Elphaba Thropp

Elphaba Thropp is introduced in Gregory Maguire's retelling as a human woman born to Melena Thropp and later revealed to be biologically connected to the Wizard; Maguire formulated her name from the pronunciation of L.F.B. (the initials of L. Frank Baum). Within Maguire's narrative she grows from childhood through study at Shiz University (Crage Hall), acquires the Grimmerie (an ancient spellbook), and becomes identified in the social and political life of Oz as the Witch of the West, a role that mixes personal biography, political action, and later folkloric reworking inside the novel's internal culture.

Maguire's description and later adaptations present Elphaba as green-skinned, clad in black clothing, and wearing a tall peaked hat; her appearance in the supplied sources is explicitly noted as modeled after Margaret Hamilton's 1939 film portrayal of the Witch in The Wizard of Oz. The sources record these visual markers (skin color, black costume, tall hat) as the principal physical descriptors cited.

Within the novels Elphaba studies the Grimmerie and uses practical magic: she sews wings onto several monkeys enabling them to fly, and she learns to ride a flying broomstick. Her activity also includes intellectual and ethical work (assisting and continuing Dr. Dillamond's research on sentience), and organized political resistance—joining an underground movement opposed to the Wizard and participating in violent direct action described in summaries as "domestic terrorism." The supplied sources limit her supernatural feats to those documented magical acts and her studied use of the Grimmerie.