Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Howl’s Moving Castle, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Destiny vs. Free Will
Appearances and Assumptions
Family
Magic and Coming of Age
Summary
Analysis
Everyone is relieved when Calcifer is back to his normal self the next morning. Calcifer tells Howl that he was truly just tired; something was making the castle extra heavy. Howl assures Calcifer he doesn’t have to put up with Sophie’s bullying, says he’s off to see Lettie, and grabs his guitar. But when he opens the door, the scarecrow is there, and it tries to push past Howl. Howl’s guitar begins to twang of its own accord, while Calcifer and Michael are just shocked that there’s actually a scarecrow. Finally, Howl heaves the scarecrow out of the doorway, steps out after it, and tells it to go away. When it won’t, Howl uses magic to make it fly away into the clouds. Then, Howl tells Sophie he’s sorry: the scarecrow is scary and is made of strong magic.
Howl continues to act as though Sophie is being absolutely ridiculous and making things up. But when he comes face to face with the scarecrow himself, he has to change and start empathizing with Sophie. He also begins to trust that she is indeed capable of identifying nefarious things. His apology is extremely important, as apologizing is how he lets Sophie know that he now takes her seriously and wants to make up for being rude to her yesterday. Being willing to apologize, moreover, suggests that Howl is kinder than Sophie thinks.
Themes
Howl turns to tease Sophie about the scarecrow being her last cleaning client—but her heart is acting up again. He immediately helps her to her chair, and something passes between him and Calcifer. Sophie’s heart evens out immediately. Howl instructs Michael to keep Sophie home all day, grabs his guitar, and leaves. Sophie pretends to feel very ill as Michael gets started on a spell. Then, claiming the castle is too stuffy, Sophie opens the door onto the hills and steps out (Calcifer stops the castle for her). She sets off in the direction Howl went—but moments later, Michael races after her, with the castle coming along behind him. As Sophie explains where she’s going and that this Lettie Hatter is her grandniece, Michael realizes she’s concerned that Howl is courting Lettie.
Howl demonstrates how caring he is when he and Calcifer immediately work together to relieve Sophie’s heart pain. He doesn’t want her to suffer, and since he can do something about her pain, he sees no reason not to help. This again suggests that Howl is a better, kinder person than Sophie thinks he is—at least when it comes to women he’s not interested in romantically. However, Sophie continues to see him as a dangerous rogue who poses a threat to her sister. Michael and Calcifer show their loyalty to Sophie by chasing after her—and Calcifer making the castle move like this provides some humor as well.
Themes
Michael argues with Sophie—he’s not supposed to let her go anywhere. (Sophie hates this; Howl just thinks she’s useful now since she can badmouth him to the King.) But finally, Michael suggests they go to Upper Folding together, using seven-league boots. They’ll get there before Howl. Michael grabs the boots out of the closet; they look more like buckets than boots. Sitting on the doorstep, he and Sophie each put a foot in a boot, point themselves in the direction of Upper Folding, and take a step. Everything rushes for a moment—and then Sophie and Michael are in the Upper Folding village square. But Sophie staggers on the landing, and she spends several moments zipping back and forth dozens of miles before she lands on her bottom in Upper Folding and Michael tears off her boot.
Sophie seems insistent on believing that Howl just wants to use her (rather than accepting at face value that he cares about her health and her pain). But she is willing to accept Michael’s help, which continues to strengthen their relationship. Noting that the seven-league boots look like buckets and not conventional boots is another subtle way the novel encourages readers to understand that nothing in this world is as it seems. Some of the most innocuous-looking things are actually very powerful—perhaps even Sophie herself.
Themes
Michael and Sophie head for Mrs. Fairfax’s house, which is grand and surrounded by a garden full of flowers, bees, and hummingbirds. When Mrs. Fairfax opens the door, she doesn’t recognize Sophie. Michael explains that Sophie is here to see Lettie, her grandniece, and Mrs. Fairfax invites them inside. Before Sophie and Michael can enter, though, a collie dog rushes out the door. Mrs. Fairfax hisses for them to stop the dog. Michael finally catches it before it can enter an orchard—and in the orchard, Sophie sees, are Howl and Lettie. Lettie, to Sophie’s surprise, looks like herself. She also looks devoted to Howl. Mrs. Fairfax ushers Sophie, Michael, and the dog (who she says keeps trying to bite Howl) back inside.
Since Mrs. Fairfax doesn’t recognize Sophie, Sophie has the freedom to essentially be whoever she wants. She doesn’t have to behave the way Mrs. Fairfax would expect teenage Sophie Hatter to act. But the fact that Mrs. Fairfax doesn’t recognize Sophie shows that not everyone in this magical world is willing or able to look closely at someone like Sophie and see what’s actually there (that is, Sophie’s curse). Now, Sophie discovers that she’s not alone in thinking that Howl is bad news: this dog seems to share Sophie’s assessment of Howl.
Themes
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Sophie suggests that the dog has the right idea, but Mrs. Fairfax says she knows Lettie’s suitor is Wizard Howl. He used a false name and clearly didn’t remember her, but Mrs. Fairfax remembers him: he was old Mrs. Pentstemmon’s last pupil. Michael asks if Mrs. Fairfax is aware of Howl’s reputation, but Mrs. Fairfax says it’s just gossip. And anyway, she continues, she knows Lettie could learn more from Howl than from her, so she encouraged Lettie to accept Howl’s advances. Sophie asks if it isn’t true that Lettie loves someone else. Mrs. Fairfax says conspiratorially that the man is under a strong spell, the work of the Witch of the Waste. But the poor man can’t speak to ask someone like Howl to lift it.
It seems to be a bit of a shock for Sophie to discover not only that Mrs. Fairfax knows who Howl is, but that Mrs. Fairfax also doesn’t fear Howl or think he's a bad person. Indeed, she seems to think highly of him—and think he’s trustworthy, if she’s encouraging Lettie to accept his romantic advances. Sophie brushes over this a bit and instead focuses on making sure that Lettie is getting what she wants out of this relationship (which, as Sophie understands, is this other man who’s under a curse). This highlights Sophie’s loyalty to and love for her sister.
Themes
At this, Michael says he and Sophie should leave. They walk to the gate, Mrs. Fairfax behind them. Finally, Sophie asked if Martha was supposed to come be her apprentice. Laughing, Mrs. Fairfax explains she recognized what was going on with the switching spell at once, but she told Lettie to stay as herself or leave. She’d rather teach someone who wants to learn. With this, Michael collects the seven-league boots. Seeing them, Mrs. Fairfax asks if Lettie inherited her witchcraft from Sophie. Before Sophie can answer, Michael steps forward and they zip away. They nearly collide with the castle. Inside, Calcifer is yelling that there’s someone at the Porthaven door.
It seems to come as a surprise to Sophie that Mrs. Fairfax had such an easy time identifying Martha and Lettie’s switch and the spell they used. This offers some possibility that perhaps Mrs. Fairfax recognizes Sophie’s curse as well, but simply isn’t saying anything. Mrs. Fairfax also implies that Sophie does indeed have magical powers when she asks if Lettie inherited her witchcraft from Sophie. But asking the question in this way also suggests that Mrs. Fairfax believes Sophie truly is an old woman, leaving it unclear what she might know about Sophie’s curse.
Themes
