The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz- Examined through Todorov's '2 Principles of Narrative' & Joseph Campbell's 'The Hero with a Thousand Faces'

The Wizard of Oz (1993) both abides by and contradicts the views of Campbell's 17-part narrative structure [2]. Our protagonist flaunts the maxims provided by the Hero's Journey by being female, thus subverting the male-focused androcentrism, prevalent in narrative and thus narratology. This gender difference also makes a change to how our ‘hero’ is portrayed; Dorothy is continually presented as a vulnerable being, someone who blindly does things and is driven by child-like emotion and overdramatising. This can be seen in the final act of the film: ‘Doesn't anybody believe me?’-Dorothy. This is antithetical to the idea of the hero, who is supposed to be self-assured after their death and rediscovery of one's self in the third act.

Another departure from Campbell's theory of a monomythic Hero's Journey, in The Wizard of Oz, is Campbell's idea of change from the psychology of submission and infertile ego to the self-assured and confident view the hero must gain in their journey. This contrasts with what we see where Dorothy returns to the ordinary world in The Wizard of Oz. In the third act, Dorothy is all but plunged into a state of reliance on her friends and family when they tell her she has been dreaming and that her experience of self-discovery is one of fantasy. Whilst I do not believe this completely disproves the thematic points of self-discovery presented in the film, I do believe in dilutes the message.

Conversely, a clear point of compliance with Campbell’s 17-part hero’s journey structure, when analysing The Wizard of Oz, comes in the third act: the “Refusal of the Return”. This can be seen when the Wizard of Oz takes off in a hot air balloon and Dorothy is offered the choice to remain in Oz.

The dramatic change from Dorothy’s black and white world into colour, serves the audience a condensed timeline of adventure; the more dramatically different the worlds are, the more satisfying it is for the audience. Of all the individuals that make up a contemporary audience, the minority accept their call to adventure in real life, I believe film serves as a way of observing potential within someone (our protagonist) and watching it satisfyingly evolve into a rebirth, something everyone believes they deserve.

The very notion of the hero's journey is just as much an inner exploration and development of one's inner self in order to find what was inside all along, as much as it is a physical journey from one place to another. Whilst physical change from the ordinary world to Oz, is clearly shown to the audience throughout the film, Dorothy’s transformation as a character is more outwardly represented in the supporting characters, the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion.

Whilst I do agree that Campbell’s structure and monomythic ideas of narrative can be seen in almost all modern stories and certainly the western canon, I disagree with Campbell's notion that the hero's journey manifests itself in the lives of every living being. Whilst that is true for most animals that experience physical, dramatic change and/or exist within the competitive hierarchy of a food chain: for example, a tadpole into a frog, humans transcend the food chain and so are left seeking other things in order to rank higher in the hierarchy of sexual desirability or monetary gain. I theorise that as human life became more comfortable due to technological advances in lifestyle, we do not graduate from the stage of infantile ego but substitute our eventual rebirth for the race up our new superfluous hierarchies.

One way modern humans elevate through such structures is via consumption. Consumerism prays on selling the promise that intangible objects will have you rank higher in comparison to your peers. This feeds into itself and causes a positive feedback loop in which expedience is an inherently valued characteristic, the epitome of this would-be modern-day beauty standards being exclusively achievable by permanently altering the physical state of one's self with artificial implants.

Campbell was influenced by prolific psychologists such as Freud. I believe one of the results of such influence lies in the hero’s journey with the confrontation of a father or father figure. Whilst this is not immediately obvious in The Wizard of Oz, I think the paternal presence is prevalent in the helpers: The Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Lion.

Finally, a pitfall of the application of Campbell’s monomyth to every living being’s life is noticeable when considering that people do not operate in a vacuum. People’s goals are both aligned with, and prevented by, whomever they are closest with. Consider the antagonist in the hero’s jurney; should they also be on their own hero’s jurney they would also observe their own goals. Since we know they exist as the villain in our hero’s jurney, we also know such goals must be morally reprehensible, thus the attainment of the goals at the end of their jurney would interfere with our initial hero’s goals. Not everyone can have their potential met and their goals achieved; not everyone is the main character.

On the other hand, I believe that The Wizard of Oz, more accurately follows Tzvetan Todorov’s [1] five narrative functions of equilibrium. The Wizard of Oz is exemplary in its communication to the audience that there is a disruption to the equilibrium; for one, use of coloured film when Dorothy is taken to Oz is a clear implication that something dramatic has happened. The tornado also provides a clear transportation to another world, creating a very strong sense of a new, unfamiliar environment.

The Wizard of Oz also makes it clear we have entered an altered world, or disequilibrium, by the dialogue. The iconic line ‘we’re not in Kansas anymore’ exemplifies Todorov’s third step of five narrative functions. I believe this line is so iconic because it vividly points out acknowledgement of disequilibrium the protagonist is feeling. The iconic status of this line is credit to, and validates, Todorov’s narrative functions.

Bibliography

[1]Todorov, Tzvetan (1971). The 2 Principles of Narrative. Diacritics 1 (1):37.

[2]Joseph Campbell (2012) The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Edition 3. Novato, CA: New World Library.

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