Nessarose
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Nessarose Thropp is the name of the Wicked Witch of the East in Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, as well as in the Broadway adaptation, Wicked. She is the spoiled younger sister of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. In both the play and the novel, Elphaba is considered a pale second to her beautiful but handicapped sister. Elphaba is often expected to put the needs of her sister before her own. In the novel, Nessarose also has a younger brother named Shell.
Nessarose, during her rule of Munchkinland, is dubbed "The Wicked Witch of the East," for her cruel ways and use of sorcery to control her subjects. In both the musical and the novel, Nessarose meets her demise when Dorothy's house lands in Oz and crushes her.
In Maguire's novel, Nessarose is a very pious and religious character. She was born without arms, presumably from medicine her mother took to prevent another child with the same odd appearances as the green-skinned Elphaba. Despite her condition, she is a dainty and beautiful girl, and when attending Shiz University, she more easily gains friends than her sister. She is aided by Nanny at home. Nessarose, despite, or perhaps because of, her pious religious convictions, is often close-minded and vain, following Maguire's cyncism throughout the novel towards religion in general.
Nessarose is chosen by Madame Morrible to be an Adept – a trained sorceress, with political authority over a particular area (which was supposed to be in the South, Quadling Country). During Nessarose's reign in Munchkinland, despite her religious conviction, she allows more ancient practices to take place - including ritualistic sacrifice, rumoured to even include those of humans and Animals.
Nessarose is the original owner of the magical silver shoes (most commonly known as the ruby slippers from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz), given to her as a loving gift by her father, and later enchanted by Glinda. They allow Nessarose to walk and stand without assistance, and leave her overly confident and more proud, which only fuels her tyrannical reign on the Munchkins. In the novel, the shoes are a lasting symbol of Elphaba's rejection by her father, and from the world in general, and a symbol and sign of fear and later reverence by the citizens of Oz. It is Elphaba's search to retrieve Nessarose's shoes from Dorothy that causes her demise, as she becomes obsessed with obtaining the objects that have always existed as a reminder to her unusualness.
It is revealed during the course of the story that Nessarose may be the child of Turtle Heart, the Quadling glassblower who resided with the Thropps. Nessarose's father, Frex, confesses as much to Elphaba after Nessarose's death, adding the commentary both he and his wife Melena loved Turtle Heart equally. The implications of that statement are, however, never fully developed. It is because of the questionable parentage of Nessarose that Frex loves her more than Elphaba, as if she was conceived more of the love between the odd trio. Nessarose dies without ever knowing the debate of her parentage, or that her perhaps-father Turtle Heart was viciously sacrificed, not unlike the rituals she allowed her people to conduct to appease them to her rule. (It should be noted that Turtle Heart is a Quadling, and in Baum's original novels, some Quadlings have no arms. This may be Maguire's way of affirming Nessarose's parentage for the readers without specifically stating it.)
Like many other characters in the Broadway adaptation of Wicked, Nessarose is portrayed very differently from the novel. She was originally played by Michelle Federer. In the musical, Nessarose is not chosen as a sorceress by Madame Morrible. While the character of the musical does have arms, she is instead bound to a wheelchair. Nessarose is seen as a more tragic character, attending Shiz University with Elphaba, who often embarrasses her. Galinda, in an effort to shoo away a persistent love-struck munchkin named Boq, and to allow her own relationship with Fiyero to develop, arranges a date between he and Nessarose. Boq unhappily becomes a point of love obsession for Nessarose. Because of her father's rule of Munchkinland, Nessarose takes control of Munchkinland following his death, slowly becoming evil and tyrannical. She enslaves Boq, and in an attempt to use Elphaba's spells to punish him for professing his love for Glinda, accidentally causes his heart to disappear. Elphaba saves Boq by turning him into the Tin Woodsman.
As in the novel, Nessarose receives the magical slippers as a gift from her father, but they are instead enchanted by Elphaba, rather than Glinda, to give her the ability to walk. The musical makes no reference to Turtle Heart or Shell, and thus it is implied that Nessarose was the legitimate child of Frex and Melena. The musical also shows that Nessarose was murdered by Madame Morrible, who created the fateful cyclone as a trap to draw Elphaba from hiding.
