Dorothy Gale

The plot of the story: Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) is an orphaned 16-year-old farm-girl who lives with her Auntie Emily "Em" Gale (Clara Blandick) and Uncle Henry Gale (Charley Grapewin) on a Kansas farm in the early 1900s. She daydreams about going "over the rainbow" after Miss Evangelina Gulch (Margaret Hamilton), an aggressive neighbour, hits Dorothy's dog Toto (Terry) on the back with a rake, causing Toto to bite her. Miss Gulch shows up with an order to take Toto to the sheriff to be "euthanised" (intending to exterminate him), but Toto jumps out of the basket on the back of Miss Gulch's bicycle and runs back to Dorothy. Fearing that Miss Gulch, who does not know that Toto has escaped, will return, Dorothy takes the dog and runs away from home. She meets an itinerant phony fortune teller, Professor Marvel (Frank Morgan), who eventually guesses that Dorothy has run away. Pretending to tell her fortune and wishing to reunite Dorothy with her aunt, he tells her that Auntie Em has fallen ill from worry over her.

Dorothy immediately returns home with Toto, only to find that the wind is picking up and a massive tornado is approaching. Unable to reach her family in their storm cellar, Dorothy enters the house, is knocked unconscious by the cyclone's violence, and apparently begins to dream. Along with her house and Toto, she's swept from her dull sepia-toned world to the magical, beautiful, dangerous and Techni-colourful Land of Oz, a faraway fantasy realm. The tornado drops Dorothy's house on the Wicked Witch of the East, crushing and killing her. The Witch ruled the Land of the Munchkins, dwarfish humanoid people who think at first that Dorothy herself must be a witch. The Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton again), who is the sister of the dead witch, appears and threatens to kill Dorothy for revenge. But Glinda (Billie Burke), the Good Witch of the North, gives Dorothy the dead witch's enchanted Ruby Slippers, and the slippers protect her. Glinda advises that if Dorothy wants to go home to Kansas, she should seek the aid of the Wizard of Oz, who lives in the Emerald City. To get there, Dorothy sets off down the Yellow Brick Road.

Before she has followed the road very far, Dorothy meets a talking dim-witted Scarecrow living in a field whose dearest wish is to have a brain. Hoping that the wizard can help him, the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger) joins Dorothy on her journey. They come upon an orchard of aggressive talking apple trees, where they find a tin statue of a lumberjack. The Tin Woodsman (Jack Haley) then begins to speak, explaining he was caught in the rain and is so rusty and cannot move. When they oil his joints so he can walk and talk again, he confesses that he is a heartless robot and longs for a heart; he then too joins Dorothy on the quest. As they walk through a dense forest, they encounter the talking humanoid Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), who wishes for courage and joins the quest in the hope that the Wizard will give him some. Dorothy begins to realise her three friends resemble the three farmhands who work for Dorothy's aunt and uncle back in Kansas.

On the way to the Emerald City, Dorothy and her friends are hindered and menaced by the Wicked Witch of the West. She incites trees to throw apples at them, then tries to set the Scarecrow on fire. Within sight of the city, the witch conjures up a field of poppies that cause Dorothy, Toto, and the lion to fall asleep. Glinda saves them by making it snow, which counteracts the effects of the poppies.

The four travelers marvel at the wonders they find in the Emerald City a guard (Frank Morgan) does not let them in but agrees later when Dorothy proves herself, the horse driver (Frank Morgan again) takes them for a drive and takes time to freshen up: Dorothy, Toto and the Lion have their hair done, the Tin Woodman gets polished, and the Scarecrow receives an infusion of fresh straw stuffing. As they emerge looking clean and spiffy, the Wicked Witch appears on her broomstick and sky-writes "Surrender Dorothy" above the city. The friends are frustrated at their reception by the "Great and Powerful" Wizard of Oz (Frank Morgan again) -- at first the guard will not receive them at all. When they finally see him, the doorkeeper (Frank Morgan again) lets them in because he had an aunt named Em himself, and felt sympathy for Dorothy as she was mourning for her aunt. The Wizard then appears as a gigantic fiery green ghostly face, and declines to help them until they bring him the broomstick of the Wicked Witch of the West. Daunted but determined, they set off again.

The Witch sends her minions, the Winged Monkeys, to attack Dorothy's party before they reach her castle; the monkeys snatch Dorothy and Toto and scatter the others and bring them to the Witch's lair in the Winkle Castle. When the Witch finds that the Ruby Slippers cannot be taken against Dorothy's will as long as the girl is alive, she turns her hourglass and threatens that Dorothy will die when it runs out. Meanwhile, Toto has escaped and runs for help. Dressed as guardsmen, the Lion, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow sneak into the castle and free Dorothy. They are discovered before they can escape, however, and the Witch and her Winkle Guards corner them and set the Scarecrow on fire. Dorothy douses him with a pail of water, also inadvertently splashing the Witch by accident. Somehow, the water causes the Witch to disintegrate and dissolve to death ( as she screams "I'm melting!"). The guards are happy to let Dorothy have the Witch's broomstick, and Dorothy and her friends return to the Emerald City.

The Wizard is not pleased to see them again. He blusters until Toto pulls aside an emerald curtain in the corner of the audience chamber to reveal an ordinary old magician man (who resembles Professor Marvel) pulling levers and speaking into a microphone -- the so-called wizard, as the Scarecrow says, is "a humbug". He is abashed and apologetic, but quickly finds ways to help Dorothy's friends via tokens which grant their wishes: a diploma for the Scarecrow, a medal of valor for the Lion, and a testimonial heart-shaped watch for the Tin Man. Then he reveals that he is from Kansas himself and came to Oz in a hot-air balloon, in which he proposes to take Dorothy home.

The Wizard appoints the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion rulers of Oz in his absence. Just as the balloon is about to take off, Toto runs after a cat and Dorothy jumps out to follow him. Unable to stop, the Wizard leaves without Dorothy. But Glinda appears and explains that Dorothy has always had the power to get home; Glinda did not tell her before because Dorothy would not have believed it would be so easy. Bidding her friends a tearful good-bye, Dorothy taps her heels together three times, repeats "There's no place like home," and the Ruby Slippers teleport both her and Toto back to Kansas.

Dorothy wakes up in her own bed with a washcloth on her head as Auntie Em and Uncle Henry fuss over her. Professor Marvel and the farmhands Hunk (Ray Bolger again), Hickory (Jack Haley again), and Ezekiel (Bert Lahr again) stop by to see how she is doing. She raises indulgent laughter when she tells them about Oz and tells them that she had seen them there, but she is so happy to be home she does not mind that they do not believe her. Miss Gulch is never mentioned again.