Wicked Witch of the East

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The Wicked Witch of the East is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum in his classic books. Although not verifiably seen (except for her feet), the famous 1939 movie helped to further the popularity of the character. The Witch is the ruler of Munchkin Country. For her political role, see Political interpretations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

The classic books

In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (the first of many Oz books), Dorothy Gale is blown into Oz by a cyclone. The young girl's house lands on top of The Witch. The Witch, who had been ruling over the Munchkins, is killed instantly with only her feet sticking out from under the house. The Witch was wearing magical shoes (made of silver in the book) at the time of her death. Dorothy, on the advice of The Good Witch of the North, takes the shoes. These shoes have the power to transport anyone anywhere, simply by clicking the heels three times. Not knowing this, Dorothy travels to see the famous ruler of the Emerald City, The Wizard, to ask for his help in trying to return to her Kansas farm. In the novel, The Wicked Witch of the East is also responsible for the creation of the Tin Woodsman and the Tin Soldier, who each had their blades enchanted to prevent them from marrying the Witch's maid.

The 1939 movie

In the extremely popular 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz, The Wicked Witch of the East is not verifiably seen except for her stockinged feet. In the movie, the shoes were changed to "ruby slippers" to look better for the Technicolor film. The film portrays The Witch as being the sister of The Wicked Witch of the West, a distinction not made in Baum's books.

There is a school of thought that the witch seen in the cyclone, transformed from Miss Gulch, is actually the Wicked Witch of the East and not her sister, the Wicked Witch of the West. Arguments have been made which seem to support this theory:

A glint of light off her slippers is visible. The segment is black and white, so the color cannot be verified, but it seems to indicate that she was wearing something shiny on her feet, which the Wicked Witch of the West was not. (Although a point seems to be made of showing her shoes, the DVD cannot necessarily be said to definitively prove the shoes were shiny).
Dorothy sings of the storm and of the witch "thumbing for a hitch", and the Munchkins sing, "what happened then was rich", with the clear assumption that it was the Wicked Witch of the East that Dorothy saw and who ended up under Dorothy's house. (There is no question that Dorothy believes the Witch of the East was who she saw while up inside the cyclone).
The witch in the black and white scene is clearly Margaret Hamilton (who plays The Wicked Witch of the West), but the two witches are sisters, so they might be assumed to look and act similarly.
The witch shown in the cyclone is wearing her hair down, whereas whenever The Wicked Witch of the West is shown, her hair is always tied in a bun (however, Miss Gulch also wore her hair in a bun).
The screenplay is no help, since it merely says "a witch" and there is no screen credit for the Wicked Witch of the East.

Undermining this theoretical argument is the obvious fact that the character of the Witch of the West is the (exaggerated) counterpart to Miss Gulch, Dorothy's nemesis in Kansas.

It is fair to conclude that this apparent fuzziness in continuity is no different from other more-obvious continuity problems in the classic film, which observers have pointed out over the years.

Modern works

In the Broadway musical, The Wiz, The Wicked Witch of the East is named Evamene.

In the more recent novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by author Gregory Maguire, The Wicked Witch of the East is known as Nessarose and is born without arms - a condition later treated by the well known shoes. Like in the classic movie, the witch again appears as the sister of The Wicked Witch of the West, whose name is Elphaba. In Wicked, the Broadway musical based on Maguire's novel, Nessarose has arms, but instead is disabled and uses a wheelchair. In both the book and musical, the character is portrayed in a less negative light than in the Baum books or earlier movie.

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