Social Class Struggles

Throughout Wicked it is clear that social class and high society are very important to many people. The citizens of the Land of Oz have clear-cut social classes, and to most, these social classes are very important. For example, Melena, Elphaba’s mother, is described by her nanny as, “Only a pampered little rich girl who flitted about from music lessons to dance lessons with neighborhood children equally rich and stupid as [her].” Melena came from a well-off upper-class family and often complained of the situation she got herself into by marrying a lower-class minister, Frex. She once commented, “This view was the only thing she had seen since leaving the elegant mansion of her family, the only thing she would ever gaze upon again….” Melena also thinks to herself, “Look at me, showing my breasts to the child I couldn’t give milk to for fear of amputation. I who was the rose of Nest Hardings, I who was the beauty of my generation!” She is saddened by the drop in class that she has suffered. Even Frex, Melena’s minister husband, is not immune to thinking prejudice thoughts about certain social classes. Frex, when presented with Melena’s kindness toward Turtle Heart, the Quadling, contemplated, “Perhaps she [Melena] was adjusting to country life after all. Because, mercy, a Quadling ranked about as low on the social ladder as it was possible to get and still be human.” Quadlings were considered the bottom of the barrel when it came to social classes. Galinda (Glinda) too, payed copious attention to the social ladder. When Galinda first arrived at school she noticed, “Looking about her, she could tell that some of these dollies came from families much better off than hers. The pearls and diamonds on them!” Galinda is also found fretting about a roommate when she thinks, “Ama Clutch, the old fool, would have fixed her up nicely with someone just a notch or two above on the social ladder! Near enough that Galinda would suffer no shame, and above enough to make it worth while of socializing. But now all the better young misses were linked together.” Galinda’s main concern when arriving at a very prestigious school was that her roommate not embarrass her with an under-privileged background. It is continuously clear through out the remainder of Wicked that social class and prestige are very important to a lot of people.