Madame Morrible
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Madame Muriel Morrible is a character in author Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. The character also appears in the Broadway musical Wicked, which is based on Maguire's novel. She is the wicked headmistress of Shiz University and a cohort of The Wizard of Oz. Madame Morrible is an experienced sorceress who instructs a sorcery seminar at Shiz.
[edit] The Novel
In the novel, Madame Morrible is described as a "fish shaped woman." She often has a Tik-Tok machine man called Grommetik to do her bidding and later commanded the creature to kill Doctor Dillamond, which Ama Clutch — Galinda's chaperone — witnessed. She uses Shiz to recruit young girls as soldiers and spies for the Wizard, but does not directly influence him. She believes that Animals should be "seen and not heard," which she states at a poetry reading, known as a 'Quell'.
At the funeral of Ama Clutch, Madame Morrible suggests to Nessarose, Elphaba and Glinda that the three become the "Adepts" of Quadling Country, Munchkinland and Gillikin Country respectively. This would grant them political dominion over these areas, but, as Morrible admits, is in fact a way of maintaining the Wizard's authority in far-flung regions of Oz. They all reject the idea, however each of them does ultimately find herself the ruler of a region in Oz: Nessa becomes the Eminence of the East (aka. "Wicked Witch of the East"), Elphaba rules the Vinkus as the "Wicked Witch of the West", and Glinda rules Gillikin Country as the Good Witch of the North. Later in the novel, Elphaba speculates that Madame Morrible was a witch, and may somehow have influenced events so as to bring the three to power despite their original refusal. The theory of Morrible's having magical powers is indeed probably correct, as she successfully immobilised the three girls with a binding spell while speaking to them of their future as Adepts, as well as somehow making it impossible for them to discuss the matter afterward. She also claimed that her "special talent is to encourage talent", which may support the latter theory as well.
[edit] The Musical
In the musical, Madame Morrible plays a bigger role as the antagonist, as she tricks Elphaba into using her powers to create winged monkeys for the Wizard. When Elphaba realizes this and flees, Madame Morrible spreads the rumor that she is the Wicked Witch of the West. In contrast to the novel, she is explicitly shown to possess magical powers, being especially talented at controlling the weather. By use of this ability, she is later responsible for creating the cyclone that kills Nessarose (the Wicked Witch of the East) and brings Dorothy Gale into the land of Oz. She was played in the original Broadway production by Carole Shelley, though the role has now been taken over by Miriam Margolyes (who, incidentally, originated the role in London's West End production). She is currently played by Barabara Robertson in the Chicago production.
In the novel, Elphaba desires to kill Madame Morrible by bashing her head in with a marble trophy, but is five minutes too late and ends up merely assaulting Madame Morrible's corpse. Since the musical is more oriented to younger audiences and families, Madame Morrible is not killed in that adaptation. Instead, Glinda orders the royal guards of Oz to take Madame Morrible to prison. Madame Morrible's costumes are very long and awkwardly shaped in the musical, as if to show her bizarre and unshaped personality.
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