Analysis of Monologue

 I am Elphaba. What? What are you looking at? Okay…I know. I know I’m green. No I am not seasick! Yes I've been green ever since I was born and I didn't eat grass when I was little. Everyone is always looking…staring… Why are you people so judgmental?

This is who I am. People say I’m a rebel; I speak my mind even if I know it will make me some enemies.  I believe in equality. What if you’re green? What if you’re a goat like Dr. Dillamond? Or rich and popular like Glinda the good? To the world, all those things matter, but to me we are all equal and made perfect because of our imperfection. I desire discrimination to be history! To be a thing of the past! I want to change how people see things and I want to change the ideals of the world!

The extract that I have chosen to talk is about, is from the Broadway musical, Wicked. Elphaba is the main character in this musical that is also known as the Wicked Witch of the West from Wizard of Oz. Wicked is the prequel of Wizard of Oz and explains what happened with the two witches, the good witch of the South, Glinda and Elphaba the wicked witch of the west, and how their friendship started at school and ended as they both go their separate ways.

I think that the purpose of this monologue, like any is to tell the audience how the character is feeling, but I believe that it is also to entertain the audience and to give a brief overview of what the character Elphaba is like, and to make the audience feel like they know who she is, and what she is about before the play has even properly started.  The monologue starts off by using a wide range of punctuation. She begins with use of rhetorical questions to engage the reader, “What?” “What are you looking at?” and even uses of explanation marks as well to emphasize the power and even raising of her voice, “No I am not seasick!”, this tells the audience that it is obviously something that she has had to explain before and by doing this she has become very snappy towards the issue of her green skin.

The register of this monologue is written in colloquial. This is shown by the fact that Elphaba is very informal with us, and treats us as if she is having a causal conversation. It is also shown by the amount of questions she asks, involving us with what she’s doing. However, a slight intimate register is also used as she refers to “Dr Dillamond” and “Glinda” as we should already know who they are. This is very effective in the play and as a monologue as it really engages us with what’s going on and makes us feel a part of the story as well as just watching from the side lines. Also, many high frequency lexis words are used throughout her monologue, which makes us able to relate to how she’s feeling, as you can see that she doesn't particularly have a very high social class and is quite like the rest of us, which enables us to see what’s going on through her eyes, and how frustrating and infuriating it must be to always be “stared” at and “looked” at by people for being different.

The implicature of the monologue comes through from her idiolect and the things that she says. Even though the monologue does not tell us, from the amount of rhetorical questions that she asks the audience and from the amount of exclamation marks used, it suggests to us that she is quite a vocal person and is not afraid to speak her mind, which is proven as the monologue continues. You can also see from this, that she is also very forceful with her opinions, as when she is talking to the audience, she is drilling what she believes into our heads in order to get us to agree with what she’s saying, this is shown with the amount of rhetorical questions she is asking us, in order to make us think about it. Another thing, which is not said but is implicated, is the fact that she probably doesn't have many friends due to how she looks. You can tell this, by the way that she is almost defending herself with all the questions that she’s asking as if she has been judged on her appearance and because she’s “green” more than a few times.