Melena Thropp

Infobox character
colour = blue
name = Melena Thropp
first = "" (1995)
last = Wicked the Musical: 2008
species = human
gender = female
age = unknown
born = unknown
death = unknown
spouse = Frexspar
parents = Lady Partra (mother, deceased)
children = Elphaba (daughter)
Nessarose (daughter)
Shell (son)
relatives = Eminent Thropp of Munchkinland (grandfather, deceased)
unnamed sister, deceased
Liir (grandson)
residence = Quadling Country (at time of death)
creator = Gregory Maguire

Melena Thropp a fictional character in Gregory Maguire's novel "". She is the mother of Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West), Nessarose (the Wicked Witch of the East), and Shell (the future Emperor of Oz). Melena is married to Frexspar, a unionist preacher and missionary; however, Elphaba is conceived by the Wizard of Oz, and Nessarose, possibly, by the Quadling Turtle Heart. Melena is the granddaughter of the Eminent Thropp of Munchkinland, and it is this ancestry which ultimately causes her daughter Nessa to rise to power in Munchkinland. At one point, Elphaba describes Melena as a "Giddy, alcoholic, imaginative, uncertain, desperate, brave, supportive woman", revealing that she possessed both positive and negative attributes of character.

In the Novel

The granddaughter of the Eminent Thropp, Melena was raised in the lap of luxury at Colwen Grounds and moved in the high social circles of Oz, but rebelled against her privilaged lifestyle because she dreaded the day when she would inherit her grandfather's title. She is delighted to leave with Frex after they marry, but never really ajusts to the shock of country life after her pampered childhood. Melena had hoped that her older sister would give birth to a daughter before she did, and that she herself would have only sons; boys only take on the title of Eminence if there are no female Thropps alive at the time, so if Melena had sons, she would be able to keep them from inheritting their family's burdensome status. However, since Melena did give birth to two girls, and her sister died childless while Elphaba was young, this plan was ruined.

At the beginning of the story, Melena lives with Frex in a town called Rush Margins, in Munchkinland. Frex's preaching causes him to be absent for long periods of time, and while he is away on one such excursion, Melena is approached by a traveller later revealed to be the Wizard of Oz, who presents her with a bottle labled "Miracle Elixir". Upon drinking the contents of the bottle, Melena falls into a state of semi-delirium, and makes love with the man. Though she remembers the bizarre dreams induced by the Elixir, she later has difficulty recalling the actual incident, and is unsure whether or not she engaged in sexual relations with the traveller. Nine months later, however, she gives birth to a baby girl who she names Elphaba, and it is almost certain that this child was the result of her affair with the Wizard. Elphaba is born with green skin, an occurrence whose cause is never explicitly revealed, though various theories are put forward throughout the book.

Later, while Frex is again out preaching, a Quadling named Turtle Heart arrives at Melena's home, and the two engage in an affair. This relationship lasts a long time, and it is implied that Nessarose, Melena's second child, may have been fathered by Turtle Heart. While she is carrying this child, Melena takes medicine to prevent the baby from being born with the same abnormality as Elphaba. However, by some side-effect of the medicine, Nessarose is born without arms. After Turtle Heart is killed in a pagan ritual, the Thropps move to his native Quadling Country, where Frex tries to convert the people to Unionism. It is there that Melena dies while giving birth to her third child, Shell.

In the Musical

In the Broadway musical "Wicked", based on Maguire's novel, Elphaba's mother is not named, and plays a much smaller role. She is shown only in flashbacks at the very start of the musical, first being seduced by the Wizard, and then giving birth to Elphaba. Elphaba later mentions that Frex made his wife eat milkflowers while carrying her second child, Nessarose, so as to prevent the child from having green skin. Unfortunatley the flowers caused her to enter labour prematurely, and as a result, Nessa was born with tangled legs, and is crippled for the rest of her life. In the musical, Elphaba's mother dies while giving birth to Nessarose, and thus Shell is never born. Since the musical makes no reference to Turtle Heart, it is implied that Nessarose was ligitimately fathered by Frex.