Why does water make the Wicked Witch of the West melt?
Dear Straight Dope: I’ve never understood why The Wizard of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West melts when Dorothy splashes water onto her face. I’ve only seen the MGM movie and have never read the books, so I might be missing some essential tidbit of info, or maybe I’m just an underread fool who can’t pinpoint the tiniest bit of symbolism or metaphor, but so what? Could you please fill me in? — C.M.M, Ithaca, New York I was going to tell you to go read the book, you ignoramus, but then I realized the book isn’t clear either. By “the book,” of course, we mean The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, published in 1900 and a children’s favorite ever since. Probably everyone in the western world knows the story through the movie, although the book still has a huge audience of new and repeat readers each year. Dorothy confronts the Wicked Witch of the West, throws a bucket of water on her, and the Witch melts into a puddle of scum. Note that it’s not just “splashing some water on her face,”
