73 pages • 2 hours read
Diana Wynne JonesHowl’s Moving Castle
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1986A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 5-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “Which is Far too Full of Washing”
Sophie resolves to prove to Howl that she will be a good cleaning lady. As she begins cleaning, Michael answers the Porthaven door and sells a spell to a young girl for a nominal price, as she can’t afford much. The girl notices Sophie inside and Sophie teases her, claiming to be the “best and cleanest witch in Ingary” (83). Even though Michael and Calcifer warn her against accidentally spreading rumors, Sophie finds that old age has given her more confidence to say whatever she wants. Michael hides the payment from Howl when Howl exits the bathroom so Howl doesn’t spend it.
Howl spends the day out of the castle, returning late at night while Sophie is still cleaning. Calcifer and Michael complain about how vigorously Sophie is cleaning everything. Over the next few days, Sophie cleans the castle and secretly looks for clues as to the contract between Howl and Calcifer. More people visit the Porthaven door as rumors spread around the town of a new witch living in Howl’s castle.
While cleaning, Sophie reorganizes Howl’s beauty products in the bathroom and discovers that Michael has letters in his bedroom from a lady. Calcifer explains that Howl only spends every day outside the castle when he’s pursuing a girl; Sophie takes this to mean that he is trying to eat a woman’s heart with black magic.
One day, Howl stops Sophie from cleaning his bedroom or the yard (located in Porthaven). He calls her a “nosy, horribly bossy, appallingly clean old woman” (97). When Howl leaves, Sophie asks Michael why he thinks Howl lets her stay in the castle if he dislikes her so much. Michael suggests that it has to do with the fact that Calcifer seems to approve of Sophie, and Howl values Calcifer’s opinion above anyone else.
Chapter 6 Summary: “In Which Howl Expresses His Feelings with Green Slime”
Sophie realizes that her enthusiasm for cleaning is a way for her to take out her anger on the Witch of the Waste. When the castle is completely cleaned, Sophie begins mending Michael’s clothes for something to do. Howl and Michael spend a few days working on a spell for the King; Howl has charged the King a sizeable fee for the spell while his fee for the townsfolk in Porthaven is significantly less. While the two wizards work, Sophie eavesdrops on their conversations in the hopes of learning something of spells to break her own. When the spell is completed, Michael takes it to the palace. Howl, restless to hear how it goes, leaves for a walk in the Wastes. With the both of them gone, Sophie turns the front door’s cube so that the door opens onto Howl’s secret place. She opens the door and finds a darkness that feels like “nothing” when she sticks her hand out. Calcifer doesn’t know where it leads.
When Michael returns, he and Calcifer explain that Howl isn’t out eating a lady’s heart but rather courting one. However, because they describe him as fickle, they expect him to lose interest in the lady once she expresses her love for him.
Howl returns in a bad mood and immediately takes a bath. Soon, they hear him screaming. He accidentally dyed his hair a light pink because Sophie rearranged his bathing supplies. Howl’s vanity becomes apparent when his distress causes “cloudy, human-looking shapes” (116) to appear from the shadows and chase after Sophie and Michael. They manage to leave through the Porthaven door, but Howl’s screaming resonates through the entire town. Sophie, Michael, and the townspeople flee to the harbor until the screams fade out.
Sophie and Michael return to the castle through the Porthaven door and find everything covered in a green slime that Howl produced in his distress. The pair drag Howl into the bathroom and force him into the shower. Sophie opens the door to the Wastes and sweeps all of the slime out. When Howl calms down, he tells them that the lady he’s courting has another man interested in her. “Sophie’s sympathy shrank quite sharply” (123) when Howl describes his courting as a game. He says he is in love with Lettie Hatter—which Sophie takes to mean Martha, disguised as Lettie.
Chapter 7 Summary: “In Which Scarecrow Prevents Sophie From Leaving the Castle”
Sophie, worried about Martha, resolves to go to Market Chipping as soon as she can to warn her half-sister. The next morning, Howl wakes and expresses that he has changed his mind about his hair and likes it pink. He leaves to answer a summons from the King. Michael leaves as well, leaving Sophie to answer the Wastes door when someone knocks. Outside is the scarecrow with the turnip face who Sophie encountered the night she left Market Chipping. The scarecrow tries to fight its way into the castle, but Sophie manages to shove it out.
Sophie is frightened by the scarecrow, and her heart begins beating irregularly. Calcifer talks her into calmness and, in so doing, reveals that his own heart is in the depths of the hearth. Sophie urges Calcifer to move the castle doubly quick as usual to lose the scarecrow, which pounds on the door and follows them. Calcifer spends the day using his magic to move the castle.
That evening, when they have left behind the scarecrow, Michael returns. He is full of joy after spending the day at Cesari’s in Market Chipping. His proposal of marriage has been accepted by his lady love: Martha, disguised as Lettie. The couple plans to wait a few years as they finish their apprenticeships before they get married. All three deduce that Howl must be in love with another Lettie Hatter. Sophie is worried because her sister has told Howl her real name rather than perpetuate the disguise.
Howl returns. The spell he sold to the King was so successful that he worries the King will want to appoint him the court’s Royal Magician. He asks Sophie to impersonate his mother, visit the King, and blacken his name in some way to prevent this. Howl explains that he doesn’t want the responsibility of finding the King’s brother Justin, who disappeared in the Wastes while looking for the lost Wizard Suliman because he himself jilted the Witch of the Waste the previous year. He fears the Witch will destroy him. Howl is shocked to hear that Sophie managed to persuade Calcifer into moving the castle so quickly.
Sophie listens to Howl’s story and resolves to escape the castle. She will warn her sister and accept her fate as an old woman rather than become involved in Howl’s schemes.
Chapter 8 Summary: “In Which Sophie Leaves the Castle in Several Directions at Once”
Howl tries to leave the castle to visit Lettie the next morning, opens the door to find the scarecrow, and casts a spell that sends the scarecrow far into the distant sky. Howl is surprised at the strength of the spell he perceived on the scarecrow. Sophie’s heart begins beating irregularly again; Howl holds her and, together with Calcifer, calms Sophie’s heart into a natural rhythm.
With Howl gone, Sophie complains of it being too stuffy in the castle and leaves, ostensibly for a walk in the Wastes. However, Michael follows her, saying that Howl asked him to look after Sophie and her heart. Michael quickly perceives that Sophie is worried about Howl’s lady; she claims that it is her great-niece. Michael suggests using some of Howl’s magic seven-league boots that can cover seven leagues in a step. They each take one boot and direct themselves toward Upper Folding, where Mrs. Fairfax lives. They step and magically cross the distance to Upper Folding, but Sophie is off-balance and stumbles, crossing another seven leagues. She goes back and forth between the two locations and sometimes as far as the Wastes again until Michael grabs her and keeps her still.
Sophie and Michael go to Mrs. Fairfax’s house. Mrs. Fairfax tells them that Lettie is busy, but they spot Lettie in the garden—looking like herself and not under an appearance spell—talking with Howl. Mrs. Fairfax confirms that she knows Howl’s true identity and has told Lettie as much, but neither have revealed that to Howl himself. Mrs. Fairfax recognizes him as he was also a pupil of Mrs. Pentstemmon, who also taught the Wizard Suliman. Mrs. Fairfax has encouraged Lettie to accept Howl’s affection as Howl can teach her much more than she. As for Lettie’s supposed other suitor, Mrs. Fairfax explains that the man has an awful spell on him that she does not have the power to break. Sophie question Mrs. Fairfax about the appearance spell, to which Mrs. Fairfax responds that she noticed it immediately but would “always rather teach someone who wants to learn” (166), so she agreed to teach Lettie. Her house rule is that everyone must appear as themselves.
Chapters 5-8 Analysis
As identities and appearances continue to shift and become confused among the characters, words, rumors, and misinformation become defining aspects of how an honest character interacts with others. Both Mrs. Fairfax and Lettie know Howl’s true identity, yet they say nothing of it to him. Partly as a challenge of Howl’s sincerity, and partly because they seek to protect themselves and others from the rumors of Howl’s wickedness. Mrs. Fairfax's house rule of “I’ll have no pretense here. You sat as your own self or not at all” (166) suggests that, though Sophie believes herself to be safe from having to reveal her true identity, Mrs. Fairfax does notice that her appearance has been changed. This foreshadows the novel’s climax, when Sophie is confronted by the fact that she herself is contributing to the “disguise” of being an old woman.
Speaking truthfully and what is permissible to say extends to Sophie’s new life as an old woman: “As an old woman, she did not mind what she did or said” (83). While Lettie and Martha utilize their agency to change their appearance, Sophie’s appearance first had to change before she could feel empowered enough to take action in her life. In this way, Sophie’s character displays a need for disguise. She is more empowered and confident when she feels hidden from the judgment of others by being an old woman. Though the Witch of the Waste’s spell on her is taken to be a curse, Sophie has been freed from her conceptions of being a disappointing eldest daughter. Furthermore, now that she has essentially separated herself from her sisters and Fanny, she no longer has to fulfill any familial obligations that an eldest daughter and sister would be expected to fulfil. Though cursed, Sophie’s character grows toward self-acceptance and self-confidence because of the freedom she finds in relative anonymity.
As Sophie discovers more of Howl’s character, he becomes a complex and well-rounded figure in the text. Like Sophie’s belief that an eldest daughter must ultimately lead a disappointing life, she struggles to accept Howl as a multi-faceted person who does not suit the rumors of wickedness as she expected. His kindness in undercharging some customers compared with his vanity create an ongoing conflict for Sophie of having to accept people as they are and not what they should be or are said to be.
