Warning: Slight spoilers for the musical Wicked
Recently, I’ve been listening to a lot of the music from Wicked. I came across one of the final songs in the musical, For Good, and every single time I get goosebumps and this odd choking feeling. It’s like a cross between elation and a crushing sadness. Really, it just gives me the feels. So I’m going to try to explain why I love this song so much… everything about it, the message, the tune, the emotion it evokes in me.
It starts with Glinda saying some people say that other people enter your life for a reason, a purpose. Personally, Glinda doesn’t know if this is true, but she tells Elphaba that she changed her life. Glinda goes on to sing about some things that happen in nature, but it isn't random. They are comparisons to what her friendship with Elphaba is. Then Glinda acknowledges that she might not be a better person, but she has definitely changed forever.
My thoughts- Glinda is talking to her friend one last time. This is very impactful to me, because even though she doesn’t know if Elphaba has changed her for the better, she has changed, so maybe the purpose of Elphaba coming into her life isn’t clear to her yet. I think that she would come to see that without meeting Elphaba, Glinda would still be that really selfish girl she was before. Now she does things because they are the right thing to do, not for her own reasons.
When Elphaba starts singing, she says that they might never talk or be together again, but Glinda has taught her a lot, stuff that she would not have learned otherwise. She sings about how Glinda will be with her always ‘like a handprint on my heart’ because of their time together. Then, as that verse ends, she sings that even though they are going separate ways, those ways have changed because of their friendship. In the next verse, Elphaba makes similar analogies to their friendship, like Glinda did before. She also says that even if she doesn’t know if she has been changed to something good, she has been changed for good.
My thoughts- So, Elphaba is realizing that she will never speak to her best friend ever again, but she will remember her always. When she says that Glinda has ‘rewritten her story by being her friend’, that is showing the we-will-never-talk-again-but-I-will-remember-you-forever theme to light. And honestly… That’s. Really. Deep. I mean, come on, it is so sad. This is what I meant by elation and sadness. I smile while listening to it, but it is a sad smile.
So, now Elphaba asks Glinda for forgiveness for anything she has done that hurt Glinda, who nods understandingly. She knows that they have both done something to hurt each other. But then they say that their history doesn’t really matter anymore.
My thoughts- This is the part where I want to start shouting happily(and kinda sadly) because I think that message is so nice. Like, you are saying goodbye, and you want there to be nothing bad between you to dwell on later… that is really sweet. It’s like putting the past behind you to feel good before you part.
They start singing nature comparisons again, and I get chills purely because their voices sound so good together, and because again, the message is great. They describe their friendship beautifully.
But it’s the last verse that hits you hard. Glinda and Elphaba sing the ‘Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?’ again, but then they add ‘I do believe I have been changed for the better’ and exchange ‘because I knew you’ a couple times, and then the final ‘I have been changed… For Good’.
My concluding thoughts- Yes, they have changed each other for the better, which is really nice, because changing the path of someone else’s life is a big thing, it’ll be with you forever. So if you changed someone for the worse, it’ll haunt forever. If you changed someone for the better, it will also stay with you forever. In both cases, you will also be changed for good.
So it makes me think. If I was saying goodbye to the person who changed my life forever, who I had gone through ups and downs with, what would I say if I knew I would never see them again? I don’t know, really, but it would probably be something along the lines of this song. I just hope I never have to do that. So, should you listen to this song, listen to the Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth version. You won’t regret it, it kind of changes the way you look at things and makes you feel odd emotions once the meaning of this incredibly deep song reaches your soul.