S is for Sadistic - The True Nature of Glinda the Good

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 rival 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 said young girl with the other witch’s death, then sets her up with this supposedly great and powerful Wizard who she 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 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 shoes she took off the dead women?  

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 poppy's 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 three of her 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.

While Glinda may meet criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder as well, 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 actually 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.  Antisocial's are focused exclusively on getting what they want and any damage to those they use to do so is merely collateral.  If you asked about Dorothy after they got her to do their bidding 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.”

This characteristic would be more suggestive of Sadism, as 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 illness becomes even more glaringly obvious when she ends up being the one who helps Dorothy get home in the end, given the mortal danger she put the girl and her companions in along the way.  Plus she sends Dorothy home believing the blood of two the two 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, immediately after the Wicked Witch loses her sister, Glinda starts taunting her in an obvious effort to demean her and in front of a crowd to boot.  After questioning the Wicked Witches magical abilities, Glinda then actually suggest that the witch better watch herself as someone might just drop a house on her as well.  And Glinda keeps on smiling. Those in the crowd may remain silent during her sadistic treatment of the witch and cheer her death of her sister not to mention shouting and singing, “Ding, dong, the witch is dead,” when she, herself, is melted down into a puddle of water 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 including cold blooded murder and assassination through house dropping and melting, can you blame them? 

Remember also, that once she kills the Wicked Witch of the West’s sister, who we don’t get to meet at all and have to simply take her word for it that the witch was evil, Glinda then takes the only keepsake the poor women might have to remember her sister by, the dead witch’s footwear. And when Dorothy clicks those pretty little shoes together three times and disappears where do the shoes go exactly?  I’m betting not back to their rightful owner, that being the next relative 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 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.