Confessions Of A Wicked Witch

One tells the story of the Wicked Witch and her childhood. The other spins a yarn of the life of Cinderella's stepsister. On the surface, these two books by Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister may appear extremely different. Wicked tells of the life of Elphaba, who is the daughter of the minister Frex and his wife Melena. She was born with green tinted skin, razor sharp teeth and a personality to match. The girl lives her life by her own rules and doesn't give much regard to what others think of her, having affairs and playing around with magic. Her main focus is to overthrow the seat of government, filled by the Wizard of Oz. Confessions follows the story of Iris, a young girl living in the Middle Ages with her mother, Margarethe, and simple sister, Ruth. She is not considered particularly unique in any manner but has a passion for painting. Upon the death of her mother's employer's wife, her family moves in with this man, van den Meer, after Margarethe marries him. However contrasting they may seem, when the prominent themes of beauty, death, and evil are examined in Wicked and Confessions, the books are actually quite similar.

Lack of beauty and extreme beauty are recurring themes in both novels. The protagonists in each of these tales are considered plain, even ugly. Iris is continually mocked by her mother as she says, "Ð'...we chose to name the next daughter Iris, with the hope it might encourage her to grow in beauty like a flowerÐ'... as you can see, our hopes were badly abused" (Confessions 20). Because of this lack of support from family and the community, the girls are immediately cast aside, deemed unworthy. This causes both Elphaba and Iris to fight out against expectations, Iris in the form of painting instead of the more accepted womanly chores, and Elphaba through her anarchism. Both girls also befriend those who are characterized with extreme beauty, Glinda in Wicked and Clara in Confessions. However, being beautiful does not make their lives any easier. Clara is heard saying, "Extreme beauty is an affliction" (Confessions 300). Both choose to take the easier paths they can achieve as a result of their beauty, but when faced with a task that no amount of beauty could soften, they are faced with a real problem. On either side of the spectrum, the characters in both books are faced with adversity accompanying beauty.

Along with beauty, magic is a similar controversial theme in the stories. In Wicked, it is shown as both good, being practiced by the supposedly near-saint Glinda, and evil, when practiced by Elphaba. The church portrays it as sincerely evil when practiced for the wrong reasons. The Minister Thropp has extremely strict views on this, believing "sorcery is the refuge of the amoral; when it isn't out- and-out charlatanism, it is dangerously evil" (Wicked 30). Magical creatures, such as elves and sprites are used as scapegoats throughout the story to explain horrible occurrences, but are also great sources of stories and discussions. Confessions goes along the same path to describe magic. Mystical creatures, such as the Queen of the Hairy-Chinned Gypsies, are used by Iris to explain strange happenstances and also to entertain her sister. Magic is extremely mystical as well as entertaining in both novels.

Along with magic and beauty, within these stories,