|
|
|
|
Tin Woodman
|
| |
|
| |
The Tin Woodman (also known as the Tin Man or the Tin Woodsman, the latter appearing only in adaptations, the former used only occasionally by Baum) is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum. Baum's Tin Woodman first appeared in his classic 1900 book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and reappeared in many other Oz books. In late 19th century America, men made out of various tin pieces were used in advertising and political cartoons.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Tin Woodman' Start a new discussion about 'Tin Woodman' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
The Tin Woodman (also known as the Tin Man or the Tin Woodsman, the latter appearing only in adaptations, the former used only occasionally by Baum) is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum. Baum's Tin Woodman first appeared in his classic 1900 book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and reappeared in many other Oz books. In late 19th century America, men made out of various tin pieces were used in advertising and political cartoons. Baum, who was editing a magazine on decorating shop windows when he wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was reportedly inspired to invent the Tin Woodman by a figure he had built out of metal parts for a shop display.
The classic books
In the books, the origins of the character are rather gruesome. Originally an ordinary man by the name of Nick Chopper, the Tin Woodman used to make his living chopping down trees in the forests of Oz, as his father had before him. The Wicked Witch of the East enchanted his axe to prevent him from marrying the girl that he loved. The enchanted axe chopped off his limbs, one by one. Each time he lost a limb, Nick Chopper replaced it with a prosthetic limb made of tin. Finally, nothing was left of him but tin. However, Ku-Klip, the tinsmith who helped him, neglected to replace his heart. Once Nick Chopper was made entirely of tin, he was no longer able to love the girl he had fallen for.
In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy Gale befriends the Tin Woodman and he follows her to the Emerald City to get a heart from The Wizard of Oz. They are joined on their adventure by the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion. The Wizard sends Dorothy and her friends to the Winkie Country to kill the Wicked Witch of the West. The Tin Woodman's axe proves useful in this journey, both for chopping wood to create a bridge or raft as needed, and for chopping the heads off animals that threaten the party.
His desire for a heart notably contrasts with the Scarecrow's desire for brains, reflecting a common debate between the relative importance of the mind and the emotions. This, indeed, occasions philosophical debate between the two friends as to why their own choices are superior; neither convinces the other, and Dorothy, listening, is unable to decide which one is right. Symbolically, because they remain with Dorothy throughout her quest, she is provided with both and need not select. The Tin Woodman states unequivocally that he has neither heart nor brain, but cares nothing for the loss of his brain. Towards the end of the novel, though, Glinda praises his brain as not quite that of the Scarecrow's.
The Wizard turns out to be a "humbug" and can only provide a placebo heart made of velvet and filled with sawdust. However, this is enough to please the Tin Woodman, who, with or without a heart, was all along the most tender and emotional of Dorothy's companions (just as the Scarecrow was the wisest and the Cowardly Lion the bravest). When he accidentally crushes an insect, he is grief-stricken and, ironically, claims that he must be careful about such things, while those with hearts do not need such care. This tenderness remains with him throughout the series, as in The Patchwork Girl of Oz, where he refuses to let a butterfly be maimed for the casting of a spell.
When Dorothy returns home to her farm in Kansas, the Tin Woodman returns to the Winkie Country to rule as emperor. Later, he has his subjects construct a palace made entirely of tin — from the architecture all the way down to the flowers in the garden.
Baum emphasized that the Tin Woodman remains alive, in contrast to the windup mechanical man Tik-Tok Dorothy meets in a later book. Nick Chopper was not turned into a machine, but rather had his "meat" body replaced by a metal one. Far from missing his original existence, the Tin Woodman is proud (perhaps too proud) of his untiring tin body.
A recurring problem for the Tin Woodman in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and afterward was his tendency to rust when exposed to rain, tears, or other moisture. For this reason, in The Marvelous Land of Oz the character has himself nickel-plated before helping his friend the Scarecrow fight to regain his throne in the Emerald City. Even so, the Tin Woodman continues to worry about rusting throughout the Oz series.
This, of course, is inconsistent, in that tin does not rust; only iron does. This may reflect the usage where an object made of iron or steel but coated with tin (in order to prevent rusting) is called a "Tin" object, as a "tin bath", a "tin toy", or a "tin can"; thus, the Tin Woodman might be interpreted (in English, at least) as being made of steel with a tin veneer. Another explanation may be that the Woodman is chiefly made of tin, with iron joints; in some of the illustrations, his joints are a different color from the rest of his body. In Alexander Volkov's Russian translation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Volkov avoided this problem by the translation of "The Tin Woodman" as the "Iron Woodchopper".
The Tin Woodman appeared in most of the Oz books that followed. He is a major character in the comic page Baum wrote with Walt McDougall in 1904-05, Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz. In Ozma of Oz, he commands Princess Ozma's army, and is briefly turned into a tin whistle. In Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, he serves as defense counsel in the trial of a cat. He affects the plot of a book most notably in The Patchwork Girl of Oz, in which he forbids the young hero from collecting the wing of a butterfly needed for a magical potion because his heart requires him to protect insects from cruelty. Baum also wrote a short book titled The Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, part of the Little Wizard Stories of Oz series for younger readers.
In The Tin Woodman of Oz, Nick Chopper finally sets out to find his lost love, Nimmie Amee, but discovers that she has already married a man constructed partly out of his own discarded limbs. For the Tin Woodman, this encounter with his former fiancée is almost as jarring as his experiences being transformed into a tin owl, meeting another tin man, Captain Fyter, and conversing with his ill-tempered original head.
Baum's successors in writing the series tended to use the Tin Woodman as a minor character, still ruling the Winkie Country but not governing the stories' outcome. Two exceptions to this pattern are Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz, by Ruth Plumly Thompson, and Lucky Bucky in Oz, by John R. Neill. The biggest exception is in Rachel Cosgrove's The Hidden Valley of Oz, in which the Tin Woodman leads the forces in the defeat of Terp the Terrible and cuts down the Magic Muffin Tree that gives Terp his great size.
The fact that Nick includes the natural deaths of his parents in the story of how he came to be made of tin has been a major element of debate. In his eponymous novel, he proclaims that no one in Oz ever died as far back as Lurline's enchantment of the country, which occurred long before the arrival of any outsiders such as the Wizard.
The Tin Woodman in modern fiction
In the 1990 novel The Tin Man, by Dale Brown, the eponymous protagonist is a power-armored vigilante whom the media and police have dubbed The Tin Man for his physical resemblance to the Wizard of Oz character.
The Tin Woodman is a minor character in author Gregory Maguire's 1995 revisionist novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, its 2003 Broadway musical adaptation and Maguire's 2005 sequel Son of a Witch. In the book Nessarose, the Wicked Witch of the East, is seen enchanting the axe to swing around and chop off Nick Chopper's limbs. She does this for a peasant woman who wishes to stop her servant, probably Nimee Amee, from marrying Nick Chopper. This seems to be close to the Tin Man's origin in the original books, but from the Witch's perspective.
In the musical adaptation of Wicked the Tin Woodman is revealed to be Boq, a Munchkin whom the Wicked Witch of the East, Nessarose, fell in love with when they were at school together. When she discovered his heart belonged to Glinda, she botched a spell that was meant to make him fall in love with her, but instead shrunk his heart to nothing. To save his life, Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West was forced to turn him into tin. Not understanding her reasons, he pursues Elphaba with a single-minded vengeance for his current form. The Tin Woodman's humble origin in the novel conflicts with him having been the aristocratic Boq.
In Oz Squad, Nick was shown in a sexual relationship with "Rebecca Eastwitch" in order to get closer to Nimmie Amee and attempt to elope with her.
In Forever in Oz by Melody Grandy, Chopfyt, with the head of Fyter and the reproductive system of Chopper, abuses his daughter, whom he considers not his. As punishment, Ozma has Chopfyt dismantled.
Depictions on stage and screen
In 1902, Baum helped to adapt The Wizard of Oz into a wildly successful stage extravaganza. David Montgomery played the Tin Woodman, Niccolo Chopper (who played the piccolo) opposite Fred Stone as the Scarecrow, and the team became headliners. The piccolo would continue to appear in early adaptations, such as the 1910 film, but was largely forgotten, and the name "Niccolo" never appeared in one of the books. Revisionist books like Oz Squad have referred to him as "Nicholas," a name not found in the books, either.
In the classic 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, the Tin Man was played by actor Jack Haley. Buddy Ebsen was originally cast to play the role, but the character's makeup originally contained tin powder; Ebsen accidentally breathed the powder into his lungs and was rushed to a hospital. This forced him to give up the role. Haley based his breathy speaking style in the movie on the voice he used for telling his son bedtime stories. His portrayal of the character is by far the most famous. There is no explanation in the film of how the Tin Man became the Tin Man. It is subtly implied that he was always made of tin; the only reference to the tinsmith is the Tin Man's remark "The tinsmith forgot to give me a heart".
Other notable actors who have played the Tin Woodman include Oliver Hardy in a 1925 silent version of The Wizard of Oz directed by and starring Larry Semon, in which the character briefly fell into a tin pile and emerged as a "Tin Woodsman" [sic]. In subsequent scenes the tin was removed and he became "Knight of the Garter", Nipsey Russell played the "Tinman" as a carnival barker in the film adaptation of The Wiz (Tiger Haynes played the role on Broadway, but as a woodcutter as in the book). In the 1960 television adaptation of The Land of Oz, he was played by vaudeville comedian Gil Lamb, in the 1969 film, The Wonderful Land of Oz he was played by Al Joseph, and in the 1985 film Return to Oz, he was played by Deep Roy.
The Muppet Gonzo plays a similar role, the Tin Thing, in 2005's The Muppets' Wizard of Oz. In this version, he is the Wicked Witch's research assistant, transformed into a robot to prevent him wanting a day off to marry Camilla.
In the 1970s, the Tin Woodman appeared in a series of short animated educational films about heart health from Joleron Productions.
In 1985, the Tin Woodman appeared in the educational film Act on Arthritis as well as in promotional commercials.
In 2006, the Tin Man was the protagonist in a pair of television commercials for Chef Boyardee brand canned Beef Ravioli, in a costume identical to the design used in the 1939 Oz film. In the commercials, the Tin Man (played by Australian actor David Somerville, who looks like Jack Haley) is pursued by groups of children due to the fact that an oversized Beef Ravioli can label has been affixed to the back of his cylindrical torso (which he doesn't notice until the midpoint of the first commercial); thus, he appears to be a very large, mobile can of ravioli. In the first ad, the Tin Man escapes from his pursuers only to discover that the building he ducked into is an elementary school cafeteria full of hungry children and a teacher. The second ad begins with the Tin Man running through a residential neighborhood, accidentally adding to his pursuers when he stumbles across a backyard birthday party; after fleeing across a golf course (while dodging balls from the driving range), he is cornered in another backyard and threatened with a garden hose (playing on the Tin Man's classic weakness of rusting). As the scene shifts to the image of a Beef Ravioli can, sounds of water hitting metal and the Tin Man's cries for help are heard.
In 2006, the Chicago Under Ground Film Festival premiered Lee Lynch’s feature film titled Transposition of the Great Vessels. Based on the story of his own parents, who moved from Redding to Los Angeles, in hopes of making a better life. His father wanted to work for the forest service, and his mother wanted to be a cook, but their baby was born with a rare heart condition. They were forced to give up those dreams, and make choices that would give them insurance and stability. A naturalist movie interspersed with dream sequences; the “Tin Woodman” makes an appearance while on his deathbed, at UCLA Medical Center.
At Sundance of 2007, a film premiered by young director Ray Tintori entitled Death to the Tinman. It is a somewhat modernized retelling that takes place at sometime in the 1900s, in the town Verton, rather than Oz. However, the book of the same name, which tells the origins of the character, is cited by opening intertitles as the source. Although the basic premise is nearly identical, much of the details and all names and locations have been changed. This is partially due to the film's satirical look at criminal reenactments, as it states at the beginning that names "have been changed to protect the innocent." Perhaps the most interesting change that story makes, though, is the origin of the curse upon the Tinman's Axe, which is changed from being the Witch to being a curse from God. This film won a short filmmaking award at Sundance.
A 2007 CG animated short film called "After Oz", produced by the film students at Vancouver Film School, centered on a stylized version of the Tin Man, after he has received his heart from Oz. The movie shows him moving through a colorful Oz city with his brand-new mechanical heart, before meeting a reddish female Tin Woman (or robot?) to whom he gives the heart. She proceeds to cruelly play with the heart. The film is available on YouTube.
An internet-collaboration, CG animated feature based on Baum's book The Tin Woodman of Oz is currently in production by A:M Films, with completion expected in 2008.
Modern works
- The song "Country Robot/A Letter to Dorothy" by The Incredible Moses Leroy is written from the Tin Man's perspective; it includes the lyrics "You gave me oil, I was a rusty load/ You even helped me find my heart."
- In the song "Tin Man" by the band America, the lyrics state that "Oz never did give nothin' to the Tin Man, that the Tin Man didn't—didn't already have." The rest of the song has nothing to do with the Tin Man or Oz.
- Country artist Kenny Chesney recorded the song "Tin Man" for his album "All I Need to Know". The first verse and refrain state:
- Saw a man in the movies that didn't have a heart
- How I wish I could give him mine
- Then I wouldn't have to feel it breaking all apart
- And this emptiness inside would suit me fine
- It's times like these
- I wish I were the tin man
- You could hurt me all you wanted
- I'd never even know
- Well...I'd give anything just to be the tin man
- And I wouldn't have a heart and I wouldn't need a soul
- In the comic book series "Oz: The Manga", the Tin Man is depicted as a large, golemesque tin creation. His personality and backstory are the same as in the original books, however.
- Not one but two Tin Woodmen appear in the comic book The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles #1.
- In the VeggieTales episode The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's, the Tin Man and his Kansas counterpart from the 1939 film were played by Larry the Cucumber.
- In the 2007 Sci Fi television miniseries Tin Man, a "Tin Man" is a term used for the law enforcers of Central City in the Outer Zone (O.Z.) One of the story's protagonists, Wyatt Cain (played by Neal McDonough in the title role), is a Tin Man whose past left him hardened and distant from others.
Sources of the Tin Man image
Economics and history professors have published scholarly studies that indicate the images and characters used by Baum and Denslow closely resembled political images that were well known in the 1890s. They state that Baum and Denslow did not simply invent the Lion, Tin Man, Scarecrow, Yellow Brick Road, Silver Slippers, cyclone, monkeys, Emerald City, little people, Uncle Henry, passenger balloons, witches and the wizard. These were all common themes in the editorial cartoons of the previous decade. Baum and Denslow, like most writers, used the materials at hand that they knew best. They built a story around them, added Dorothy, and added a series of lessons to the effect that everyone possesses the resources they need (such as brains, a heart and courage) if only they had self-confidence. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was a children’s book, of course, but as Baum warned in the preface, it was a "modernized" fairy tale as well.
- The Tin Man was a common feature in political cartoons and in advertisements in the 1890s. Indeed, he had been part of European folk art for 300 years. In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Tin Woodman is described as a worker, dehumanized by industrialization. The Tin Woodman little by little lost his natural body and had it replaced by metal; so, he has lost his heart and cannot move without the help of farmers (represented by the Scarecrow); in reality he has a strong sense of cooperation and love, which needs only an infusion of self-confidence to be awakened. In the 1890s, many argued that to secure a political revolution a coalition of Farmers and Workers was needed.
The 1890 editorial cartoon to the right shows President Benjamin Harrison wearing improvised tin armor because he wanted a tariff on tin. Some interpreters argue that this shows the figure of a "tin man" was in use as political allegory in 1890s. The man on the right is politician James G. Blaine.
- The oil needed by the Tin Woodman had a political dimension at the time because Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company stood accused of being a monopoly (and in fact was later found guilty by the Supreme Court). In the 1902 stage adaptation, the Tin Woodman wonders what he would do if he ran out of oil. "You wouldn't be as badly off as John D. Rockefeller," the Scarecrow responds, "He'd lose six thousand dollars a minute if that happened." (Swartz, Oz p 34).
Trivia
- The "tinman" gene in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is so called because, when it is absent, the flies do not develop a heart. (Cf. Azpiazu & Frasch (1993) Genes and Development: 7: 1325-1340.)
- English indie band Cord after being dropped from Island records re-branded themseleves as Tin Man.
- 4-Q-2 from Hardware Wars was designed after the Tin Man from the MGM film.
|
| |
|
|
