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Chapter Five
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
Howl doesn’t go out for the next few days, so Sophie sits by the hearth and thinks. She realizes she’s been taking out her anger at the Witch on the castle, and she’s upset that Howl thinks Calcifer likes her—she feels like she’s letting Calcifer down. Mending some of Michael’s clothes lifts Sophie’s spirits, though watching Howl easily slither out of answering questions about his latest girl makes Sophie even more certain that Howl is evil. It’s interesting to watch Howl work: he works quickly and expertly, but he moves between the bench, his bedroom, and a huge spell out in the yard. The big one is a spell for the King that will move an army over marshland. Howl overcharges for the spell, hoping that the King won’t try to make him the official magician and send him to find Suliman.
Now that Sophie and Howl have butted heads, Sophie considers how she feels about Howl thinking she’s one thing—when really, she’s something different. She’s not a real cleaning lady, and she implies here that she doesn’t think Calcifer genuinely likes her. It’s worth questioning this, though, since Calcifer did let Sophie into the castle in the first place when he seemingly didn’t have to. Meanwhile, Howl shows just how competent of a wizard he is when he admits that he’s trying to get out of doing too much work for the King. He’s good at what he does, but he also tries hard to evade responsibility.
Themes
When Michael points it out, Sophie notices that Howl doesn’t charge poor customers from Porthaven nearly enough for their spells. As she listens to Howl distract Michael from this problem by giving him a lesson on how to decode spells, she realizes she could do what Martha did and find a spell to lift the one the Witch put on her. Then she won’t need Calcifer. So, when Howl takes Michael out to help with the King’s spell in the yard, she digs through all the things on the workbench. Nothing makes any sense to her, though; she can’t read Howl’s writing at all.
Indeed, Howl is more of a Robin Hood sort of wizard: he’s not interested in helping well-off folks and instead would rather help those most in need. But Sophie seems to brush right past this habit (which suggests that Howl is kinder and more generous than she thinks) and instead focuses on how Howl evades Michael and has terrible handwriting. She’s too focused on her own goals to acknowledge what the information she’s gathering about Howl might suggest.
Themes
Howl grows increasingly restless and spends only an hour in the bathroom the next morning. Once Michael is dressed in his best suit, he and Howl wrap up the King’s spell; Michael should be gone most of the morning delivering it and showing the King how it works. Once Michael is gone, Howl grabs his guitar, says he’s going for a walk, and asks Sophie to tell Michael to work on the spell on the bench. He drops a gray and scarlet suit in Sophie’s lap for her to mend and disappears into the hills.
That Howl sends Michael to deliver the spell and asks Sophie to mend a suit, all while he’s out courting, continues to develop Howl as a character who goes out of his way to avoid responsibility. He’s already shown that he can mend the suit himself in an instant—and yet, he seems to just be trying to keep Sophie busy by asking her to mend the suit the slow, non-magical way.
Themes
Once Howl is gone, Calcifer grumbles that he’d like to take a walk and escape his grate. Sophie asks for a hint, but Calcifer snaps that he already gave her one. Putting the suit down, Sophie gets up, turns the square knob above the door black-side-down, and opens it. There’s nothing there—it’s not black or white, doesn’t smell, and feels like nothing. Calcifer is as intrigued as Sophie and says he doesn’t know what it is; it’s on the side of the castle where people can’t approach, and the door opens somewhere far away. Sophie closes the door and starts to go upstairs to snoop in Howl’s room, but Calcifer reveals that the door is locked and Howl asked him to say something if Sophie tried to get in. He explains he doesn’t know what’s in Howl’s room, since he can’t see anything beyond the castle’s main room.
Sophie continues to learn just how constrained Calcifer is by his contract. He works with Howl and the two are somehow connected, but Howl seems to benefit from Calcifer’s magical powers while also being able to keep his own secrets. And while Sophie can physically move around the castle, Howl seems to be trying to keep her just as restricted—at least when it comes to her trying to figure out more about Howl. It seems, though, like Sophie is ignoring information Calcifer has already given her and instead is (perhaps erroneously) focusing on digging up something else.
Themes
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Soon after Sophie settles to mend the suit, Michael gets back—and noticing the missing guitar, he moans that he thought this lady had already fallen in love with Howl. Calcifer explains that Howl just left her alone for a few days to make her miss him. Angry and confused, Sophie asks what evil things Howl does to ladies—she expects Calcifer to be okay with it since he’s an evil demon, but she’s ashamed of Michael. Calcifer snaps that he’s not evil, and Michael says he hates Howl’s behavior. Howl, Michael explains, doesn’t eat hearts; that’s just the rumor he spread in Market Chipping. Calcifer explains that Howl only likes girls until they love him. So, he makes them love him and then leaves them. Sophie deems this “heartless,” but Calcifer notes that Howl is “made that way.”
As Sophie sees it, Howl isn’t just literally eating girls’ hearts—he’s also being really manipulative as he draws them in. Michael and Calcifer both seem to agree that Howl is being somewhat cruel and manipulative as he courts his love interests, suggesting that from a moral standpoint, they’re better than Sophie expects them to be. This is especially interesting when it comes to Calcifer—he’s clearly not as evil as Sophie thinks a demon should be. When Calcifer insists that Howl is “made” heartless, it again raises suspicions: why is it a feature of Howl’s existence that he’s cruel to girls? The novel leaves this a mystery for now.
Themes
As Sophie sews, Michael tells her about Howl’s dating life. Sophie mutters to the suit that it’s designed to eat hearts. Just as Sophie and Michael decide it’s time to make lunch, Howl gets home in a foul mood, asks for hot water in the bathroom, and confirms that Sophie didn’t touch his cosmetics. As Sophie fries eggs, Calcifer says that Howl must be dyeing his hair—hopefully Sophie left the hair spells alone, as Howl is extremely vain for a plain-looking man. Just as Sophie and Michael finish eating, Howl comes out of the bathroom, distraught: Sophie destroyed his hair spells. His hair looks no different, but he tells Sophie to look at his “ruined” hair. It’s blond, as usual, though perhaps a bit redder. When Sophie deems it “nice,” Howl shrieks that he’ll have to hide until it grows out.
Howl’s vanity is a joke to Michael and Calcifer—that Howl spends so much time in the bathroom each day is something they roll their eyes at. It’s another indicator that Sophie might be capable of magic when Calcifer confirms that Sophie left the hair spells alone. Sophie didn’t pour the cosmetics out, after all, so it follows that the only way she could’ve messed with them is through unwittingly using magic on them. But despite Howl’s vanity being a running gag for most of the novel, the beginning of Howl’s tantrum shows just how invested he is in changing his appearance: he’s willing to make everyone in the house suffer as he pursues that goal.
Themes
As Howl continues shouting, the room grows dark and four howling human-shaped shadows converge on Sophie and Michael. Calcifer hides low in the grate, while Michael drags Sophie into Porthaven. The noise is deafening outside, too, but Michael tells Sophie they had to leave for her safety. They join a group of people huddled near the harbor until the screams die down. But when Sophie and Michael reenter the castle, Howl is covered in thick green slime. He’s oozing puddles of the slime onto the floor, and it reeks. Calcifer begs Sophie to save him; the slime is going to put him out. Sophie scolds Howl for behaving like a baby, and Michael asks if Howl is dead. Annoyed, she begins scooping ash into the puddles of slime.
Howl might be dangerous while he’s in the middle of a tantrum, but Sophie isn’t afraid of him. Rather, she treats him like one would treat a child—and this deprives Howl of some of his power, since he makes such a fuss in part so his housemates (and the people of Porthaven) take him seriously. Michael and Calcifer, however, do seem genuinely afraid of Howl’s theatrics. Calcifer may have more of a point, since he can’t escape Howl’s slime, but Sophie seems to think Michael is overreacting.
Themes
A path to the bathroom cleared, Sophie pushes Howl into the bathroom with Michael’s help, shoves him into the shower, and asks Calcifer for hot water. After an hour, Michael convinces Howl to put on the mended gray and scarlet suit; Sophie soaks the ruined silver and blue suit in the tub. Then, Sophie sweeps ooze onto the hills and washes the floor. As Michael settles Howl into a chair by the fire, Calcifer scolds Howl. Sophie explains to Michael that this is just a tantrum; privately, she’s sure this is about more than Howl’s hair. She warms up a mug of milk and asks what’s going on with the lady.
Howl takes his anger and frustration out on the castle by filling it with ooze, in much the same way Sophie took her anger at the Witch out on the castle by cleaning it. So, though their methods differ, they’re both doing more or less the same thing here. Sophie, however, steps into a more mature and maternal role when she gives Howl milk and tries to talk to him about what’s going on. She can do this because despite being younger than Howl, she looks and acts much older, thanks to the Witch’s curse.
Themes
In a sad voice, Howl says the lady isn’t sure she loves him—and she says there’s another man. He continues that she’s gorgeous, and he doesn’t understand why she isn’t smitten. Though Sophie had started to feel sorry for Howl, she doesn’t anymore. She acidly suggests he use a love potion and gets even angrier when he says that’s not playing the game fairly. But Howl ignores Sophie’s scolding and says that he thinks of lovely Lettie Hatter all the time. Sophie feels suddenly anxious: Martha has clearly been busy, and she’s not in love with anyone at Cesari’s.
Howl proposes that there’s no reason why any woman would reject his advances—which Sophie thinks is an entitled attitude. Sophie’s rage grows when she discovers that Howl is trying to court Martha. Even though Sophie left home without saying goodbye, she remains loyal to her sisters and doesn’t want to see them get hurt. And now that she knows that Howl makes girls love him and then drops them, she knows Martha will soon be hurt, too.
Themes
