Emerald City

For other uses, see Emerald City (disambiguation).
Emerald City
The Oz series location
Created by L. Frank Baum
Genre Children's books
Type Capital city
Notable locations Ozma's palace
Notable characters Wizard of Oz, Princess Ozma, Dorothy Gale (eventually)
First appearance The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Emerald City (sometimes called the City of Emeralds) is the capital city of the fictional Land of Oz in L. Frank Baum's Oz books, first described in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900).

Fictional description

Located in the center of the Land of Oz, the Emerald City is the end of the famous yellow brick road, which starts in Munchkin Country. In the center of the Emerald City is the Royal Palace of Oz.

In the first book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), the walls are green, but the city itself is not. However, when they enter, everyone in the Emerald City is made to wear green-tinted eyeglasses; this is explained as an effort to protect their eyes from the "brightness and glory" of the city, but in effect makes everything appear green when it is, in fact, "no more green than any other city". This is yet another "humbug" created by the Wizard.[1] In this book, the Wizard also describes the city as having been built for him within a few years after he arrived.[2] It was he who decreed that everyone in the Emerald City must wear green eyeglasses, since the first thing he noticed about Oz after he landed in his hot air balloon was how green and pleasant the country was.

In the second book, The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904), however, the characters are required to wear the glasses at first, but halfway through the book, no more eyeglasses appear and no more mention is made of the brilliance, but the city is still described as green.[3] This is continued throughout the series. The only allusions to the earlier conception appeared in The Road to Oz (1909), where the Little Guardian of the Gates wears green spectacles, the only character to do so.[4] Furthermore, although at one point the character Tip describes it as being built by the Wizard, at another the Scarecrow explains that the Wizard had usurped the crown of Pastoria, the former king of the city, and from the Wizard the crown had passed to him. The book quickly concerns itself with finding the rightful heir to the crown of the city.[5] Ozma remained the king's heir, though both she and the original king were transformed to the ruler of all Oz.[6] However, the story reverted to the Wizard's having built the city in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (1908), with the four wicked witches having usurped the king's power before the Wizard's arrival.[7]

The Oz books describe the Emerald City as being built of green glass, emeralds, and other jewels. In the earlier books, it was described as completely green, but in later ones, green was merely the predominating color; the buildings were decorated with gold as well, and people added other colors to their costumes.[4]

In the first book, one scene of the Emerald City is of particular note in the development of Oz: Dorothy sees rows of shops, selling green articles of every variety, and a vendor who sells green lemonade, from whom children bought it with green pennies. This contrasts with the later description of Oz, in which money does not feature. Interpreters have argued that the Wizard may have introduced money into the city, but this is not in the text itself.[8]

The Emerald City of Oz (1910), the sixth book in the Oz series, describes the city as having exactly 9654 buildings and 57,318 citizens.[9]

Sources

Baum may have been partly inspired in his creation of the Emerald City by the White City of the World Columbian Exposition of 1893,[10] which he visited frequently, having moved to Chicago in anticipation of the event. W. W. Denslow, the illustrator of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was also familiar with the White City, as he had been hired to sketch and document the exposition for the Chicago Times; Denslow's illustrations of the Emerald City incorporate elements that may have been inspired by the White City.[11] The quick building of the White City, in less than a year, may have been an element in the quick construction of the Emerald City in the first book.[2]

It is also likely that Baum's favored haunt, the Hotel Del Coronado, influenced its description in later books.

Interpretations

Scholars who interpret The Wizard of Oz as a political allegory see the Emerald City as a metaphor for Washington, D.C. and unsecured "greenback" paper money. In this reading of the book, the city's illusory splendor and value are compared with the value of paper money, which also has value only because of a shared illusion or convention. It is highly likely that the Hotel del Coronado influenced its description in later books, as well as in the artwork by John R. Neill.

Adaptations and allusions

In city nicknames and symbolism

David Williamson (whose brother-in-law wrote the Oz-inspired musical Oz (1976)) wrote a play called Emerald City (1987). The term is used as a metaphor by the character Elaine Ross, who describes Sydney as "the Emerald City of Oz", where people go expecting their dreams to be fulfilled only to end up with superficial substitutes and broken dreams. (Note that "Oz" can refer to "Australia" in colloquial Australian speech.[12]) The 2006 Sydney New Year's Eve Festivities were entitled "A Diamond Night in Emerald City" also in reference to Williamson's play, and the "Diamond Night" alluded to the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 2007.[13] (The bridge was the centerpiece of the celebrations). Subsequently "Emerald City" has occasionally been used as an unofficial nickname for the city of Sydney.[14] The head office of the Sydney-based merchant banking and private equity firm Emerald Partners is located on top of the Museum of Contemporary Art building on the Sydney Harbour foreshore, at Circular Quay. The firm was named after Baum's book and the David Williamson play.

The American city of Seattle, Washington has used "The Emerald City" as its official nickname since 1982.[15] There is also a drink known as "Emerald City" that is associated with the city of Seattle.[16] Eugene, Oregon is also referred to as the Emerald City, and the region has been known as the Emerald Empire as early as 1928.[17]

Muntinlupa City is nicknamed as the Emerald City of the Philippines by the Department of Tourism.

In films and television

In literature

In Gregory Maguire's revisionist Oz novels, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995) and Son of a Witch (2005), the Emerald City is a much darker place than in Baum's novels. It does have splendid palaces and gardens, but sections are also beset by crime and poverty. Son of a Witch introduces Southstairs, an extensive political prison located in the caves below the Emerald City. The green glasses worn by the citizens are often used as a way to stop them from seeing what is going on around them.

In video games

The video game Emerald City Confidential (2009) portrays the Emerald City as a film noir place with private detectives, widespread corruption, mob bosses, smugglers, and crooked lawyers. Set 40 years after the events of The Wizard of Oz, its described as "Oz, seen through the eyes of Raymond Chandler".[21]

References

  1. ↑ Riley, Michael O. (1997). Oz and Beyond: The Fantasy World of L. Frank Baum. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. p. 53. ISBN 0-7006-0832-X.
  2. 1 2 Riley, p. 57.
  3. ↑ Riley, p. 106.
  4. 1 2 Riley, p. 155.
  5. ↑ Riley, pp. 106-7.
  6. ↑ Riley, p. 139.
  7. ↑ Riley, pp. 145-6.
  8. ↑ Zipes, Jack (1998). When Dreams Came True: Classical Fairy Tales and Their Tradition. New York: Routledge. pp. 175–6. ISBN 0-415-92151-1.
  9. ↑ Baum, L. Frank (1910). The Emerald City of Oz. Chicago: Reilly & Britton. p. 29.
  10. ↑ Madness in the White City. National Geographic. 2007.
  11. ↑ Baum, L. Frank Baum (2000). The Annotated Wizard of Oz, Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Michael Patrick Hearn (Revised ed.). New York: W. W. Norton. p. 176. ISBN 0-393-04992-2.
  12. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. Oz.
  13. ↑ Archived August 21, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
  14. ↑ Macquarie Dictionary : "Emerald City" noun Colloquial Sydney
  15. ↑ Wilma, David (October 24, 2001). "Seattle becomes The Emerald City in 1982.". HistoryLink. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  16. ↑ http://www.flasks.com/blog/the-flask-and-the-nfl-a-guide-to-watching-sport-with-a-flask/
  17. ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=4bUsAQAAIAAJ&q=%22emerald+empire%22&dq=%22emerald+empire%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CD4Q6AEwBmoVChMI6rqNkIDBxwIVx0yICh3oQQ-v
  18. ↑ "A Touch More Evil: Azkadellia's World", SciFi Pulse video (Atom Films mirror) - November 13, 2007
  19. ↑ "Brick by Brick: Bringing Tin Man to Life", SciFi Pulse video (YouTube mirror) - November 16, 2007
  20. ↑ "Tin Man Postshow: Peek Behind the Curtain, Kristin Dos Santos - December 5, 2007
  21. ↑ Emerald City Confidential: Story, Wadjet Eye Games, Retrieved on March 4, 2009.
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