Credit: Insomnia Cured Here on Flickr
While I was recovering from Shingles, I was doing anything I could to keep my mind off of it. This mostly consisted of watching Netflix and any movies I could find that took almost no thought. One of those endless days of marathon binge watching included the Wizard of Oz. Granted, I wasn?t in the best of moods and was likely getting annoyed with things I wouldn?t have otherwise, but I couldn?t help wondering who had decided Glinda was a good witch?
I mean, honestly, just look at her behavior. First, instead of dealing with one of her rivals in a rational, reasonable manner she drops a house on her and kills her. Then she pillages the body, steals the poor witch?s shoes and hands them to a young girl without asking if the girl minded that they?d come off a dead woman. Not exactly a gift that says, ?Thinking of you.?
When push comes to shove, Glinda even blames the young girl for the other witch?s death, then sets her up with this supposedly great and powerful Wizard who Glinda had to be in cahoots with. If she was really a witch, wouldn?t she had known he was just some sad wizard wannabe hiding behind a curtain and wasn?t even talented enough to keep his balloon on track?
Glinda?s Manipulations
Glinda must have known the Wizard wasn?t just going to zip Dorothy home, in fact didn?t even have the ability to get her home at all. Plus, Glinda had already handed Dorothy the way to get home at the very beginning. Remember those bright, red shoes she took off of the dead woman?
Had Glinda just told her to click them together at the beginning of the story, Dorothy and friends would have never have had to deal with the opium overdose from that field of poppies, not to mention being kidnapped by those terrifying flying monkeys. Those things still give me nightmares. What must they have done to poor Dorothy?
And while it may be the Wizard who demands that Dorothy assassinate the dead witch?s last known relative, Glinda encourages it every step of the way, putting not only Dorothy?s life at risk but her three friends to boot. Glinda just doesn?t seem to ever have any understanding that what she is doing is wrong, which even the Wizard gets, if only in a pitiful, sniveling kind of way.
Credit: Insomnia Cured Here on Flickr
Does Glinda Have a Personality Disorder or is She Just Evil?
While Glinda may meet criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder, she takes it a step further. While antisocial?s may charm others into doing what they want, they don?t necessarily derive pleasure from the other person?s suffering. They likely don?t even recognize the other person is suffering as they have no empathy or ability to see or feel things from another?s point of view.
Those with antisocial personality disorder do whatever they need to in order to obtain the things they want. Any harm that may result for those they use to help them get their desires is chalked up to collateral damage and dismissed.
If you asked someone with antisocial personality disorder about Dorothy, once they no longer needed her, they most likely would have looked blankly at you and replied, ?Dorothy who?? Glinda on the other hand would have likely smirked, clearly knowing exactly who were talking about and reminiscing with the reply, ?Good times.?
The characteristics that seem to associated with Glinda?s behavior would be more suggestive of Sadism. Those who are sadistic are amused by the emotional turmoil and suffering of others. In addition, the disorder is characterized by the tendency to lie, simply in order to cause confusion and more pain. Sure enough, it?s clear that Glinda knows from the start precisely how to send Dorothy home, but instead she makes up an absurd quest to some fake wizard with no tangible gain for Dorothy whatsoever.
Glinda?s mental instability becomes even more glaringly obvious when she ends up being the one to help Dorothy get home in the end. How is it no one asks her why the heck she didn?t do so right away, especially given the mortal danger she put the girl and her companions in along the way?
Plus she sends Dorothy home believing the blood of both of the dead witches are on her hands. Yet Glinda just keeps smiling that vague little smile that never seems to leave her face despite the numerous tragedies and hardships that come Dorothy?s way.
If all that?s not enough, while the Wicked Witch may not seem like the nicest person in the world, perhaps this is in fact, due to being bullied by Glinda. Right after the poor woman loses her sister, Glinda starts taunting her in an obvious effort to demean her in front of the crowd. After questioning the Wicked Witches magical abilities, Glinda then actually suggests that the witch better watch herself as someone just might drop a house on her as well. And all the while Glinda just keeps on smiling.
Is Glinda Really So Beloved?
Those in the crowd remain silent during her sadistic treatment of the witch. They cheer the death of wicked witch’s sister not to mention shouting and singing, ?Ding, dong, the witch is dead,? when the Wicked Witch herself is melted down into a puddle of water. All this is in seeming support of Glinda?s efforts.
Yet that?s not surprising given they probably are aware of just how mean spirited Glinda can be and many of them have likely been her victims before and don?t relish being one again. They likely figure she is less likely to pick on those whoever support her the loudest. And given Glinda?s way of torturing people not to mention cold blooded murder by house dropping and premeditated assassination by melting, can you blame them?
Credit: Insomnia Cured Here on Flickr
And What About Those Ruby Slippers?
After killing the Wicked Witch of the West?s sister, who we never get to meet and have to simply take Glinda?s word for it that she was evil, Glinda then takes the only keepsake the poor Witch of the West might have had to remember her sister by, the dead witch?s footwear. Given they really didn?t go with the witches outfit, it seems obvious they were special to the woman. Heck, she might even have written it into her will that she wanted to be buried in them, not that Glinda would have cared.
And when Dorothy clicks those pretty little shoes together three times and disappears where, exactly, do the shoes go? They don?t travel back home with Dorothy. And I?m betting they didn?t return to their rightful owner either, that being the next in line after the Wicked Witch of the West, a person who has lost two family members, both of which Glinda had a hand in.
I?d put money on Glinda putting some sort of spell on those ruby slippers so they?d always return to her. She could then dangle them in front of the next living relative of the two murdered witches, saying, ?Come and get them,? only to jerk them out of reach, laughing, as soon as the poor soul tried to do so.
Something tells me that if you ever happened upon wherever it is that Glinda calls home, you?d find it decorated with rugs made out of real flying monkey fur and perhaps a couple of pointy black hats mounted on the wall. Not to mention a bulletproof glass box with a shiny pair of bright red slippers inside.
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