Summary of Critical Article

The article titled, "Wearing the Red Shoes" really focused on how patriarchy is linked to the red shoes, the land of Oz, and how Dorothy, even though everyone thinks differently, made the wrong choice to return home.  The Rohrer's explained how each character fit into the story arch and how the underlying message about how women should follow a patriarchal society fits in the movie (1).  Dorothy, a character that is deemed to be one of the first feminists in that time period, is actually written to be someone who, after wishing to go "somewhere over the rainbow," somewhere far away that she could dream and be herself, goes to Oz, and in the true spirit of a patriarchal story, ends up going back to her old life, taking on the role of an angel in the house a.k.a. a woman who stays home and doesn't venture far from the norm (Rohrer 6).  The red slippers, something that has been referenced by many later poets and writers, mean something much different than what they seem.  They're a gift from the Good Witch after Dorothy lands a house on the feared Wicked Witch of the East, ridding her from doing any other harm to the Munchkins and the Land of Oz.  These slippers are unable to be taken off by anyone, only Dorothy, but she never removes them, and this ends up taking her back to where she started.  Like in many stories before this one, the red slippers doom her to live a life of punishment, but instead of getting her feet chopped off like Karen, Hans' character, in her story, she's condemned to go back to her old life (Rohrer 2).  In the end, they take her home and though she's happy to be there, she's in no different of a situation since she left.  Many characters throughout the story push her back to her old life in Kansas, and Dorothy goes along with it.  Characters like Professor Marvel, The Wizard, and even the Good Witch of the North; they all tell her to follow the yellow brick road...right back to where she started (Rohrer 9).