The “Wizard of Oz” house-dropping scene is pivotal because it marks the transition from black and white to Technicolor. But the famous sequence could hold a clue to an underlying theme as it transitions from one “universe” to another. After her house lands on the Wicked Witch of the East, Dorothy meets Glinda the Good Witch (Billie Burke), who asks the pigtailed heroine, “Are you a good witch or a bad witch?” Dorothy insists she’s “not a witch at all,” then adds, “Witches are old and ugly.”
That’s when the gorgeous Glinda schools her with: “I am a witch. I’m Glinda, the Witch of the North … Only bad witches are ugly.” Theorists think that exchange helps prove Dorothy was actually the Wicked Witch of the East. “It fits in with how Glinda assumed Dorothy was a witch,” user Dragoru3000 noted. “Are you a good witch or a bad witch? That would explain why everyone is hesitant of her at first,” PhilosopherKingSigma agreed.
If Garland’s character was a witch, she was lucky she never had to dress the part. To play the Wicked Witch of the West, Margaret Hamilton was forced to wear toxic face paint that kept her face tinted for days. She also suffered second-degree burns on her face and third-degree burns on her hand shooting her character’s fiery exit from Munchkinland after the Wicked Witch of the West confronts Dorothy.
