"I'm not good, I'm not nice, I'm just right."

The witch is a horrible old woman who appears to the baker and his wife with a promise of a child. She gives them a cryptic list of items to obtain from the woods. This sets the story going, but we are left wondering about her motives.

She hints that losing her special beans caused her much heartache, as she had been warned would happen by her mother. The curse on the baker's family is a product of her vengeance. She readily admits this, even though she had already taken his sister to raise as her own in exchange for some food.

The witch's relationship for Rapunzel is her real weakness. She loves her, but she keeps her locked in a tower. The excuse is protection, but the real reason is selfishness. Rapunzel returns the love, but keeps from the witch that she has been seeing her prince.

The story of the witch demonstrates better than any other the words of the baker's wife: "You may know what you need but to get what you want better see that you keep what you have."

Musically:

The Witch has a larger musical presence than any other character. She is introduced during the Prologue, in which she performs Greens, Greens. Though it wasn't included in the original production, the number Our Little World has since been added as a duet with Rapunzel. The witch is later characterized perfectly in Stay With Me, and she later gets a solo verse in Ever After. Aside from a brief poem trying to determine what crushed her garden in the prologue, the witch first sings the brief Lament in act two. She gets one line in Your Fault, which is immediately followed by her solo number Last Midnight. The witch also introduces the finale: Children Will Listen.