The plot of The Marvelous Land of Oz is an elaborate
card trick played upon the stage. The Wizard of Oz show was a success, and
therefore a new show was called for. The Marvelous Land of Oz was a
script for that new show. Not all characters from the book had been translated
to the stage, most notably the Lion (replaced by Elsie the Cow), so the archetypes
that Baum used for The Marvelous Land of Oz were as follows: Dorothy,
Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, Toto, Wizard, and Wicked Witch. Baum, however, faced a
challenge he had not previously encountered: continuity. All his previous
fairylands had been separate countries, but now he was returning (at least in
book form) to the same country. The popular characters from the previous work had
to appear, but the familiar characters could not occupy the same archetype
because they had completed that portion of their story. At the same time, the new characters could not
entirely repeat the vacant archetypes; that would remove any surprises.
Finally, the conclusion of the second trip to Oz needed to conclude in such a
way that Baum could move on to other fairylands; Baum therefore created a magic
trick in the form of a play.
The first difference between The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
and The Marvelous Land of Oz is the initial location. This story starts
within Oz. The Land of the Gillikins, the northern land neglected in the
original, becomes the starting point.
There must be a wicked witch and an oppressed child. The Wicked Witches
of Oz are dead, so this witch, Mombi, is not allowed to be an official witch,
but she is wicked. The Good Witch of the North is mentioned as the author of this
“one witch at a time” decree, but she is not the witch (not even the Good
Witch) relevant to the story. Mombi’s status as potential Witch is cemented by
her connection both with a crooked magician and the Wizard. The Wizard, of
course, has returned to our world, so cannot be part of this story, but Mombi’s
connection with the Wizard is the first clue that there is a mystery to be
solved. Trafficking with the Wizard contrasts with the attitudes of the Witches
in the first book, where they prefer to keep their distance from the Wizard, as
well as indicating that there is further imbalance in Oz that requires
correction.
The oppressed child, although he is not particularly
oppressed but modern literary standards, is Tippetarius, also known as Tip. He
is, of course, effectively an orphan. The relationship between Tip, our primary
Dorothy replacement, and Mombi is reminiscent of that between the Tin Woodman
and his witch, as well as that between the Tin Woodman’s female love interest
and the witch who employed her. While Mombi is off to the black market to
defraud and possibly be defrauded, Tip, whose ethics are somewhat lacking
through no fault of his own, constructs a man out of sticks with a pumpkin for
a head to scare Mombi. Tip has neither magic nor narrative power, so the sticks
remain sticks. When Mombi comes across the stick man and is not alarmed, she
uses the magical gimmick, the Powder of Life, to give the figure life and dubs
him Jack Pumpkinhead; thus we have an occupant for the Scarecrow archetype. A
living stick man who does not eat is cheaper than a flesh and blood boy who
does, so Mombi decides to change Tip into a (apparently alive) garden statue.
This seems at first glance an act of gratuitous cruelty, but it cements Tip’s archetype
as the Tin Woodman as well as Dorothy. This
transformation, however, will have to wait for tomorrow, since potion making is
a lengthy process. Mombi’s assumption that Tip will not leave and will
voluntarily drink the petrifaction potion illustrates how much control Mombi
believes she has over Tip. This control is illusory, which is interesting
because her primary magic skill is illusion. The long-term motivation for
petrifaction might be a fear of Mombi that Tip will rat her out to the Good
Witch of the North directly or indirectly, but Mombi’s trafficking with the
Wizard, the bretwalda of Oz, suggests substantially greater problems. Tip
fulfills his obligation as Dorothy by freeing Jack, but their departure
together displays Tin Woodman elements, because Jack is a magical toddler and
does not come possessed of the sagacity which the Scarecrow received, even
though Jack is structurally more like the Tin Woodman than Tip. It is also
possible to miss the Scarecrow element of Jack if the party’s numbers are the
only consideration, since Tip and Jack are travelling to see the actual
Scarecrow in the Emerald City.
Tip and Jack have an important conversation about their
relationship. Jack maintains that Tip is his father because he constructed him.
Tip points out it was Mombi who sprinkled him with the Powder of Life and
therefore would be his mother. Jack insists that Tip is his real parent because
if Tip had not created him, he would not have existed at all; moreover, nobody
would choose Mombi as a parent, adoptive or biological. This discussion introduces
parentage as a major element of the story, but also temporarily deflects the
question of parentage to the sidekick rather than the protagonist.
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