The Wicked

I got to see the Broadway show Wicked tonight.

The show Wicked is based on the novel Wicked by Gregory Maguire. I have not read the novel, so my comments are restricted to the show.

Wicked is the re-telling of the classic Wizard of Oz story from the vantage of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. Wicked deconstructs the moral plotlines of The Wizard of Oz. In Wicked Elphaba is actually the good witch and Glinda is not a moral exemplar.

Specifically, we see Elphaba and Glinda as reluctant roommates in High School. Elphaba, being green, is shunned and Glinda who is blonde, rich, and beautiful is wildly popular. Thus, we see how the fortunes of birth (because it is not easy being green) affect character and social perception. In the end, Elphaba is called wicked, but she really is not. Why? Because we, the audience, now know her story.

This moral reversal, once the full story is in hand (in the imagination of the author), made be think of Martha Nussbaum’s view that we need to capture a narrative imagination when we approach criminals and criminal behavior. Basically, when we understand people’s stories our capacity for empathy is increased. This does not mean we excuse the behavior or forget the voices of victims. But a narrative understanding—the life story of the “wicked”—helps us understand a bit why people end up in the situations they do. Another good example of this is the book and movie Dead Man Walking where sister Helen Prejean, via her attempt to understand the stories of death row inmates, increases her capacity for empathy.

As we shift to the post-Cartesian world with the rise of weak-volitional models, these narrative approaches to morality will become more and more important. The stories of the wicked will attenuate strong notions of moral accountability.

Obviously, I think this narrative approach has implications for soteriology as well. We are all products of circumstance. We are all wicked to a greater or lesser degree due to the fortunes of birth and environment. Thus, I feel convicted that God will have to take all our contingent histories into account.

God will have to take into account that Elphaba is, well, green, while many of us are poor or abused or raised by non-Christian parents, or are persons of color in a racist world.

And in light of those stories, what is or is not "wicked" is much less clear.