What happens in Part One of Wicked?
Part One opens in Munchkinland, setting the stage for the world of Oz before Dorothy's life-changing arrival. The chapter focuses on Frex, a traveling minister, and his wife Melena, who live in a secluded village in Munchkinland. Frex is called away to preach against the Clock of the Time Dragon—a controversial mechanical carnival exhibit—leaving the heavily pregnant Melena feeling isolated and restless. During his absence, a mysterious traveler named Turtle Heart, a glassblower from Quadling Country, arrives and quietly ingratiates himself into their home. Melena, feeling lonely and drawn to Turtle Heart's serene presence, becomes close to him. When Frex returns, the complicated domestic situation is already in place, though its deeper consequences remain unaddressed. The chapter concludes with the birth of Elphaba—a green-skinned, sharp-toothed baby whose arrival is jarring and unsettling, immediately distinguishing her as something that disrupts the natural order. The community reacts with swift horror, and Frex's shame is evident from the moment he first sees his daughter.
Analysis
Maguire begins with a structural inversion that sets the tone for his project: we must witness the world's cruelty before the child can inflict any of her own. Instead of whimsical, the Munchkinland setting is depicted as a place of provincial struggle—close-knit, wary, and driven by superstition. This sociological foundation stands out as one of the chapter's most skillful elements. The Clock of the Time Dragon serves as an early motif for fate and spectacle, acting as a mechanical oracle that both entertains and condemns; Frex's fight against it ironically reflects his own failure to interpret the signs at home.
The introduction of Turtle Heart is wrapped in intentional ambiguity. His otherness—racial, linguistic, and cultural—turns him into a canvas for Melena's desires and Frex's fears, and Maguire leaves it unclear whether he is a seducer or merely a stranger. This ambiguity plants the seeds for the novel's ongoing exploration of how society punishes those deemed different.
As Elphaba is born, the writing shifts dramatically: the domestic realism of earlier pages transforms into something resembling gothic horror. Her green skin immediately becomes a visible metaphor for difference—an indelible trait that cannot be dismissed. Frex's disgust is presented without any authorial judgment, a key tonal choice in the chapter: Maguire draws the reader into that initial flinch before any sympathy has been established. In this way, the chapter demonstrates its thesis rather than simply stating it.
Key quotes from Part One
“The baby was green. There was no getting around it.”
Elphaba's birth is described in blunt, declarative prose that cuts against the gothic tension of the preceding pages, forcing the reader to confront her difference without mediation.
“She was born with a full set of small, vicious teeth.”
The detail of Elphaba's teeth compounds the horror of her colouring, establishing her body as inherently transgressive from her first moment of existence.
“Frex could not look at the child. He turned away and prayed for guidance, but no guidance came.”
Frex's immediate rejection of his daughter frames the novel's central wound—parental abandonment dressed as piety—and sets the emotional stakes for everything that follows.