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
Soon after Sophie returns to her sewing with the dog-man sleeping at her feet, Michael gets back with a box of items. Howl comes downstairs, wrapped in his dusty quilt, to chat with Michael and Calcifer. Michael explains he got everything they need and says there’s a former hat shop for sale in Market Chipping; they could move the castle there. As Howl, Michael, and Calcifer discuss that this would entail moving Calcifer, who’s technically in Porthaven, Sophie considers that Fanny is selling the shop—and how strange it is that the dog-man doesn’t seem interested in biting Howl or in leaving. He even seems uninterested when Sophie suggests he return to Lettie to woo her when she gets over Howl.
Moving to the hat shop in Market Chipping represents a sort of homecoming for Sophie. That the hat shop is for sale suggests that Fanny has moved on from the hat business, though Sophie gets no indication of what’s going on in Fanny’s life to explain this. Instead, she’s intrigued more by the dog-man’s behavior. That the dog-man isn’t trying to bite Howl suggests to Sophie that Howl might not seem so bad to the dog-man. And the dog-man’s seeming lack of interest in Lettie implies too that Sophie’s earlier assumption (that the dog-man is in love with Lettie) might be incorrect.
Themes
Howl is in and out of bed the next day. Michael runs around measuring the castle and securing brackets into the corners, while Howl asks Sophie what she’d like to sell in their new shop and where she might like the castle’s other entrances to open. Sophie asks that one entrance be “a nice house with lots of flowers.” That afternoon, Howl puts on the cloak that turns him into a red-headed man and buys the shop. When he gets back and wonders how to pay for it, Michael suggests they use the money they’ll earn from finding Prince Justin—but Howl snaps that the point is to disappear, not find the Prince. He returns to bed, sicker than ever. Oddly, the dog-man gets in Sophie’s way if she tries to attend to Howl, but Sophie thinks he has the right idea.
Up to this point, Sophie hasn’t been very involved in talks or plans to move the castle. But when Howl asks her opinion on where the castle’s entrances should be, it suggests that Howl does care about Sophie. He wants to make her happy, and this is seemingly an easy way for him to do that. Michael seems to suggest using money from finding Prince Justin for purely practical reasons, but Howl takes this as an insult. This makes Howl look increasingly selfish and cowardly, at least when it comes to the prospect of facing the Witch.
Themes
Michael is thrilled to be moving to Market Chipping, where he can visit “[his] Lettie” every day. Howl interrupts Michael, though, by coming downstairs and asking Sophie to clean his charmed gray and scarlet suit, which he plans to wear to Mrs. Pentstemmon’s funeral tomorrow. When Sophie scolds that he’ll get even sicker if he goes out and Michael asks about the Witch, Howl sniffs that he’ll be fine—he’ll go in disguise. As soon as he’s back upstairs, Sophie cuts his scarlet suit into pieces and finishes sewing the last bits of the silver and blue suit together. She asks Michael to hurry with the enlarging spell. A half-hour later, he sprinkles powder on it—and the tiny suit grows. Sophie sneaks it into Howl’s room when it looks big enough, trying to tell herself that it’s not still growing.
Howl, as a wizard, has no reason to ask Sophie to clean his suit—he could no doubt clean it himself in moments. So, it’s possible he has an ulterior motive for asking her to clean the gray and scarlet suit. Sophie, however, sees this as an opportunity to diminish the charmed suit’s power and force Howl into a suit that isn’t at all magic—or so she hopes. That Sophie tells herself the suit isn’t still growing suggests that the suit is indeed still getting bigger. While this is humorous, it also shows how Sophie still tries to see what she wants to see, or what’s convenient in the moment.
Themes
Sophie pauses to look out Howl’s window. Neil is throwing a ball with a man who must be his father, but Howl interrupts Sophie’s reverie to accuse her of snooping. Howl, half awake, mutters, “Teach me to keep off envy’s stinging” and says that Megan is jealous. Sophie returns downstairs. The next morning, Howl comes down late—and the blue and silver suit is massive and trails up the stairs behind him. Michael tries to accept the blame, but Howl snarls that this is Sophie’s work. He asks for his other suit, so Sophie pulls out the seven pieces of it. Sniffing imperiously, Howl grabs the pieces and goes into the bathroom. It takes several minutes for him to pull the entirety of the blue and silver suit in behind him.
Sophie and readers don’t have much backstory on why Howl and Megan’s relationship is so fraught, but the fact remains that Howl spends a lot of time thinking about his relationship with his sister. Despite having a supportive chosen family in the castle, Howl seems to still wish things were better in Wales. When it comes to the massive blue and silver suit, Howl insists again that Sophie has powers she doesn’t know about. In this case, Sophie may have unwittingly charmed the suit to try to keep Howl from going to the funeral—but all that seems likely to happen is that Howl will just do the magic to fix the suit himself.
Themes
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Two hours later, Howl emerges in a black suit with his hair dyed black. Sophie can’t tell which suit he’s wearing. He calls the dog-man forward, tells Sophie she won’t be able to find his other suit, and then instantly transforms into another red setter. He and the dog-man growl at each other for a moment, and then Howl turns back into himself. Howl is pleased: if he can deceive a dog, he’ll be able to trick people at the funeral. He leaves through the Porthaven door.
Howl believes Sophie that the dog-man is a real dog, but readers and Sophie know that Howl is wrong to think this. Given how easy of a time Mrs. Fairfax had identifying the switching spell that Lettie and Martha used, it seems odd that Howl would miss such a major, important spell. He may simply be too caught up in Mrs. Pentstemmon’s death to think beyond his own grief.
Themes
