OK, Gentle Readers, you know how, in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy lands a house on the Wicked Witch of the East, thus freeing the Munchkins from bondage? Right? What evidence is presented to us of that tyranny?
The whole description of Munchkinland is of “fields of grain and vegetables in abundance.” Dorothy has dinner with Boq, “one of the richest Munchkins in the land”, and he and his friends show no signs of having been collaborators, or fearing the loss of the privilege they held under the now-toppled Witchocracy. Further away from the capital, things aren’t so nice; road maintainance is badly neglected, and the farms are neglected, and the animal control problems are pretty severe. On the whole, though, it’s hard to blame that on the Witch.
In the movie, it’s even more obvious that there is some sort of governmental infrastructure, with a mayor, and various Guilds and Leagues (and the children’s imitations thereof), all of which show either that the Witch’s control was pretty loose, or that the area is in dire need of some sort of Dewitchification process, to ensure that the bondage isn’t carried on. But here, as well, there’s a sense of prosperity, order, and social comfort that seems incompatible with the implied horrors of the Witch’s rule. And, I should point out, it’s not that either Baum or Fleming (or Harburg) appear to think that even a benevolent dictatorship is something to be loathed, as they scarcely blink at the transfer of the tyranny of Oz from the Humbug Wizard to the Bra[i]n-filled Scarecrow.
I’m not saying that the Witch of the East wasn’t Wicked: her actions in the Tin Woodman matter showed both venality and a sort of sadistic creativity worthy of Haman. But her death is clearly presented not as punishment for her Wickedosity, but as a liberation for the poor enslaved Munchkins. And I just don’t see it. Anyone?
chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek,
-Vardibidian.
The witch is described as forcing the Munchkins to slave for her night and day. Perhaps most Munchkins are free to live their lives, but certain ones are taken forcibly from their families and placed in forced labor camps.
On the other hand, my sense of life in Oz, generally speaking, is that it’s pretty relaxed. So the amount of forced work a Munchkin might describe as slavery might not seem like much to us. I was up late preparing my tax return, but I don’t feel like I’m held in bondage by the IRS because they demand a few hours of work a year (plus a big chunk of my money, of course).
I guess some sort of hostage/forced-labor thing offscreen (as it were) is possible. But look at the difference between Munchkinland and Winkieland; Winkieland has no yellow brick road, because there’s no traffic between there and the rest of Oz. She beats her Winkie slaves with a strap. She has forty fierce wolves and forty wild crows, and forty robotic dogs with bees in their mouths and when they bark they shoot bees. She has three commands over the Winged Monkeys, and uses them all for destruction. She is so wicked, her blood has all dried up. That’s pretty darned wicked, if you ask me. The East Witch doesn’t seem to have done anything much.
Thanks,
-V.