Previous
Chapter Nineteen
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
At dawn on Midsummer Day, Howl crashes into the castle, bellowing a silly song that Calcifer usually sings. Clearly drunk, he slurs about attending a Rugby Club Reunion and recites lines from the curse the Witch put on him. Calcifer tells him to go to bed, and after running into several walls, Howl obeys. He makes so much noise, though, that Percival and Michael wake up—so Sophie can’t slip away. Instead, she goes outside with them to collect flowers for Midsummer garlands. Really, Sophie is glad to see the flowers one last time, and she’s sad to be going.
Drunk, Howl is going to be a much less effective wizard—a problem, given that today, Midsummer Day, is supposedly when the Witch’s curse will catch up to him. Though Sophie wants to disappear, it’s significant that she’s not mad about having to delay her departure. On some level, she doesn’t want to go. This suggests that Sophie feels like part of the family in the moving castle, and doesn’t want to give up the relationships she’s built.
Themes
As Percival works, he says Howl made this garden much better; he remembers being here before. Michael is excited—he still thinks Percival might be Prince Justin—but Percival doesn’t remember enough to say for sure when he was here. Making the garlands is hard work, mostly because Michael is too busy trying to get information out of Percival for either man to work. Sophie does notice that Percival seems to be expecting something; maybe he is still beholden to the Witch. As Sophie makes most of the garlands—something Howl could do with a wave of a hand, if he wasn’t asleep—she grows angry and decides for sure that she won’t help Howl defeat the Witch.
Despite Sophie’s earlier insistence that she’s going to leave today, she continues to go back and forth. She makes it seem here like she does want to help Howl, in much the same way he’s tried to help her—something that would mean she’d need to stick around. However, Sophie still reads Howl’s need to sleep off his hangover as unattractive selfishness, so there seems to be even less reason to stay. Howl seems, in this instance, to be unworthy of her help or her company.
Themes
Michael, Sophie, and Percival open the shop and deal with the first rush. It’s a chilly day, but people are still out in droves, buying flowers and celebrating. Around midday, Sophie finally steals away to pack her things. She brushes off Calcifer asking to chat and is about to leave when someone knocks at the mansion door. Calcifer says it’s safe, so Sophie opens it. A footman announces that a Mrs. Sacheverell Smith is here—and when the woman enters, it’s Fanny, wearing a hat Sophie trimmed. Sophie had told the hat to marry money—and Fanny obviously did. It takes Fanny a moment, but she recognizes Sophie and throws her arms around her, sobbing. She cries that nobody knew where Sophie was, and now Sophie is a servant instead of living with Fanny and Mr. Smith.
Once again, just as Sophie prepares to leave the moving castle, something or someone gets in her way to keep her from going. It’s significant that this time, that person is Fanny—Sophie’s stepmother and the woman who raised her. This reunion is taking place in Sophie’s childhood home, after all, so it represents a sort of marriage of Sophie’s old life with her new life. Then, it’s significant that Fanny isn’t angry with Sophie, and indeed, recognizes Sophie at all. Sophie was perhaps wrong to think Fanny would be upset with her; Fanny simply seems like she was worried.
Themes
By now, Sophie is crying too, and she and Fanny start to laugh. Sophie starts to explain what happened and says that Wizard Howl took her in. At this, Fanny picks up her parasol and threatens to stab Howl with it if he did this to Sophie. Sophie says, truthfully, that Howl has been kind. Both Calcifer and Fanny look at her with interest as Sophie says that she’s never seen Howl do anything evil—and he doesn’t eat girls’ hearts. Fanny says that Sophie has always been good at reforming people, like Lettie and Martha when they were small and selfish. But she should’ve told Fanny where she was. Sophie feels terrible now for believing Martha; she knows Fanny is a good person.
Now that Sophie is faced with a close family member, she’s able to voice how she really feels about Howl: he is actually kind, trustworthy, and generous. Fanny attributes Sophie’s view of Howl to the fact that Sophie is good at teaching people morals, but it seems like this isn’t it—Howl has always been kind. And finally, Sophie has to confront how her own assumptions about Fanny led her to reject her family members. She can heal this rift, but she knows now that she can’t take things, like what Martha said about Fanny being exploitative, at face value.
Themes
Get the entire Howl’s Moving Castle LitChart as a printable PDF.
Fanny tells Sophie all about Mr. Smith. Now that she’s old, Sophie has a new perspective on Fanny: Fanny is young, beautiful, did the best she could for her daughters, and was probably also bored with the hat shop. Suddenly, Michael bursts in with Martha and says they’ve closed the flower shop. Martha hugs both Sophie and Fanny, and moments later, Lettie and Mrs. Fairfax enter with a picnic. Percival follows them in. Everyone hugs and shouts; Sophie is shocked Howl sleeps through it.
Sophie’s new perspective helps her empathize with her stepmother. As she told Martha on May Day, Fanny worked very hard to raise three girls and deserves to have some fun—and now she’s getting that, thanks to Sophie’s charmed hat. As the rest of the family pours in (and as nobody says anything about the curse), Sophie discovers that her family will always love and support her.
Themes
Sophie notices that Lettie seems very taken with Percival; she clings to his arm like she owns him. He seems just as taken with her. Lettie explains to Sophie how Percival kept switching between his human and dog forms at first, and she affirms that she also met Prince Justin when he passed through to buy finding spells. He was very annoyed, Lettie says, because his finding spells kept saying Wizard Suliman was between Upper Folding and Market Chipping. He also kept flirting with her.
Lettie offers more insight into what was going on with Prince Justin’s finding spells, which Howl described earlier as “duds.” No one seems to consider that perhaps the spells weren’t wrong, though it's not yet clear where Wizard Suliman is or was. But their assumptions that Suliman couldn’t possibly be between Upper Folding and Market Chipping blind them to any other possibilities.
Themes
As Sophie tries to coax Calcifer to come up and say hello to Lettie, Miss Angorian enters. Ashamed of how rudely she treated Miss Angorian last time, and knowing she was only rude because Howl is courting her, Sophie decides to invite her in. Miss Angorian is clearly an outsider—everyone else knows one another. Soon she looks ready to leave, so Sophie offers to wake Howl up. Miss Angorian says she’ll just look around outside. Somehow, the door has been turned to purple-down, the field of flowers, but Sophie figures this is because of Howl's magic defenses against the Witch. She allows Miss Angorian to peruse the flowers.
It's a sign that Sophie is finally accepting that she cares for Howl when she lets Miss Angorian in. Despite finding Howl obnoxious at times, Sophie wants him to be happy—so she reasons that if Miss Angorian will make him happy, she should be nice to her. From the moment she enters the castle, though, Miss Angorian doesn’t fit in. In this situation, this is attributed to her not being part of Sophie’s family—or indeed, part of Howl’s chosen family at all.
Themes
Fanny is terrified when she sees flowers and not her carriage outside the door, so Sophie demonstrates how the door works. Suddenly, Calcifer roars to life and shouts that the Witch found Megan’s family. Howl races downstairs immediately and out into Wales, while Sophie hobbles upstairs to see what’s happening. Everyone follows Sophie. From the window, Sophie watches the Witch hold out her arms to Mari and Neil, who don’t seem to want to approach but act like they have no choice. Megan is behind them, clearly cursing at the Witch. Howl appears on the lawn moments later and charges for the Witch, chasing her over the fence and out of sight.
Howl’s immediate reaction upon learning that the Witch is hurting his family is telling. Whatever Megan might think, Howl does care about her and her children—and he’s willing to risk his life to protect them, despite their difficult relationship. That Sophie insists on watching Howl do this suggests a level of intimacy between Sophie and Howl, as Howl has made it very clear he doesn’t want Sophie in his room or really knowing anything about his family.
Themes
Disgusted by Howl’s dirty room, Fanny and Mrs. Fairfax decide to clean it. Before they can get started, Michael invites everyone to go inspect the mansion—but Lettie opens the door purple-down, onto the flowers. The scarecrow is in the doorway. Sophie is terrified; Miss Angorian is out there somewhere, possibly dead. Inside, the skull starts chattering and the guitar makes odd twangs. Calcifer tells Sophie the scarecrow is saying it means no harm and wants to come in. He believes it. Sophie trusts Calcifer, and the scarecrow really isn’t so frightening. Indeed, fearing it was just an excuse for Sophie to not leave the castle. Now, though, she has to leave, since Howl prefers Miss Angorian to Sophie.
Fanny and Mrs. Fairfax’s choice to clean Howl’s room lends some humor to a tense situation, but the scarecrow’s arrival just creates more tension. However, it also causes Sophie to reevaluate her preconceptions: she trusts Calcifer, so if Calcifer says the scarecrow isn’t dangerous, Sophie is now willing to believe him. And she’s becoming more introspective about her past actions as well. Now, she’s willing to consider that she loves Howl and has acted in certain ways so she can stay around him—and because she loves him, she reasons she must let him pursue Miss Angorian.
Themes
Sophie invites the scarecrow in. It looks around and falls toward the skull in Michael’s hands—and with a magical fizz, the skull enters the turnip head. The scarecrow says it can speak now, and Mrs. Fairfax explains that this is just a magician’s golem. Percival faints and Lettie runs to him, but the scarecrow approaches Percival—and says Percival is one of “the parts” he’s supposed to find. It thanks Sophie for talking life into him, and then it thanks Lettie and Mrs. Fairfax. Sophie asks what the scarecrow is supposed to do, but Calcifer tells Sophie not to pester the being. Suddenly, the Witch’s voice booms through the castle, saying that she tricked Howl and has Lily Angorian in the Waste. Howl has to come get her himself. As the scarecrow hops away, Michael shouts that the Witch sent the scarecrow so she could infiltrate the castle.
Once Sophie stops to think before judging the scarecrow, things begin to fall into place. The scarecrow initially seems like it’s on the side of good; if it's looking for “parts,” the implication is that it’s working against the witch to possibly undo whatever she’s done with regards to assembling Percival. Additionally, the scarecrow confirms that Sophie “talked life” into it, highlighting that Sophie has been powerful for some time now and just didn’t know it. And Calcifer, at least, has empathy for the scarecrow. Further, Sophie trusts Calcifer, so it seems more likely that the scarecrow isn’t actually evil.
Themes
