Howl’s Moving Castle: Chapter Eighteen Summary & Analysis

Howl is right: running the flower shop is easy. Every morning, Sophie and Michael go out the purple door to gather flowers. Michael invents a floating bathtub where they can put cut flowers, and then they fill buckets in the shop with the flowers. Two of the buckets are the seven-league boots—a clear sign, Sophie believes, that Howl isn’t interested in Lettie anymore. Howl is usually away through the black door in the mornings, and he insists one must catch schoolteachers before school. He also refuses to tell Sophie which suit he’s wearing; his suit is still black, so she can’t tell if it’s the cursed scarlet one or the blue.

Sophie and Michael mostly run the shop. In just a few days, the shop becomes very popular. Nobody recognizes Sophie. Her old neighbors even think she’s Howl’s mother, but she begins insisting she’s his aunt. When Howl arrives in the shop (after spending hours in the bathroom), business gets even better: he convinces people to buy twice as many flowers as they intend to. Eventually this starts scaring ladies away, so Howl spends most of his time in the yard shed, working on defenses to repel the Witch. Sophie discovers that she can keep flowers alive for days if she talks to them. Pleased, she begins planting things in the yard and talking to them—she grows a navy rose, and then plants every root she can find in the castle.

Sophie tells herself she’s happy, but this isn’t true. Something is wrong. Maybe it’s that Sophie won’t visit Martha or Lettie, since she doesn’t want them to see her old. Maybe it’s that Michael always takes flowers to Martha, leaving Sophie alone. Other times it seems like Calcifer is the problem, since he’s bored now that the castle is empty most of the time. He desperately wants to experience things outside. Sophie takes to spending an hour each morning with Calcifer, and she always assures him she’s working on breaking the contract with Howl. This isn’t true. Indeed, after speaking to Mrs. Pentstemmon, Sophie believes breaking the contract will kill Howl and Calcifer—and Calcifer, at least, doesn’t deserve that. The dog-man’s gloominess also bothers Sophie, but as Midsummer Day approaches, he sleeps more in the sunshine.

The roots Sophie planted grow increasingly interesting. One looks like it’s going to become an orchid—but when it blooms, Sophie can only stare at the ugly thing. Michael observes that it looks like “a squashed-baby flower,” and Howl pulls the plant out of the pot. It’s a mandrake root; Sophie, Howl snarls, is making the curse come true. All that’s left is for the wind to “advance an honest mind.” As Sophie arranges flowers in the shop, she thinks that Howl will never be honest, so if the curse means he’ll have to become honest, it’ll never come true. But anyway, the curse serves Howl right for courting Miss Angorian in a charmed suit.

Suddenly, Sophie hears a thumping sound outside. It’s the scarecrow, and it looks more determined than ever. People in the street look just as afraid as Sophie feels. As it gets close to the shop, Sophie whispers over and over that it doesn’t know her and should just keep going. To her surprise, it works—the scarecrow keeps hopping. That afternoon, both Howl and Michael go out. Alone in the oppressively hot shop, Sophie is miserable. She sighs that maybe it’s Howl’s curse, but it’s more likely that being the eldest is catching up to her: she’s back where she started, just old. 

The dog-man sticks his snout through the door and whines. He enters the shop and sticks his paws out—he’s trying to turn into a man. With Sophie’s encouragement, he does. He pants that he envies Howl for being able to shapeshift so easily, and he says he was the dog Sophie rescued from the hedge. He told Lettie he knew Sophie, and he promised he’d keep watch. Just before he turns back into a dog (a sheepdog this time), he says he was here before, with the Witch. Sophie is shocked; she remembers the man with the Witch. She confirms that both the dog-man and Lettie know who she is and that she’s under a spell. Then, she sends the dog-man to find someplace cool. She can’t figure out why Lettie sent the dog-man, though.

Sophie goes to consult Calcifer, but he has nothing helpful to add. As they talk, the black-down doorknob clicks and opens—and Miss Angorian peeks in. She says she’s looking for Howl. Sophie says he’s out, wondering where he is if he’s not courting Miss Angorian. As Miss Angorian approaches Sophie, she begs her not to tell Howl she was here—she explains she’s only leading Howl on because she believes her fiancé, Ben, disappeared in the same place Howl keeps going. Sophie snaps that Mr. Sullivan isn’t here, realizing that this is Wizard Suliman’s name. She doesn’t believe it.

Miss Angorian begs to look around so she can know how Ben is living, but Sophie blocks her way. As she herds Miss Angorian back to the door, Sophie answers that this place is in Market Chipping, that Howl’s room is upstairs, and that the other door leads to a flower shop. Miss Angorian frowns at Calcifer, but he stares back silently. Calcifer’s reaction makes Sophie feel better about being rude. Finally, Miss Angorian throws herself at Howl’s guitar, which she insists belongs to Ben. She begs to keep it, but Sophie refuses and shoves Miss Angorian out the door into Wales. Turning the door orange-down, Sophie warns Calcifer to say nothing to Howl, and she snaps that Wizard Suliman probably came here to escape Miss Angorian’s terrible voice.

Calcifer chuckles that he’s never seen anyone get rid of a guest so fast, which makes Sophie feel terrible. She goes to the bathroom and stares at her wrinkly face. But even her young face, she thinks, isn’t as pretty as Miss Angorian’s. Sophie returns to the shop, where she shoves ferns into a bucket and snarls at them to grow into daffodils. The dog-man and Michael both avoid her all afternoon.