Howl’s Moving Castle: Chapter Five Summary & Analysis

Sophie decides to show Howl that she’s a great cleaning lady—and she’s relieved that there are only a few rooms to clean. Michael and Calcifer watch, horrified, as Sophie gets to work. As she cleans, a little girl knocks on the Porthaven door and asks Michael for her dad’s safety spell for his boat. The girl notices Sophie and asks if she’s a witch—Sophie cackles that she is. Normally, Sophie would be embarrassed by her behavior. But as an old woman, she finds she doesn’t care. When Sophie notices Michael hiding the girl’s payment, Michael and Calcifer explain that Howl is awful about spending too much money. They try to keep a store hidden, just in case.

Sophie gets to work on the cobwebs near the main door so she can inspect the square knob. She’s now seen three sides used (which lead to the hills, Porthaven, and Kingsbury), but where the fourth black side leads is a mystery. Howl emerges from the bathroom and tells Sophie to leave the spiders alone. When she asks where the black door leads, he scolds her for being nosy and refuses to say. He opens the door onto the hills, ignores Michael asking when he’ll be back, and tells Sophie to not kill a single spider. Then, he takes his guitar and leaves. Figuring he’s off hunting young girls, Sophie angrily scares off all the spiders and scrubs the floor. Both Michael and Calcifer cower out of the way.

When Howl gets home that night, Calcifer and Michael regale him with complaints about how Sophie is ruining everything with her cleaning. Howl confirms that Sophie didn’t kill any spiders, and Sophie asks if they’re the girls whose hearts he ate. He laughs, says they’re just spiders, and goes upstairs. Still irritated with Sophie, Michael pulls out a folding bed for her and sets it up under the stairs. He notes that this doesn’t necessarily mean Howl will let Sophie stay—it took Howl months to notice Michael was in the castle.

Over the next few days, Sophie scrubs every inch of the castle, much to Michael and Calcifer’s chagrin. She figures that at some point, she’ll find a hoard of girls’ souls or something that helps her figure out what Calcifer’s contract is. Howl doesn’t seem to care much when Calcifer and Michael complain about Sophie. Now that Howl’s customers know of Sophie’s existence, they begin to bring her gifts, which Sophie uses to decorate her area under the stairs. Finally, Sophie decides to tackle the bathroom. She inspects the shelf of packets and jars, but even the ones labeled EYES and HAIR don’t seem to contain girls. Rather, they’re just cosmetics.

That night, Calcifer complains that he drained a hot spring for Sophie to clean the bathroom—when will she get to breaking his contract? Sophie notes that she needs to spend more time with Howl before she’ll be able to figure things out, and Calcifer explains that Howl is only out so much when he’s pursuing a woman. After the bathroom, Sophie moves on to Michael’s room. He rescues a box of treasures from her, and from the contents she can see, Sophie ascertains that Michael has a sweetheart. But she doesn’t ask Michael about her, and instead, she burns so much dust and garbage from his room that Calcifer chokes that Sophie is “as heartless as Howl.” Michael, meanwhile, complains that whatever girl Howl is pursuing is being unusually difficult.

It’s raining in Porthaven the next day, so Sophie can’t clean the backyard (which is part of the Porthaven house). Instead, she spends the next few days whitewashing the main room’s walls and ceilings. When Howl steps inside one day and remarks that it’s brighter in the castle, Michael whispers to Calcifer that Howl’s latest girlfriend must be giving in. By now, all that’s left for Sophie to clean is Howl’s room. She’s avoided it out of fear of Howl, but she realizes now she was silly to fear him: Calcifer performs all the magic, Michael does all the grunt work, and Howl exploits them both while he spends his time snaring girls. He’s no different from Fanny, and Sophie detests him.

However, Howl is standing in the doorway of his room when Sophie gets there. He says pleasantly that he likes it dirty. Sophie is shocked; she saw Howl leave the castle. Howl reminds Sophie that he is a wizard who can do magic, no matter what Calcifer may have said. Annoyed, Sophie says that no matter what Howl is, his castle is disgusting. She can see that his room is covered in dust and garbage, though she can’t see a pile of girls’ hearts (they’re probably under the bed). But Howl swings a trailing sleeve in front of Sophie’s face, tells her to stop being nosy, and sends her to go find something else to do. Sophie argues that she can’t help being a neat old woman, but Howl argues that she can.

Sophie is shaken, but she’s surprised Howl didn’t throw her out. She decides to clean the yard, but as soon as she starts sorting trash, Howl appears and tells her to leave the yard alone. Certain there’s a box of hearts in the yard, Sophie shouts at Howl, but he tells her to go do something else before he gets angry, since he hates being angry. At this, Sophie accuses him of being a “slitherer-outer,” someone who hates unpleasant things and goes out of his way to avoid them. Howl backs Sophie into the house, ripping a sleeve as he does. When Sophie offers to mend it, Howl fixes the rip with a wave of his fingers—he really is a wizard. Inside, Sophie asks Michael why Howl hasn’t kicked her out. Michael observes that Howl follows Calcifer’s lead; most people either don’t notice Calcifer or are terrified of him.