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Virtues in The Wizard of Oz Analyzed

The document summarizes the virtues embodied by the main characters in The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy represents justice by respecting others' rights and helping the Scarecrow, Tinman, and Lion. The Lion represents fortitude through overcoming his fears to help Dorothy. The Scarecrow represents prudence by making wise judgments without a brain. Finally, the Tinman represents temperance through moderation and self-control despite having no heart. The movie uses these characters to teach viewers about these four cardinal virtues.

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Kring Rozario
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112 views2 pages

Virtues in The Wizard of Oz Analyzed

The document summarizes the virtues embodied by the main characters in The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy represents justice by respecting others' rights and helping the Scarecrow, Tinman, and Lion. The Lion represents fortitude through overcoming his fears to help Dorothy. The Scarecrow represents prudence by making wise judgments without a brain. Finally, the Tinman represents temperance through moderation and self-control despite having no heart. The movie uses these characters to teach viewers about these four cardinal virtues.

Uploaded by

Kring Rozario
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ROZARIO, Ma. Kristina P.

4LM2
2012041654

October 12,

2016
Thought Piece #2 on The Wizard of Oz
Although it may be a bit saddening to say but prior our Ethics class, I really
did not have any idea what The Wizard of Oz is about. Im actually grateful that our
professor made me watch such an amazing classic. So moving on, there are four
cardinal virtues namely Justice, Fortitude, Prudence, and lastly Temperance. The
movie actually has a lot of virtues embedded in it and it was designed the way it
was designed in order for the viewers to capture the pure essence of the virtues.
To start it off, Dorothy is the full embodiment of the virtue of Justice. Simply
speaking, when a person possesses justice, s/he will respect the rights of other
people and give them what is rightfully theirs or what is their due. Justice highly
regulates relationships with others. All throughout the movie it is Dorothy who
encountered and enjoined the 3 main characters namely the Tinman, Scarecrow,
and the Lion and she is also the one who highly regulated the relationships in the
movie. She is a fierce young kid who will not stop being pursuant until she is given
what is due to hers.
The next virtue is that of Fortitude, commonly known as courage, which is
possessed by the Lion. Fortitude allows us to overcome fear and be steady our will
when facing difficulties that are thrown to us. It should always be with reason that
we act and should not seek danger for dangers sake. The Holy Spirit provides the
strength to overcome temptations and lures in our way in order for us to finally do
what is right. Summing this off, Lion was introduced to us as someone cowardly or
weak. In the first place, thats why he agreed to tag along with Dorothy and the
others because he wanted to ask the Wizard of Oz for some courage. In their travel,
it was further revealed that he in fact did possess the virtue of fortitude. The Lion
was able to overcome all the fear he had in order to fight to reach and save Dorothy
and do what is right in the end. He no longer needed courage from the Wizard of Oz
because he already possessed it inside, he just didnt know it yet.

Then, we have the virtue of Prudence which is highly embodied in the


character of the Scarecrow. Prudence is highly concerned with the intellect and
basically it is right reason applied to practice it allows us to judge correctly what
is right and what is wrong in any situation. Once again, the Scarecrow is introduced
to us as a character which has no brains. As we go further along into the movie, he
was the one who was shown to possess that he had the ability to govern and
disciple oneself even without a brain, he is very knowledgeable in general.
For the last of the virtues, we have temperance and of course it is attributed
to the Tinman. Basically temperance is just about moderation and self-control, it
helps us balance what we want with what we need. Tinman used to be a human
before but the evil witch turned him into what he is now. And although he has no
heart, it is later shown that he has restraint from retaliation in the form of nonviolence and forgiveness.

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