final episode of Oz

(ahhhh my company has gone back to her "oz"... wheeewwww I have the house to myself again ~ I shall take a bath with the door open ~ just cuz I can.) Now let's continue the final episode of the Wizard of Oz....

When they arrive at the Palace in the Emerald City, they must put on spectacles before they enter so that the brightness will not blind them. If going into the Emerald City symbolizes descending deeper into the unconscious, we see the rationale for the spectacles, the shock of one’s unconscious forces can truly blind. Their first experiences in the Emerald City reminds one of the visions in dreams; many people dressed in green clothes with green skins who do not speak. Finally, the Wizard agrees to interview them. They each see him differently through their own projections; thus, Dorothy sees a large head; the Scarecrow, a lovely lady; the Woodman, a large and terrible beast; and the Lion, a ball of fire. They see the Wizard as different aspects of their own unconscious minds. Each are told that to achieve their wish from the Wizard, they must kill the Wicked Witch of the West. Thus, the Wizard seems to be telling them that they must have courage to face the continual shadow within themselves. At this point the Wizard seems almost an anima or animus figure, certainly a guide to the unconscious.

So they must seek further into themselves to complete their assigned tasks. As they fight their adversary, the witch, they show further that their missing function is present all along. The Scarecrow shows cunning by saving the others from wild bees; the Woodsman shows feeling for his new friends. The Lion shows bravery to face the witch in the present. And Dorothy, without consciously realizing the intuitiveness of her act, throws water over the witch and destroys her.

When the foursome arrive back at the Emerald City with their task completed, they discover that the Wizard is not a Wizard at all, but merely a man from Omaha who has pretended to be the Wizard. Thus they are forced to face again the fact that their missing function is within them. However, it is still so difficult a revelation that the Wizard must give them artificial facsimiles for their missing functions. This would seem to emphasize man’s difficulty in facing his weak function and the realities of life. The Wizard is not able to help Dorothy return to Kansas and it takes more adventures for her to finally realize that she had the power all along to return. Her ruby slippers can take her anywhere and she needs but to click them together to return to consciousness. With this intuition she returns to Kansas apparently well on the way toward self-actualization.

Thus Jungian theory does fit into the Wizard of Oz, transforming Baum’s story into a visit into the unconscious. Perhaps its wealth of unconscious material explains its eternal interest to children. Perhaps throughout his story, enough of Baum’s own unconscious appeared that he was able to momentarily capture it in the parable. And then again perhaps the story is so rich in characters and occurrences that it could be seen from still other points of view. In any event, it does seem that the tale is yet another way of approaching and explaining some of the theories of Carl Jung.