DOROTHY THE CONQUEROR

by J. L. Bell

Originally published in The Baum Bugle, vol. 49, no. 1 (Spring 2005), pgs. 13–17

Citations

Chicago 17th ed.:

Bell, J. L. “Dorothy the Conqueror.” Baum Bugle 49, no. 1 (2005): 13–17.

MLA 9th ed.:

Bell, J. L. “Dorothy the Conqueror.”The Baum Bugle, vol. 49, no. 1, 2005, pp. 13–17.

At the end of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy tells her Aunt Em, “I’m so glad to be at home again!” The script for the MGM adaptation turns this simple statement into a longer speech, with a broader meaning: “And this is my home—and you’re all here—and I’m not going to leave here ever, ever again, because I love you all! And . . . oh, Auntie Em, there’s no place like home!” That speech expands on what Dorothy has just said she’s learned from her adventure in Oz: “. . . 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!”[1] Taken literally, in the 1939 movie Dorothy not only expresses her pleasure at returning home, but promises never to leave again. The MGM filmmakers thus give Dorothy a different personality from the one L. Frank Baum developed after Wizard.

Just how different the Dorothy of the books is becomes clear when we consider where we see her next, in the first chapter of Ozma of Oz. She’s not in her own backyard, or anywhere near it. She’s on a ship to Australia, having been “eager to go” to the far side of the world. Baum now describes Dorothy as “quite an experienced traveller [who] had met with a good many adventures. . So she wasn’t easily frightened, whatever happened, and when the wind began to howl and whistle, and the waves began to tumble and toss, our little girl didn’t mind the uproar the least bit.” Soon we see Dorothy climbing onto the storm-swept deck of that ship, even though she knows “the Captain says if we go on deck we may be blown overboard.”

Dorothy also returns with a surname, Gale, created in Baum’s 1902 stage extravaganza. The name fits nicely with both sides of her persona. On the one hand, Gale is feminine: a girl’s name (usually under a different spelling) that contains the word “gal.” On the other hand, a gale is a violent storm, capable of sweeping things away. The name Gale is thus appropriate for a little girl who can produce great change.

Like Wizard, Ozma depicts Dorothy responding to trouble, not seeking it out. She just happens to be caught in a storm on the Pacific Ocean, just as on her way through California in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz she happens to be caught in an earthquake. But typhoons and earthquakes are rare in Kansas. They would never trouble Dorothy if she’d remained in her own backyard. Her next trips to Oz, in The Road to Oz and The Emerald City of Oz, do begin at home, but in both cases she’s magically pulled away by Ozma; those dear friends wouldn’t have met without the adventurous choices Dorothy made earlier.

Once Dorothy moves to Oz, she’s less troubled by natural disasters, but she continues to press into unknown territory. In Emerald City, she wanders away from her adult protectors and ends up captured by hard-hearted little soldiers from Utensia. Her response: “She did not believe she was in any danger; but here was a new and interesting adventure.” In Baum’s second series of Oz novels, Dorothy volunteers to help Ojo on his personal quest (The Patchwork Girl of Oz), leads a search party for Princess Ozma (The Lost Princess of Oz), silently wishes to accompany the Tin Woodman in search of his lost love (The Tin Woodman of Oz), ventures into the Forest of Gugu for the sake of a birthday present (The Magic of Oz), and visits a barely-mapped corner of Oz to help end a war (Glinda of Oz).

“Little Dorothy and Toto,” one volume of the Little Wizard Stories, is even built around the premise that Dorothy is so adventurous she worries the Wizard. He “did not approve of her traveling alone in this way, but the girl always laughed at the little man’s fears for her and said she was not afraid of anything that might happen.” At the end of the story, the Wizard shows Dorothy how he has disguised himself as a wicked giant “to teach you a lesson.” The little girl doesn’t humbly accept this lesson, like the MGM character being told she had to “learn it for herself.” Rather, she expresses anger and hints of defiance: “You’ve given me a good scare, wizard . . . and p’raps I’ll forgive you, by’n’by; but just now I’m mad to think how easily you fooled me.”

What makes Dorothy so confident—and defiant? Why is she sure that she’ll suffer no harm? I think the answer lies in her experiences in Wizard. Dorothy is not merely an explorer of Oz. She’s a conqueror.

Consider the map of Oz, and start shading the territories where Dorothy and her comrades either kill, depose, or subjugate the rulers they meet. In Wizard she liberates Munchkinland, then Winkie Country. She exposes the great Oz as a humbug and prompts him to fly from the Emerald City. The party gains promises of service from the Queen of the Field Mice and the King of the Winged Monkeys. The giant spider terrorizing the forest south of the city loses its head, and the Princess of the China Country begs for mercy. In fact, by the end of Wizard only one ruler Dorothy has met—Glinda—remains on her throne and independent of the good will of the little girl and her friends. Dorothy leaves the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion all ruling territories. Our map of Oz starts to look like those showing the conquests of Alexander, Genghis Khan, or Napoleon. Like Dorothy, those commanders swept across continents, vanquishing unfriendly rulers and replacing them with loyal comrades.

Such an experience is bound to change a little girl. When she first meets Oz, Dorothy introduces herself as “the Small and Meek”[2]—but she doesn’t stay meek long. Baum uses the word “meekly” twice after Oz is exposed as a humbug—both times in Wizard for the Wizard, never again in any Oz book for Dorothy.

The results are even clearer when Dorothy returns in Ozma. She’s less deferential toward rulers, particularly those she views as wicked or hollow. When Princess Langwidere says she’ll take the little girl’s head, Dorothy answers back: “Well, I b’lieve you won’t!” She laughs at King Roquat’s anger, making him even angrier. From her first adventure in Oz, it appears, Dorothy has become certain of her ability to judge rulers and stand up to them. She also feels confident using magic. Though Dorothy took the Silver Shoes and Golden Cap without knowing their powers, she deliberately seizes the Nome King’s Magic Belt and soon uses it to turn some of his soldiers into eggs.

As a result, Dorothy continues her pattern of conquest. Here are all the rulers whom she meets in her second and third adventures, and their status at the end of the encounter:

All unfriendly monarchs have been chastened. All friendly rulers owe their freedom to her. Given this record, it’s no wonder King Dox is so anxious to please Dorothy when she shows up in Foxville![3]

Of course, Dorothy doesn’t do all this on her own. In Wizard her three companions kill the Kalidahs, wildcat, wolves, crows, bees, and giant spider. In Ozma of Oz, Tik-Tok bashes the Wheelers. The Wizard slices Gwig in two and leads the rest of the fighting in Dorothy and the Wizard. In Road it’s up to Polychrome and the Shaggy Man to attack the Scoodlers. During some of these brawls, Dorothy hangs back. Baum even descends to stereotype during her fall into the Earth: “the little girl lost consciousness. Zeb, being a boy, did not faint.” In most fights, however, there’s a simple reason why Dorothy keeps out of the fighting: she’s young and small. (Button-Bright, an even smaller child, does even less.)

Simply saying that Dorothy’s companions do most of the fighting understates her importance. She provides the will that gets the Scarecrow off his pole and the Cowardly Lion out of his depressed life in the Munchkin forest. The Tin Woodman and Tik-Tok are literally paralyzed before she rescues them. These companions kill and conquer others to ensure that Dorothy can proceed on her journey. Though they fight the battles, she’s the general who has set their campaign in motion. Some of them end up with crowns, but they all serve her.

Furthermore, Baum makes clear that Dorothy is willing to use force when crossed. She slaps the Cowardly Lion when he appears ready to eat Toto. Though repeating that she doesn’t want to kill the Wicked Witch of the West, even if the Wizard demands it, she tells her companions, “I suppose we must try it.” Later Dorothy becomes “so very angry that she picked up the bucket of water . . . and dashed it over the Witch”—an undeniably hostile act, even if she doesn’t know it will be a fatal one. (Again, this is a contrast with how the MGM filmmakers characterize Dorothy: in the movie, she throws water to save the Scarecrow from burning, wetting the Wicked Witch only by chance.)

Dorothy’s boldness is not limited by her being a girl. Faced with the Gargoyles, Zeb wants to retreat but Dorothy argues, “Let’s fight it out.” Patchwork Girl provides another direct comparison between Dorothy and a boy after the Tottenhots grab the Scarecrow and Scraps. “Dorothy, angry and indignant at the treatment her friends were receiving, rushed among the Tottenhots and began slapping and pushing them.” Ojo, in contrast, proves no good in the fight: the Tottenhots “threw him to the ground and a row of the imps sat on him and held him from assisting Dorothy in her battle.” (Note that it’s Dorothy’s battle.)

When Baum needed to rewrite his manuscript King Rinkitink to make it an Oz book, he brought in Dorothy on another conquering journey. “I’m not afraid of the nomes,” she tells Ozma, agreeing to bring along the Wizard only “for company.” Rinkitink in Oz contains more concerted battles than any other Baum Oz book as Inga fights the warriors of Regos and Coregos, then wrestles an underground giant to the death. But in the end it takes Dorothy to quell the Nome King.

In Baum’s last four Oz books, Dorothy’s record of conquest slacks off. She vanquishes Ugu with the Magic Belt, but leaves the High Coco-Lorum of Thi and the despotic Vig of Herku in power. After that adventure, she watches Ozma and the Wizard use their growing magical powers to overcome people (and more giant spiders). She provides ideas, such as how to get Trot and Cap’n Bill off the Magic Island, but lets other people work the necessary magic. Still, Dorothy shows the same adventurous spirit we’ve seen since Ozma. When considering a trip to a mysterious corner of the Gillikin Country, she says, “Whatever happens it’s going to be fun—’cause all excitement is fun.”

Dorothy never sets out to conquer hostile rulers for glory, wealth, or ideology. She doesn’t make plans to kill villains or install her friends on thrones. Though she wants to ensure Ozians obey Ozma’s law and rulers elsewhere play fair, she does so out of personal feelings, not because of a mature view of justice or geopolitics. She doesn’t seek out such problems to fix; she responds only to those that happen to come to her attention. Her main motivations are still to return home, to protect her friends, and to have exciting fun. Dorothy thus always remains a little girl. But in the Nonestic region, that’s the most formidable sort of conqueror.

[1] Lines from the MGM movie are quoted from Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf, The Wizard of Oz (London: Faber & Faber, 1991), 132, 128. Because the texts of L. Frank Baum’s Oz books are easily obtained and searched in digital form, I haven’t provided specific page references for my quotations from them.

[2] The MGM screenwriters adopted this line verbatim; Langley, Ryerson, and Woolf, 100.

[3] Dox and King Kik-a-bray of Dunkiton are the first monarchs to displease Dorothy yet survive their meetings unscathed. But soon after these episodes, the Queen of the Scoodlers loses her head—and those of her subjects.

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