L. Frank Baum didn't give reason for his characters' motivations when they were wicked or good (as the witches). They (there are more than one of each) were very 2-dimensional and maybe the only ones in his stories like that. They are more plot devices than characters. read more
Elphaba, the witch of the west, did not become wicked. She wanted a normal life just like everyone else’ but the talent she has with magic and her skin would not let her. So then she eventually the freedom from suffer she gains from running away. read more
Elphaba Thropp, aka The Wicked Witch of the West, is the green skinned protagonist in the best selling fictional novel titled Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, published in 1995. read more
Gregory Maguire's September 1996 revisionist novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West takes the familiar Oz story and inverts it, with the Wicked Witch (given the name Elphaba in homage to L. Frank Baum) as the novel's protagonist and Dorothy as a hapless child. read more