Character guide

Dorothy

major

Also known as little Dorothy, Princess Dorothy

Dorothy has become a personage in Oz — Princess Ozma's friend, known to every fox and donkey king she meets — yet she still measures the world by Aunt Em's farm and Uncle Henry's ten-acre lot. When the shaggy man asks directions and she steps out to point the way, she loses the road home in fifteen minutes and takes the detour with more curiosity than alarm. Her easy trust and her habit of treating talking beasts as ordinary neighbors make her the hinge of the whole wandering party.

Button-Bright

major

Also known as Button - Bright, poor Button - Bright, little Button - Bright

Button-Bright attaches himself to the shaggy man at once — partly because of the Love Magnet, partly because he has nowhere else to be. He asks the fox-captain what a prisoner is, then what a captive is, and keeps asking until the captain admits that questions are how anyone learns anything. His blank incuriosity is comic, but it also makes him fearless in a way the older travelers are not, and it quietly earns him a place among Ozma's birthday guests.

Princess Ozma

major

Also known as Ozma, the Princess Ozma, the Royal Princess Ozma, Oz

Ozma sits on a malachite throne in the Emerald City, radiating a charm that historians of Oz have given up trying to describe. She is the one who tangled the roads so Dorothy would wander toward her, and she has already invited the fox and donkey kings because she knew Dorothy would ask. Twice she nearly used the Magic Belt to rescue the travelers, holding back only because the shaggy man managed it — a ruler whose power is matched by her patience.

Toto

supporting

Toto is Dorothy's constant companion, tucked into pockets and carried under arms, and the first to bristle at fox-soldiers before the Love Magnet calms them. When Dorothy is lost, she asks him to find the farm; he dashes up one road, then another, then another, and finally sits down panting beside the shaggy man in defeat. His failed attempt to lead them home is what turns a wrong turn into an adventure.

Polychrome

supporting

Also known as little Polychrome

Polychrome drops into the journey almost by accident, a fairy girl whose element is the sky and whose food is dewdrops and mist-cakes. She dances to the Tin Woodman's tin orchestra until her rainbow robes swirl around her like a cloud, delighting even a host who cannot eat. Light, graceful, and slightly out of place on the ground, she gives the party a shimmer of the fairy world they are walking toward.

Tin Woodman

supporting

Also known as the Winkies, the Emperor of the Winkies, Nick Chopper, Nick

Nick Chopper rules the Winkies from a tin castle where dishes, instruments, and even the waltz are made of tin, and where no one wants more than he can use. He loves the shaggy man on sight — not yet knowing about the Love Magnet — and tells him that honesty and worth could earn him a home in Oz forever. Unable to taste his own banquet, he sits patiently through it, watching that everyone else is well and plentifully served.

Johnny Dooit

supporting

Also known as Dear Johnny Dooit, Johnny

Johnny Dooit arrives when the travelers are stranded at the edge of the Deadly Desert, a cheerful craftsman summoned by the Shaggy Man's peculiar acquaintance. He refuses to waste an hour letting paint dry and refuses to dawdle over anything, solving an impossible crossing with a boat that sails on sand. His brisk competence and work-song philosophy turn a lethal obstacle into an afternoon's adventure, setting the group back on the road to the Emerald City.

Santa Claus

minor

Also known as Santa, old Santa Claus

The jolly gift-giver who attends Ozma's birthday celebration.

Billina

supporting

Sent by Princess Ozma alongside Tik-Tok to welcome Dorothy's party in the Winkie Country, Billina serves as escort, translator of mechanical malfunctions, and unflappable voice of sense. She has just hatched ten chicks and named every one of them Dorothy, a joke that captures both her devotion and her practical thrift. When Tik-Tok's thoughts run down into gibberish, it is Billina who calmly diagnoses the problem and prods Dorothy to rewind him, keeping the journey moving toward the Emerald City.

Scoodlers

minor

Also known as the Scoodlers, the dreadful Scoodlers

Hostile creatures with detachable heads who attack the travelers.

Jack Pumpkinhead

supporting

Also known as Poor Jack, Jack, the quaint Pumpkinhead, the Pumpkinhead

Jack lives inside a hollowed giant pumpkin in the Winkie Country, raising a field of future heads so he will never again be caught wearing a rotting one. He is Ozma's creation and calls her his parent, which gives him a tender, proprietary place in the royal family even as his fourth head makes his mouth a little more one-sided. His cheerful mortality — three graves for three spoiled faces — makes him both comic and quietly poignant as the travelers pass through on their way to the birthday celebration.

Tik-Tok

supporting

Also known as Mr. Tik - tok, Tik

Ozma dispatches Tik-Tok with Billina to welcome Dorothy's party, but his thoughts run down mid-sentence and his speech collapses into nonsense until someone winds the key beneath his arm. He is trustworthy, dependable, and true — he does exactly what he is wound to do — yet the narrator notes that loving him is as impossible as loving a sewing machine. His friendship with the Tin Woodman, one mechanical and one alive, quietly sharpens the book's questions about what makes a person worth caring for.

King Dox

supporting

Also known as Dox, King Dox of Foxville

King Dox presides over a town of elegantly costumed foxes who find Dorothy's plain gown and Button-Bright's sailor suit hopelessly common. He is gracious to the point of smothering, insisting on dinner and theater before letting the travelers leave, and transparently eager for Dorothy to secure him an invitation to Ozma's birthday. His court's obsession with finery and his own wounded dignity when Dorothy tries to hurry away make Foxville a comic set piece about hospitality with strings attached.

Shaggy Man

supporting

Also known as The Shaggy Man

The Shaggy Man travels with Dorothy toward the Emerald City, cheerfully penniless and indifferent to dress, insisting he would rather stay shaggy than become a stranger to himself. He is earnest about proving himself honest and worthy so Ozma might let him live in Oz forever, and the Tin Woodman already loves him without knowing why — the Love Magnet he carries quietly explains it. His easy warmth and refusal of vanity anchor the group's tone as they move from one strange kingdom to the next.

Scarecrow

supporting

Also known as the Scarecrow

Riding a gold-shod Sawhorse through cheering streets, the Scarecrow returns to the palace as the most popular man in all Oz, greeting Dorothy with squashy white-gloved hands. He fusses cheerfully over his fresh coat of paint and the lovely oat-straw in his chest, yet stands at the throne's left as a trusted counselor. His easy dignity among Ozma's court shows how far a farmer's field hand can rise — and makes him a warm anchor as new visitors arrive.

King Kik-a-bray

minor

Also known as Kik - a - bray, King Kik - a - bray of Dunkiton

The donkey king of Dunkiton who becomes a friend to the travelers.

Wizard of Oz

supporting

Also known as Oz, The Wizard, The wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Wizard, Mr. Wizard

Though no longer ruling, the Wizard remains close to Ozma's throne, standing behind Dorothy during the grand birthday reception alongside the shaggy man. His past as a balloonist and former ruler gives him a peculiar authority — part showman, part advisor — in a fairyland that has forgiven his tricks. His presence signals that Oz rewards reinvention, and his quiet standing in the court hints at how much the old humbug has become genuinely wise.

Knooks

minor

Also known as the Knooks, A dozen crooked Knooks

Crooked forest spirits who guard the animals in Oz.

Hungry Tiger

minor

Also known as the Tiger, Tiger

A large tiger who is always hungry but has a good heart.

King Bud

minor

Also known as little King Bud, Bud, King Bud of Noland

A young king from Noland who attends Ozma's birthday.

King Renard

minor

Also known as King Renard IV

A fox king who rules a neighboring kingdom to Foxville.

Glinda

minor

Also known as Glinda the Good

The Good Sorceress of the South who aids Dorothy and Ozma.

Love Magnet

minor

Also known as Magnet, the Magnet, the Love Magnet

A magical magnet that makes everyone love its owner.

Jellia Jamb

minor

Also known as Jellia

A maid in the Emerald City who serves Princess Ozma.

Queen Zixi

minor

Also known as Queen Zixi of Ix, Zixi

A fairy queen from Ix who visits Oz for the celebration.

Princess Fluff

minor

Also known as Fluff, the Princess Fluff

A princess from Noland who attends Ozma's birthday party.

Uncle Henry

minor

Dorothy's uncle who lives on a farm in Kansas.

Woggle-Bug

minor

Also known as Mr. H. M. Woggle - Bug, The Woggle - Bug

A highly educated bug who teaches at the Royal College of Oz.

John Dough

minor

Also known as King Dough, King John Dough

A gingerbread man who rules a kingdom and visits Oz.

Mombi

minor

A wicked witch who once held power in Oz.

High Chamberlain

minor

Also known as the High Chamberlain

The chief official in the Emerald City palace.

Cowardly Lion

minor

Also known as the Lion

A lion who seeks courage and becomes a friend of Dorothy.

Ryls

minor

Also known as the Ryls

Nature spirits who color flowers and plants in Oz.

Chick the Cherub

minor

Also known as Chick

A cherub who attends Ozma's birthday celebration.

Para Bruin

minor

A rubber bear who bounces around and entertains at the party.