No One Mourns the Wicked

The part of the above video relevant to this post 

begins at one minute, 30 seconds.

"No One Mourns the Wicked" is the title of the opening song of the popular musical Wicked. Wicked is a back story for the witches from The Wizard of Oz, mainly the Wicked Witch of the West. In it, the wicked witch is exonerated from her crimes with an explanation of how she became the way she was and how she was not truly wicked at all. Too bad not all wicked witches and step-mothers get meaningful back stories. Instead, they are left as vain, petty, jealous women determined to tear others down for their own victory.

As you may have gathered from the above introductory paragraph, in this post we're going to take a break from the princesses and talk instead about how the wicked characters in fairy tales deserve perhaps a little more sympathy.

One of fairy tales' main problems is that they participate in the "good" girl, "bad" girl dichotomy. Of course, the good girls are the near perfect princesses. The "bad" girls are the wicked women. These are the women who fail to conform to patriarchal ideals, largely by being imperfect. They are not the prettiest. When they are beautiful, they feel the need to be most beautiful, like the evil queen in Snow White. The evil queen is also a good example in her jealousy and vanity. They don't take kindly to being slighted, like Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty whose revenge is enacted because she wasn't invited to the christening of the princess. In other words, these women have faults. They are imperfect, as all people are.

Other traits these women also tend to have are ambition and aggression, which in moderation are not negative traits in a person. Men are often applauded for ambition or aggression, but a woman who shows it is turned into a monster. In these stories, ambition is often tightly tied to greed. Consider the evil queen again. She has greatly exaggerated ambition and aggression and a great deal of greed. She wants a throne and is willing to kill for it. Being beautiful is not enough, she must be the most beautiful. There is also the wicked step-mother in Cinderella who is determined for her daughter(s) to marry a prince so they can all become rich and royal. She doesn't care about love, only money. They are also occasionally worldly or more outspoken in their sexuality. The first princess story villain to come to mind with this particular trait is Ursula from The Little Mermaid, especially in the Disney version. If you aren't sure what I mean, take a look at the video below.

Notice the shimmying and pay special attention to

the lines at four minutes, 25 seconds.

The final thing these women share is that they are all severely punished. They are defeated, often by a man. They do not behave they way in which they should, so they are cast out or imprisoned or killed. In a way, they are the cautionary tale within fairy tales. The princesses encourage patriarchal gender roles because they are everything women "ought to be," and they get rewarded. In contrast, the wicked women of fairy tales are imperfect. They do not obey the rules, and they are punished. It's a "be like this or you end up like this" sort of mentality.

One of the worst parts that these characters are so incredibly flat. They have no interests beyond their revenge or goal. At least princesses are allowed to have hobbies like singing or sewing or befriending animals. Granted, these are sweet, acceptable pastimes, but they are pastimes nonetheless. The wicked women are the villains. They aren't allowed any hobbies. They really aren't allowed a back story, nothing that could make a reader or watcher or listener sympathize with them.

Luckily, in today's pop-culture, we do have a few instances of sympathy for the wicked woman. In the new Disney version of Rapunzel's story, called Tangled, Mother Gothel keeps her vanity and her greed, but she also shows some legitimate tender moments for Rapunzel. She does seem to have developed legitimate feelings not just for Rapunzel's hair but for the girl as well. This gives her a slightly rounder character than most Disney villains. There's also the popular television show Once Upon a Time, which gives back stories for the evil queen from Snow White, Regina, and Rumpelstiltskin, the villain of the story of the same name. These back stories do not make these characters good. However, they do explain how they became the way they are. They create sympathy for their situation, if not actual liking. They also give the characters a chance for redemption, which every person deserves. One story that does take a wicked woman and make her completely good is the one I mentioned at the beginning of this post, Wicked. Before I leave you, I would like to finish up with a fact that makes me smile. The original book version of Wicked, called Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, was written by a man.

Sources:
Disney's Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, and Tangled
Wicked: The Musical
ABC's Once Upon a Time
Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide by Lois Tyson