The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 musical fantasy based on L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. A tornado carries Dorothy to a strange land, where she meets companions who each believe they lack something. Their journey to the Emerald City in search of what they want becomes an adventure about growing as people.
When I saw it as a child, I remember finding it a little creepy rather than simply a beautiful fantasy. The Tin Woodman, who looked rather like a robot, was its biggest attraction for me—though he was quite creepy too.
Here I will revisit the story of The Wizard of Oz and consider its ending through two ideas: ‘salvation by a con man’ and ‘the cruel magic of words.’ First, let us look at the film’s basic information.
*This is a translated version. The original (Japanese) is available here.
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The Wizard of Oz: Basic Film Information
Film Overview
| Release Date | August 25, 1939 (December 22, 1954 in Japan) |
|---|---|
| Director | Victor Fleming |
| Music | Herbert Stothart (Score) Harold Arlen (Songs) |
| Original Work | The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum |
| Production | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) |
| Running Time | 102 minutes |
Main Characters and Cast
| Character | Actor | Character Overview |
|---|---|---|
| Dorothy | Judy Garland | A girl living on a Kansas farm. A tornado carries her to Oz, and she sets out to find her way home. |
| Scarecrow (Hunk) | Ray Bolger | A Scarecrow who wants a brain. In Kansas, his counterpart is Hunk, one of the farmhands. |
| Tin Woodman (Hickory) | Jack Haley | A Tin Woodman whose maker forgot to give him a heart. In Kansas, his counterpart is Hickory. |
| Cowardly Lion (Zeke) | Bert Lahr | A Lion whose fierce behavior conceals his cowardice. In Kansas, his counterpart is Zeke. |
| The Wizard of Oz (Professor Marvel) | Frank Morgan | The apparently mighty ruler of the Emerald City. His Kansas counterpart is the fortune teller Professor Marvel. |
| Wicked Witch of the West (Miss Almira Gulch) | Margaret Hamilton | The witch who pursues Dorothy for her ruby slippers. Her Kansas counterpart is Miss Gulch, who tries to take Toto away. |
| Glinda the Good Witch of the North | Billie Burke | The Good Witch of the North, who guides Dorothy through Oz. |
Character Map
The Wizard of Oz: Synopsis Without Ending Spoilers
Dorothy lives on a Kansas farm with Aunt Em, Uncle Henry, and three farmhands. The busy adults treat her as a child and will not take her worries seriously, which leaves her frustrated.
One day, Miss Gulch, a wealthy landowner nearby, arrives furious that Toto has bitten her leg. Armed with a sheriff’s order, she demands the dog be handed over to be destroyed. Dorothy fights back, but the adults say they cannot go against the law and readily surrender her beloved dog.
Fortunately, Toto escapes and comes home on his own. But Dorothy has lost faith in the adults. Fearing the same thing will happen again, she runs away with Toto in search of a place where there is no trouble.
On the road, a dubious fortune teller tells her that her aunt is crying with worry. Dorothy hurries back to the farm, just as a huge tornado strikes. Her family has taken shelter underground, and the door is locked. Left inside the house, Dorothy is swept into the sky along with it.
Where will she land, and how will she find her way home?
The Wizard of Oz: Detailed Synopsis Through the Ending
Warning: the following section contains detailed spoilers from the beginning of the film through its ending.
Part 1: Leaving Kansas and Arriving in Oz
Dorothy lives on a Kansas farm with Aunt Em, Uncle Henry, and the farmhands Hunk, Hickory, and Zeke.
One day, Dorothy runs home after Miss Gulch, a wealthy neighbor, strikes Toto. Whenever Dorothy and the dog pass her house, Toto goes into her garden and chases her cat. That seems to have provoked her anger. Dorothy insists he has never caught the cat.
Dorothy tries to tell her aunt and uncle, but they are busy repairing an incubator and will not listen. The farmhands are busy too. Hunk says she should simply avoid the house, asking whether her head is full of straw. Zeke offers empty bravado: if he were in her place, he would show Miss Gulch some courage.
Discouraged, Dorothy walks along the pigpen fence for fun, slips, and falls among the pigs. Zeke rescues her but loses his nerve, and Hunk teases him about his vanished courage. Aunt Em arrives and orders the men back to work. When she blames Hickory for breaking the incubator, he admits it but insists that one day people will put up a statue of him.
Dorothy brings up Toto again, but Aunt Em tells her not to make such a fuss and to find somewhere she will not get into trouble. Then Miss Gulch arrives with a sheriff’s order, saying she will take Toto away and destroy him because he bit her. Dorothy resists and calls her a witch, but Aunt Em and Uncle Henry accept her demand: they cannot go against the law.
Miss Gulch carries Toto away in a basket on her bicycle, but he escapes and returns to Dorothy. Afraid the same thing will happen again, Dorothy runs away with him.
A mysterious man’s crystal-ball reading convinces Dorothy that her aunt is terribly worried, so she decides to go home. A tornado strikes as she returns. Everyone has gone underground, and she cannot open the shelter door. She takes refuge in the house, but the tornado carries the whole building away.
Part 2: Meeting Companions Who Believe They Lack Something
Dorothy and Toto eventually land with the house in a strange, brilliantly colorful world. An equally strange woman in a dress and a large tiara appears and asks whether Dorothy is a good witch or a bad witch.
The Munchkins told her that a new witch had dropped a house on the Wicked Witch of the East. Looking at the house she arrived in, Dorothy sees that someone really is trapped beneath it. Only striped stockings and ruby slippers are visible.
Dorothy says she is no witch: witches are ugly old women, like Miss Gulch. Cheers arise around her. The woman explains that they come from the Munchkins, and that she herself, though beautiful, is also a witch—Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. The Munchkins are the small people who live here. Having accidentally defeated the Wicked Witch, Dorothy is their new hero. They celebrate with a parade.
The Wicked Witch of the West, the dead witch’s sister, suddenly appears. For some reason, she looks like Miss Gulch. Though angry at her sister’s death, she seems especially interested in her ruby slippers. Glinda quickly puts them on Dorothy’s feet. The Wicked Witch announces she will wait for another chance and vanishes, taking care to threaten Dorothy’s dog as well.
Glinda tells Dorothy she should leave Oz quickly. When Dorothy says she does not know how, Glinda suggests that the great Wizard in the Emerald City will know. Her directions are rather vague: follow the yellow brick road, and do not remove the ruby slippers or the Wicked Witch will attack.
Following the yellow brick road, Dorothy reaches a fork where it divides in three. A Scarecrow who somehow resembles Hunk speaks to her. His head is full of straw, and he worries that he has no brains. When he hears where she is going, he joins her to ask the Wizard for a brain.
Dorothy and the Scarecrow meet a Tin Woodman who looks like Hickory. Rust has left him unable even to speak, but they oil him. He is troubled by his lack of a heart: apparently the craftsman who made him forgot to put one in. Dorothy suggests asking the Wizard, though he doubts it will be possible.
The Wicked Witch appears and tries to disrupt their journey, attacking with a fireball before disappearing. Angry at her cruelty, the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman decide to accompany Dorothy even if they never receive a brain or a heart.
In the forest, a Lion who resembles Zeke attacks them. He seems fierce until Dorothy slaps him, whereupon he collapses into tears. He is really very cowardly, and his initial bluster was a way to hide it. Dorothy suggests asking the Wizard for courage. Touched by her kindness, he joins them.
Part 3: The Emerald City and the Witch’s Castle
At last they see the Emerald City. They run toward it in delight, but the Wicked Witch has enchanted the poppy field in their path. Dorothy, Toto, and the Lion fall asleep.
The Scarecrow and Tin Woodman are unaffected and shout for help. Glinda sends snow, and Dorothy, Toto, and the Lion wake up.
In the Emerald City, the Wicked Witch writes ‘Surrender Dorothy’ in black across the sky. The frightened citizens want the Wizard to deal with her, but the rule that no one may see him leaves their appeals unanswered.
The Wizard refuses Dorothy and her companions too. But a servant, moved by her tears at the prospect of never returning to Kansas, arranges an audience. The Wizard is imposing and intimidating. He will grant their wishes if they bring him the Wicked Witch’s broomstick. To do so, they set off for her castle.
As they approach the castle, the Witch sends her winged monkeys to capture Dorothy and Toto. Toto escapes, but Dorothy cannot. The Witch realizes she will have to kill Dorothy to take the magically protected ruby slippers.
Unable to remove the slippers, the Witch turns an hourglass to mark the time Dorothy has left.
Toto leads the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Lion to the castle. They successfully get inside and reach Dorothy, but the Witch discovers them. Surrounded by her soldiers, they have nowhere left to run.
The Witch sets the Scarecrow on fire. Dorothy tries to put it out with a nearby bucket of water. Some water splashes the Witch too, and she rapidly melts away: water seems to be her weakness. The soldiers celebrate her defeat as well. They had not served her willingly.
Part 4: The Fraud Is Revealed and Dorothy Goes Home
They return to the Emerald City with the broomstick, but the Wizard puts off granting their wishes until the next day. While they protest, Toto notices a curtained enclosure in the room and pulls the curtain aside.
Behind it is an ordinary man using a loudspeaker and other equipment to play the terrifying Wizard. He cannot use magic at all. He looks rather like the man who gave Dorothy the crystal-ball reading.
Unable to grant their wishes by magic, the Wizard instead gives the Scarecrow an honorary diploma as a Doctor of Thinkology, the Lion a medal for courage, and the Tin Woodman a heart-shaped clock. These are only tokens, but the companions now recognize that what they sought was already within them.
The Wizard offers to take Dorothy back to Kansas in his balloon. He too comes from Kansas, where he was a circus balloonist. During a high-altitude display, his balloon failed to descend and the wind carried him to the Emerald City, where he somehow became known as the great Wizard. He entrusts the city’s rule to the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Lion. But as they prepare to leave, Toto chases a cat. Dorothy jumps out after him, and the balloon rises without her.
Dorothy despairs again, but Glinda appears and says she has always had the power to return to Kansas; she needed to discover it herself. Asked what she has learned, Dorothy replies, ‘If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.’
Now that Dorothy has learned this, Glinda says, the ruby slippers can take her home. Dorothy clicks their heels together three times and keeps repeating the words: ‘There’s no place like home.’
Dorothy wakes in her own bed. The people from the farm and the fortune teller are there, worried about her after she hit her head and lost consciousness. Looking at them, Dorothy feels a deep love for her life at home: there really is no place like it.
The Wizard of Oz: Analysis of the Magic of Words
- The Weakness of Needing Others to Affirm Us
The companions have used their abilities through a difficult ordeal, yet cannot recognize their own worth. It takes words from an outside authority, the Wizard, for them to see it. - A Con Man Who Masters the Magic of Words
Words can help people stand on their own. Yet I see a sharp irony here: the person who uses that magic most deliberately and effectively is a fraud who manipulates people. - The Curse of ‘There’s No Place Like Home’
Even the words that end the story so beautifully can look like a way to expel an outsider or steer us toward particular values. Words are powerful magic, so we must consider who uses them.
The Value Within and the Words of Others
The ending of The Wizard of Oz presents a moving idea: the Scarecrow’s intelligence, the Tin Woodman’s heart, and the Lion’s courage were already within them.
They have already put those qualities to use in the ordeal of defeating the Wicked Witch. Yet even their heroic actions and the experience they gained were not enough for them to recognize their own worth.
What is our own worth, anyway? To some extent, it comes down to how others judge us. Perhaps the ideal would be not to need anyone else at all, but in practice we do. In this story, the Wizard becomes that decisive other person.
The physical gifts—a diploma, a clock, a medal—were certainly junk. But the words he spoke when handing them over became the greatest magic. Without any supernatural power, he used words to let the companions see their own worth.
When considering the film’s message, I think it matters that words can have the power of magic. We have no supernatural powers, but we do have words. Perhaps the story asks us not to hesitate to use that magic for someone else.
And yet the irony is hard to miss: the man whose words let the companions recognize their worth is simply an old con man.
A Con Man’s Magic—and Why Words Still Matter
As I have argued, the film depicts the wonder of words. But perhaps having an old con man speak them reveals their frightening side just as clearly. He may have been a circus performer, but what we see in the film certainly looks like a fraud.
Words can encourage people and help them stand on their own. Yet isn’t there something sad and dangerous about a world in which the people who use that magic most powerfully and deliberately are con artists, rather than those acting in good faith? That is what I see expressed here.
Sometimes we cannot even affirm ourselves without clinging to a comforting lie dressed in authority. Perhaps this beautiful fantasy confronts us with that fundamental human weakness and folly—our human burden.
Seen this way, the words Glinda prompts Dorothy to say at the end—‘There’s no place like home’—give me a slight chill.
Home is not necessarily the best place. There would be nothing strange about Dorothy’s journey toward somewhere else ending with Oz as her new home. ‘There’s no place like home’ can look like a convenient way to expel Dorothy as an outsider, or to steer us, the audience, toward that value. Admittedly, that is probably far too suspicious a reading.
Even so, the film ends with the people from the farm speaking kindly to Dorothy. That, too, is the magic of words. However much they care for her, a child cannot know it unless they say so.
My reading, then, is that The Wizard of Oz presents words as magic, which makes it essential to consider who is using them. And at the very least, we should put our affection and affirmation into words. Otherwise, that magic cannot do its work.
Those are my thoughts on The Wizard of Oz. I have focused on its possible message, but I think the film’s basic attraction is visual: the surprise of the shift from sepia to color, those strangely memorable striped stockings and ruby slippers, and the unnecessarily creepy castle guards.
The hidden student days of the Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch of the North are explored in Wicked. I discuss the prequel’s story and ideas in the article below.
The Wicked series also cleverly fills in developments that can look rather convenient in The Wizard of Oz. Like Maleficent, it is ‘official fan fiction,’ finding reasons and meanings for the original’s events. I discuss the sequel, Wicked: For Good, below.
The Wizard of Oz is still inspiring related films. What did this story mean to you?
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