Elphaba's Birth

Elphaba's birth is the foundational event of the novel, establishing her green skin, her fraught family dynamics, and the political and personal conflicts that define her life as the Wicked Witch of the West. Born in the remote Munchkinlander hamlet of Rush Margins during a night of political violence and personal crisis, her arrival is marked by chaos, superstition, and a profound sense of disappointment that shapes her relationship with her parents and the world. The event is a crucible in which the novel's central themes—the nature of evil, the politics of difference, and the search for identity—are forged.

Causes and Background

The birth occurs against a backdrop of escalating tension in the minister's lodge. Frex, a unionist minister, is preparing to confront the Clock of the Time Dragon, a traveling puppet show he considers a tool of the pleasure faith and a threat to his congregation's souls. He dismisses his wife Melena's labor pains as inconvenient timing, arguing that "larger eternal forces converge" and that she cannot attend to both arenas at once. Melena, isolated and resentful, feels like a "hostage" to her own body. Frex leaves for Rush Margins to preach against the Clock, despite Melena's protests. The political and personal converge when the Clock's performance incites a mob that attacks Frex, forcing him to flee. Meanwhile, Melena is left in the care of two local midwives—a fishwife and a palsied crone—who are more interested in her few beautiful trinkets than in her labor. A maiden arrives with a warning: the drunken mob, riled up by the Clock, is looking for Frex to kill him, and the Clock has also called for the death of Melena and her unborn child. The midwives, fearing for their own safety, decide to move Melena. They trundle her in a hay cart through the autumn woods to a foggy copse—the graveyard for unconsecrated corpses—where the Clock of the Time Dragon has been left for safekeeping by its dwarf handler. They drag her into the crawl space of the Clock, a place of pendulums and toothed wheels, where she gives birth.

What Happens

After a night of storms and lightning, the midwives crawl out of the back of the clock-wagon with the infant. They rub the caul and blood off the skin and discover, beneath the spit of the mother's fluids, that the infant glistens a "scandalous shade of pale emerald." The child does not wail but opens its mouth, breathes, and then keeps its own counsel. The midwives initially disagree on the child's sex, but after a second and third rub, it is clear the child is female. She is observed to be "prettily formed" with a long elegant head, but her primary effect is "vegetable." The midwives debate killing the child, considering it the kindest course of action. However, when the fishwife absentmindedly gives the infant a finger to nurse on, the child bites the finger off at the second knuckle. The midwives, now afraid of what else the baby might bite, drop the infant at its mother's breast and flee. The child is named Elphaba, after Saint Aelphaba of the Waterfall.

Consequences and Aftermath

For days, Melena cannot bear to look at the child. She chews pinlobble leaves to float away from the disaster. In a panic, she writes to her family home, Colwen Grounds, to summon Nanny, her former nursemaid. Frex collects Nanny from the way station at Stonespar End. On the trip back, Nanny learns the truth: the baby is green. Frex weeps, believing the child is a punishment from the Unnamed God for his failure to protect his flock from the pleasure faith. Nanny, though repulsed, takes charge. She discovers the baby has "shark's teeth" and must be strapped with a sling to prevent it from biting itself. Nanny interviews Frex, who confesses he fears he caused the child's abnormality by announcing on the day of the birth that "the devil is coming," meaning the Clock of the Time Dragon. Nanny also questions Melena about the possibility of adultery, given her loneliness and her habit of chewing pinlobble leaves, which left her with no memory of her actions. Melena admits she may have been raped by a tinker or an elf while under the influence of a "Miracle Elixir" from a green glass bottle. Frex attempts an exorcism, which fails. Nanny suggests sorcery, but Frex violently rejects the idea. Nanny eventually leaves, taking with her the green glass bottle. The birth establishes Elphaba's lifelong isolation, her fraught relationship with her parents, and the central mystery of her origins, which the novel will explore through themes of heredity, sin, and political oppression. Her green skin becomes a permanent mark of otherness, a curse that shapes her identity and her destiny as the Wicked Witch of the West.