Madame Morrible, an obvious evil character in Wicked, uses the power she has as a headmistress and a loyal follower of the Wizard to further the Wizard’s unfair regime and to build upon Elphaba’s hatred of him.
One of our first encounters with Madam Morrible is at the school in Shiz, where we read of her poetry soiree. During this soiree Madam Morrible reads one of her very own poems; the last three lines read, “Whose Virtues do exemplify, And Social Good thus multiply. Animals should be seen and not heard.” In front of an entire room full of impressionable young students Madam Morrible states her opinion, and the opinion of the Wizard, that Animals should not have the same rights as people. This was a highly offensive and unfair statement that does not belong anywhere near a school. Schools and universities should be built upon strong foundations of morals and objectivity. That Madam Morrible brought discriminatory politics into the classroom and tried to further enforce the Wizard’s discriminative view of Animals was a disrespectful and an immoral use of her power as headmistress.
Madam Morrible also uses her power as headmistress to murder Dr. Dillamond. Although never proven that Madam Morrible was the one truly behind the murder, we do know that her tiktok machine, Grommetik, committed the act. It is highly unlikely that Grommetik, a practical slave to Madam Morrible, would have acted on his own accord. It is quite evident that he was carrying out the dirty deed for Madam Morrible herself. Madam Morrible was able to get away with the murder of the Animal because of her power as a headmistress and loyal follower of the Wizard.
Madam Morrible uses her power again to try to recruit scared, intimidated young girls to become adepts for the Wizard himself, and thus help the Wizard carry out his discriminative and diminishing dictatorship. Madam Morrible states, “By an authority vested in me that is too high to be named [the Wizard] I have been charged with a crucial task. A task essential to the internal security of Oz. I have been working to fulfill this task for some years, and the time is right, and the goods [Elphaba, Nessa and Glinda] are at my disposal.” She speaks of the three girls as if they are property, simple toys for the Wizard to shape and use at his disposal. The ironic thing is that she talks as if being an adept to the horrible Wizard was some kind of grand achievement and honor.
Each step that Madam Morrible takes further infuriates Elphaba and adds to her hatred toward the Wizard and the development of the climax of the book. In the end Madam Morrible’s actions drive Elphaba to murder her, creating a Witch that is capable of taking other’s lives.
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3 comments:
It is definietly true that Madam Morrible is a powerful person in this book. A lot of her power has to do with her position. Like when you discussed how she said, "Animals should be seen and not heard" in front of all the impressionable students in front of her. She has the ability to influence a lot of people and the ability to get away with things like murder because of her sorcery abilities. She tries to use that power to get Elphaba, Ness, and Galinda to become adepts, therefore she knows what kind of power she has and she had all intentions of using it to her own advantage.
I wrote about Madame Morrible as well, and I definitely feel that she takes advantage of the power given to her as headmistress of Shiz. She uses it to further her own agenda, and create propaganda in the form of her poem at her "poetry soiree." She knows that she has impressionable young minds at her disposal, and to me, this is the most overuse of power we see in the novel because it is completely wrong.
I wrote about Nessa's power, but if I were to have chosen another character, it would have been Madame Morrible "the Horrible," lol. I feel like I beat this idea to death, BUT I relate Madame Morrible to Mussolini in Italy- they both start using propaganda to sway impressionable, young minds. Mussolini started Fascist militant groups for children, teens, and university students. He, like Madame Morrible, started early, trying to persuade these young people that they were different, more superior, than other races (in Wicked's case, more superior to Animals). Great examples of how Madame Morrible is truly "horrible" in throughout the novel!
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