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.
Character Analysis
Sophie Hatter
As the protagonist of Howl’s Moving Castle, 18-year-old Sophie Hatter is the eldest of three daughters. She believes that by being the eldest she is consigned to an uneventful life without the opportunity to seek a fortune as her younger sisters Martha and Lettie will be able to do. Sophie is a quiet, dutiful apprentice in the hat shop, does not demand money from her stepmother Fanny, and lacks the self-confidence necessary to go outside and participate in the town’s festivities, such as May Day. When the Witch of the Waste curses Sophie by turning her into an old woman, Sophie immediately leaves her family and hometown of Market Chipping without an explanation. She continues to conceal her true identity from Howl, Michael, Calcifer, and the others she meets through them.
As an old woman, Sophie feels freer to speak her mind and do what she wants without fear of the judgement of others (83). She is no longer too afraid to venture into unknown places alone and takes upon herself the responsibility of breaking Calcifer’s contract with Howl. Sophie becomes adept at avoiding thinking about the things she does not feel confident enough to face. Of her promise to break Calcifer's contract, Sophie would often “[stop] thinking of it unless she had to” (337). Sophie’s stubborn avoidance of her own feelings is so severe that she doesn’t admit that she loves Howl until the very end of the novel. Likewise, and though Mrs. Pentstemmon tells Sophie so during her visit, Sophie avoids thinking of herself as a witch gifted with magical powers until she is forced to acknowledge them in the moment she breaks Calcifer’s contract.
Sophie’s character is a dynamic heroine archetype who also functions unreliably in relation to the narrator, as she obscures her true feelings and thoughts even from herself. The novel’s resolution depends upon Sophie acknowledging her own character growth and no longer using the appearance of an old woman as an escape from her true self. Therefore, the entire novel mirrors Sophie’s character growth in that the magical world building, the mystery surrounding the Witch’s plot, and the return of Howl’s heart, correspond with the degrees to which Sophie reveals more about herself.
Lettie and Martha Hatter
Lettie and Martha Hatter are Sophie’s younger sisters. Both are described as beautiful, though Lettie is considered the most attractive of the three sisters. When Mr. Hatter dies and Fanny must apprentice the daughters to save money in the hat shop, the girls are removed from school before they can finish. Lettie, strong-willed and committed to her education, arranges to trade apprenticeships with Martha so she can continue learning via magical instruction from Mrs. Fairfax. Lettie finds out that Sophie has been cursed through Howl and sends Percival to watch over her. Lettie is a static character who remains consistent through the narrative as a supporting and loving sister to Sophie.
Martha, likewise, is a static character. She wants to work in Cesari’s bakery so she has the best chance of finding a husband and starting a large family. Neither she nor Lettie put as much stock in birth order as Sophie does; Martha is willful, confident, and easily takes responsibility for the life path she chooses. Martha falls in love with Howl’s apprentice Michael Fisher and, though only 15, commits herself to a future with him. Martha and Lettie foil Sophie in that, while the two younger sisters also experience a change in appearance that hides their true identities, Martha and Lettie chose this change for themselves as a way to gain the life they want.
Howl (Howell Jenkins)
Initially an antagonist to Sophie but eventually her love interest, friend, and confidante, Howl was born in Wales. Though Howl’s Moving Castle does not explore Howl’s backstory as the Welsh, non-magical Howell Jenkins before he traveled to Ingary, it is known that Howl was a doctoral student writing a dissertation on magical spells when he presumably discovered a way to reach a parallel world full of magic. Prior to meeting Sophie, Howl’s reputation suggested a wicked man who fills his time eating young ladies’ hearts.
Howl is a complex, dynamic character. While vain, avoidant, and fond of fibbing, Howl is also generous with his money and resources, supports those in need of help, and protects the people he loves. He is committed to living respectfully, such as wearing black in mourning after the death of his old tutor Mrs. Pentstemmon (299) despite going to the funeral disguised as a dog where no one will see the suit he is wearing. Michael says Howl “hates being pinned down to anything” (80) as a central point of his character, but because Howl’s heart is housed in Calcifer’s flames, Howl merely is looking for someone who can be kind to it. Howl takes no action in his growing affection for Sophie, allowing Sophie’s character the room to grow until she is ready to pick his heart out of Calcifer’s flames and return it to Howl’s chest.
Even though Howl was not born in a land of magic nor does he possess innate magical abilities like Sophie, Howl is adept at using spell words to enact change. His defeat of the Witch of the Waste and her fire demon masquerading as Miss Angorian are done using only words.
Calcifer and Michael Fisher
Calcifer, a fire demon and former fallen star that made a contract with Howl five years prior to the beginning of Howl's Moving Castle, spends most of the novel in the fireplace of the castle. Calcifer is responsible for keeping the castle moving, for giving Howl access to the strength of his magic, and for maintaining the castle’s entrances into Kingsbury, Porthaven, and the Waste. His contract with Howl requires that he lend Howl this magical support in exchange for Howl’s heart, which has kept him alive despite a fallen star’s need to die. Calcifer forms a strong bond with Sophie during her time in the castle. Calcifer, in essence, embodies Howl’s heart in that the people Calcifer is comfortable around correspond to the people Howl loves. At the end of the novel, though given a thousand years to live as a fallen star by Sophie, Calcifer decides to come in and out of the castle’s fireplace instead of leaving forever. In this way, Calcifer has found a heart of his own and wishes to keep it inside the castle.
Michael Fisher was once an orphan in Porthaven. When Michael is evicted for being unable to pay rent as a small child, he sits on Howl’s doorstep for three days until Howl takes him inside. Since Michael behaves kindly toward Calcifer, Howl allows him to stay. Michael is 15 at the start of Howl's Moving Castle and in love with Martha Hatter, who is disguised as Lettie Hatter. Michael loves dogs, devotes himself to learning the spells Howl teaches him, and remains a steadfast friend to Sophie. Michael is a supporting character in the novel, remains static, and functions mainly as a sounding board character to whom Sophie can talk and figure things out with.
The Witch of the Waste/Miss Angorian
As the main antagonist of Howl’s Moving Castle, the Witch of the Waste is motivated by her plan to make a Frankenstein-King of Ingary out of combining Wizard Benjamin Sullivan, Prince Justin, and Howl. Once she does so, she believes she can then make herself queen and rule over Ingary. The Witch is more than a century old, having made a contract with her fire demon at that time. Slowly, the fire demon came to control most of the Witch. The Witch particularly wants information on Howl and Howl’s knowledge of Wales, as her fire demon appears as Miss Angorian in Wales. Both the Witch and her fire demon remain static as antagonists throughout the novel, and they are defeated by Howl’s use of words of power.
