In L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz each character has a unique background. Dorothy is small farm girl from Kansas (Baum 12). The Scarecrow talks about how he was made by a farmer and put up to guard the field, but left without a brain (47). The Tin Woodman tells of his lost love for a Munchkin woman and how he was cut to pieces by the Witch and put back together with tin (59). Then there is the Lion who tells of his woes as he supposed to be a fearsome creature yet in reality he is merely a coward (67). Even the Wizard has a back-story, floating into Oz in a weather balloon (187). Strangely Baum fails to incorporate a history for the Wicked Witch, other than other characters' accounts as to what horrible crimes she has done. This is where
Gregory Maguire has taken the liberty to fill in the blanks for readers. He gives background to the witch who stands for evil and opposes Baum’s companions in their quest to receive the Wizard’s gifts, regarded as one of the ultimate
villains of all time.
Maguire adapts Baum’s characters in order to explore perceptions. When we meet Baum’s companions in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz they seem like an unlikely group of friends who are the ultimate underdogs, getting to Oz with luck and unknowingly good deeds. However, Maguire chose to first introduce them while they are gossiping about the Wicked Witch. The Lion, Tin Woodman and Scarecrow are repeating rumors they have heard about the witch while Dorothy sits complacently and listens (Maguire 1). Their gossip includes the Witch’s sexuality, gender, upbringing and almost anything else they can conjure up (2). This makes the reader feel sorry for the witch who happens to be sitting in a tree listening from above. She is hurt by their words and unlike in Baum’s novel, the witch’s emotions are shown through her responses. Maguire allows there to be a totally different perspective on the Witch. Maguire lets the reader know that there is quite possibly a misunderstanding between the Witch and those who are against her.
As Maguire leads through the Witch’s youth it becomes clear that no one quite understands all that she has been through. Maguire backs her with a dysfunctional home life, as well as providing the fuel for the rumors that will follow her throughout her life because of her green complexion and jagged teeth. But what is it about the Witch that makes her so easy to provide background to? Of course her history is conveniently removed from Baum’s novel, but also she provides the most mystery. Why does she act the way she act? What made her the way she is? Not being far enough in the novel it is hard to tell how exactly these perceptions that Maguire puts forth tie into Baum’s novel, however we can see that it is not simply the
perceptions of the Witch that Maguire is exploring. Through the Witch he is exploring the entirety of Oz.
Works Cited
Baum, L. Frank. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. New York: Dover, 1960.
Maguire, Gregory. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. New York: ReganBooks, 1995.
Maguire adapts Baum’s characters in order to explore perceptions. When we meet Baum’s companions in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz they seem like an unlikely group of friends who are the ultimate underdogs, getting to Oz with luck and unknowingly good deeds. However, Maguire chose to first introduce them while they are gossiping about the Wicked Witch. The Lion, Tin Woodman and Scarecrow are repeating rumors they have heard about the witch while Dorothy sits complacently and listens (Maguire 1). Their gossip includes the Witch’s sexuality, gender, upbringing and almost anything else they can conjure up (2). This makes the reader feel sorry for the witch who happens to be sitting in a tree listening from above. She is hurt by their words and unlike in Baum’s novel, the witch’s emotions are shown through her responses. Maguire allows there to be a totally different perspective on the Witch. Maguire lets the reader know that there is quite possibly a misunderstanding between the Witch and those who are against her. 
In regards to the Wicked Witch of the West having no back story, I feel that it may have been a conscious decision by Baum to have this as a mystery to the reader. Because this is for children knowing more about the witch may cause a reader to care about her or at least be empathic, leading to her death to be tragic rather than deserved. The less we know about the witch that less of a person she to us.
ReplyDeleteBaum does go through the background for most of the characters in The Wizard of Oz except for the Glinda and the Wicked witch of the West. I think that Wicked was a really good idea for someone to write to explain why Elphaba is the way that she is, but, as you said we are not far enough into the novel yet to tell. We do know that growing up was not necessarily easy for her; she was not just green but also in Quadling country which already has a bad connotation to it. While at Shiz however Elphaba does not seem to be that bad. Galinda almost seems worse than Elphaba is. We really need to read more into the story to truly figure out what it is that happened to Elphaba that makes her the way that she is.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is interesting that Baum does not provide background for the Wicked Witch. I think it adds mystery to the character of the Wicked Witch. In The Wizard of Oz, you see a little of the Wicked Witch’s true character when she says that she is scared of the Lion’s roar but you never see her point of view, you only see her personality by other people’s perceptions. I think Baum does this to show that there is more than just one side to a person, and even though we don’t see this side of the Wicked Witch, we think about it throughout the story. Baum lets us use our imagination to fill the Wicked Witch’s other, hidden personality.
ReplyDeleteI agree with many of your points, and I think Baum leaves out the background of the witch for the same reason Maguire includes it: backgrounds humanize characters. If one does not know anything about the Wicked Witch of the West besides what her enemies say of her, then it is easy to assume that she is inherently evil. However, when one is given the thorough background that Maguire provides, one must recognize that the witch is in fact a person, who was once a child and was forced to grow up in a world that labeled her as a misfit since her birth. Thus, the background forces the reader to take into consideration the history of a character, rather than just their actions in the present.
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