COWARDLY LION

'The Cowardly Lion' is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum. He is a lion, but he talks and interacts with humans. His name is self-applied, as he does not understand that courage means acting in the face of fear, not simply being fearful, when he believes he should be fearless, which he only is when he is under the influence of an unknown substance.

Contents

The classic books

The 1939 movie

Modern works and parodies

Speculated origins

Political interpretations

References

The classic books

The Cowardly Lion makes his first appearance in the book ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''. He is the last of the companions Dorothy befriends on her way to the Emerald City. The Cowardly Lion joins her so that he can ask The Wizard for courage, being ashamed that, in his cultural role as the King of the Beasts, he is not indeed brave.^[1] Despite outward evidence that he is unreasonably fearful, The Cowardly Lion displays great bravery along the way. In spite of his fears, he still goes off to hunt for his food, and he even offers to kill a deer for Dorothy to eat, but the idea makes her uncomfortable. In the rest of Baum's Oz series, the Lion was never again cast in a major role, used only as a minor character.
The Wizard gives him a bowl of liquid from a bottle marked "Courage," often speculated to be an alcoholic beverage, and in the remainder of the book, becomes almost like a bully and ready to fight. He accompanies Dorothy on her journey to see Glinda, allows his friends to stand on his back in order to visit the Dainty China Country, where he damages the only church mentioned in an Oz book.
His favored companion is the Hungry Tiger. This may well be the "Largest of the Tigers" he and his friends encounter in the Forest of Wild Beasts in the Quadling Country^[2]. In this forest, all of the lions and many of the other animals have been eaten by a giant Spider. The Lion finds the Spider asleep and decapitates it. The Tiger and the other animals bow to him and ask him to be their king, and he promises to do so upon his return from accompanying Dorothy to Glinda. Glinda orders the Winged Monkeys to carry him back to the Forest once Dorothy has returned home.
In later books, The Cowardly Lion often accompanies Dorothy on her adventures. He is Princess Ozma's chief guardian on state occasions. In subsequent Oz books by Baum, the Lion was shown to have continued being courageous and loyal, although still considering himself a coward and regularly frightened, even by Aunt Em. He befriended the Hungry Tiger in ''Ozma of Oz'', if this was not the earlier Tiger, and the two have become Ozma's personal guards. In ''Glinda of Oz'' he is on Ozma's board of advisers.
In his titular novel by Ruth Plumly Thompson, Mustafa of Mudge, a wealthy sultan at the southern tip of the Munchkin Country, kidnaps the Cowardly Lion for his large collection of lions that he feels would be incomplete without Oz's most famous lion. He was turned to stone by the giant, Crunch, but rescued by American circus clown Notta Bit More and orphan Bobbie Downs, whom the clown prefers to call by the more optimistic-sounding Bob Up.
For the most part in later Oz books, though, the Cowardly Lion is a presence rather than a major character. His other significant appearances include ''Ojo in Oz'', where he is turned into a clock by Mooj and saved by Ozma and the Wizard. He assisted against the Stratovanians in ''Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz'', Terp the Terrible in ''The Hidden Valley of Oz'', and accompanied Dorothy and Prince Gules of Halidom in ''Merry Go Round in Oz''. John R. Neill played him primarily as a beast of burden in his three Oz books. In all, the only three books in which the Cowardly Lion does 'not' rate at least a mention are ''The Tin Woodman of Oz'', ''Grampa in Oz'', and ''The Silver Princess in Oz'', though his absence in the second Oz book, ''The Marvelous Land of Oz'', beyond a reminiscence, Baum reported in his introduction to ''Ozma of Oz'' to have brought letters of encouragement to bring him back.

The 1939 movie

In the classic 1939 movie ''The Wizard of Oz'', the Cowardly Lion was anthropomorphic (and bipedal) and played by Bert Lahr. Bert Lahr's biography, written by his son John Lahr, is entitled ''Notes on a Cowardly Lion''.

Modern works and parodies

In the comic book series ''Oz Squad'', the four original characters from ''The Wizard of Oz'' have become crime-fighters in America some thirty years since the events of the original books. In this series, the Lion is a fierce fighter and can also disguise himself perfectly as a human.
The Cowardly Lion is a minor character in author Gregory Maguire's 1995 revisionist novel ''Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West'' and its 2003 Broadway musical adaptation. In both works he is first seen as a Lion Cub (lion with human attributes) who has been torn from his mother and used as an experiment (in the book by Dr. Dillamond's replacement, and in the musical an agent of the Wizard) on the nature of Animals. Elphaba saves the lion cub who in the end of both adaptions becomes a Witch Hunter. He also appears in Maguire's 2005 sequel ''Son of a Witch''. As of October 2006, Maguire is writing a third Oz novel entitled ''A Cowardly War'' in which the central character will be the Cowardly Lion.[1]
In ''The Muppets' Wizard of Oz'' (2005), the Cowardly Lion is played by Fozzie Bear.
In Matt Groening's cartoon ''Futurama'' episode "Anthology of Interest II" (first aired 2001) the Cowardly Lion is mentioned as "the other guy" in the ''Wizard of Oz'' parody and is portrayed by Dr. Zoidberg.
In the comic book The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles #1 (2006), the Cowardly Lion accompanies The Hungry Tiger and ''two'' Tin Woodmen in chasing Alice Liddell, the protagonist of Lewis Carroll's ''Alice in Wonderland''. The Lion catches Liddell, but is stopped by Gale before he could do anything else.

Speculated origins

In the original Oz books, the Lion's origins were never explicitely stated. However, many works since then have either hinted at or revealed elements of backstory for the Cowardly Lion. Partly due to the large amount of written material about Oz, many of these stories are contradictory to each other or to the "Famous Forty" Oz books, and many fans do not accept them as 'canon'. The canonical books give no indication the the Lion did not originate in Oz, essentially as a normal, if unique, lion.
A skittish and fearful lion cub is seen at Shiz University in Gregory Maguire's novel, ''Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West''. The cub had been the result of cruel experiments by Dr. Dillamond's replacement teacher (in the musical, it was an agent of the Wizard) and was saved by Elphaba and some other students. This is heavily hinted to be a younger form of the Cowardly Lion. The Tin Woodman confirms this in the Broadway musical adaptation ''Wicked'', in the song "March of the Witch Hunters": "And the lion also has a grievance to repay! If she'd let him fight his own battles when he was young, he wouldn't be a ''coward'' today!"
The book ''Lion of Oz and the Badge of Courage'' and its accompanying animated feature, ''Lion of Oz'', show the Lion as having grown up in a circus in America. His caretaker, Oscar Diggs, was the man who would become the Wizard of Oz; this man took the Lion on a balloon ride one night, which resulted in the two becoming stranded in Oz.

Political interpretations

Main articles: Political interpretations of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Some historians, such as high school history teacher Henry Littlefield, have suggested that Baum modeled the Cowardly Lion after politician William Jennings Bryan.

References

1. L. Frank Baum, Michael Patrick Hearn, ''The Annotated Wizard of Oz'', p 148, ISBN 0-517-500868
2. Jack Snow. ''Who's Who in Oz'', p. 99