Melena Thropp

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Melena Thropp is the mother of Elphaba, Nessarose, and Shell in Gregory Maguire's novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. She is married to Frexspar, a unionist preacher and missionary. However, her first child, Elphaba, was fathered by the Wizard of Oz, and Nessarose, possibly, by the Quadling Turtle Heart. Elphaba was born with green skin, an occurrence whose cause is never explicitly revealed, though various theories are put forward throughout the book. While she was carrying her second child, Nessarose, Melena took a medicine to prevent the baby from being born with the same abnormality as Elphaba. The medicine caused Melena to enter labour prematurely, and because of this Nessarose was born crippled. Melena died while giving birth to her third child, Shell.