Wicked Witch of the West

The Wicked Witch of the West is a character in the classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by the American author L. Frank Baum, who is the evil ruler of the Winkie Country, the western region in the Land of Oz. She is inadvertently killed by the child Dorothy Gale with a bucket of water. In Baum's subsequent Oz novels, the Wicked Witch of the West is referred to occasionally.
Margaret Hamilton played the role of the witch in the classic 1939 film based on Baum's novel. Hamilton's characterization introduced green skin, a feature repeated in later literary and dramatic representations, including Gregory Maguire's 1995 revisionist novel Wicked, the 2013 film Oz the Great and Powerful, and the television series Once Upon a Time.

In Baum's books

The Wicked Witch of the West is the malevolent ruler of the Winkie Country. Her castle is described as beautiful instead of being the sinister fortress shown in the 1939 film. In all versions, she is aquaphobic. The Wicked Witch of the West was not related to the Wicked Witch of the East, but leagued together with her, the Wicked Witch of the South, and the Wicked Witch of the North to conquer the Land of Oz and divide it amongst themselves, as recounted in L. Frank Baum's Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. She shows no interest in the death of the Eastern Witch and all she cares about is obtaining the Silver Shoes which will increase her power. W. W. Denslow's illustrations for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz depict her as a paunched old hag with three pigtails and an eyepatch. Baum himself specified that she only had one eye, but that it "was as powerful as a telescope", enabling the witch to see what was happening in her kingdom from her castle windows. Other illustrators, such as Paul Granger, placed her eye in the center of her forehead, as a cyclops. Usually, she is shown wearing an eyepatch; however, some illustrations show her with two eyes.
Most of her power resides in the creatures she controls. She has a pack of 40 great wolves, a flock of 40 crows, a swarm of black bees, and an army of Winkies. She possesses the enchanted Golden Cap, which compels the winged monkeys to obey her on three occasions. First, the witch commanded the creatures to help her enslave the Winkies and to seize control of the western part of the Land of Oz. Second, she made the winged monkeys drive the Wizard of Oz's army out of the Winkie Country, when he attempted to overthrow her.
When Dorothy Gale and her companions Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion were sent by the Wizard to destroy her, the Witch attacked them with her various creatures. Each of these attempts was thwarted with the Tin Woodman killing the 40 great wolves, Scarecrow killing the 40 crows, the black bees dying upon trying to sting the Tin Woodman, and the armed Winkie slaves being scared off by the Cowardly Lion. The protagonists are eventually subdued by the Witch's third and final permitted use of the winged monkeys. Nevertheless, the old witch cannot kill Dorothy because the girl is protected by the Good Witch of the North's kiss. She settles for enslaving Dorothy and tries to force the Cowardly Lion into submission by starving him, though Dorothy sneaks him food. Upon seeing the Silver Shoes on the girl's feet, the Wicked Witch decides to steal them, and thereby acquire even more power.
When she succeeds in acquiring one silver shoe by making Dorothy trip over an invisible bar, the little girl angrily throws a bucket of water onto the Wicked Witch. This causes the old witch to melt away. The Wicked Witch's dryness was enumerated in some clues before this. Furthermore, when Toto had bitten her, she had not bled; her wickedness had dried her up long ago. L. Frank Baum did not explain precisely why water had this effect on her, nor did he ever imply that all evil witches could be likewise destroyed. However, the wicked witch Mombi is similarly disposed of in The Lost King of Oz and the wicked witch Singra is clearly afraid of the same fate in the early chapters of The Wicked Witch of Oz.

Personality and characterization

In the 1939 film, the Witch is iconic for her green skin, pointed hat, broom, boisterous, dramatic personality, and cackle; in the books, her personality is somewhat more subtle: she is not as overtly sadistic, she is not as antagonistic to Dorothy and only becomes so once she sees Dorothy has intruded on her land, and her appearance is described very differently. In the novel, she also does not carry a broom, but rather an umbrella, which she uses on one occasion to strike Dorothy's dog Toto. Her nature is a volatile and yet somewhat cowardly one when compared to the film version. Despite her immense power, she avoids face-to-face contact with her enemies, and is frightened of Dorothy at first when she sees the girl wearing the Silver Shoes. She is also afraid of the dark in Baum's original story for reasons unknown. For that reason, the Witch never tried to steal the Silver Shoes while Dorothy was sleeping. Despite her fear of water and the dark, the Wicked Witch of the West was one of the most powerful witches in all of Oz. In ensuing Oz books, her power is described as having been so great that even Glinda the Good Witch of the South feared her. She was described as being so cruel that the blood in her body dried up and that when she was struck, she did not bleed. In the novel, she also owns slaves to do her bidding, a characterization which is kept in "The Wiz", in which she is much more dramatic than in the original film and forces her slaves to refer to her as beautiful.

In other books

In Alexander Melentyevich Volkov's 1939 novel The Wizard of the Emerald City, her given name is Bastinda. March Laumer uses this name for the witch in his novel Aunt Em and Uncle Henry in Oz. As in the 1939 movie, she is the sister of the Wicked Witch of the East. Sherwood Smith uses this name for a new Wicked Witch of the West in her 2005 book The Emerald Wand of Oz.
Gregory Maguire's 1995 revisionist novel Wicked takes the familiar Oz story and inverts it, with the Wicked Witch as the novel's protagonist and Dorothy as a hapless child. The name is retained in the musical Wicked.
In the novel The Unknown Witches of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West is named Old Snarl-Spats.
In Dorothy of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West's ghost appeared. When Princess Gaylette's Jester gets his hand on the Wicked Witch of the West's wand, he gets possessed by the Wicked Witch of the West's ghost. When Dorothy starts to do a trick to fool the Jester that Glinda is in china doll form, the Wicked Witch of the West's ghost continues to warn the Jester of Dorothy's trick. When the Jester gives the Wicked Witch of the West's wand to Dorothy, the Wicked Witch of the West's ghost disappears. It was also mentioned in this story that Wicked Witch of the West once cast a curse on the Gillikin Country town of Purplefield where it was turned into a maze that causes anyone who fails to make it through to disappear. Her curse on Purplefield was undone when Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion made it through the maze by hearing Tugg's foghorn.
In the comic book series Grimm Fairy Tales Presents Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West is named Lynessa.
In the novel The Living House of Oz there is a witch named Mordra who comes from an alternate Oz, but looks identical to the Wicked Witch of the West who lived in the regular Oz.
In Cheshire Crossing after reforming years after being melted by Dorothy, the Wicked Witch of the West, also known as Miss West, confronts her alongside Alice Liddell and Wendy Darling, becoming allied and romantically involved with Captain James Hook.
In the graphic novel adaptation of How the Wizard Came to Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West is named Morella.
In the 2021 novel Oscar Diggs, The Wizard of Oz, the Witch of the West is named Theodora Elphaba, a combination of the names from Oz the Great and Powerful and Wicked.
In dramatic representations

1910 film

The 1910 silent film The Wonderful Wizard of Oz features a character similar to the Wicked Witch of the West, identified in intertitles as "Momba the Witch". In the film, Momba has an unspecified hold over the Wizard, who promises his crown to anyone who can release him from Momba's power. Momba captures Dorothy and her companions, evoking the events in Baum's original novel, and is destroyed when Dorothy throws a bucket of water over her.

1914 film

Mombi's likeness and costume in the 1914 silent film, His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz is based on Denslow's illustrations of the Wicked Witch of the West.

1939 film

In the 1939 version of The Wizard of Oz, Margaret Hamilton plays the Wicked Witch of the West as a green-skinned witch dressed in a long black dress with a black pointed hat. This representation of the Wicked Witch has become a standard for what witches resemble and an archetype of human wickedness. While the relationship is not mentioned in Baum's books, in the movie the Witch is the sister of the Wicked Witch of the East. The movie makes her even more of a primary antagonist, and consequently, she appears in the film much earlier, than in Baum's original novel. She is described by Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, as "worse than the other one". She actively seeks revenge against Dorothy for killing her sister, even though it was "accidental". However, as soon as the Witch is reminded of the ruby slippers, all interest in her sister's death vanishes and all she cares about is obtaining her slippers, which will enable her to conquer Oz. She is more menacing than her literary counterpart, making Dorothy too afraid to ever lose her temper with the Witch. She makes sure that Dorothy knows her power when Dorothy meets the Scarecrow by throwing a ball of fire at them. Before Dorothy and her friends get to the city, the Witch casts a sleeping spell over a field of poppies through which the group must pass. Glinda remotely counteracts the spell with snowfall. The Wicked Witch then flies on her broom over the Emerald City, demanding that the citizens of the Emerald City Surrender Dorothy to her, and the Wizard demands the destruction of the Witch, with her broom as proof, in exchange for granting the wishes of Dorothy and her companions. Unlike Baum's original depiction, the Wicked Witch sends the Winged Monkeys as the first wave of attack. She is killed when Dorothy throws a bucket of water on her, in attempt to put out a fire the witch bestowed on the Scarecrow. In the novel, Dorothy simply throws it on her in a fit of anger. There is no prior mention of the Wicked Witch's vulnerability to water in the movie, save for a split-second before the water actually douses her when she screams "Don't throw that water!". After the Wicked Witch of the West is dead, her soldiers are glad to be free of her power, and quote "Hail to Dorothy! The Wicked Witch is dead!" The character ranks No. 4 in the American Film Institute's list of the 50 Best Movie Villains of All Time alongside Darth Vader, Norman Bates, and Hannibal Lecter, making her the highest ranking female villain, as well as placing 90th on Empire magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
Hamilton's other role in this film is the Witch's Kansas sepia tone counterpart, Miss Almira Gulch, created for the film by screenwriter Noel Langley. Gulch is a socialite who owns half the county, seeking to have Dorothy's dog Toto taken to the sheriff and destroyed after being bitten. This prompts Dorothy to call her "a wicked old witch". Miss Gulch takes Toto away in her basket, but he escapes. In the tornado scene, Dorothy sees Miss Gulch on her bicycle transform into a Wicked Witch flying on a broom.
Gale Sondergaard was originally cast as the Wicked Witch of the West, but withdrew from the role when the witch's persona shifted from sly and glamorous to the familiar "ugly hag".