Cloister of Saint Glinda
The Cloister of Saint Glinda is a religious community of maunts (nuns) in Oz, with a main convent in the Emerald City and an outpost in the Shale Shallows. It serves as a sanctuary for Elphaba after the traumatic failure of her assassination attempt and the death of Fiyero, providing her with seven years of silence, nursing work, and eventual departure into the Vinkus. The cloister is also the place where Elphaba encounters the enigmatic Mother Yackle, who gives her the broom that later becomes her magical instrument.
Location and Structure
The Cloister of Saint Glinda is located in the Shale Shallows, twelve miles southwest of the Emerald City, and operates as an outpost mauntery under the aegis of the main convent in the city. The main convent is situated adjacent to the Church of Saint Glinda in Saint Glinda's Square, a chapel where Fiyero once sought a portrait of the saint and where he first rediscovered Elphaba after years of separation. The cloister includes a winter salon with a courtyard that can be glassed in for winter, housing elderly retired maunts who live out their lives in a haze of amnesia, sustained by the sweet miasma of marginium plants that mask the odors of age and incontinence. The building also contains a washroom, a store chamber for supplies, and a private chapel where the maunts assemble for liturgical events.
Sanctuary and Life Within
Elphaba takes refuge at the Cloister of Saint Glinda on Lurlinemas Eve, after her failed attempt to assassinate Madame Morrible and the violent attack on Fiyero by the Gale Force. She arrives at the convent door, crouched like a monkey in the dark corner of the stone porch, her wrists bloodied, and is taken in by a novice maunt who drags her to the winter salon. There, the ancient Mother Yackle, a decrepit maunt in a wheeled chair, takes Elphaba's hands and offers comfort, saying, "The poor poppet is failure itself" and "Rest in the bosom of mad Mother Yackle. Mother Yackle will see you home." Elphaba spends seven years in the cloister, living under a rule of silence for three years, then two years of whisper, and finally two years on the ward for incurables. She works in the infirmary, tending the dying and those too clumsy to die, and finds a pattern in dying that she describes as "beautiful in its way." During this time, she also cares for the invalid Tibbett, an old friend from Shiz, who recognizes her even behind her veil and silences, and who re-creates her as an individual against her will. When Tibbett dies, the Superior Maunt tells Elphaba it is time for her to go and atone for her mistakes, though even the Superior Maunt does not know what they are.
Departure and Legacy
When Elphaba leaves the cloister, Sister Bursar gives her three black shifts, six camisoles, gloves, a shawl, a broom, a basket of simples (herbs, roots, tinctures, rues, salves, and balms), a dozen pages of paper, a pfenix feather quill, and three pots of black ink. The broom, given to her by Mother Yackle, later proves to be magical, capable of flight when believed in. The Superior Maunt pays Oatsie Manglehand a healthy amount to escort Elphaba through the Kells, and the cloister also sends the boy Liir with her, though Elphaba neither confirms nor denies this arrangement. The Superior Maunt tells Elphaba, "You go from us to conduct an exercise in expiation. You feel there is a penalty to pay before you may find peace. The unquestioning silence of the cloister is no longer what you need. You are returning to yourself." The cloister thus serves as a transitional space where Elphaba recuperates from trauma, re-engages with her past through Tibbett, and is finally sent back into the world to seek atonement and a new identity as a witch in the Vinkus.
