Some Background to Wicked
The cover from Wicked (Photo from the www.amazon.com website)
Wicked, a novel by Gregory Maguire, is the “untold story of the Witches of Oz”. It is the story of before Dorothy landed in Oz, of when Elphaba Thropp (The Wicked Witch of the West) and Galinda Upland (The Good Witch of the North) meet at Shiz University for the first time, and befriend one another. However, after the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the new dictator of Oz in this story, requests an audience with Elphaba, she realizes the corruption of the government, and flies away to her castle in Kiamo Ko. Of course, the Wizard couldn’t have Elphaba parading about spreading rumors about him, so he began a smear campaign against Elphaba, saying she tortures Animals (who she was trying to save in the visit with the Wizard) and other such rumors. It is because of this that we get the common misconception of the “Wicked Witch of the West”. Following this begins the story of Dorothy, ruby slippers, and the bucket of water. The novel brings out a completely different point of view, and reveals the truth behind Oz.
A map of Oz (Photo from the Wicked website)
1. Non Sequiturs
Water causes some materials to disintegrate
Elphaba never goes by water
Water must make Elphaba disintegrate
A non sequitur, according to Faith, Reason, and Revelation, is “when a conclusion does not follow logically from the premises used to support it.”(FRR 63) This is an example of a non sequitur because 1. It is a true fact that water has properties which allow it to disintegrate some materials (such as sugar, paper, etc.) 2. It is a fact from the book that Elphaba never went near water, even from her birth. 3. It is not, however, a fact that water must make Elphaba disintegrate. In fact, in the musical production of Wicked, Elphaba survives in the end!
2. False and Vague Premises
Elphaba is green
People who are not like me are in all cases dangerous
Elphaba must be dangerous
False and vague premises, according to Faith, Reason, and Revelation, are “when the conclusion does follow, but the premises are either vague or false,” (FRR 64) which makes the conclusion false as well. This is an example of false and vague premises because 1. It is a fact from the novel that Elphaba was green 2. It is not a fact that people who are not like me are in all cases dangerous. This is actually an example of prejudice. 3. Therefore, the fact that Elphaba must be dangerous could not be true, simply because the second premise was too vague to draw a conclusion.
Elphaba (Stephanie J. Block) (Photo from the Wicked website)
3. Ad Hominem
The Wizard begins a campaign against Elphaba in order to make her protests for Animal Rights less reputable.
The book describes ad hominem as “attacking a person instead of his/her argument” (FRR 65). This is an example of ad hominem because the Wizard, afraid of losing his role as the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, attacked Elphaba, saying she tortures monkeys and “her green skin is but an outward manifestoria of her twisted nature.”(Wicked - Defying Gravity) Because of this, the citizens of Oz are convinced that Elphaba is wicked instead of the Wizard.
The Citizens of Oz (Photo from the Wicked website)
4. Begging the Question
The Wizard is greater than any human because his appearance makes him seem to be greater than a human.
This is an example of begging the question, described in Faith, Reason, and Revelation as “demonstrating that a certain point is true, but in the process already assuming the point is true.” (FRR 66) This is an example of begging the question because the people of Oz are trying to say that the Wizard is the most powerful entity in Oz (greater than any human) based on his appearance (what with the big head, the smoke, the lights, etc.) They have not all seen him, and by using this argument, the people who have seen the Wizard try to reason that he is the Wonderful Wizard just by his looks.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Photo from the Wicked website)
5. Red Herrings
The Wizard’s campaigns against the Animals to give the people of Oz a common enemy, to forget that Munchkinland is suffering a severe drought, and to make people less aware of their unhappy lives.
The book describes a red herring as, “saying something beside-the-point to distract from the real issue.” (FRR 67) This is an example of a red herring because the Wizard is intentionally distracting the people of Oz from their own pitiful lives to focus on that Wicked Witch and her evil flying monkeys. He uses this to his advantage twice, because not only does it distract the people, but it also gets a political enemy out of the way!
Elphaba soars across the stage at the end of "Defying Gravity" (Photo from the Wicked website)
All information came from Gregory Maguire's novel, Wicked and from the Broadway musical, Wicked.