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Martha Hatter
Fanny is Sophie and Lettie’s stepmother and Martha’s mother. She was a young, pretty shop assistant at the hat shop when Sophie’s father married her, and she made a point to treat all three of her daughters exactly the same. A sensible and practical woman, Fanny finds all three girls apprenticeships when her husband dies and money gets tight. However, she and Sophie both misjudge Lettie and Martha: Martha isn’t as ambitious as they expect her to be, while Lettie is wildly ambitious. Martha also tells Sophie that she believes Fanny is exploiting Sophie to run the hat shop while she spends lots of money. Because Sophie briefly believes this, she leaves home after the Witch curses her without saying goodbye to Fanny. Fanny ultimately marries a wealthy man and, when she reconnects with Sophie, makes it clear that Sophie and Martha misjudged her. Indeed, with her new perspective as an old woman, Sophie sympathizes with Fanny: Fanny is still young and beautiful, and she was no doubt as bored at the hat shop as Sophie was.
Fanny Quotes in Howl’s Moving Castle
The Howl’s Moving Castle quotes below are all either spoken by Fanny or refer to Fanny. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter Two
Quotes
“I never knew!”
“Well, it wasn’t much good going on about it when you were so busy backing Mother up about me making my fortune,” Martha said. “You thought Mother meant it. I did too, until Father died and I saw she was just trying to get rid of us—putting Lettie where she was bound to meet a lot of men and get married off, and sending me as far away as she could! I was so angry I thought, Why not? And I spoke to Lettie and she was just as angry and we fixed it up. We’re fine now.”
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Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twenty
Quotes
“Do listen. He’s not wicked at all!” There was a bit of a fizz from the grate at this, where Calcifer was watching with some interest. “He isn’t!” Sophie said, to Calcifer as much as to Fanny. “In all the time I’ve been here, I’ve not seen him work a single evil spell!” Which again was true, she knew.
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Fanny Quotes in Howl’s Moving Castle
The Howl’s Moving Castle quotes below are all either spoken by Fanny or refer to Fanny. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter Two
Quotes
“I never knew!”
“Well, it wasn’t much good going on about it when you were so busy backing Mother up about me making my fortune,” Martha said. “You thought Mother meant it. I did too, until Father died and I saw she was just trying to get rid of us—putting Lettie where she was bound to meet a lot of men and get married off, and sending me as far away as she could! I was so angry I thought, Why not? And I spoke to Lettie and she was just as angry and we fixed it up. We’re fine now.”
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twenty
Quotes
“Do listen. He’s not wicked at all!” There was a bit of a fizz from the grate at this, where Calcifer was watching with some interest. “He isn’t!” Sophie said, to Calcifer as much as to Fanny. “In all the time I’ve been here, I’ve not seen him work a single evil spell!” Which again was true, she knew.
