Wicked: A Story about the Witch?
Irony is really the controlling literary voice in this entire book. That ironic element is fostered before the book is even opened as the author confronts the reader in his choice for the title. Although most commonly referred to simply as Wicked, the full title is far more suggestive: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Within that title is carried the promise that this is the true biographical account of that witch and that she is wicked. This assumption proves profoundly ironic, however. While Elphaba is unquestionably an example of an antihero rather than a classic hero, it is stretching the definition of antiheroic to advance any theory that she is, ultimately, truly wicked.
Subtly Allegorical
To fully appreciate much of the subtle irony in the novel, it is incredibly important to understand that on almost every single page there is an element of allegory. Much of the allegorical construction is quite obvious, but sometimes it can be conveyed through an especially subtle means. Such as the subtle knock against the Catholic church and its doctrinal means of identifying and conferring sainthood upon figures of highly dubious accomplishments:
“The alien girl—she called herself Dorothy—was by virtue of her survival elevated to living sainthood. The dog was merely annoying.”
Galinda
Before adopting the transformation of her name given by another, the future Good Witch—so-called—is known as Galinda. And Galinda is known as a great blonde beauty who is most assuredly narcissistic and most definitely is more content to rely on her charms to get ahead in life than her brains. The irony, however, is that Galinda is not the airhead many think or that she presumes to be. In fact, one can make a strong argument that on a purely rational level—in the utilitarian sense of getting what she wants—she is even smarter than Elphaba. That Galinda is no dope is not the only ironic subversion of expectations that readers will be forced to deal with over the course of the novel’s sequels.
Ironic Humor
Some of the irony is just good, old-fashioned humor wrought by the unlikely possibilities of juxtaposition. Like, for instance, what a blush might look like on a person with green skin:
“I’m not a blushing schoolgirl, stop that nonsense,” said Elphaba.
The One Who Doesn’t Knock
Ever notice in movies when someone presents himself to others as a really bad dude who should not be messed with, he usually winds up getting beat up? Or how often the real evil mastermind in a TV series winds up being the guy you least expect to be evil? This is such a common enough trope that it should not even qualify as ironic and yet, somehow, it almost always is. This explains why Walter White was at his most evil not when he was presenting himself as dark-hatted Heisenberg, but when his goofy, inoffensive, kind of lame high school science teacher persona had truly become a façade:
“People who claim that they’re evil are usually no worse than the rest of us.” He sighed. “It’s people who claim that they’re good, or anyway better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of.”
