). By examining the

chakras, it is possible to realize multiple unconscious traits that reveal many of Jung’s proposed

schemas, as listed in Table 2 alongside the chakra’s corresponding Orientation of Self and

Identity2.

Chakra/ Location Orientation Identity Jungian Schemas

Root/ Base Self-preservation Physical identity
(Foundation/ Latent)
Sacral/ Abdomen, Genitals Self-gratification Emotional identity
Development of the
Solar Plexus Self-definition Ego identity
“Individual”
Heart Self-acceptance Social identity the Complex
Throat Self-expression Creative identity the Shadow
Archetypal
Brow Self-reflection Archetypes and Persona
identity
Integration, Wholeness
Crown/ Top of Head Self-knowledge Universal identity and the Self
(and their opposites)
Table 2 

                                                            
2
 Both of which are identified on Judith’s chart, Figure 0.3: Table of Correspondences (10, 11) 
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MUNCHKINLANDERS AND THE LOWER CHAKRAS

Personality patterns are found by identifying individual chakra qualities. Mercier

identifies four chakra qualities: “active”, “underactive”/ deficient, “passive/balanced”, and

“overactive” (34). The amount of trauma the chakra has suffered determines the quality of the

chakra. Trauma can manifest itself in many ways, and Elphaba experienced trauma over the

very large spectrum of possible abuses. Because of the amount of trauma she experienced, most

of Elphaba’s chakras are considered to be defective, whether it presents itself as either excessive

or deficient.

The specific damage the trauma does to the chakra depends on the level of development

it affects. Judith explains the chakra’s function by explaining the importance of location:

[Chakras] have become associated with various states of consciousness,

archetypal elements, and physical constructs. The lower chakras, for example,

which are physically closer to the earth, are related to the more practical matters

of our lives- survival, moment, action. They are ruled by physical and social law.

The upper chakras represent mental realms and work on a symbolic level through

words, images, and concepts. (6)

Therefore, Jungian systems cannot be mature enough to present themselves in the lower chakras,

but are built upon the stability of the lower foundations. Years zero (prenatal) to seven mark the

development of the First, Base, or Root chakra, located at the base of the spine. Foundation is

the first chakra’s purpose. This chakra is responsible for basic survival, physical identity, and

the fundamental right to be here. So is it any surprise that Elphaba would be deficient in this

chakra? On the morning of her birth her father, a minister, prophesized that “the devil is

coming” (14). By nightfall, her mother was being pursued by an angry mob ready to kill her in
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mid-labor. And while her mother lay unconscious after delivery, her midwives plotted Elphaba’s

murder.

Unfortunately, the development of Elphaba’s foundation is dependent upon the same

thing we all rely upon as children- what Breaux refers to as the “parental matrix” (48). “The

emotional complexes that children develop, and the psychological values absorbed from the

parental environment create barriers to growth. Unless they are overcome, these barriers will

affect the entire process of development” (48). Needless to say, Elphaba was born to a mother

she described as a “giddy, alcoholic, imaginative, uncertain, desperate, brave, stubborn,

supportive woman” (174), and a father who was a fanatical preacher; scandalously, both were in

a love triangle with a man named Turtle Heart. As expected, the foundation upon which Elphaba

must face the issues of family, trust, and grounding is insufficient

“Look, a rainbow,” remarked the senior midwife assisting in Melena’s (Elphaba’s

mother) delivery (26). Of course, it was not the infant’s virginal aura she was describing.

Evidently, “beneath the spit of the mother’s fluids the infant glistened a scandalous shade of pale

emerald” (27), which foreshadowed events in her childhood that led to her deficient first chakra.

In Judith’s “First Chakra at a Glance”, she lists specific trauma particular of the first chakra as

“birth trauma”, “poor physical bonding with [the] mother”, and “feeding difficulties” (52).

Promptly following the discovery of Elphaba’s discolored skin, the newborn’s razor sharp teeth,

a physical malfunction typical of the first chakra, bit the midwife’s finger off to the second

knuckle when it was offered to suckle. These teeth caused Elphaba to be nursed from a bottle,

contributing to feeding complications and inadequate physical bonding with her mother. In fact,

she was forced to wear a chin-sling for the first year of her life, as a precaution, and Melena
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never developed the maternal affection for Elphaba she anticipated. Instead, she “chewed on

pinlobble leaves, to float away from the disaster” (29).

Melena was described as “lustful and sneaky and good at it” (36) by Nanny, the brusque

old woman who raised her, and was to help Melena rear her children as well. Melena used wine,

weed, and sex to abandon any emotional involvement with her daughter because she saw her as

an obligation. This is a direct neglect of her first chakras basic right to be here. Judith says,

“Neglect is a subtler form of abandonment [. . .] Instability leads to a mistrust of others, causing

further alienation from those who might give support” (74). She also says that a hallmark of a

deficient first chakra is a “profound body-mind split” because “the body is deadened and the

consciousness is elevated (80). This split explains why Elphaba’s energy is centered higher, and

why she is so disconnected.

Being grounded is important to the body-mind circuit. Breaux writes, “with a closed or

traumatized first chakra, the conscious self is cut off from the body, and is, therefore, unaware of

its needs” (46). Elphaba’s survival inevitably depended upon natural bonds and social

development. Although Nanny tried socializing Elphaba when she was around two, the children

at the daycare responded as Melena expected: “A green child will be an open invitation to scorn

and abuse. And the children are wickeder than adults, they have no sense of restraint” (61).

Though Nanny knew the importance of developing a grounding factor, she had no influence on

the quality of development Elphaba received. Ambika Wauters articulates in Chakras and Their

Archetypes: Uniting Energy Awareness with Spiritual Growth the consequence for being

deficiently grounded; “From the most primitive levels of survival to the more sophisticated

lifestyle we are required to keep our feet firmly on the ground. We either master the

fundamentals of survival or we become one of life’s victims” (28). Ironically, Elphaba

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consciously opted for the extreme opposite- she took to the skies on her magic broom when she

got the chance.

Whereas we learn about the development and exact trauma Elphaba’s first chakra faces in

“Munchinkinlanders”, the details of the years prior to meeting Elphaba again at Shiz were

neglected, leaving it possible to evaluate her second chakra only by deconstructing what is not

explained. The Sacral chakra is located in the lower abdomen and maintains emotional identity.

With her second chakra speculatively the weakest, to acknowledge that its controlling element is

water would justify Elphaba’s hydrophobia and its painful irony. From infancy, water was

painful for her. So, when she cried, it hurt. In an altercation with Fiyero, Elphaba’s one-true-

love, in The Emerald City, readers witness the restraint she tried to put on her emotions because

her tears “burn like fire” (245). This forced Elphaba to always suppress her emotions. She grew

rigid, in her body and attitudes, which left her with insipid social skills.

Because Elphaba already lacked appropriate grounding, there was an emotional divide

between her Self and others. Breaux reveals, “the main causes for the separateness and

alienation experienced in the second chakra are defenses in idealism that we escape into to avoid

being vulnerable to our feelings” (65). When a classmate, Boq, recognizes Elphaba as a girl

from his childhood play set, she quickly replies “Oh well, I have no childhood [. . .] So, you can

say what you like [. . .] I have to go now”, then salutes and “escape[s] almost at a run” (112).

Though Elphaba consistently stayed vague, through candid flashbacks, there is just enough

evidence to piece together the first persona that developed within Elphaba.

Jung defines the persona as a “complicated system of relations between individual/

consciousness and society, fittingly enough a kind of mask, designed on the one hand to make a

definite impression upon others, and on the other hand, to conceal the true nature of the
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individual” (94). Through each stage of her life, Elphaba was called by a different name: Fabala,

Elphie, Fae, Sister Saint Aelphaba, Auntie Witch, and, of course, the Wicked Witch of the West.

Each of these names denotes a new persona, and a new divide in her psyche. The divide that

affected the development of the lower chakras construct Elphaba’s first persona. Furthermore,

having just one social role identification is seen by Jung as being a “very fruitful source of

neurosis” and “a man cannot get rid of himself in favour of an artificial personality without

punishment” (95), as stated in The Essential Jung (EJ), edited by Anthony Storr. Elphaba lived

her entire life hiding behind other people’s ideas of her, and adopted at least six separate

personas.

Fabala

Frex, Elphaba’s father, gave her the moniker “Fabala”, a derivative of the name he used

because Melena hated it; it was their “private bond, the father-daughter pact against the world”

(49-50). Much of Fabala’s persona was contributed to by Frex and his “religious and moral

severity” and “inherited issues [of her] parents who have not worked out their own issues around

sexuality”, as Judith points out as Sacral chakra trauma in “Second Chakra at a Glance” (105).

In a brief statement describing her father and sister, Nessarose, Elphaba gives a brief, but

clear description of her limited childhood: “Nessarose is a strong-willed semi-invalid [. . .] She

is very smart, and thinks she is holy. She has inherited my father’s taste for religion. She isn’t

good at taking care of other people because she has never learned to take care of herself. She

can’t. My father required me to baby-sit her through most of my childhood” (173-4). She even

admitted her father used her as a “tool” for his missionary work: “My dear father used me [. . .]

he used me as an object lesson. Looking as I did [. . .] they trusted him partly as a response to

the freakiness of me. If the Unnamed God could love me, how much more responsible it’d be to
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the unadulterated them” (250). Her brother, Shell, whose birth killed Melena, was honorably

named after her parent’s shared lover, Turtle Heart, which proved to Elphaba how special he was

thought to be. Being raised in such a constrictive habitat, with her siblings as two constant,

living symbols of her traumatized second chakra, forced her to conform to her father’s dutiful

expectations, especially because she was raised to believe she was inadvertently the reason for

Nessarose’s malformation, and her mother’s death.

Melena took herbal supplements, given to her by Nanny, during her second pregnancy as

a precaution against having another green child. Enigmatically, Nessarose was born without

arms. And Shell? He was the only healthy child, the male that Melena had hoped for since

Elphaba’s conception, and she was not strong enough to survive his birth. Fabala was a slave to

a missionary lifestyle, a religion she didn’t believe in, and a family that burdened her enough to

constrict any emotional release. Because she did not develop any creativity, enthusiasm or

sensuality during this time in her life, her second chakra was closed, causing her to further deny

herself of any pleasure. Judith explains why pleasure is so hard to achieve with a deficient

second chakra: “Since pleasure invites an expansion of energy from the core to the periphery,

then someone with a deficient second chakra remains in a contracted state. Such a person tends

to avoid pleasure, often because of a harsh inner critic that cannot allow fun without self-

condemnation” (145). Fabala is Elphaba’s inner critic, and Frex’s outwardly devoted daughter.

She is also the persona Elphaba accepts the least, and represses the most.

GILLIKIN AND THE POWER CHAKRA

“The carrier of . . . consciousness is the individual, who does not produce the psyche on

his own volition but is, on the contrary, performed by it and nourished by the gradual awakening

of the consciousness during childhood” (US, 47). The third chakra marks the development of
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self-definition and ego identity. What should result from a healthy third chakra is the

“Individual”. Judith says, “The purpose of individuation is to integrate previously undeveloped

aspects of oneself into a larger, comprehensive Self that is simultaneously personal and

universal” (175). And as Jung said, the individual does not control the psyche but is controlled

by it; and with her first two chakras deeply lacking proper foundation, it is to be expected that,

unless there is a major renovation on Elphaba’s psyche and her environment, her self-definition

remains skewed and her ego is torn between possible identities.

Arriving at Shiz University, Elphaba was already very much out of her comfort zone—

she was not able to keep herself isolated the way she was at home. She was forced into

socializing. She was forced into dorming with Galinda3, the epitome of materialism, and

someone she believed to be very much her opposite at Crage Hall. And, she was forced to

question her inherent morals with constant propaganda against Animals circulating the school.4

Jung says, “Separation from his instinctual nature inevitably plunges civilized man into the

conflict between conscious and unconscious, spirit and nature, knowledge and faith, a split that

becomes pathological the moment his consciousness is no longer able to neglect or suppress his

instinctual side” (81). At seventeen years old, Elphaba was instinctively developing her self-

definition, and understandably questioned the difference between good and evil frequently

looking for the answer, even if she did not consciously know why.

Elphaba’s time at Shiz proves to be greatly influential in her development because of the

events that necessitate ethical judgments. In her first, true conversation with Galinda, the new

roommates openly contemplate the existence of evil:

                                                            
3
 After Dr. Dillamond’s death, Galinda changed her name, in his honor, to the ancient Saint’s name Glinda, because
it was a common mispronunciation the doctor made. 
4
 The difference between animals and Animals is simple: animals are the species we keep as pets; Animals have
human qualities, such as the ability to walk, talk, and reason. During Elphaba’s time at Shiz, the Wizard had begun
to take away many of the Animal’s Civil rights. 
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[Galinda:] Evil exists, I know that, and its name is Boredome, and ministers are

the guiltiest crew of all [. . .]

[Elphaba:] But maybe there is something to what you say [. . .] I mean, evil and

boredom. Evil and ennui. Evil and the lack of stimulation. Evil and sluggish

blood. (103)

With the third chakra harnessing will and power, Elphaba’s perception of evil is justifiable. She

is a driven and passionate person, albeit modest. Elphaba’s Sacral chakra is excessive, largely

due to “inherited shame from [a] parent” (166), a trauma Judith identifies, contributing to the

third chakra’s energy. This causes a superfluous amount of energy focused, essentially, on

willpower.

At Shiz, Elphaba needed to cope and compensate for her green skin more than she ever

had to before, because she did not have her father’s missionary message or Nessarose to hide

behind and care for. She became invested in the Animal Rights movement. Judith states, “An

excessive will has a constant need to be in control of oneself, of others, of situations. In

extremes, it is the bully—dominating, aggressive, angry and inflated” (209). Elphaba takes an

apprenticeship with Dr. Dillamond, the Goat professor of Biological Arts at Shiz. She is only his

secretary, yet she becomes so invested that she coerced Boq, Crope and Tibbett, boys from

Briscoe Hall, to pilfer information pertaining to Dr. Dillamond’s research of which they were not

privy because of their social statuses. Dr. Dillamond’s research was on its way to proving,

scientifically, that there is no biological difference between humans and Animals.

Had this, in fact, been proven, it would be detrimental to the Wizard’s political

propaganda and bans on the Animals. Not long before a conclusion was to be drawn from his

work, Dr. Dillamond was the victim of, what was to be referred to as, an accident. His murder
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left, what she felt to be, the weight of his research to Elphaba. Though she could not make sense

of it at the time, she made it a point to continue his work throughout her life. As Jung said in US:

[Harmlessness and naïveté] lead to projection of the unrecognized evil in the

‘other’. This strengthens the opponent’s position in the most effective way

because the projection carries the fear which we involuntarily and secretly feel for

our own evil over to the other side [. . .] What is worse, our lack of insight

deprives us of our capacity to deal with evil. (97)

It was at Ama Clutch’s funeral, the only potential eyewitness to Dr. Dillamond’s murder,

that Madame Morrible, Headmistress of Crage Hall at Shiz, made Elphaba, Glinda, and

Nessarose an offer to prospect for the Wizard after their graduation from Shiz. She said it was

because of Elphaba’s “great internal power and source of will” (203) that she is a proper

candidate for the agents the Wizard needed. But Elphaba did not intend to be anyone’s pawn,

because by this time, her self-definition was refined.

By the time she met the Wizard in the Emerald City, Elphaba was an Individual, yet her

beliefs contradicted with that of her State. As Jung explains, “The goal and meaning of

individual life (which is the only real life) no longer lie in individual development but in the

policy of the State, which is thrust upon the individual from the outside and consists in the

execution of an abstract idea which ultimately tends to attract all life to itself” (14). By explicitly

defying the wishes of the State, both Madame Morrible and the Wizard, Elphaba’s vows for

justice exhibit excess characteristic traits of the third chakra; her “need to be right [and] always

have the last word,” her “stubbornness,” and “driving ambition” (Judith, 167).
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Elphie

Elphaba went by “Elphie” while at Shiz— less out of choice and more by convenience.

Still, Elphie is the persona Elphaba used to get through school. Elphie was social. She had

friends. The color of her skin meant little. More importantly, however, Elphie left Elphaba the

most exposed. By letting her guard down, Elphie was able express her beliefs and, eventually,

be accepted by her peers.

Elphie challenged the power of authority in order to harness her own strength. Though

Elphaba is usually reserved, Elphie made public spectacles out of both Madame Morrible, for her

tasteless anti-Animal poetry, and Dr. Nikidik, Dr. Dillamond’s replacement, for his experiments

on a Lion Cub too young to even be separated from his mother. This lends to the belief that

Elphie acts autonomously and proactively. Elphie fulfills the third chakra’s purpose of

transformation.

Breaux points out that “Jung describes the ego as a complex of psychic factors and

general awareness of the body that attracts the contents from the unconscious and the outside

world with which it identifies” (26). This being said, Elphie is Elphaba’s ego, and the closest

means and example of conforming to one’s environment. Although Elphaba accomplished

Individuation, it was only through connections Elphie made. Elphie always remains a powerful

persona, but with her meeting with the Wizard being such a disappointment, any positive

influence Elphie could have had on Elphaba’s personality was withdrawn and suppressed, as her

excessive qualities become magnified in extreme situations.

THE [GREEN] CITY OF EMERALDS

A frustrated Elphaba said goodbye to Glinda after the overwhelming meeting with the

Wizard. Her disgust with the Wizard led her underground. During those years, there was a
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developmental energy shift from the third to the fourth chakra—the heart chakra, associated with

the color green, and its related element, air. This chakra should balance the psyche, yet it was at

this time Elphaba was most traumatized, which left the psyche shattered instead. Jung would

call the shards “Complexes”.

Whereas Elphie was Elphaba’s social persona, it is the fourth chakra that harnesses social

identity. Thus, by “flee[ing] to the Emerald City on some obscure mission, never to return . . .

[with] never a postcard, never a message, never a clue” (234), her true social characteristics are

withdrawn. Jung’s “Psychological Typology”5 supports why someone would choose a lifestyle

such as Elphaba’s:

The introvert is by no means a social loss. His retreat into himself is not a final

renunciation of the world, but a search for quietude, where alone, it is possible for

him to make his contribution to the life of the community. This type of person is

the victim of numerous misunderstandings—not unjustly, for he actually invites

them. Nor can he be acquitted of the charge of taking a secret delight in the

mystification, and that being misunderstood gives him a certain satisfaction, since

it reaffirms his pessimistic outlook. (143)

But five years after leaving Shiz, Fiyero confronted Elphaba after meeting her in Saint Glinda’s

Square and chasing her to her hideaway. When asked why she cut herself off from everyone she

replied she “loved [them] too much to keep in touch” (240).

At first glance, this response may seem irrational. But, Judith explains:

The deficient heart chakra is an avoidant response to too little love. Since the

unloved child did not get met with empathy for their experience, they have trouble

giving empathy to others (as well as themselves). They lack compassion and
                                                            
5
 Collective Works 6, pars. 960-87, as referenced in EJ 
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remain critical and judgmental, which hurts the people they love and closes

channels for expression and reception. (271)

Elphaba did not know how to love. And how could she? The fourth chakra thrives on the

assumption that the lower chakras are grounded. If the foundation is not stable, however, the

more it is vulnerable to other abuses. Elphaba endured constant trauma through “rejection,”

“shaming, constant criticism,” and a “loveless, cold environment” while growing up (Judith,

222). All of this contributed to her twisted image of love. Her psyche was so damaged, at this

point, that she displayed every deficient characteristic Judith identifies for this chakra:

“antisocial, withdrawn, cold, critical, judgmental, intolerant of self [and] others, loneliness,

isolation, depression, fear of intimacy[… and] relationships, [and] lack of empathy” (223).

Running away and going underground was the only way she knew how to demonstrate love; it

was a pattern she followed her entire life.

Though she admitted to genuinely loving her family, especially Nessarose, Fiyero was

her only true love. Because he showed concern for her like no one else had, Elphaba was able to

overcome many of her deficiencies to create a complex that was capable of forming an amorous

relationship. She gave herself to him, as she had never given herself to anyone (and would never

do again). They passionately made love, as passionately as they talked about religion and

politics, and together, escaped the world whenever they would rendezvous. Their affair was

nearly perfect, but very flawed—it was adulterous. Fiyero, the Arjiki prince, had a childhood-

wife back in the Vinkus6.

Elphaba knew right from wrong. She also had very low self-esteem. As much as she

loved Fiyero, she could not understand how or why he would love her. She tried to excuse or

                                                            
6
 They had both been married at a very young age, and had three children together. Sarima (his wife) two sons
(Manek and Irji), daughter, (Nor) and Sarima’s six spinster sisters all lived in the castle Kiamo Ko, in the Vinkus. 
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justify her insecurities about love and her need for distance: “You should go away, I’m not

worthy of you [. . .] I love you so much, Fiyero, you just don’t understand: Being born with a

talent or an inclination for goodness is the aberration” (257). Fiyero was even able to predict

when she was about to postpone their next meeting: their lovemaking would become

extraordinary more passionate. He also knew that there was an alternate guise he was unfamiliar

with, and the type of work she did that required it.

Elphaba believed that “you shouldn’t fall in love [because] it blinds you. Love is a

wicked distraction” (253). In her line of work7, Elphaba was supposed to remain anonymous.

Yet, she maintained a relationship with Fiyero, which forced her to balance at least two, of many,

complexes at any given time: Fae, the Lover, and Fae, the secret agent against the State. Jacobi

writes about the phenomenology of the complex: “The ‘complex ego’ can break completely out

of the psychic organization, split off and become autonomous. This leads to the phenomenon of

the ‘dual personality’ (Janet8), or to a disintegration into several partial personalities according to

the number and nature of the patients unconscious complexes” (15). With so many complexes

already conflicting within her, Fiyero’s murder left Elphaba’s destroyed psyche in irreparable

disarray, and her fourth chakra completely closed off.

Fae

Fae is an enigma; at least, that is what she strives to be. Fae is the codename Elphaba is

given by the Resistance, but it is also Fiyero’s pet name for her. Fae strives to embrace the

qualities of the fourth chakra. She tries to balance Elphaba’s passions. She attempts to accept

                                                            
7
 Elphaba is an agent for the Animal Relief League (or the likes, it was never specified). She describes her role to
Fiyero: “There is a campaign but no agents, there is a game but no players. I have no colleagues. I have no self
[. . .] I am just a muscular twitch in the larger organism” (255).
8
Referencing Pierre Marie Félix Janet, believed by some to be the true father of psychoanalysis, as opposed to
Freud. 
 Foxxe 18 
 

herself and others. But the heart chakra’s primary demon—grief—reverses any progress she

may have made.

Imagine a mirror. When broken, it has two dispositions; it can either crack into pieces, or

splinter into shards. The traumas Elphaba managed throughout her life broke her psyche into

manageable pieces, her complexes. Fae tried to develop a meaning behind Elphaba’s struggles,

and piece Elphaba’s psyche together in order to do it. She allowed Elphaba to experience love

and fight passionately about a cause, which in turn, made her feel like a contributing member to

society (or her ideal image of one).

The farther Elphaba repressed Fabala and Elphie, though, the more she resembled an

archetypal witch. Upon her reintroduction to Fiyero, Elphaba briefly remarks how her ascetic

lifestyle may be perceived to others: “Well, I’d soon as soon be thought a witch as anything else.

Why not” (237). Knowing that others may imagine her in this way, she adopts another complex.

With Fae still keeping her grounded, Elphaba knew that fully assuming a witch’s role would hurt

her cause, so stifling the newly acquired complex was a simple conclusion—“How can I worry

about [my family] and be worried about the campaign of the season too? I can’t course around

Oz—on that broomstick there, like a storybook witch!—I’ve chosen to go underground so that I

can’t worry” (251).

The middle chakra is responsible for creating a clear persona. At the pivotal time when

this clarity should be shown, however, Elphaba receives a shattering blow in which her psyche is

never able to recover. Thus, Elphaba could not demonstrate any one, clear persona. Against

Elphaba’s wishes, Fiyero trails her on a secret-mission she was given by the Resistance9, fearing

she was in danger. After seeing her hesitate, then losing her in a crowd, Fiyero returns to their

                                                            
9
 She attempts to assassinate Madame Morrible, in which she ultimately fails 
 Foxxe 19 
 

love nest—to be brutally murdered by Gale Force members10. It must be assumed that Elphaba

found the gruesome scene, because next we know, Elphaba arrives, bloodstained, to the Church

of Saint Glinda.

For a self-proclaimed “atheist [and] aspiritualist” (177) to search for refuge at a

“mauntery”11, Elphaba was desperate and miserable. Fae was unable to facilitate her recovery

because losing Fiyero was the strike to Elphaba’s psyche that shattered it, leaving the pieces too

small to micromanage. Whereas Elphaba was previously able to subsist alongside her personas

in harmony, this suffering led to a complete split within her. Because of this split, we begin

seeing the replacement of Elphaba’s civility with the tendencies of a conventional witch. As

Jung said, “Where love stops, power begins, and violence, and terror” (106).

IN THE VINKUS AND THE THROAT

“We can’t block the ears, eyes, or nerve endings of the skin as thoroughly as we can

block our throat, so it is easier to block expression that it is reception, easier to block what comes

out of us than what comes in” (Judith, 305). Judith’s enlightenment on the fourth, or Throat,

chakra explains why Elphaba sought refuge at a mauntery. “Maunts”, Maguire’s nuns, had a

very restrictive, structured lifestyle. They are disciplined and all freewill is forfeited. Elphaba

sought stability in an attempt to control her Self, which was collapsing.

When we are introduced to Elphaba again, it is seven years (a chakra cycle) after Fiyero’s

fatality, and her description lacks any sort of familiarity: “She didn’t look like one of anything to

Oatsie, neither flesh nor fowl, neither idiot nor intellectual. Sister Saint Aelphaba just stared at

the floor” (290). Elphaba reminisced about the years she lived with the “cloister” (group of

                                                            
10
 Members of the Wizard’s army 
11
 Convent 
 Foxxe 20 
 

nuns) as Sister Saint Aelphaba, which enables us to deconstruct the years immediately following

her escape from Emerald City. While at the mauntery, she lived in “three years of absolute

silence, two years of a whisper, and then, moved up (and outward) by the decision of the

Superior Maunt, two years on the ward for incurable. There, for nine months [. . .] she tended

the dying, and those too clumsy to die” (293). The cloister gave Elphaba a purpose. She was

content with her work, and the tedium associated with it.

But it was when she tended to Tibbett in the Home for the Incurables that he reminded

her that “she did think. [And,] under the scrutiny of his tired frame she was recreated, against

her will, as an individual. Or nearly” (294). Within the year, and with much encouragement by

the Superior Maunt to “atone for her mistakes” (294), she arranged a trip to the Vinkus—Kiamo

Ko, to be exact. All she took with her on the dangerous caravan trip, the Grasstrail Train guided

by Oatsie, was a broom given to her by Mother Yackle12, said to be “[the] link to [her] destiny”

(347), and a young boy named Liir. Liir never knew why he was left in Elphaba’s custody, nor

did she know if he was her son. Either way, she felt, and instinctually treated him, as an

obligation—again a reflection of her own upbringing.

While the caravan passed through the Kumbricia’s Pass, however, Oatsie, Elphaba, and

three other passengers were “invited—requested—(ordered?) —to the Scrow13 shrine” (304), to

meet with their leader, Princess Nastoya. When asked by the Elephant princess what her

intentions as a traveler were, Elphaba responds honestly, “To retire from this world after making

sure of the safety of the survivors of my lover. To face his widow, Sarima, in guilt and

responsibility, and then to remove myself from the darkening world” (306). Openly vocalizing

                                                            
12
 En enigmatic old crone who resurfaces throughout Elphaba’s life without her knowledge 
13
 One of two tribes (the Scrow and the Yunmata) that live within Kumbricia’s Pass 
 Foxxe 21 
 

her burden and desperation led Nastoya to identify with Elphaba, because she, too, was living

under false pretenses (she was an Elephant, enchanted to live in human form).

Nastoya not only befriended Elphaba, but also changed her life. The princess gave

Elphaba three crows and told her she was to live in hiding as a witch. When Elphaba questioned

if life was worth living in the wrong form, Nastoya replied, “The interior doesn’t change [. . .]

except by self-involvement. Of which be not afraid, and also aware” (308). Elphaba could have

disagreed, and dejected the stigma of a witch. Similar to how she had lived for nearly a decade,

she remained quiet and accepting of her fate.

After her private meeting with the princess, Elphaba returned to the caravan and almost

immediately denounced her title, “Sister”, and told Oatsie, simply, “I am no longer a sister, I am

a witch” (310). Throughout her journey, she acquired the cook’s dog, Killyjoy, as a companion

for Liir, a swarm of bees (that she was able to somehow talk to), the crows Princess Nastoya

gave her, and a monkey she rescued and named Chistery. Had she not already assumed the role

of a witch, the company she kept would have illustrated it for her. Arriving at Kiamo Ko,

Sarima asks Elphaba for her name, to which she replied, “I come from the back of the wind [. . .]

and I have given up my name so often I don’t like to bring it out for you” (318). But Sarima

knew Elphaba’s name from stories Fiyero told of his time at Shiz; surely, she couldn’t forget the

green girl. Elphaba did not plan to stay, but when she told Sarima she blamed herself for

Fiyero’s death, Sarima insisted she didn’t want to hear it. She even said, “If I remember rightly

[. . .] you’re the one who didn’t believe in the soul. I remember that much, so what’s to forgive,

dearie” (319)? Sarima had control, and she stifled Elphaba’s voice. Because Elphaba could not

vocalize what she came to be forgiven for, she could not leave.
 Foxxe 22 
 

Out of courtesy, Sarima introduced Elphaba to her sisters and children as Auntie Guest.

Yet, it converted to the epithet Auntie Witch, first by the children, followed closely by the adults.

Elphaba’s fifth chakra was doomed from the beginning, but instead of being completely limited

because her sense of voice was taken away, Elphaba developed excessive characteristics Judith

would identify as “talking as a defense,” “inability to listen,” “dominating voice, [frequent]

interruptions,” (287) because the energy was present but suppressed. Elphaba kept very much to

herself while at Kiamo Ko, until Nanny came to find her, after being the first in the family to

hear any evidence of her since she went underground. Though very old, Nanny still had most of

her wits and all of her brutal honesty. She was the balance to Elphaba’s disengaged voice when

it came to simple, everyday, commonsense matters that couldn’t concern Elphaba. But when it

came to action and authority, Elphaba was dominant and unwavering.

The most lucid example of excessive characteristics in Elphaba’s Throat chakra, though,

is her work with Chistery. Most of her time was spent in the solitary of her room, reading the

Grimmerie14 and performing experiments on the monkey. Trying to continue Dr. Dillamond’s

efforts, she began trying to teach Chistery how to speak. By giving a voice to another animal,

Elphaba hopes to find value, and her place, in the struggle for Animal equality. She was

reasonably successful in these efforts, too. Chistery had a vocabulary of most one-syllable

words, and was able to produce similar results in other monkeys she acquired. Eventually,

Chistery was taught to be a reasonably functioning member of the family, and was a great

companion for Nanny at her old age.

However, Elphaba was never able to tell Sarima anything. While Elphaba was away on a

trip to Colwen Grounds to visit Frex and Nessarose for the first time since she went underground
                                                            
14
 The magic book Elphaba was given by Sarima.  Sarima, who was illiterate and had never opened it, said it was 
left by an old sorcerer from another world, many years prior, who said he needed to hide it because it was “too 
powerful to be destroyed, but too threatening—to the other place—to be preserved” (341). 
 Foxxe 23 
 

nearly fifteen years earlier, Gale Force soldiers marched Sarima and her entire family to their

base camp, and Liir followed, hoping the soldiers would take him in. Upon Elphaba’s return,

Nanny, Chistery, and Elphaba’s menagerie of other animals were the only residents left in Kiamo

Ko. With all hope of absolution lost, any desire to repair Elphaba’s psyche was eradicated.

Sister Saint Aelphaba/ Auntie Witch

Throughout this chakra cycle, we are introduced to two different personalities Elphaba

assumes. Judith identifies the fifth chakra as “the [facilitator of] a profound passage between the

abstract information of conception, image, and idea, and the manifested realm of the material

world” (335). Sister Saint Aelphaba demonstrates Elphaba’s ability to release control, and

submit to other’s desires. On the other hand, Auntie Witch is a character Elphaba assumes in

retaliation to those who have traumatized her. Whereas Sister Saint Aelphaba is grounded as a

functioning member of society, Auntie Witch plays into the pariah role Elphaba often escapes.

Breaux believes, “when a constellation of pain and confusion has formed around the

emotional or physical body over considerable time, and the mental body and brain have learned

to shut off or repress stimuli that activate the memory patterns associated with the original

traumas, the mind may become completely divorced from physical reality (psychosis)” (124).

This helps explain why it was so easy for Elphaba to release her will and adapt multiple, often

conflicting, personas. Sister Saint Aelphaba repressed not only Elphaba’s voice, but also choice.

She, like her lower personalities, attempts to protect Elphaba by trying to restore and balance the

chakra. “Sister” Elphaba was her transition period between living as a physical presence and

living as a concept (a witch).

Auntie Witch, however, is our first instance of a self-destructive persona. She is also an

example of Jung’s proposed “Shadow”: “By Shadow I mean the ‘negative’ side of the
 Foxxe 24 
 

personality, the sum of all those unpleasant qualities we like to hide, together with the

insufficiently developed functions and the content of the personal unconscious” (EJ, 88). To

understand the Shadow, we must also understand the “collective unconscious”.

Whereas the contents of the personal unconscious are acquired during the

individual’s lifetime, the contents of the collective unconscious are invariably

archetypes that were present from the beginning [. . .] closer examination of the

dark characteristics—that is, the inferiorities constituting the shadow—reveals

that they have an emotional nature, a kind of autonomy, and accordingly, an

obsessive or, better, possessive quality. (EJ, 91)

After accepting the role of a witch, Elphaba’s life began to resemble that of the “storybook

witch” she criticized in discussions with Fiyero. Throughout the novel, the tale of the Kumbric

Witch identified the basis of Oz’s archetypal witch. Just before Elphaba began to masquerade as

a witch, Igo, another passenger on the Grasstrail Train, articulates the Kumbric Witch’s status:

“Every other witch is just a shadow, a daughter, a sister, a decadent descendent; the Kumbric

Witch is the model further back than which it seems impossible to go” (298). This presented

Elphaba with a profile to abide by, if she was to truly embrace a witch’s persona.

Elphaba needed the potential to be a believable witch already inside of her in order to

succeed in creating this new identity. (Can you imagine Glinda trying to be a witch? It has a

much different product.) Breaux believes that “because it is in the unconscious, the shadow is

most commonly experienced as a projection onto another person of the same sex. The

characteristics that we react to in a person we dislike are good reflections of the part of ourselves

we despise” (84). In this case, Elphaba sees that a witch is seen as powerful, feared and obeyed.
 Foxxe 25 
 

By emulating the Kumbric Witch, she focused the development of her personal shadow—the

very thing she had worked against her entire life—and finally embraced it.

“Symbolic thinking” is one of the fifth chakra’s developmental tasks, according to Judith

(286). Examining the rise in energy through the chakras presents us with evidence that Elphaba

is transitioning between the concrete needs of her body and her survival, to the thoughts of

abstract entities, such as magic and the afterlife; though the internal power struggle between

good and evil never relinquished its grip on her consciousness. Wauters suggests, “Each

[chakra] relates not only to the health energy of the physical body but also has specific emotional

issues [. . .] It is our thoughts and attitudes, more than anything else, which block or release the

flow of energy through the chakras” (21). After the loss of Fiyero’s family to the Gale Forces,

and the news of Nessarose’s death, Elphaba used the Witch to protect her psyche from further

damage. Unfortunately, it was too late. Whereas, she was playing the part of a witch in the fifth

chakra, she began living in delusions after the death of her sister—a time when she was already

in transition to the higher chakras. The Wicked Witch of the West is a result of Auntie Witch

being the only identity Elphaba is fully able to associate with.

THE MURDER AND [NO] AFTERLIFE: THE UPPER CHAKRAS

“The persona. . . is the individual’s system of adaptation to, or the manner he assumed in

dealing with, the world [. . .] Only, the danger is that (people) become identical with their

personas [. . .] One could say with little exaggeration, that the persona is that which in reality one

is not, but which oneself as well as others thinks one is” (EJ, 420). Jung’s definition of a
 Foxxe 26 
 

persona15 confirms the proposed idea that Elphaba’s split personality is due to the ideas others

created of her.

The Brow chakra is supposed to establish personal identity, but Elphaba is unable to

establish one because she has lived as so many other characters. Remember, Jung warns against

adopting a persona in favor of an individual identity (as it leads to psychosis). Yet, Elphaba

adopts numerous personas, and the effects are visible in the sixth chakra; but how did she go

from being a driven activist to a disturbed public-enemy? Judith’s book may hold one

explanation: “When illusion is fed by a sixth chakra excess, it becomes obsession or delusion.

Obsessions fix an unusual amount of energy on a particular issue; delusion assembles elaborate

illusions around a central theme” (347). In “The Murder and Its Afterlife”, two of Elphaba’s

obsessions can be identified: getting her sister’s ruby slippers and wreaking havoc as the Wicked

Witch of the West to spite the Wizard. What’s more, both of these obsessions spawn elaborate

delusions.

At one point towards the end, she even believed that the Scarecrow accompanying

Dorothy to Kiamo Ko was Fiyero coming home to reunite with her. Her delusions eventually

made her question her own sanity and beliefs: “She wondered, briefly, if she was going insane [.

. .] A person who doesn’t believe in the Unnamed God, or anything else, can’t have a soul [. . .]

The history of people who have shucked off religion isn’t an especially persuasive argument for

living without it. Is religion itself—that tired and ironic phrase—the necessary evil” (495)?

As if there was not enough evidence to support the importance of grounding, Judith

mentions, “excess energy in the sixth chakra happens when energy is withdrawn from the lower

chakras” (371). Appreciating how deficient most of her lower chakras are, it is no wonder

Elphaba is in pieces. “Personas” and “archetypes” ruled her life. The sixth chakra directs
                                                            
15
 Collective Works 9, par. 221 
 Foxxe 27 
 

archetypal identity, and as Jacobi explains, “The archetype, like everything that is

psychologically alive, has the essential attribute of bipolarity. Like a Janus head, it is turned

both ‘forwards’ and ‘backwards’, integrating into a meaningful whole with all the possibilities of

which has been and of that of which is still to come” (65). So, when accepting the role of the

Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba strengthened her personal psyche by assuming a strong

archetype, but damaged her social relationships and image because of its status in the collective

unconscious. Judith explains the importance of myth on our Self, and the State:

Myths are the cultural stories of our origins and purpose. Unconsciously, these

stories influence and may even rule over our lives. They define what is possible,

shape who we are, and lead us to what we can be. Myths are a statement of the

primal relationships that exist between archetypal elements in the universe, and

the counterparts in our own psyche. (225)

As with many fairy-tales, magic plays an important role. Elphaba psychically executed

two people, the Cook on the caravan to the Vinkus and Manek, without knowing she had the

power to do it. She also learned how to fly on her broom, and cast spells to help her monkeys

fly16. Jung says, “Magic has above all a psychological effect whose importance should not be

underestimated. The performance of ‘magical’ action gives the person concerned a feeling of

security which is absolutely essential for carrying out a decision, because a decision is inevitably

somewhat one-sided and is therefore rightly felt to be a risk” (26). In her table on page 11,

Judith identifies “psychic perception” as a goal of the sixth chakra. Elphaba did not believe she

held any supernatural powers, yet she was able to read the Grimmerie, and see into Turtle

Heart’s magic looking glass. Breaux says, “The sixth chakra is sometimes called the third eye

because of its potential for clairvoyance, the ability to perceive the subtle energies of non-
                                                            
16
 She was only able to do this after she was successfully able to surgically attach wings to them 
 Foxxe 28 
 

physical realms” (162). Frex made the same revelation, reflecting, “You always had strong eyes

[. . .] Even as a toddler you could see things no one else could” (434). Regrettably, by the time

she reached the sixth chakra, her delusions distorted her reality, and she was living in a fantasy.

The Wicked Witch of the West dies at the age of thirty-seven, which means, Elphaba

died before the development of her seventh chakra. Yet, it is clear how damaged the chakra

would have been had she reached its maturity. Had she lived, Elphaba may have resolved the

concerns she had with the “spirit” and the “soul”. Judith explains the relationship between the

two: “Soul is the individual expression of spirit, and spirit is the universal expression of the soul.

They each connect and are enhanced by each other” (13). Throughout the novel, readers see

Elphaba struggle with the idea of a soul. While trying to magically revive Liir, Elphaba cries

out, “I have no personal experience with a soul—how can I revive his if I don’t know what one

looks like” (362)?

By renouncing religion, Elphaba lost any type of spiritual connection that may have

eventually presented itself. Jung believes that “the individual who is not anchored in God can

offer no resistance on his own resources to the physical and moral blandishments of the world,”

(US, 24) and “the rupture between faith and knowledge is a symptom of the split consciousness

which is so characteristic of the mental disorder of our day” (US, 74). By the time Dorothy and

Toto, Nick Chopper (the TinMan), Brr (the Cowardly Lion), and the Scarecrow arrived at Kiamo

Ko, the Wicked Witch was the only distinct persona left within Elphaba. The others were no

longer strong enough to protect Elphaba, and the unused energy of the lower chakras filtered

upward, into the higher chakras, creating excessive power and energy flow there.

Though her death was accidental, it was what she wanted. Elphaba did not want to

believe in the soul. In her delusional confrontation with Dorothy, she made her reasons clear
 Foxxe 29 
 

why: “You’re my soul come scavenging for me, I can feel it [. . .] I won’t have it, I won’t have it.

I won’t have a soul; with a soul there is an everlastingness, and life has tortured me enough”

(511-12). Yet, in saying this, she is acknowledging that there is an afterlife, something she

refused her entire life—“I think that’s shameful, even if it’s just a story17, to propose an afterlife

for evil [. . .] Any afterlife notion is a manipulation and sop. It’s shameful the way the unionists

and pagans both keep talking up hell for intimidation and the airy Other Land for reward” (348).

This polar split in attitudes is only one example of the vast differences between Elphaba and the

Wicked Witch of the West.

The Wicked Witch of the West

Elphaba died long before her physical death. One might even say she never really

lived—she merely existed. The culmination of each persona led to the creation of the Wicked

Witch of the West. Everything that was at the core of Elphaba’s personality was gradually lost

throughout the transitions between each persona, until finally, there was nothing left of her

original character. The Wicked Witch and Elphaba are an example of extreme, dichotomous,

internal struggles of the Self: strong/weak, loyal/traitorous, loving/murderous, good/evil, and,

naturally, soul/soulless. But, as Breaux suggests, “The ‘soul complex’ becomes immortal in the

sense that it partakes of its Absolute Nature” (200). So, did death bring for Elphaba what she

expected?

Every cause Elphaba cared about and fought for ended in disappointment (Animal

Rights, her affair with Fiyero, Sarima’s forgiveness, the murder18 of Madame Morrible, and her

pursuit of the ruby slippers). Because of her inability to succeed, Elphaba struggled with finding

                                                            
17
 Referencing the Kumbric Witch 
18
 By the second time Elphaba attempted to murder Madame Morrible, she found her dead in her bed.  She 
proceeded to bludgeon her in an attempt to maintain she was responsible for her death.  When she tried to 
circulate the fabricated story, those who knew her had a hard time accepting its validity. 
 Foxxe 30 
 

acceptance. “Rejection says we are unworthy and magnifies our basic shame to whatever degree

we carry it. It turns us against ourselves, creating the deepest wound of all” (Judith, 259).

Elphaba’s first split occurred within Fabala, and was so severe that Elphaba’s development, in

actuality, ends there; she is never wholly “Elphaba” ever again. The Wicked Witch was the

surviving persona, whereas Elphaba was too weak to survive. Ultimately, while Elphaba was the

victim, the Witch was the victimizer.

Elphaba was naturally loving and loyal. She was unwavering when it came to the things

she cared for. But Breaux suggests, “The defense mechanisms adopted to deal with both

emotional pain and an unjustified existence are some of the desperate hands that shape the masks

we wear. Unfortunately, this defensive posture of the ego hardens us and we act in ways that are

not always conducive to the satisfaction of our needs” (86). The only murders committed by

Elphaba were done in concern; she euthanized the monkeys that were unable to properly adapt to

the complicated, wing-attaching surgery, and she “saw to it that the suffering soldier died at

once” (497), too. The Witch attempts to lower herself to the murderous tactics of the Wizard,

though she never succeeds.

Jung says in The Undiscovered Self, “resistance to the organized mass can be effected

only by the man who is as well organized in his individuality as the mass itself” (60). Clearly,

Elphaba was a failure. In an attempt to locate her sister’s ruby slippers, she confesses to Glinda,

“I have always felt like a pawn [. . .] My skin color’s been a curse, my missionary parents made

me sober and intense, my school days brought me up against political crimes against animals, my

love life imploded and my lover died, and if I had any life’s work of my own, I haven’t found it

yet, except in animal husbandry, if you can call it that” (442). Yet, the Wizard fears the Wicked

Witch of the West enough, because he knows she is in possession of the Grimmerie and has the
 Foxxe 31 
 

ability to read it, that he sends Dorothy to kill her. Jung agrees, “Naturally, society has an

indisputable right to protect itself against arrant subjectivism, but, in so far as society itself is

composed of de-individualized persons, it is completely at the mercy of ruthless individualists”

(US, 55). Perhaps it was luck that Dorothy killed the Witch, but it was well-played attempt made

by the stronger Individual (the Wizard) that ultimately killed the threatening persona. “Murder

or mercy killing or accident, in an indirect way it helped rid the country of its dictator” (518)—

the evidence Dorothy brought the Wizard to prove Elphaba’s death provided him with evidence

of something else so distressing he fled Oz within days. The Wizard murdered his own

daughter19. This realization may be the only way in which Elphaba did not die in vain, yet, no

one was privileged to the information, so the true reason for the Wizards departure was never

credited to her.

Though Elphaba was unsuccessful in her endeavors, she died while exhibiting

characteristics of the “Martyr” archetype, identified by Wauters as the “dysfunctional archetype”

of the Sacral chakra. Again, Elphaba’s development was stunted, if not stalled, in the lower

chakras, which explains why her life was filled with so much misery:

Many people collude with the Martyr to carry on suffering rather than to

take the risks which will transform its life. Families and friends unconsciously

encourage the Martyr to continue its tasks of looking after others so that they are

free of the responsibility of having to do it [. . .] The Martyr can endure for years

without making fundamental changes in its life. It blocks its life force, creates co-

dependent relationships and never seems to really enjoy itself. The Martyr

accepts a situation without making the changes which will empower it or give it
                                                            
19
 Before the Wizard came to power, he traveled from the Other Land to Oz.  During his travels, he and Melena 
crossed paths, and slept together (as Melena often did with strangers when Frex left her home alone).  He offered 
Melena a green bottle of “magic elixir”, a bottle Elphaba kept as a token to remember her mother by. 
 Foxxe 32 
 

more of a claim to happiness. It does, however, receive appreciation from others

who share the same attitudes about suffering [. . .] This, in the end, is its only

reward. (53)

Elphaba’s name lived on after her death in two ways—there was Elphaba, an advocate for the

underdog, who was silently mourned, and the Wicked Witch of the West, whose death “became

a celebrated event [. . .] hailed as a political assassination or a juicy murder (517-18).

Perhaps Avaric, another schoolmate of Elphaba’s, got closest to recognizing the true

distinction between good and evil, “Evil isn’t doing bad things, its feeling bad about them

afterward. There’s no absolute value to behavior” (473). If we were to assign a dichotomous

characteristic to each personality, Elphaba can surely be perceived as good, while seeing the acts

of Wicked Witch as evil barely requires an argument. Morally, Elphaba was always instinctively

righteous. It was only because she fought against widely accepted authority that she explicitly

became Oz’s public-enemy.

But the ultimate question is concerning the soul—does she have one? It depends.

Elphaba, the Individual, has one, yet her personas, especially the Wicked Witch of the West, do

not. Immediately after Dorothy doused Elphaba with water, she finally received the absolution

and answers she had been working towards her entire life: “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” (514).

But Elphaba had already evolved away from her personas. So, with her physical death,

they too died. Though their ending is, literally, not as soulful, the death is just as enlightening in
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the assessment of how drastically her psyche was destroyed, and a final example of how

radically different Elphaba truly was from the personas she developed.

In the life of a 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 life story, beyond the story of the 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. (519)