Wizard of Oz-Fairy Tale the 1939 Film Essay

Wizard of Oz-Fairy Tale

The 1939 film The Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland is the fantastical tale of a young girl that gets swept into an alternate, magical dimension and must battle an evil witch in order to get back home. The Wizard of Oz features many fairy tale elements including an unspecified time and place, the battle between good and evil, magic, archetypes, extreme conditions, a transformation, and, of course, a happy ending.

While The Wizard of Oz is initially set in Kansas, an unexpected tornado transports Dorothy, the story's heroine, to Oz. The different settings are differentiated through the use of color; while life in Kansas is shot in black and white, Oz is shown in Technicolor. Furthermore, the location of Oz is unknown as is the time. Upon her arrival in Munchkinland in Oz, Dorothy is immediately cast as a heroine after the house in which she was transported to this magical land inadvertently kills one of the evil forces that terrorize Munchkinland, the Wicked Witch of the East.

Upon her arrival in Munchkinland, Dorothy is also introduced to Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, who welcomes her to the land and almost immediately assumes Dorothy is a witch because she was able to defeat the Wicked Witch of the East. It is also during this time that Dorothy is introduced to the Wicked Witch of the West, who has come to Munchkinland upon hearing her sister has been killed and is in pursuit of the magical ruby slippers she once possessed.Unbeknownst to the Wicked Witch of the West, Glinda has magically put the slippers on Dorothy's feet thus throwing her into the midst of an ongoing battle between good and evil. In order for Dorothy to be allowed to return home, she must defeat the Wicked Witch of the West, at the behest of the Wizard of Oz, who appears, at this point in the story, to be the only one with the power to help Dorothy return to Kansas.

Through the characterization of the Wicked Witch….....