"Who ever thought a little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness?"
- The Wicked Witch of the West, from "The Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum.
Everyone pretty much agrees about the mental state of the Wicked Witch of the West at the time of her death (crackers) but there seems to be some disagreement about the way in which she died. The main point of contention revolves around Dorothy's motives for throwing a bucket of water onto the Witch. Dorothy had been sent to kill the Witch, but was ignorant of what might do the trick. What caused our sweet heroine to douse her enemy? Let's look at three versions of the story.
We'll start with Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. (What?!? You haven't read it yet? Get with the program!) Here Dorothy is about as innocent as she can get. The Witch isn't such a bad old gal herself, only, by now, things have gone horribly awry for the wicked one. Everything she has spent her whole life fighting for seems to be falling apart before her eyes. She is already teetering on the edge of insanity when along comes Miss Dorothy Gale, sent to kill her but instead asking for forgiveness - the one thing the Witch wanted and couldn't have. It's the final straw. "The Witch shrieked, in panic, in disbelief. That even now the world should twist so, offending her once again" (Maguire p 402).
The Witch had set her broom on fire earlier and had been using it as a torch - as well as to intimidate her nemesis a bit. Now, at the very moment of her mind snap, a piece of the broom broke away and landed on her skirt, setting it and the Witch on fire. Dorothy, already mortified by the damage she had apparently caused in the Witch's life, made an attempt to rescue her. She grabbed for a nearby bucket of water. "She said, 'I will save you!' and she hurled the water at the Witch" (Maguire p 402). The rest is history and Maguire spares us the gory details, instead writing a really beautiful description of what happens when a Wicked Witch sees her life pass before her eyes.
Here Dorothy is the agonizing epitome of good intentions. She came to beg forgiveness for killing the Wicked Witch of the East. She braved the terrors of the Witch's rather dysfunctional household, mustered up the strength to look the Witch in the eyes and say she was sorry and then tried to save her life. Certainly this version of Dorothy wept legitimate tears at the melting mess on the floor before making her way back to the Emerald City.
More familiar is Dorothy a la big screen. The movie "The Wizard of Oz" provides most of us with out image of the Witch and her famous demise. Here our Witch is decidedly wicked. She seems to get off on bringing terror into the hearts of midgets and little girls from Kansas, then disappearing in puffs of green and probably foul smelling smoke. She has dear Dorothy and all of her friends (yup, and her little dog too) trapped and terrified up in her tower. She plans to kill them all (for the shoes? for revenge? for the hell of it?) and decides to start with the Scarecrow. The Witch, always thinking, tries to light her brainless enemy on fire. So... maybe she's not such a nice person after all. At least this time around Dorothy isn't trying to save her life. Nope. This time she's trying to save the Scarecrow's life. She grabs the handy bucket of water and throws it at her friend. A good bit of it lands on the Witch. A fabulous screech, a little noxious gas and those famous last words: "I'M MELTING!!!"
Dorothy doesn't come looking for forgiveness this time around. Oh yeah, maybe she says she is sorry, but she's pretty preoccupied with getting herself back to Kansas and if she has to kill a witch, well, that's life. This Dorothy looks on in a bit of surprise, but doesn't seem too distraught. She fairly skips back to the Wizard.
Finally we have the original, L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The Witch does not figure quite as largely in this version of the story, but her death is no less important or dramatic. Again Dorothy and friends have come intending to kill the Witch. Dorothy hasn't got the first clue how to go about killing witches, but she gets herself to the castle anyway. She is promptly made the Witch's slave. The Witch is fixated with the shoes this time around. She knows they are powerful and she desperately wants them. Dorothy has no idea how powerful the shoes are, but she is very proud of them and very unwilling to hand them over. In fact, the only times she even takes them off are when she goes to bed and when she takes a bath. Baum's Wicked Witch is afraid of the dark, and we already know about her problems with water, so she really has no opportunity to get the shoes away from our gingham clad sweetie.
Fortunately the Witch is, well, a Witch and she comes up with a little spell. She puts an iron bar on the floor, then makes it invisible. Dorothy trips over it and one of the coveted shoes falls off. The Witch quickly grabs it away. Humble, sweet little Dorothy? Hardly. She throws a wonderful little fit. In her rage over being tricked out of her lovely shoe, she picks up a bucket of water and dashes it over the Witch, "wetting her from head to foot" (Baum).
The Witch, of course, melts. She tries to make an impression on the girl: "...I never thought a little girl like you would ever be able to melt me and end my wicked deeds. Look out -- here I go!" (Baum) But Dorothy is nonplused. She simply gets more water and washes what is left of the Witch out the door.
Sounds like maybe Dorothy needs the heart.
History is never consisent. It always depends on who is telling it and what their biases are. "The one who tells the stories rules the world." - Paula Gunn Allen.
So who rules Oz?
Sources:
Baum, L. Frank The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, http://www.cs.cmu.edu/people/rgs/oz-1.html
Maguire, Gregory Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West Harpers Collins, Inc., New York 1995.
"The Wizard of Oz" Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer 1939