The Truth No One Sees in Wicked…
How a Beloved Musical Reveals the Architecture of Abuse
Most people watch Wicked and see a story about friendship, dazzling spectacle, and a misunderstood girl who wants to belong. But beneath its glittering surface sits something far more unsettling: a near-perfect portrait of coercive control, narrative manipulation, and how systems manufacture “villains” to protect themselves.
Wicked is not a fantasy.
It is a blueprint of how abusive structures really work — hidden in plain sight.
Those who have lived through these dynamics recognise it instantly.
Everyone else thinks it’s just a musical.
The Hidden Story: Wicked as a Map of Coercive Control
Behind the humour and colour is a system designed to maintain power through illusion.
The Wizard appears charming and benevolent, yet relies on deception, reputation, and a carefully crafted public image to mask incompetence.
Madame Morrible acts as the enforcer — twisting events, manipulating language, and “managing” reputations to suit the narrative.
Elphaba becomes dangerous not because she is wicked, but because she refuses to lie.
Glinda reflects the bystander who chooses comfort, popularity, and alignment with the system over integrity.
The Flying Monkeys represent those coerced into compliance, harmed and controlled, then used to enforce the very system that cages them.
The citizens of Oz believe whatever the system repeats often enough.
This is not fiction.
This is how coercive structures — family systems, workplaces, institutions — maintain themselves.
Manufactured Villains: Why Systems Need a “Wicked One”
In dysfunctional systems, someone must carry the shadow so the group can maintain the illusion of being “good.”
The scapegoat becomes:
• the explanation
• the distraction
• the moral contrast
• the container for the system’s unprocessed truth
The villain isn’t chosen because she is wrong.
She is chosen because her clarity is inconvenient.
Elphaba does not collapse, comply, or participate in the lie.
So the system needs her to be “wicked” to stabilise itself.
This is how villainisation really works — not through truth, but through usefulness.
The Real-World Parallels We Don’t Like to Admit
Wicked exposes the mechanics of systems that rely on control:
• Charm used as camouflage
• Narrative used as weapon
• Public reputation protecting private harm
• Isolation of the one who sees clearly
• Character assassination disguised as “concern”
• Communities shaped by belief, not reality
• Victims turned into instruments of enforcement
These patterns occur in families, workplaces, religious structures, political movements, and any environment where appearance matters more than integrity.
Most people only recognise abuse when it is loud.
Wicked reveals what abuse looks like when it is quiet — and when it works.
The Emotional Cost of Being Cast as ‘The Wicked One’
Wicked captures something rarely shown on stage: the psychological loneliness of becoming the system’s designated threat.
Not because you are wrong.
Not because you are harmful.
But because you see the structure too clearly.
The one who refuses to participate in illusion often pays the highest emotional price.
She becomes the symbol onto which the group projects everything it cannot face.
Wicked shows this exactly as it feels: confusing, disorientating, deeply isolating and yet anchored in truth.
Why Most People Don’t See This in Wicked
Three reasons:
1. We only recognise obvious abuse.
Most people cannot identify coercion when it comes dressed in charisma, song, and humour.
2. Spectacle hides structure.
It’s easier to enjoy the lights, the costumes, and the jokes than to notice the machinery of control underneath.
3. People identify with Glinda, not Elphaba.
It is human nature to choose comfort over truth.
Most people unconsciously side with the bystander who wants to be liked, not the truth-teller who refuses to comply.
So the deeper message of Wicked is rarely seen.
The Real Lesson: The Witch Was Never Wicked
The brilliance of Wicked is that it exposes a truth we rarely articulate:
Systems do not fall apart because someone is evil.
Systems fall apart because someone refuses to lie.
“Wickedness” is often just the name given to a woman who will not collapse on cue.
Wicked teaches us that:
• villains are constructed
• narratives are shaped
• morality is assigned for convenience
• power protects itself
• truth is dangerous to unstable systems
And the witch?
She was simply the only one brave enough to stay in coherence when everyone else chose illusion.
In the End
Wicked isn’t a fantasy at all.
It is a mirror — one that reflects how easily a society will turn integrity into villainy when truth becomes too inconvenient to bear.
And perhaps that is why so many people miss the message.
It asks us to question not the witch…
but the world that needed her to be wicked.
Sarah Miller writes and consults at the intersection of beauty, culture and coherence, drawing on her frameworks The Exquisite Standard™ and The Human Operating System™