by Paul Kiser
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“…and your little dog, too!”

It’s a line that people recognize. Most people can even name who said it and to whom they said it. The words drip with a mortal threat and we seem to know that the person speaking is pure evil.

The original L. Frank Baum book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, did not have that line in it. The 1939 film adaptation of the book is the original source of the quote and those words establish that the Wicked Witch of the West is evil. Don’t take my word. The Wicked Witch is listed No. 4 among the American Film Institute’s Best Villains in film. She ranks behind Hannibal Lecter, Norman Bates, and Darth Vader. She is the best female villain on the list. But why is she so evil?

Note that in the movie the Wicked Witch’s sister is killed when Dorothy’s house falls on her. Dorothy and her little puff of a dog, Toto, come out of the house and procure the shoes of the corpse. Sure she is encouraged by Glinda, “the Good Witch of the North,” and sweet Glinda, with all the sympathy of a Wells Fargo Bank foreclosure specialist, waves her wand to transfer the shoes to Dorothy’s feet. So Dorothy is innocent of theft…”no, honest officer, the shoes magically appeared on my feet!”

But really, is that an acceptable excuse? Imagine someone in a car killing a pedestrian and upon getting out of the car hears someone say, “…you should take the shoes, man…” and then that person pulls the shoes off the dead man not walking and puts them on the drivers feet. Would that be okay? Of course not! Is there some special precedent in the Oz legal system that makes robbing a corpse legal if they’re under your house?

So innocent Dorothy and Toto have inadvertently killed the Wicked Witch’s sister and now Dorothy stands there with the dead sister’s shoes on her feet. I think the Wicked Witch of the West has some cause to be ticked at Dorothy. The Wicked Witch, quite reasonably, demands the shoes and Dorothy refuses (again, sweet Glinda is her advisor.) If the Wicked Witch had just said, “I’ll get you, my pretty,” it would seem somewhat justified. In the United State Dorothy could be charged with manslaughter…okay, witchslaughter, and the Wicked Witch should be able to sue for the return of the shoes.

But the Wicked Witch doesn’t stop with a threat against Dorothy. She adds, “…and your little dog, too.” That’s it. The Wicked Witch lives up to her name and threatens the DKD (drop kick dog.) What did Toto do to deserve a threat? His only crime is to be the pet of a witch slayer. But it is with that threat that we learn the witch is evil. Her words betray what is in her heart. We don’t need to see the Wicked Witch set in motion her evil plans, because we know she will not give a fair and/or reasonable response to the little shoe thief. Our sympathies are instantly turned to Dorothy and Toto and any wrong they may have a party to is ignored.

So what is the moral of the story? The evil witches are easy to identify, but beware of the Glinda’s of the world.

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