Nanny
Nanny is the lifelong nursemaid and confidante of Melena and later her daughters, Elphaba and Nessarose. She serves as a pragmatic, sharp-tongued witness to the Thropp family's tragedies, from Elphaba's green birth to the political upheavals that scatter the family across Oz, and her loyalty endures through decades of hardship.
Identity and Background
Nanny was the nursemaid to Melena at Colwen Grounds, the grand estate of the Eminent Thropp. She raised Melena from infancy, teaching her nursery rhymes and offering blunt, unsentimental advice. When Melena married Frex, a unionist minister, and moved to the remote lakeside cottage near Rush Margins, Nanny remained at Colwen Grounds in retirement. She was recalled in panic after Elphaba's birth: Melena wrote to drag Nanny from her retirement, and Frex went ahead in a carriage to collect her from the way station at Stonespar End. On the journey, Frex confessed that the baby was "damaged" and "green as moss," and Nanny, though inwardly horrified, steeled herself to help. She brought with her a gold garter stolen years ago from Her Ladyship's boudoir, hidden in her valise, and a practical, unsentimental resolve.
Role in the Thropp Family
Nanny became the family's anchor through successive crises. When Elphaba was born green, with shark-like teeth and a violent temperament, Nanny was the first to handle the infant without revulsion, crooning lies about liking her while fighting the urge to vomit. She interviewed Frex about possible causes of the greenness, suggesting an elf or a curse, and pressed Melena about whether she had been unfaithful. When Melena admitted to taking a draft from a green glass bottle given by a tinker, Nanny found the bottle—labeled MIRACLE ELIXIR—in Melena's medicine chest. She later proposed sorcery as a last resort, which provoked Frex to strike her. After the exorcism failed, Nanny packed her valise and left, taking the green glass bottle, three of Frex's prayer beads, and her ivory crochet hook as souvenirs.
Years later, when Melena was pregnant with Nessarose, Nanny took it upon herself to travel to the Lower Quarter of the Emerald City to find a remedy. She located a store marked with the secret insignia of the alchemist's trade and sat down with a crone named Yackle, who ground up herbs and minerals and provided a nine-month supply of capsules. Nanny paid for the supply and brought it back, telling Melena that Yackle had predicted greatness for her children. She did not mention that Yackle was certain the next child would be a girl, fearing Melena might try to abort her.
Life in Quadling Country and Later Years
After Melena's death in childbirth, Nanny raised Elphaba, Nessarose, and their younger brother Shell in the Quadling badlands, moving from settlement to settlement as Frex preached. She taught the children and kept house, though she grew lethargic and saturated with resentment after more than a score of years in the swamps. When Nessarose was to attend Shiz University, Nanny accompanied her, arriving at Crage Hall with the armless girl. She served as Nessarose's chaperone and caretaker, propping her up and assisting with daily tasks.
Final Years at Kiamo Ko
After Glinda enchanted Nessarose's silver shoes, allowing her to stand and walk without support, Nanny was made redundant. She set out to find Elphaba, tracking her to the Cloister of Saint Glinda and then to Kiamo Ko in the Vinkus. She arrived with the caravan, an old woman with cracked skin and thin yellow-white hair, and settled into a small room below Elphaba's tower. At Kiamo Ko, Nanny became the de facto housekeeper, cooking, scolding, and offering sardonic commentary. She was present when Liir was pulled from the fishwell, nearly drowned, and she took charge of the resuscitation, pumping his legs and arms and ordering Elphaba to breathe into his mouth. When the soldiers came to kidnap Sarima and her family, Nanny was left behind as too old to march. She later helped Elphaba prepare for the arrival of Dorothy and her companions, setting out cheese and vegetables and greeting the girl with genuflection.
Character and Thematic Significance
Nanny is a pragmatist and a survivor, her worldview shaped by decades of witnessing the Thropp family's misfortunes. She is blunt, unsentimental, and occasionally cruel, but her loyalty is unwavering. She carries the green glass bottle from Melena's past, a relic of the family's hidden history, and she is the keeper of secrets—about Melena's infidelity, the uncertain paternity of Nessarose, and the origin of the miracle elixir. She represents the continuity of care and the persistence of memory, a figure who endures while the family around her fractures and falls.
