Blog #490: How the Wizard and Madame Morrible from "Wicked" Demonstrate Those Who Wish to Take Advantage of Others, Especially Neurodivergents
- Jeffrey Snyder
- Feb 8
- 4 min read
AGAIN, BEWARE OF SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN “WICKED” PART 1 YET!!
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If you recall a few years back, I wrote a blog about how in the film “Elvis” (2022), Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks) comes to represent those who wish to take advantage of others for their own gain. Now, a few years later, there are not one but two characters that take the representation of those who prey on the vulnerable.
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Those two characters are the “Wonderful” Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) and Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) in the 2 part film adaptation of “Wicked.” Right from the get-go, we see these two in the light that they aren’t what we think they are. Looking at Madam Morrible, to the outside world, she is the Dean of Sorcery at Shiz University and sees Elphaba’s passion for magic and when she offers Elphaba the chance to learn as her protege, Elphaba is of course thrilled with the prospect.
Now, right away, we take a look at this and say to ourselves while this is a tremendous honor for Elphaba, should she really have taken up on Morrible’s offer? There are plenty of gifted people in the world who are often placed in a situation that would otherwise not be the best for them in the long run. We see here that Madam Morrible has her own agendas and will stop at nothing to achieve them.
To this end, if you were in Elphaba’s shoes, you probably would have stepped back and instead sit and think on the possibility. Once again, we have to consider the pros and cons of being under a personal tutelage. Elphaba’s goal throughout the story is to be accepted for who she is and stand up for the rights of animals. But, learning under Madam Morrible isn’t the right approach and it’s not until it’s too late to realize that.
Plenty of neurodivergent individuals are often placed in these kinds of situations because while they are gifted and able to learn at a high level, they tend to forget that there is another side to the coin that makes up the individual they look up to.
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Then there is the “Wonderful” Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum), the figure that Elphaba looked up to ever since she was a child only to discover that instead of being the wizard she initially thought him to be, he is a fraud and scammer that wants all of Oz to bow down to him.
Looking back at this scene, I see here that while there are plenty of Colonel Tom Parker’s out there in the world, there are just as much “Wonderful” Wizard of Oz’s. Much like Madam Morrible, Elphaba is duped into believing that the Wizard of Oz will grant her ultimate wish only to discover that it was all a lie and that she was only purposed to serve as an enemy to Oz.
Again, there are plenty of neurodivergent individuals out there who seek to find a goal to obtain, but again we all have to be mindful that the person or people we look up to aren’t what they seem to be. I mean, look at Bernie Madoff for example. The guy was essentially the Wizard of Oz in “Wicked” and who used his false promises to scam people out of their hard-earned money.
The sad thing is that Bernie Madoff isn’t the only one to connect to the Wizard in “Wicked.” There are plenty of other scammers and frauds out there, including Elizabeth Holmes, just to name a few. Then there are celebrities out there whom we think are the best thing since Chocolate Cake like NFL stars Aaron Hernandez of the New England Patriots and Antonio Brown only to discover that they aren’t who they think they are.
A living example of this took place after a Monday Night NFL game in 2006 where then Arizona Cardinals Head Coach Dennis Green, claimed that the Chicago Bears are who they thought they were. They thought they were given a chance to beat them, only to discover that it wasn’t meant to be and they realized they were tricked.
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Now, looking at Dennis Green, he is a living example of someone who had been tricked into believing a false promise. He believed that the Cardinals could beat the Bears easily, but they couldn’t do so.
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The trouble is that neurodivergent adults can have a hard time determining who is a fraud and who is telling the truth.
Had Elphaba not been taken advantage of to begin with, then she probably wouldn’t have become the Wicked Witch of the West, who was born out of the feeling that she had been scammed by two fraudsters.
Hopefully, “Wicked” serves as a reminder that we all need to take things a closer look before we act on whatever entices us,
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Catch you all later!!
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