Wicked Witch of the West

Wicked Witch of the West
Oz character
The Wicked Witch of the West as illustrated by William Wallace Denslow (1900)
First appearance	The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
Last appearance	Wicked (2003)
Created by	L. Frank Baum
Information
Species	Human/Witch
Gender	Female
Occupation	(at time of death) Ruler of the Winkies
Title	The Wicked Witch of the West
Spouse(s)	none known
Nationality	Winkie Country

The Wicked Witch of the West is a fictional character and the most significant antagonist in L. Frank Baum's children's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In Baum's subsequent Oz books, it is the Nome King who is the principal villain; the Wicked Witch of the West is rarely even referred to again after being destroyed in the first book.

The witch's most popular depiction was in the classic 1939 movie based on Baum's book. In that film adaptation, as in Gregory Maguire's revisionist Oz novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West and its musical adaptation Wicked, the Witch of the West is the sister of the Wicked Witch of the East, although this is neither stated nor implied in the original novel.

The classic books by L. Frank Baum

The Wicked Witch of the West leagued together with the Wicked Witch of the East, Mombi and the Wicked Witch of the South, to conquer the Land of Oz and divide it among themselves, as recounted in L. Frank Baum's Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. W. W. Denslow's illustrations for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz depict her as a paunched old woman with three pigtails and an eye-patch. L. Frank Baum himself specified that she only had one eye, but that it "was as powerful as a telescope", enabling the witch to see what was happening in her kingdom from her castle windows.

She possessed the enchanted Golden Cap, which compelled the Winged Monkeys to obey her on three occasions. First, the witch commanded the creatures to help her enslave the Winkies and to seize control of the Western part of the Land of Oz. Second, she made the Winged Monkeys drive the Wizard out of the Winkie Country, when he attempted to overthrow her.

When Dorothy Gale and her companions were sent by the Wizard to destroy her, the Witch attacked them with a pack of wolves, a murder of crows, a swarm of bees and a group of Winkie slaves. Each of these attempts were thwarted, but the protagonists are eventually subdued by the Witch's third and final permitted use of the Winged Monkeys. Nevertheless, the old witch cannot kill Dorothy because the girl is protected by the Good Witch of the North's kiss. She therefore settles for enslaving Dorothy, and tries to force the Cowardly Lion into submission by starving him, though Dorothy sneaks him food. Upon seeing the Silver Shoes on the girl's feet, the Wicked Witch decides to steal them, and thereby acquire even more power.

When she succeeds in acquiring one silver shoe by making Dorothy trip over an invisible bar, the little girl angrily throws a bucket of water onto the Wicked Witch. This, of course, causes the old witch to melt away. L. Frank Baum didn't explain precisely why water had this effect on her, nor did he ever imply that all witches could be likewise put out. He does, however, mention that the witch was "so old" and so wicked, that all the blood in her body had dried up many years ago. Thus, it might be surmised that water was fatal to her on account of her extreme and unusual dryness.

The Witch did not carry a broom in the novel, but rather an umbrella, which she uses on one occasion to strike Dorothy's dog Toto. She is also afraid of the dark in Baum's original story. For that reason, the Witch never tried to steal the Silver Shoes while Dorothy was sleeping. But in other book the wicked witch of the west was one of the most powerful witches Her power was so feared even her sister the Wicked Witch of the East feared her. in other books she used a magic mirror to see what was going on in the west, but in other's she had a magic glass eye to see all of oz, as you know the glass eye became her new eye for when she lost her right eye, to make sure she dose not see everything in her sleep she made a magic Eyepatch to cover it.

Versions in performance media

The 1910 movie

The 1910 silent film The Wonderful Wizard of Oz features a character similar to the Wicked Witch of the West, identified in intertitles as "Momba the Witch" (Compare the character Mombi from The Marvelous Land of Oz). In the film, Momba has an unspecified hold over the Wizard, who promises his crown to anyone who can release him from Momba's power. Momba captures Dorothy and her companions, evoking the events in Baum's original novel, and is destroyed when Dorothy throws a bucket of water over her.

The 1914 movie

Mombi's costume in the 1914 silent film, His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz is based on Denslow's illustrations of the Wicked Witch of the West.

The 1939 movie

Margaret Hamilton as the Witch in the 1939 film version

In the 1939 version of The Wizard of Oz, Margaret Hamilton plays the Wicked Witch of the West as a stooped, green-skinned witch dressed in a long black dress with a black pointed hat. This representation of the Wicked Witch has become a standard for what witches look like and an archetype for human wickedness. While this relationship is not mentioned in Baum's books, in the movie, the Witch is the sister of the Wicked Witch of the East. In fact, she appears in the film much earlier on than in Baum's original novel, demanding the Munchkins reveal who killed her sister, not long after Dorothy's arrival in Oz. Therefore, the Witch's role is made much more prominent than in the novel, as she seeks revenge against Dorothy for destroying her sister, even though it was an "accident". She is more menacing than her literary counterpart, making Dorothy too afraid to ever lose her temper with the witch, unlike Baum's original depiction. The Golden Cap is not mentioned, but the witch does hold what could be considered the cap, after the poppies fail to work. She is killed when Dorothy throws the water when she lights a fire to threaten the Scarecrow. The character ranks No. 4 in the American Film Institute's list of the 50 Best Movie Villains of All Time, making her the highest ranking female villain, as well as placing 90th on Empire's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

On a 1976 episode of Sesame Street, the Wicked Witch, once again played by Margaret Hamilton, drops her broom and falls onto the street. In order to get the broom back, she must prove that she can be nice. Everyone is scared of her, except for Big Bird and Oscar. After she proves that she is nice, Big Bird is upset when the time comes for her to leave. She reassures him that one day she'll return. The episode was poorly received by parents of frightened young children, and was never aired again. The fate of the footage is unknown.

Later works

• In Alexander Melentyevich Volkov's The Wizard of the Emerald City, her given name is Bastinda. March Laumer uses this name for the witch in his Oz books. Like in the 1939 movie, she is the sister of the Wicked Witch of the East. Sherwood Smith uses this name for a new Wicked Witch of the West in her 2005 book The Emerald Wand of Oz.

• In The Wiz (1975), The Wicked Witch Of The West is given the name Evillene (portrayed by Mabel King). She is the malevolent ruler of the Winkies. She is the sister of MissOne, Glinda, and Evermean, the other three witches of Oz. In the film version, she runs a sweatshop under Yankee Stadium with the slogan, "Manufacturers and Exporters of Sweat", and extracts it not only from the Winkies, but the Crows, the Poppy Girls, and the Subway Peddler. Her magic creates urban variations on the Kalidahs (evil growing dolls sent by the Subway Peddler), Fighting Trees, (mobile pillars) and the wolves (living and carnivorus trash cans), all in the Subway system. She then sends the Flying Monkeys (a motorcycle gang) to capture Dorothy and her friends.

• In the anime film, The Wizard of Oz (1982), the Witch (voiced by Elizabeth Hanna) is purple-skinned, white-haired, and wears an eyepatch similar to W. W. Denslow's original illustration. Her telescopic eye, however, is replaced by a magic mirror. Her soldiers are completely magical, disappear at her demise, and are quite distinct from the Winkies, whom she uses only for labor. She wears an old-fashioned peasant dress and possesses a staff, through which she generates her magic.

• In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz anime series, the Witch is purple-skinned once again, and has long white hair with a blood-like red streak. She possesses both eyes and is dressed in a long, black hooded gown. Her eyes have the power to turn people into stone, and turn blood-red when such transformations are effected. One of the Winkies actually tries to crush her to death with a huge boulder, but the Witch causes the boulder to disappear, and turns the man into stone. Like in the 1982 anime film, a magic mirror shows her everything she wishes to uncover. The Wicked Witch makes it clear to Dorothy that the Good Witch of the North's kiss cannot serve as protection from her apparently superior power, and it's the Silver Shoes that safeguard the girl. The Witch also reveals that the Wicked Witch of the East was her sister, and that the Silver Shoes could triple her own powers. This version gives the witch the most prolonged and dramatic death scene of all versions; it also differs from previous adaptations by suggesting that Mombi was her protege.

• Gregory Maguire's 1995 revisionist novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West takes the familiar Oz story and inverts it, with the Wicked Witch (given the name Elphaba in homage to L. Frank Baum) as the novel's protagonist and Dorothy as a hapless child. For more information about this incarnation of the character, visit Elphaba's page.

• In the animated TV series The Wizard of Oz (1990–1991) by DiC Enterprises, the Flying Monkeys that were loyal to the Wicked Witch of the West (voiced by Tress MacNeille) perform a ritual that resurrects the Wicked Witch of the West where they place her hat, dress and cloak on an effigy. Afterwards, she terrorizes Oz again by tarnishing the Emerald City, stealing what Dorothy's friends treasure the most (the Scarecrow's brain diploma, the Tin Woodman's clock-shaped heart, and the Cowardly Lion's medal of courage), and making the Wizard fly off-course in his hot-air balloon by creating an evil wind. Of course she still has a weakness to any type of water causing her to evade at all times. The series was canceled before an ending could be produced, so her fate remains a mystery. This incarnation of the character was clearly based on the 1939 MGM movie, to which the series itself served as an unofficial sequel, although the witch's garments are purple here rather than black.

• In The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005), Miss Piggy plays all of the witches of Oz including the Wicked Witch of the West. Her basic attire evoked W. W. Denslow's original illustration, with a biker theme. The eyepatch also covered a magical glass-eye that gave her visual powers. This version of the Wicked Witch is only vulnerable to tap water where she is able to bathe in bottled water.

• In the VeggieTales episode The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's, the witch and her Kansas counterpart from the 1939 film are replaced by Chester the Bully (Kansas) and Bobby the Bully (Wonderful Land of Ha's), both portrayed by Gourdon from "Bully Trouble".

• In "Anthology of Interest II", an episode of the animated television series Futurama, Leela is knocked unconscious and dreams about being Dorothy in a version of The Wizard of Oz, with Futurama characters playing the roles of Wizard characters. While Fry is the Scarecrow, Bender the Robot is the Tinman, and Doctor Zoidberg is the Lion, the Wicked Witch is played by Mom, a recurring antagonist from the show. The Witch sends her flying monkeys, played by Mom's sons Larry, Walt, and Igner, to capture Dorothy/Leela. At the Witch's castle, she reveals that she wants to adopt Dorothy as her daughter, and Dorothy/Leela agrees, as long as she gets to be a witch, too. In celebration, Tinman/Bender accidentally dooms the Witch/Mom when he opens a bottle of champagne which sprays on the Witch/Mom, melting her.

• In Dorothy of Oz, a Korean manhwa by Son Hee-Joon, the Witch of the West is re-imagined as a scientist who rules over the Western Dominion. She is psychopathic and cruel, and in a twist, she (not Mara/Dorothy) is the true orchestrator of the death of the East Witch Selluriah. She is the creator of an army of clones, one of whom is the story's equivalent of the Scarecrow. Whether or not this is a reference to the musical Wicked is unknown.