A major theme in Wicked is defiance versus complacency. In this world, acts of rebellion and defiance come at the risk of one’s safety and well-being. Consequently, most characters choose to ignore the issues in their society. Boq is passionate about Animal Rights, but he refuses to openly speak against the Wizard for fear of retaliation. Fiyero is open to Elphaba’s politics, but he doesn’t realize the extent to which he ignored the systematic destruction of Animals and other Ozians until he reconsiders the world with an active desire to better understand Elphaba. Glinda is interested in intellectual and moral stimulation, but she fears being left out of the tribe that keeps her safe, loved, and honored. Frex is a devoted minister, but his religious zeal destroys his rational analysis of how society truly is, which leads to the destruction of his reputation. Samira mourns the violent and inexplicable loss of her husband Fiyero, but she refuses to listen to Elphaba’s true recounting of his murder, preferring the comfort of ignorance.

Only Elphaba and the Wizard confront their convictions and the world as they truly are. There are certainly benefits to living a willfully ignorant life, but the characters who choose ignorance over conviction end up dead, sad, scared, or inauthentic. The Wizard may be evil, but he truly believes in his convictions. Elphaba may commit murder and harshly judge others, but her convictions are all she has. Though Elphaba dies because of her convictions, Maguire uses his revisionist story to expose the problems with inaction, ignorance, and passivity, and to encourage readers to prioritize and cultivate their own sense of purpose regardless of the norms and standards that society imposes.

Though Elphaba has strong ideals, she is also a perpetrator of willful ignorance. In the final chapter of Wicked, Elphaba is unable to analyze her choices rationally and honestly. It is true that forces of oppression outside her control destroyed much in her life, but it is also true that Elphaba makes decisions that contribute to or exacerbate her loneliness and wickedness. Rather than take an honest look into her own psyche, Elphaba succumbs to an ignorance of her own culpability, which makes her more resentful and violent. Elphaba did not need to create an enemy out of Dorothy, yet she does so anyway, sacrificing her moral principles and willfully ignoring all signs that point to Dorothy’s innocence and goodness. Ultimately, what defeats Elphaba is her inability to face her truth, not the political ideologies she believed she was willing to die for. The tragedy of Elphaba’s life and death is one of willful ignorance.

The dichotomy between good and evil is an extremely important narrative theme in Wicked. Turtle Heart and Boq are two characters who are genuinely good; loving, responsible, kind, and caring, Turtle Heart and Boq are seen as simple people, but everyone likes being around them. Glinda and Dorothy are well liked for their goodness, but they are on a different level of goodness that is inaccessible and unrelatable to most people. Elphaba captures the balance of good and evil in that she is well intentioned and genuinely loving, but allows society to harden her against the value of human life. Even the Wizard, a stock evil character, has his own sense of goodness, however warped. All these characters are taught good and evil, though the genesis of evil is a major debate between them. Some people turn to religion for answers to the question of good and evil, while others turn to sorcery or science, but holes and controversies about evil remain in all fields.

Maguire argues that people are born good but are raised into evil deeds. This is evident in Part 1, when the Clock of the Time Dragon turns townspeople who rely on one another for commerce and community against one another. Everyone has the capacity to descend into evil, but everyone is also capable of genuine good. The Wizard was inspired to move to Oz to fulfill his own understandings of good: to imperialize, colonize, and control, remarking Oz in his own image. Nessarose ends up a tyrant because she is shaped by her religious upbringing. Elphaba’s love for Animals supersedes her love for humans, but it is a love based in genuine compassion.

No character in this novel is perfect. The human fear that they will be labeled as evil motivates characters to play their lives out in safe spaces, which stifles the reality of how layered people truly are. Elphaba is not actually born evil, but her immediate rejection by family and community makes her act out in ways that are deemed as bad. Because her family is unwilling to think about how good and evil intersect in each person, Elphaba is doomed to repeat harmful cycles that arise from the binary of bad versus good, as seen in her unforgiving view of humanity and poor treatment of her own son. Stringent dichotomies are never good for a society, according to Maguire. Such strict binaries rob people of their humanity and individuality, creating societies that are bigoted, violent, and unhappy. This theme is evoked in the reader’s contemporary life as well as within the novel. Thus, Maguire uses his novel as an allegory for the dangers of a small-minded society.