Old and New: The Wizard of Oz

“Only bad witches are ugly”, the good witch of the Wizard of Oz takes the edge off what to do with metaphysical explanations to a truly profound understanding of persons and beauty be it conventional or postconventional. Dorothy, a young and innocent girl, doesn't want to accept that she too is a witch. The good witch of the North tries to reassure her that it’s ok to be a witch, and that not all the witches are as she imagined. Perhaps Dorothy had the negative image of a witch because most witches had been bad witches. And ugly. And the good witches can't say so because it’s rude. The Good Witch of The North does say it tough. She is the moral guide Dorothy thinks she needs throughout this journey in a magical land and back ‘home’.  

She makes a couple of friends along the way. (See my writing ‘On Dreams’). The commonality among the friends she makes and loves more and more at every incident they go through together is that they all seem to believe to lack certain merits which untruth they have in abundance. Friendship helps them all to discover the ‘truth’. In all its spectacular beauty, magnificence and presence. “Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking” says her friend who believes not to have a heart: the Tinman. Dorothy meets the Scarecrow who believes not to have a brain, The Tinman without a heart and a Lion without courage. They start the journey to the land of the Wizard of Oz who should help them get all they want. And Dorothy, who so wants to go ‘home’. 

There is a voice inside her which urges her to sing songs about the wizard’s presence; that there may not be such thing as a wizard but yet she commences and continues the journey. In Othello of Shakespeare, Desdemona of Famagusta sings a ‘willow song’ before she is murdered by her husband who falls pray to jealousy and black hearted people trying to separate Othello and Desdemona by making Othello more jelous. The ‘green eyed monster’ is for the romantic relationships of us the grown ups. Who want to possess and behold. Dorothee is exempt, for this period of her life, from the quest for true love. The Great Wizard of Oz represents, in my opinion, the God. Who turns out not to be there. In Waiting for Godot of Samuel Beckett, two heroes engage in a similar quest which may be read in a theological manner. Perhaps to a lesser extent than the Wizard of Oz. Why isn’t the Wizard there? Dorothy and her friends discover that this is all a scam. That a man who used to do a ThD in Chemistry has set this up. But the man is upset himself. Dorothy blames him “You are a bad man”, “No, my dear, I am a very good man. I am just a bad wizard”. The Wizard in some sense had sacrificed himself for the idealistic pursuit of human beings, of Dorothy and her friends, to find a personified source of universal morality. Who will tell the black from white, the good from bad and truth from its many facades. There is no such Wizard.

“If you are really great and powerful, you should keep your promise” Dorothy demands to be send back home urgently. By relying on the Wizard’s magical powers. Not every magic is real as some magic believed to be true by two people having faith- in one another first and formost. The wizard hasn't got faith in himself. And the faith that Dorothy has in him is, unfortunately, a facade of truth.

The man who did a ThD in Chemistry only for a while still reassures the members of the group Dorothy brought with herself: To the Scarecrow who doesn't acknowledge his own intellectual prowess, he says “Back where i come from, there are these places called universities…And man who go there come out thinking great thoughts”. When awarded a cardboard of Th.D., the scarecrow does overcome his intellectual insecurity. A similar procedure takes place for the lion. And then there is the Tinman. Whose dilemma regards a most complex phenomenon: love. 

The best quote in the film is not about how Dorothy finds her way back home, or makes friends. it is not about the self immediately either. it is about love: 

The Wizard: “Hearts will never be practical until they are made unbreakable”

The Tinman: But I still want one

The Tinman is reassured that he actually does have a heart not when the wizard awards him with a token in the shape of a heart but when he feels that it is breaking. His heart is breaking when Dorothy is leaving the Emerald City. The Tinman was perhaps worried about the opinion of others all along: ‘l’enfer c’est les autres’ (hell is others; Sartre). It is when the opinion of others is involved that judgement comes into play. The more the gap between the opinion of oneself and the opinion of others around us, the more the suffering. The self is a place which is at quiet when it reaches out and is luck enough to find someone to truly touch. That magical contact takes away the storms no matter how inherent in the heart. Like two stormy oceans reaching one another, love connects. And heals.

“Theres no place like home” are the last words of dorothee who finds herself back at home. she finds her friends and her aunt waiting for her to wake up just next to her. she did find out that if one is looking for a personality trait she believes not to have naturally, there is no better place to look than her own back yard. there is a lot more though she needs to go through. for finding herself, knowing who she is and finding love. the gift of self to the beloved is the most precious of all. the twists and turns, the critical thinking capacity, self knowledge and recognition of the world with all the negativism and optimism in it makes two children love one another dearly. and have faith. 

PS. “When love beckons to you follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you believe in him, Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden. For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth......

Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love. And think not you can direct the course of love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself. But if you love and must have desires, let these be your desires: To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love; And to bleed willingly and joyfully.” Gibran

Note:
Based on the book by L. Frank Baum and the film.