Wizard of Oz (character)

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The Wizard of Oz (also simply The Wizard) was a humbug magician who ruled the Land of Oz for a time, and later became one of its beloved citizens.

Contents 1 Description 2 History 2.1 Background 3 Book appearances 4 Depictions in Movies and Television 4.1 The 1939 movie 4.2 Tin Man miniseries 5 Adaptations 6 Credits 7 References 8 External link

[edit] Description

The Wizard is a little old man with a bald head and a wrinkled face. He was a hot air balloonist and a ventriloquist, able to imitate any bird or beast.

[edit] History

Oscar Diggs was born in Omaha and worked for a circus, going up in a hot air balloon to draw crowds to the show. One day his ropes got twisted and the balloon escaped. Two days later it settled in the Land of Oz. The people, seeing that this man had descended from the clouds, greeted him as a wizard. (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)

The Wizard took the throne from the rightful king, Pastoria, and hid the king's daughter Ozma with the old witch Mombi, whom he visited three times. (The Marvelous Land of Oz)

The Wizard set the people to work, building the Emerald City and the Royal Palace. He lived in fear of the four witches who ruled each quadrant of Oz, so he shut himself away and depended upon his reputation as a powerful wizard to protect him. He was highly venerated by his subjects and known as "The Great Oz" or "Oz the Terrible". It was commonly thought that he was all-powerful, although all acknowledged that he was reclusive and never seen, even by the servants who waited upon him.

Believing him to be the only one capable of solving their problems, Dorothy Gale and her friends traveled to the Emerald City to ask for his help. The Wizard was very reluctant to meet them, but eventually they were each granted an audience, one at a time. The Wizard appeared to Dorothy Gale as a giant head, to the Scarecrow as a beautiful fairy, to the Tin Woodman as a terrible beast, and to the Cowardly Lion as ball of fire. The Wizard promised to grant each of their requests if they killed the Wicked Witch of the West.

When they succeeded in this task, they returned to the Emerald City to collect their rewards. There, they discovered that Oz was a humbug who had used a lot of elaborate magic tricks and props to make himself seem "great and powerful." Pressed by Dorothy's companions, the humbug Wizard gave them each what they wanted.

The Wizard, tired of being a humbug and having to hide away from his subjects, planned to grant Dorothy's request by escaping Oz with her in a hot air balloon. He appointed the Scarecrow to rule in his absence, but when the time came the Wizard and his balloon floated away, accidently leaving Dorothy behind. (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)

The Wizard later explained that his real name is Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs. To shorten this name, he used only his initials (O.Z.P.I.N.H.E.A.D.), but since they spell out the word "pinhead", he shortened his name further and called himself "Oz". Working as a magician in the United States, he wrote OZ on the side of his hot air balloon for promotional purposes.

[edit] Background

The Wizard's part in the kidnapping of Ozma in The Marvelous Land of Oz did not please the readers, and in Ozma of Oz, although the character did not appear, Baum described Ozma's abduction without including the Wizard as part of it.^[1]

The Wizard returned in the novel Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. With Dorothy and the boy Zeb, he fell through a crack in the earth; in their underground journey, he acted as their guide and protector.^[2] When Ozma rescued them from the underground kingdoms, he recounted his story of becoming the ruler of Oz, and Ozma explained that before the witches usurped her grandfather's throne (an occurance happening long before the wizard arrived), the ruler of Oz had always been known as Oz or (if female) Ozma.^[3] Ozma then permits him to live in Oz permanently.^[4] He became an apprentice to Glinda, the most powerful magic-worker in Oz. Ozma decreed that, besides herself, only The Wizard and Glinda are allowed to use magic.

[edit] Book appearances

• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (first appearance)
• Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz
• The Royal Book of Oz (1921): The Wizard attends a party at Ozma's palace.

[edit] Depictions in Movies and Television

[edit] The 1939 movie

In the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, The Wizard's character is similar to that found in the earlier books: a bumbling "humbug." He was played by actor Frank Morgan. The same actor also played several other roles in the movie; including Professor Marvel, the mysterious traveling fortune teller that Dorothy meets in Kansas, the Guard at the Emerald City, the Guard at the Gates to Oz's Castle and the Coachman. His face was also presumably used as the projected image of the Wizard.

[edit] Tin Man miniseries

In the 2007 miniseries Tin Man, the Wizard is referred to as The Mystic Man, and is a drugged-up, yet popularized, mystic to whom many go to see for answers. He is being drugged by Azkadelia so he won't be of resistance to her.

[edit] Adaptations

In author Gregory Maguire's Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (a revisionist novel based on the inhabitants of Oz) and in the Broadway musical Wicked (based on Maguire's novel), The Wizard is a tyrannical ruler who uses deceit and trickery to hide his own shortcomings. Unlike in earlier works, The Wizard is clearly meant to be the villain of the story.

Maguire presents the Wizard as a con-man and a hustler who happened onto a world where he could literally make himself into a king overnight. Pretending to have vast powers and all-encompassing knowledge, he rules over the Emerald City, while secretly requiring people with true magic talent such as Glinda and Elphaba to cast spells for him.

During the course of Maguire's novel and the subsequent Broadway production, it is revealed that the Wizard is indeed behind some of the most horrific and disastrous events in the story, with one of his cohorts being Madame Morrible. The Wizard is revealed to be the illegitimate father of Elphaba, seducing her mother with a magical green elixir, causing Elphaba's green tone. In the musical, this fact is revealed to the character Glinda, who accosts the Wizard with this information. It is also under the Wizard's direction that the Animals of Oz — most notably the Goat teacher from Shiz University, Doctor Dillamond — are caged and placed under strict control. This cruelty causes the final split between Elphaba and the Wizard, leading to her transformation into the Wicked Witch of the West.

No more than a con man with knowledge of how to work with human emotion and beliefs, the Wizard works to maintain his own position and prestige, regardless of the pain and grief it causes to others, and is not beyond subversion or mandated murder.

In the original stage production, the Wizard was played by Cabaret star Joel Grey.

[edit] Credits

• The Wizard of Oz (1939): Frank Morgan
• Wicked (2003): Joel Grey
• The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005): Jeffrey Tambor
• Tin Man (2007): Richard Dreyfuss as the Mystic Man

[edit] References

[edit] External link

• More information on The Wizard

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Wizard (Oz). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Oz Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.