Evil is an absence of the inclination of matter to be at peace

The expression "Evil is an absence of the inclination of matter to be at peace" is a philosophical proposition articulated during a dinner party at the town house of Avaric, the Margreave of Tenmeadows, in Shiz. It is spoken by an agony aunt for the Shiz Informer, one of several guests who, after Elphaba's confession to having killed Madame Morrible, engage in a wide-ranging debate about the nature of evil. The remark frames evil not as a positive, active force but as a privation—a lack of the natural tendency of material existence toward equilibrium and harmony. It is immediately dismissed by Avaric as "Pigspittle," and the subsequent conversation reveals the characters' inability to agree on a stable definition of evil, a thematic uncertainty that pervades the novel.

Context and the Debate on Evil

The expression arises during a dinner party at Avaric's town house, where Elphaba, having just confessed to murdering Madame Morrible, is the guest of honor. The other diners include a copper magnate, an artist, and the agony aunt, each of whom offers a competing definition of evil. The copper magnate argues that evil is "merely an affliction of the psyche, like vanity or greed," while the artist insists it is "an incarnated character, an incubus or a succubus. It's an other. It's not us." The agony aunt's contribution—"It's an absence of good, that's all. The nature of the world is to be calm, and enhance and support life, and evil is an absence of the inclination of matter to be at peace"—is the most metaphysical of the proposals, grounding evil in a cosmic or physical lack rather than in human psychology or supernatural agency. Avaric's retort, "Pigspittle," underscores the dismissive tone of the gathering, which treats the entire discussion as an intellectual game rather than a serious moral inquiry.

Elphaba's Role and the Thematic Significance

Elphaba, the self-confessed murderer, participates in the debate by offering her own definition: "For fun? Maybe evil is an art form." This flippant remark, delivered as she wobbles toward the door, contrasts sharply with the agony aunt's more abstract formulation. Yet Elphaba's final statement before leaving—"The real disaster of this inquiry is that it is the nature of evil to be secret"—echoes a theme that runs throughout the novel: that evil resists definitive categorization and that attempts to define it are themselves suspect. The dinner party scene thus becomes a microcosm of the novel's broader exploration of moral ambiguity, where characters from different social and intellectual backgrounds fail to reach consensus, and where the only certainty is that evil cannot be pinned down by any single formula.

Connection to Elphaba's Earlier Reflections

The agony aunt's definition resonates with Elphaba's own earlier meditations on evil, particularly during her time at Kiamo Ko. In a conversation with Fiyero, Elphaba argues that "the wickedness of men is that their power breeds stupidity and blindness," and she later reflects on the nature of evil as something that "is always more easily imagined than good, somehow." The idea of evil as an absence—a lack of peace or harmony—also parallels Elphaba's own sense of internal void, her repeated claim that she has "no soul," and her struggle to find meaning in a world she perceives as fundamentally unjust. The agony aunt's formulation, though dismissed by the other guests, thus touches on a core philosophical tension in the novel: whether evil is a positive force to be fought or a privation to be filled, and whether any definition can adequately capture its elusive character.