| “ | That dog's a menace to the community. I'm taking him to the sheriff and make sure he's destroyed. | „ |
| ~ Miss Gulch warning him about the dog. |
| “ | I'll get you Tom and Jerry. A-AND THAT LITTLE DOG, TOO! | „ |
| ~ Miss Gulch's gloating after her defeat at the hands Tom and Jerry. |
Miss Almira Gulch, simply known as Miss Gulch is a minor antagonist in The Wizard of Oz.
She’s the strict neighbor of Aunt Em, Uncle Henry and Dorothy Gale and the Wicked Witch's Kansas counterpart.
She was portrayed by the late Margaret Hamilton, who also portrayed the Wicked Witch of the West and the Wicked Witch of the East.
Biography[]
Going after Toto[]
Dorothy Gale and her dog, Toto, run to their farm in Kansas after an encounter with Miss. Gulch, who hit Toto on the back with a rake. No one at the farm seems interested in this, however, Miss. Gulch arrives and announces that she’ll have Toto destroyed because Toto bit her on one of her legs and she got the sheriff to give her an order for it. She takes Toto away in a basket on her bike, but Toto escapes and runs back to Dorothy. Fearing that Miss. Gulch will return for him, Dorothy and Toto decide to run away. She didn’t arrive as the tornado struck the farm.
A tornado illusion[]
Inside the tornado, Dorothy saw Miss Gulch riding on her bicycle, but Miss. Gulch suddenly transformed into the Wicked Witch of the East. Her bicycle becomes a broom at that same moment, symbolizing the transition from the mundane to the supernatural.
An ambiguous fate[]
In the land of Oz Miss. Gulch/the Witch of the East is killed when the farmhouse falls on her; at the end of the movie Miss. Gulch is the only characther who doesn’t appear at Dorothy's bedside. However, in play adaptations, the script used often has Uncle Henry mention to Dorothy when she wakes up that, "A telephone pole fell on top of her". In some versions this kills Gulch, in others it’s stated that her leg was broken from the telephone pole falling on her and she’s recovering in the hospital where she has forgotten all about the incident with Toto. In other versions, it’s stated that Gulch dropped the charges against Toto upon hearing about how Dorothy was injured by the Tornado.
Trivia[]
- While the aforementioned idea was her various fates in the theatrical adaptations, most fans assume something similar happened in the film.
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