Elphaba

Born to Munchkin parents, Elphaba enters the world literally inside the Clock of the Time Dragon. At first, her family worries that her green skin and awful teeth serve as punishment for some past sin. As she matures into a child, however, they begin to grow fond of her. Nanny's insistence that she play with other children works to desensitize Elphaba to the teasing of her peers.

When she enters college, she carries little of the naivety of the other freshman girls. She studies to the exclusion of any social life. Only when her peers become interested in her studies does she seem to socialize with them. The murder of Dr. Dillamond drives her away from society once again, though, as she seeks revenge.

Though her final nickname of Wicked Witch of the West serves to claim some inherent evilness about her, Elphaba proves to feel love very...