Miranda Morrible liked to think of herself as a practical and professional creature, a woman able to divide the realms of her public and private lives so that one remained foreign and unassailable territory to the other. When it came to the young Elphaba Thropp, however, Madame Morrible found that both the personal and the professional converged—with objectionable consequences for both.
Her mandate from the Wizard, who ruled from the Emerald City of Oz, was “to mold the characters of youthful Ozians who would one day determine the destiny of their world.” Included in this directive was the unspoken instruction to win young and susceptible minds to the Wizard’s veiled totalitarian cause—and to take note of those who proved intractable so they could be “neutralized” later on. As Headmistress of Crage Hall, Madame Morrible had dominion over the budding female aristocracy of Oz, and through these young women, an excellent vantage point from which to observe the male half of Oz’s up-and-coming nobility. It was, in all respects, one of the best possible positions to influence the future politics of the Four Kingdoms, and the Wizard had granted it to her for all her years of grim and dedicated service.
In the presence of Elphaba Thropp, however, she found it exceedingly difficult to carry out her charge with her customary dispassion. The features of Frexspar Godly were discernible enough in his daughter’s emerald eyes and elegant cheekbones, and Madame Morrible could barely stomach these reminders of the man who’d broken her heart so callously and bitterly, and in a way, set her on the path that had led her to the Wizard.
Elphaba Thropp’s father had been a darkly compelling figure—a charismatic Unionist minister whose handsome face and impassioned words had won the hearts (and stirred the loins) of men and women alike to the altar of his Unknown God. A young Madame Morrible had been one of his most ardent converts, and she had served for years in his church before he managed to turn the head of the younger sister of the Eminency of Munchkinland. Melena Thropp had been the most eligible woman in Munchkinland then, and she had ignored both the pleas of her friends and the threats of her family to marry the lowly Frexspar Godly. It was a union that earned Melena her brother’s withering contempt and Frexspar Madame Morrible’s implacable hatred.
In the end, however, Frexspar had left Melena too, unable to refuse the summons of his terrible and Unnamed God. The last Madame Morrible had heard, he’d disappeared into the swamps of Quadling Kingdom, deep in the south of Oz, abandoning aristocratic wife and infant daughter for the clarion call of fundamentalist religion.
If she could have set aside her bitter dislike, Madame Morrible could have recruited Elphaba Thropp to the Wizard’s fascist cause. The girl possessed a rare combination of aristocratic blood, arresting looks and keen intelligence—qualities that even on their own could be readily marshaled to further the Wizard’s aims. But the hostility generated by heartbreak rose too quickly to the surface, and in the end, Madame Morrible justified her disqualification of Elphaba Thropp with the assurance that she had more than enough promising material in the figures of Nessarose Thropp and Galinda Arduenna.
Nessarose Thropp, of all of Madame Morrible’s possible candidates, presented the figure closest to the ideal. Not only was the girl the designated heir to her kingdom’s throne, but she possessed an abundance of ambition rare to find in one so young. In Madame Morrible’s experience, ambition was the easiest of all keys to turn, and a puppet ruler in the Kingdom of Munchkinland meant that at least a quarter of Oz would be secure.
Galinda Arduenna, on the other hand, was a far more problematic figure simply because the girl presented an utter enigma. What indeed, Madame Morrible thought, could motivate a girl who had everything that every woman could possibly desire? Although the question of motivation was crucial, and one that Madame Morrible had yet to begin to unravel, it made sense to recruit the Princess of the House of Arduenna so early in her career, especially given her family’s rule over the Upland Kingdom of Gillikin. Besides, Madame Morrible reasoned, it was always easier to dispose of a defective product later on than to lose the opportunity to mold it early in its making.
At any rate, Elphaba Thropp’s own choices had determined her future, for she had signed up for several courses under the eminent Animal biologist, Dr. Dale Dillamond. The Goat was brilliant, Madame Morrible had to admit, but there was no room for Animals in the world the Wizard desired to create. It was only a matter of time before the pogroms conducted so clandestinely in various parts of Oz could finally be carried out in the broad light of day. Propagating the ideas that would make that day arrive sooner rather than later was part of Madame Morrible’s directive as well. Young Elphaba Thropp’s association with one of the leading Animals of the day would only result in her inclusion in their eventual demise. At the thought, a frightening smile ghosted across Madame Morrible’s lips. Frexspar Godly’s Unnamed God may have saved him from the fate he deserved, but his daughter would someday answer for his sins seven times seven.