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Vladimir Ja. Propp, (1928), Morphology of the Folktale, First Edition Translated by Laurence Scott with an Introduction by Svatava Pírková-Jakobson, Second Edition Revised and Edited with a Preface by Louis A. Wagner, New Introduction by Alan Dundes, University of Texas Press, Austin, TX, 2009, p. 47
Il potere del linguaggio non è la capacità di dire ciò che esiste, bensì ciò che non esiste.
Intervista a Umberto Eco
Semiotics and Intertextuality in Wicked
Introduction
Wicked (Jon M. Chu, 2024) is a film adaptation of the theatre musical Wicked (Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz, 2003). This theatre musical was based the book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Gregory Maguire, 1995), which itself was a reimagining of the Wicked Witch of the West character (Margaret Hamilton) from The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming and King Vidor, 1939). This iconic film is an example of transmedia itself, having been inspired by the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Lyman Frank Baum, 1900). Therefore, Wicked 2024 is an intertextual piece of media that requires prior knowledge of at least the source film from 1939, as its worldbuilding and its characters draw heavily from it. The film uses signs for the viewer to make this intertextual connection between the source film and the 2024 reinterpretation. The 2024 film transforms the moral binaries of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ through its use of colour and visual symbolism to give new meanings. Drawing on the theories of semiology from Peirce, Saussure (1916), Mitry (1963), Metz (1964), and Barthes (1957), this blog post evaluates how Wicked destabilises the meaning of wickedness through signs.
Semiology
Colour is a key element of semiotics in Wicked 2024. The signifier is the code or symbol being used to communicate; the signified is the mental representation of the of the referent of the sign (Kickasola, 2008, p.458). Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo)’s green skin is the signifier. In terms of what is the signified, we can say it is otherness and social out-casting. Therefore, the sign is a socially constructed ‘other’ or ‘alien’ being whose identity is defined by visual difference.
Figure 1 - Elphaba in Wicked 2024
Figure 2 - The Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz (1939)
However, the connotations vary between The Wizard of Oz 1939 and Wicked 2024 despite sharing the same green skin denotation. In the former, the green skin as otherness connotes someone who is evil and supernatural. Meanwhile, the latter uses the denotation of green skin and the sign of otherness to connote discrimination, colourism and marginalisation. The audience is made to feel scared of the green signifier in the 1939 film, while a viewer feels sympathy in the 2024 film. This difference in response to the green signifier is a result of the way it is used as a storytelling device: 1939 uses it to instil fear of the ‘other’ who mistreats; while 2024 uses it to encourage empathy for the ‘other’ who is mistreated. As a result, the signified is transformed which affects the response to the sign.
Symbolically and culturally, green is associated with evil and witchcraft. Viewers especially have this association of green through the 1939 film’s representation of the Wicked Witch of the West. Further to this, the broomstick and the hat are also symbols of wickedness from our intertextual knowledge of the 1939 film. Indexically, Elphaba’s green skin results in her social exclusion as a result of these symbols of green. Wicked reverses these symbols as we follow Elphaba’s journey. The film is a bildungsroman for Elphaba, making sense of how she became known as ‘the Wicked Witch of the West’. As we follow her self-discovery and growth, the iconic sign of her hat transforms from one of wickedness to being symbolic of identity and friendship, as it is her friend Galinda (Ariana Grande) who gifts the hat to her and embraces her identity later when she wears it. Likewise, the iconic sign of the broom that previously symbolised evil witchcraft becomes a symbol for freedom and adolescence with the musical score ‘Defying Gravity’. This is due to signs being arranged in a syntagmic structure, which is ‘the combining and assembling of signs into chains of meanings’ (Kickasola, 2008, p.458).
Figure 3 - Elphaba as 'the Wicked Witch of the West' with her iconic hat and broom
We can also analyse the signifier of pink being signified as goodness, desirability and femininity. It is used as a binary opposition to the green signifier, both in the 1939 film and in the 2024 film. Glinda (Ariana Grande) embracing pink makes her a sign for gendered social norms, where her femininity is what makes her socially acceptable. Meanwhile, Elphaba’s green skin and black attire is what makes her different, and therefore socially unacceptable. This semiotic analysis can be taken further to find implicit meanings. Audiences may resonate with this feeling of societal exclusion from having something that is different about them, such as the colour of their skin. Elphaba is both an iconic and symbolic sign for colourism, as she experiences discrimination for having a different skin tone literally in the film, but it is also a symbolic experience of people of colour who do not literally have green skin. The indexical sign of her green skin and unique attire causing judgement and social exclusion can also resonate with viewers who are queer: where they do not fit the societally acceptable conditions of femininity (or masculinity), where they are judged for how they present, and where they are outcasted for how they identify. Wicked 2024’s transformation of the iconic signs intertextual with The Wizard of Oz 1939 allows for a deeper discussion of topics relevant in the 21st century: identity, culture and discrimination.
Taking these ideas further, we can use semiotics to find implicit meanings of parental-child relationships. Elphaba’s mother, Melena Thropp (Courtney-Mae Briggs), is seen having an affair and drinking a green liquid as she has her affair. When she falls pregnant, Elphaba is born green like the liquid her mother consumed during her affair. Here, the green is the signifier, and infidelity is the signified, making green (and therefore Elphaba) a sign of adultery. The index of this is Elphaba suffering for having green skin as a result of her mother’s affair. The implicit connotations of her green skin are that she has inherited her mother’s sins and must carry her shame and guilt. The implicit meaning here could be about suffering because of parental mistakes, representing and physically carrying the sin of her mother.
Conclusion
Through Wicked’s use of colour and intertextuality, there is a semiotic deconstruction and transformation. Green, which was previously a sign and symbol for evil otherness, becomes a symbol here of discrimination and marginalisation. It uses green as the signifier and subverts a viewer’s expectations through intertextual references. Pink, which was used as a moral binary to green’s connotations, becomes a societal signifier as femininity and acceptance is the signified, in contrast with green being the signifier to otherness being the signified.
This analysis of Wicked 2024 has made the importance of signs and their meanings in visual storytelling. I plan to implement semiology into my own work to give greater depth to my visual stories.
Bibliography
Barthes, R. (1957) Mythologies. Paris: Seuil.
Barthes, R. (1977) Image–Music–Text. London: Fontana.
Baum, L.F. (1900) The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Chicago: George M. Hill Company.
Bordwell, D. (2008) ‘Cognitive Theory’, in Livingston, P. and Plantinga, C. (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Film. London: Routledge, pp. 356 - 367
Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge.
Chu, J.M. (2024) Wicked. [Film] United States: Universal Pictures.
Fleming, V. (1939) The Wizard of Oz. [Film] United States: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Fiske, J. (1990) Introduction to Communication Studies. London: Routledge.
Holzman, W. and Schwartz, S. (2003) Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz. New York: Hyperion.
Kickasola, J.G. (2008) ‘Semiotics and Semiology’, in Livingston, P. and Plantinga, C. (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Film. London: Routledge, pp. 457-469
Maguire, G. (1995) Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. New York: ReganBooks.
Saussure, F. de (1916) Course in General Linguistics. New York: McGraw-Hill (1966 edition).
I know people use it mostly as a joke and a hyperbole, and through imitation, but I really don't like handlenames and other Internet aliases starting with "CEO of".
We're trying to evolve past the need for CEOs, we're trying to reform the work force, employment, the very concept of labour that has been perverted by decades of unchecked capitalism.
Oftentines they are "CEO of" some intellectual property, or an aspect of said intellectual property (character, ship, etc) they don't own, a clear sign of the proprietary aspect of fandoms who treat the things they love/are obssessed with as if it were theirs. Dangerous mentality.
It's like when Americans keep calling each-other kings and queens. Yes it's a positive affirmation, a celebration of someone's accomplishements (or sometimes just their looks and "vibes) but it's so tragically ironic to me that the country known for its disdain of monarchy is also the one praising its associated titles.
Again I am very much aware of fighting windmills, and I am the first to say that words are polysemic, and their meaning derives from context, not from some sort of absolute.
But still.
“Trust the signs and symptoms, my young Padawan.”
I hope I am like a rare cryptid, who darts across your dash but instead of giveing fae gifts or eldritch knowledge, I give you a fragment of myself bound in ink.
And also mothman vibes, ya know.
Conventional depictions of landscape elements for map sketching. Topographic maps and sketch mapping. 1920.
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