Classical Literary Theory Analysis

Analysis #1

The famous scene of Dorothy (Judy Garland) singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz depicts an example of Plato's allegory of the cave from the Republic. The allegory of the cave states that people, whom he calls prisoners, are ostensibly chained down in a cave their entire lives and can only see the figures and shadows that are seen on the wall in front of them. These shadows for the chained prisoners, Plato states, "would constitute the only reality people in this situation would recognize" (Leitch 61). That is, the shadows are the only truth and reality the prisoners know of, although Plato argues that the shadows are but only representations of the truth, thus not a true reality.

The scene of Dorothy singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" represents Dorothy as the prisoner in Plato's allegory of the cave whom has been "set free from their bonds and cured of their inanity". As Plato states, he believes that one of the prisoners will eventually break free from the chains and find “truth” from going outside the cave and into the sun. As Dorothy sings, "Somewhere over the rainbow / Way up high, /There's a land that I heard of /Once in a lullaby", she creates an imagery which allows the viewer to see that Dorothy sees a place beyond her home town of Kansas wherein she believes there is a place that is richer, and truer, to her own imaginings of life and reality (Fleming The Wizard of Oz). Dorothy seems to have an understanding that her hometown of Kansas is just a “cave” in which she is “forced to spend [her] life without moving [her] head", and that only through exiting this cave will she find a place “where troubles melt like lemon drops / away above the chimney tops” (Fleming The Wizard of Oz).

Furthermore, throughout the whole song, Dorothy is looking up, into the sky and the sun. This relates to Plato's allegory of the cave in that Plato believes that once a prisoner has been set free out of the cave, and is able to look at the sun, that only then does the prisoner see that the sun "is the source of the seasons and the yearly cycle … and that in a sense everything which he and his peers used to see is its responsibility". Dorothy represents the person who has been able to see beyond the wall in front of her, beyond the shadows and representations of the truth that has been placed in front of her and see the “sun” as the truth that guides her. The sun represents the truth of the world, and since Dorothy is able to look up, beyond her own horizon of Kansas, and up into a bright shining sun, Dorothy is what Plato would call an enlightened prisoner, set free from her own misrepresentations of life and able to see the truth that she sees beyond her in Kansas.

Works Cited

Fleming, Victor, dir. The Wizard of Oz. 1939. 11 July 2010 <>

/watch?v=y8QWdJh4VxY&feature=related>.

Leitc, Vincent B, ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 2^nd ed. New York:

W.W. Norton and Company. 2010.