Wicked in the West
8th March 2016, Georgia Knight explores the motives of why the Wicked Witch of the West is the ultimate villain, http://picture.finomeb.top/s/wicked-witch-of-the-west/
A shot of what the ultimate villain looks like.
WHAT MAKES UP THE ULTIMATE VILLAIN? The green face, the black gown, the wide brim hat or the nose? If you ask anyone who is familiar with the film Wizard of Oz they would say that Elphaba, commonly known as the Wicked Witch of the West, is the ultimate villain.
The classic, iconic and memorable Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba is well known to audiences around the world. Her first appearance in The Wizard of Oz, 1939 film started off her career in notoriety.
The Wizard of Oz, 1939 film is based on
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Elphaba’s costuming and makeup in the 1939 film reflects her typical, plain ugly and malicious personality. I remember when I first saw her appear in the movie she gave me goosebumps and the shivers; I was petrified. The black outfit that she always wears really conveys out her horrid green face, her sharp, long, sloped nose and her pointy chin.
I feel that this film aesthetic of costuming really accentuates and brings attention to her classic witch behaviour that builds tension and nervousness aimed at the audience. This film aesthetic also builds tension and nervousness for the audience when watching the film.
The director, Victor Flemming, utilizes costuming to his advantage and to create an environment of creepiness for the audience. Flemming uses black costuming to create this meaning. You have to admit that when it comes to Elphaba she is intensely creepy. On top of her creepiness she is cruel, crazy and a little bit coo-coo. Elphaba is the definition of
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The director uses black to create meaning of her intimidating and unfriendly personality.
Elphaba is famous for bribery, harming and holding captive her enemies and people who are a threat to her. In the movie she bribes Dorothy for the red slippers, sets fire to the scarecrow and holds captive Dorothy and her friends.
The Wicked Witch of the West also holds grudges, likes to get revenge and can be very scary. In the movie Elphaba’s sister, the Wicked Witch of the East, is killed accidentally by Dorothy’s arrival. Dorothy explains that it was an accident but Elphaba replies: “Well, my little pretty, I can cause accidents too…"
Film aesthetics of low angle shots are used frequently throughout the film. The director uses lots of low shots when Dorothy and her friends are trapped in the Wicked Witch’s castle. This film aesthetic is used to enhance and to captivate the treatment to others throughout the
Dorothy start on her way down the yellow brick road and meets three important characters. First she meets the scarecrow with no brain. He represents Farmers and agricultural workers who are ignorant of many city things but honest and hardworking. Farmers were string supporters of the populist movement and the scarecrow ends up being a strong supporter of Dorothy throughout the entire film. Next they meet the tinman. The tinman represents industrial workers. He is a lumberjack whose body has been replaced with metal. This represents how many workers had been dehumanized and viewed as only a means to make money. Finally they meet the cowardly lion. When they first meet the lion he does his best to scare them but ends up being afraid of them. He tells them he wants to go the emerald city so the wizard can give him courage. He represents politician William Jennings Bryan. Bryan was a populist presidential candidate and the out spoken leader of the populist movement. He had been criticized as being a coward for not supporting the U.S. and its decision to go to war with Spain. Bryan wanted to get into Washington so he could change American politics. This reflects the lion wanting to go to the emerald city to get his courage from the wizard. Along the way they run into the wicked witch of the west. She tries to stop them from getting to the emerald city.
The Wizard of Oz is a classic known by all. The plot is fairly simple. Poor bored Dorothy is sick of her normal boring life on her Aunt and Uncles farm in Kansas and decides to run away to a more exciting life. Her plans are changed when she meets a fortune teller who convinces her to go back home. Unfortunately, as she is headed back home a horrible storm starts and she and her dog Toto are blown away, along with her house. When she lands, she comes outside to see that she has landed on a person with red shoes. She is met by tiny people and a witch called Glinda who tells her that she has landed on and killed the Wicked Witch of the East. Dorothy tells Glinda she wants to go home, and Glinda tells her if she follows the yellow brick road she will end up in the Emerald City where the Wonderful Wizard of Oz can help get her home.
The image is brighter and sharper in the film. The contrast of the film really affects the mood. Since the contrast is so bright the viewer is bound to stay focused and aware because everything is so catchy and noticeable. Also, the exposure changes throughout the film. At the very beginning the film starts in black and white and changed to color as the story progressed. The filmmaker uses a lot of Long Takes, each shot of Dorothy meeting someone new is pretty lengthy.
The first theme of self sufficiency is illustrated throughout the story. All of the main characters, Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Lion are looking to the wizard to solve their problems. The Scarecrow is in search of a brain. Although he is constantly making remarks on how stupid he is actually solving the groups problems that arise. For example when the Wicked Witch of the East sends angry bees after Dorothy and her friends, he comes up with the solution to cover Dorothy, ToTo and the Lion with his straw so they would not be stung. The Tin Man is
He is very evasive when it comes to certain issues and instead of directly talling you things, he leaves you guessing what they mean. Maguire writes in an episodic style where he breaks his novels up into small standalone sections that jump through time. In Wicked he jumps from Elphabas childhood to her college years to her adulthood, which leaves large intervals of time that never are told. This creates a sort of enigmatic or mysterious character for Elphaba, which makes it more realistic since you can never know really know a person’s full life story with all the
There are only three witches in the movie: The Good Witch of the North, The Wicked Witch of the East and The Wicked Witch of the West. In the movie Glinda is the name of The Good Witch of the North. Whereas in the book The Good Witch of the South has the name Glinda and The Good Witch of the North has no name. As the book goes on they reach Oz and he asks them to kill The Wicked Witch of the West. The Wicked Witch is not seen or heard from until the end of the book. In the movie she is seen several times. Dorothy and Toto see her in The Land of the Munchkins, when they rescue the Tin man, and when they all arrive at The Emerald City.
The main character of Dorothy Must Die is named Amy Gumm. Amy Gumm is the protagonist of this story while Dorothy Gale is the antagonist. Amy Gumm changes in the story from being sarcastic, scared at what was going on and not having very many friends, to being tough, brave and still very sarcastic. Amy does the right thing when the wizard of Oz tells her to kill the Tin Woodman by removing his heart. Although Amy knows it's not the good thing to do, she knows that it's the right thing to do. Amy also does the right thing when she sees a wingless monkey tied to a post with a sign that stated For The Crime Of Sass. Amy was very surprised that the beloved Dorothy would punish a monkey for sass. Amy freed him from the post even though she knew she would be punished. I can identify with Amy when she shows how kind she is with the monkey. She freed him and continued to stick by his side through the first few chapters of the book, even though a munchkin named Indigo, who was helping Amy, told her not too. One character who was a big part of Dorothy Must Die was Mombi. She is the leader of the Revolutionary Order
Elphaba because Glinda brings the evil out in Elphaba and that is not a good thing because she makes her feel poorly of herself and no one wants to feel that way. Elphaba also becomes very jealous of Glinda and that is a start to another conflict between the two of them. Then end up turning against each other and they are enemies. Good vs. Evil would be another popular theme in the book and it can go along with the first one pretty well because it’s about the same characters. The good witch brings out the evil in the wicked witch. Now when you really think about this theme you have to realize that this whole book basically says everyone is evil. But you have to purposely want to be evil you can't just accidentally do that. When it comes to goodness you have to practice that over time it doesn't just come naturally. If Elphaba actually practiced being nice she would've had more friends by the end and less enemies. But it was the other way around and that is fine but by the end of the book she wasn't alive. No one could put up with how she treated others and people could see that she wasn't going to change no matter if they thought she would. The book Wicked presents many different themes but the ones that I pulled out really stuck with me and it described the layout of the book in a detailed
In Something Wicked this way Comes Ray Bradbury portrays the dust witch as the archetype of the devil figure. The textual evidence “The witch gagged. She tore at his face” (Bradbury150) depict the dust witch as the devil figure. After Will and Jim had washed way the symbol the dust witch returns to remark Jim’s house. Instead, Will leads her to an abandoned house. When the dust witch discovers this she attempts to kill Will by tearing at his face with her hands. This shows the devil figure archetype, as killing an innocent boy is by no means good but rather wicked and evil. Bradbury does this to convey the witch’s evilness. Similarly the textual evidence “stabbed, punched, drew stabbed” (224) illustrate the dust witches devil figure. Before
In a film, the producer or director has many opportunities to use a variety of camera angles. In film A, even before any words are spoken, the camera shows a medium shot of the country house, followed by shots of activity, tables being laid, and food being prepared, then, the camera goes into close-up mode and it picks out various items of food, and then theseus. Then, the camera pans across the landscape. This gives you an idea of where the play is set and what is
Many of the farmers from the West blamed their problems on the wealthy and industry. Later on in the text, Dorothy meets the Good Witch of the North. The Good Witch represents a Northern electorate who had supported populism. The Good Witch sends Dorothy to go to the Wizard of Oz, down the yellow brick road to Emerald City, who has the power to send her back to Kansas. The Good Witch also gives Dorothy the silver shoes, which also serves as protection. This can relate to the Bimetalism vs. Gold Standard. I say this because Dorothy shoes are silver and she is sent to go down the yellow brick road, which can be seen as gold bricks. This can be known as gold money. In this time, it was clear that silver vs. gold was important to the farmers involving the economy. The silver was supposed to be available for the working class, and would increase the amount of money for the working class. In the text, Dorothy meets the Scarecrow, the Tinman, and the Cowardly Lion. The Scarecrow represents the western farmers, and how their hardships and troubles from inflation caused them to have doubts and problems with their money. The Tinman represents the American worker who mostly has populist views. He also represents how the worker felt dehumanized and was helpless. In addition to this, the Wicked Witch of the East put a spell on him that every time he swung his axe, he would chop a piece of him off. This would make his body smaller, in relation to his work being minimized by the
Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West is a fictional representation of many problems faced by the world in the past and present. It follows the life of Elphaba, who later becomes the “Wicked Witch of the West”, a result from her life experiences as a rebel against the Wizard of Oz, her unfortunate appearance of green skin, and several other trials she’s faced. Maguire was born in Albany, New York and lost his mother in childbirth. His father was a writer, but was very ill at the time of Maguire’s birth, so he and his three older siblings had to stay with family and Maguire even spent time in an orphanage before moving back with his father and his new wife. His family
Amanda Payne Compare the White Witch to Cronus from Greek Mythology. Both had their kingdom taken away from them by tricking. Cronus zapped people and the Witch turned them to stone. They both had a way of getting rid of their adversaries that was successful until their enemy came along.
Wicked, the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the East is a fantasy book by Gregory Maguire. It follows the life of the Wicked Witch, the character from the Wizard of Oz, from her birth to her death, or her pseudo-death. It also explores the question the nature of good and evil.
Title of the Work: Wicked: The Life and Times of The Wicked Witch of The West