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| “ | I shall pray for your soul. | ” |
| — Nessarose[src] | ||
Nessarose Thropp, the Eminence of Munchkinland, known to her subjects as the tyrant, Wicked Witch of the East, is a character from the novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by author Gregory Maguire.
Nessarose is the spoiled younger sister of Elphaba, the "Wicked Witch of the West". In the novel, Elphaba is considered a tomboy second to her very beautiful and attractive, but delicately handicapped younger sister, and is often expected to put the needs of Nessarose before her own.
During her rule over Munchkinland, she is dubbed "The Wicked Witch of the East", for her one-sided business deals, cruel ways, and overall use of sorcery to control her people. Nessarose meets her demise when Dorothy Gale's farmhouse, which was carried by a Kansas cyclone, unexpectedly lands in Oz and tragically crushes her to death. Thus, enabling Dorothy to become the new owner of her magic slippers.
History
In Wicked, Nessarose was born at the Thropp family estate of Colwen Grounds and was the second child of Melena Thropp and Frexspar the Godly, although it is speculated that her biological father was the Quadling glass blower Turtle Heart. Like her older sister, Elphaba, she was born with a deformity, though her deformity was that she born with no arms. It is implied this was due to the medicine that her mother took to prevent another green-skinned child. She spent most of her early life in the Quadling Country due to her parents' Unionist missionary work. Her mother died giving birth to her brother when she was young, and her father and Nanny gave much of their attention to her. Frexspar would later explain that this was because he did not know for sure whether she was his child, so he instead saw her as the child of him, Melena and their dual lover: Turtle Heart, and a symbol of his love for both of them.
Shiz and Silver Slippers
Nessarose was enrolled at Shiz University's college of Crage Hall at the tender age of fourteen, due to Nanny replacing Galinda’s Ama Clutch. She is described as fashionable, shy, proper, and as pious as her father. Because of her spoiled upbringing, Elphaba and Nanny insist on changing the room around for her, much to Galinda's chagrin. As a parting gift, her father sends her a pair of slippers decorated with silver glass beads. The slippers are dazzling and have a chameleon effect so that they appear in different colors according to the lighting.
Nessarose eventually becomes part of Elphaba's charmed social circle, though her piety caused some conflict, mainly with Glinda's choice to study sorcery. After Ama Clutch's death, she, Elphaba, and Glinda are called into Madame Morrible's office and offered the chance to become an “Adept of Magic”, secret ministerial positions where they would reign from behind-the-scenes under the central leadership of the Wizard of Oz, though a spell is cast on them so they will not remember any of the conversation until Morrible wished. Nessarose is later devastated by Elphaba's abandonment of Shiz and takes comfort with Glinda, who becomes a close friend and confidant, though she also falls deeper into her Unionist religion and drives away most of her other friends.
Becoming the Wicked Witch of the East
With Elphaba missing and presumed dead, Nessarose eventually inherits her great-grandfather's title of Eminent Thropp. Later, on account of her harsh theological Unionist measures and for the use of sorcery to control her subjects, Nessarose would become the sole leader of Munchkinland, the Eminence of Munckinland.
The burning of a grange where opposition meetings were taking place, a reported rape of a couple of Munchkinlanders maidens following a cotillion of the Wizard’s army garrisoned near Dragon’s Cupboard, a Massacre at Far Applerue, and the heavy taxation on farms crops had been “the last straw” as far as Nessarose was concerned. At Colwen Grounds, she communicated her revolutionary outrage through a letter directly towards the Wizard and addressed the senior men among the farming communities and kept her religious agenda in check, and in the end, there was a unanimous approval for secession. Declaring Munchkinland‘s independence, Nessarose would have the province break away from Loyal Oz, establishing the “Free State of Munchkinland”. The secession is conducted with a minimum of bloodshed, and they would, however, maintain an uneasy trade relationship with Loyal Oz.
However, Nessarose began instating new laws to prohibit Animals and informed her people to destroy the yellow brick road and other passages into Munchkinland. She soon became known by her subjects as a tyrant, the totalitarian “Wicked Witch of the East”, a title which she takes no offence to. During her reign in Munchkinland, despite her religious convictions, Nessarose allows certain ancient practices to take place – including ritualistic sacrifices, rumored to even include those of animals and humans.
One day, Glinda comes for a visit and notices her slippers were coming apart, so she casts a spell to fix them, and the magic on the slippers end up also giving Nessarose the power to walk without support. In addition, despite originally having been opposed to magic on religious grounds, her reign as Eminence finds her practicing sorcery (though she still claims to be a devout Unionist, referring to her spells as "miracles in the honor of the Unnamed God"). Her justification for performing such cruel actions is that she is so "righteous" as to do whatever she deems fit.
As Eminence of Munchkinland, she regularly takes requests of magic from her subjects. One such act was to cast a spell on the ax of Nick Chopper, so that it would kill him. Nick Chopper would later become the Tin Woodsman because of the accident. When Elphaba visits her, she offers her a chance to stay with her and join her in ruling over Munchkinland, however Elphaba refuses. Nessarose also promises to leave her magic slippers to Elphaba in her will when she passes away.
The Matter of Dorothy, the Aftermath, and her Legacy
During a ceremony honoring perfect attendance to religious classes to children in the capital of Center Munch, Nessarose is ultimately killed when Dorothy Gale's farmhouse lands on top of her, crushing her to death. After her demise, her ministers, particularly Prime Minister Nipp, the appointed interim-leader of Munchkinland, would claim the title of Eminent Thropp and therefore, the title of Eminence of Munchkinland, to be extinct, however, their right to do this is thought dubious. As for her house at Colwen Grounds, the newly liberated Munchkinlanders would both ransack and graffiti what the eminence left there, leaving their painted signs of protest all over the grounds, reading such revolutionary slogans as "SHE WALKED ALL OVER US", "NOW THE SHOE'S ON THE OTHER FOOT", and "WALK ALL OVER YOU YOU OLD WITCH".
Initially, Nessarose is remembered negatively due to her use of magic and religious fervor to subdue her people; Glinda even sends Dorothy back home to avoid the political conflict she may face for killing Nessarose. However, by the time of Out of Oz, the Munchkinlander’s views of Nessarose has shifted drastically, and she is now viewed as "Saint Nessarose, The Mother of Munchkinland", a national hero, which leads to a newly returned Dorothy to be put on trial for killing her. However, it is revealed that the trial is nothing more than a political maneuver by Munchkinland's new leader, Mombey to garner support and patriotism for the cause of the Munchkinlanders, and that it can only end in one way: with Dorothy being found guilty.
Personality
Having extreme pious and religious convictions (linking absolutely everything she sees to religion and morality), Nessarose is often close-minded and vain, in keeping with Maguire's cynicism throughout the novel towards religion in general. In fact, the extent of her Unionist religious dedication causes even her father, the intensely pious Frexspar, to worry that she may be "too devout".
Book to Musical Differences
Like many other characters in the Broadway adaptation of Wicked, Nessarose is portrayed very differently from the novel. She was originally played by Michelle Federer. In the musical, Nessarose is not chosen as a sorceress by Madame Morrible, and while the character of the musical does have arms, she is instead a wheelchair user. As in the novel, she is seen as beautiful, but the adaptation presents her as a more tragic character, attending Shiz University with Elphaba, who often embarrasses her in her attempts to "make a difference". In an effort to shoo away a persistent love-struck Munchkin named Boq so that her own relationship with Fiyero can develop, Galinda arranges a date between him and Nessarose. Thereafter, Boq unhappily becomes a point of love obsession for Nessarose, unlike in the novel, where she had little contact with Boq. Because her father was governor of Munchkinland, Nessarose takes control of the province following his death, and during her rule, she slowly becomes evil and tyrannical. She enslaves Boq, and in an attempt to use Elphaba's spells to punish him for professing his love for Glinda, accidentally causes his heart to disappear. As Elphaba begins to save Boq by turning him into the Tin Woodman, Nessarose declares herself 'The Wicked Witch of the East'.
Jenna Leigh Green and Stephanie J. Block as Nessarose and Elphaba in the Original First National Tour Company
As in the novel, Nessarose receives the magical slippers as a gift from her father, but they are enchanted by Elphaba, rather than Glinda, to give her the ability to walk. The musical does not refer to Turtle Heart or Shell, and thus it is implied that Nessarose was the legitimate child of Frex and Melena. The musical also shows that it was Madame Morrible who created the fateful cyclone, as a trap to draw Elphaba out of hiding.
It is also interesting to note that, in the novel, it is heavily hinted at that the Grimmerie comes from the other world (our world), and that Elphaba's ability to read only a portion of it is because of her half-human, half-Ozian birth. In contrast, in the musical, the Grimmerie is obviously a book from Oz (since it is stated that The Wizard cannot read it), though Elphaba is, once again, the only one who can read it (both Madame Morrible and Glinda admit that they either cannot or can only read very little). This would make Nessarose's ability to read it, albeit backwards, in The Wicked Witch of the East scene a bit incongruous.
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