Why does the Wizard stall after Dorothy gives her the Witch's broom?
In The Wizard of Oz, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Lion, and Dorothy ask the Wizard for a brain, a heart, courage, and a way home, respectively. The Wizard refuses to grant their requests until they have brought him the broom of the Wicked Witch of the West. So the characters set off, kill the Witch, and return to the Wizard to present him with the broom. At this point, the Wizard starts stalling and demands that they come back tomorrow. He only acquiesces when it is inadvertently revealed that he is not the giant, disembodied head the characters have been talking to, but rather an ordinary man operating the head with a machine.
The real Wizard turns out to be a self-described "good man" who readily gives Dorothy and her friends everything they want: he has on hand a number of educational diplomas, one of which he gives to the Scarecrow, and a heavy cloth bag that is presumably full of awards and trinkets, of which he gives one each to the Tin Man and Lion. He also reveals that he has been keeping a hot air balloon ready for a return trip to Kansas.
Given that the Wizard had already prepared everything Dorothy and her friends asked for (or at least coincidentally had all them within arm's reach or just outside), why did he stall after receiving the broom? Why didn't he, in his persona of the disembodied head, acknowledge that the task he issued had been successfully completed and arrange for the awards to be presented more or less immediately? Is there any sensible story-internal explanation for this?
Best Answer
Because (as explained in the plot description on the movie's Wikipedia page) he isn't a wizard, but a con man. The gifts are merely symbolic items:
Upon their return, the Wizard stalls in fulfilling his promises until Toto pulls back a curtain, exposing the "Wizard" as a fraud operating machinery. Admitting to being a humbug, he insists he is "a good man, but a bad wizard." He gives the Scarecrow a diploma, the Lion a medal, and the Tin Man a ticking heart-shaped clock, helping them see that they already possessed the qualities they wanted. He offers to take Dorothy and Toto home in his hot air balloon, revealing that he is also from Kansas and was originally a carnival showman before his balloon escaped his control and brought him to Emerald City.
The hot air balloon is a practical solution to the problem which he couldn't have provided until he was unmasked: how would Dorothy have piloted it? Also, why would a wizard not simply magic her back to Kansas?
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What happens when they take the broom to the wizard?
The Wizard refuses to grant their requests until they have brought him the broom of the Wicked Witch of the West. So the characters set off, kill the Witch, and return to the Wizard to present him with the broom. At this point, the Wizard starts stalling and demands that they come back tomorrow.Why did the Wizard of Oz want the witches broom?
The Wicked Witch then flies on her broom over the Emerald City, demanding that the citizens of the Emerald City surrender Dorothy to her, and the Wizard demands the destruction of the Witch, with her broom as proof, in exchange for granting the wishes of Dorothy and her companions.Is there an hourglass in the Wizard of Oz?
The Wicked Witch's hourglass is filled with red sand, but during the movie, it was filled with strawberry Jell-O because the sand couldn't be dyed red at that time, Carroll said. The flying monkey is made of hard rubber and is only 9 inches or so tall.Who is the most powerful witch in Oz?
South. The Good Witch of the South is Glinda the Good. She is the most powerful of the Witches.Nicky, Ricky, Dicky \u0026 Dawn | The Wicked Witch | Nickelodeon UK
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Answer 2
This is mostly speculation, but the wizard either hadn't thought to give them the trinkets (only came up with them out of desperation), or didn't expect them to placate them, and only after he was unmasked did he decide he had nothing left to lose in trying them. He also likely wasn't certain about whether the balloon would work, and didn't expect Dorothy to be willing to leave her friends behind before they got what they wanted.
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