Howl’s Moving Castle Plot Summary
Howl’s Moving Castle centers on a woman called Sophie, an “old-at-heart” young woman who ends up cursed by a spiteful witch to become old.
As she sets out to try and find a remedy, she soon realizes that this lies with insecure young wizard called Howl, who lives within a moving castle, operated by a fire-demon called Calcifer.
Why does the witch curse Sophie?
The Witch of the Waste curses Sophie with old age because she’s sees her with Howl and is jealous. It turns out The Witch and Howl used to date, but once Howl realized who she really was, and the ugly personality she had, he left her.
Sophie however, has always been old at heart and she accepts the curse, especially when she meets Howl.
Part of the Witch’s curse is that she can’t say anything about it to anyone. Calcifer could only perceive the curse (and in turn Howl) because of their magic.
Is the Witch’s curse broken?
Throughout the movie, Sophie slowly starts to regain some of her youth, having otherwise grown indifferent in life after spending all her time sewing hats. Every day is tedious to her.
The Witch of the Waste, in many ways, shows Sophie who she truly is and when she’s put under a spell she accepts it and can’t tell anyone about it either, for the above reasons.
Sophie does start to warm to Howl toward the middle part of the film and from here on in, she randomly shows her youth, usually typified by Howl giving her compliments or she grows confident, and the pair fall in love as a result.
It’s either her love that’s breaking the curse or, as detailed in the book, Sophie is actually a witch herself and doesn’t realize it. So it could always be that the Witch’s curse wore off and Sophie kept herself old to reflect how she feels about herself. This would also explain why, by the end of the movie, she can turn young again (but keep the silver hair).
What is Howl’s curse?
When he was young, Howl traded his heart to a demon so he could be more powerful. This links directly into Howl’s self-indulgent attitude (the fuss he makes when his hair turns orange is a great example of this.) If he has no heart then he slowly becomes inhumane and has no emotion.
Sophie broke Howl’s curse when Howl fell in love with her. In the beginning, when Calcifer lets Sophie into the moving castle, that’s the start of their love story (which may or may not linked to the brief flash of Howl in the past seeing Sophie telling him to wait for her during the vision of his trade with the demon).
As Calcifer is Howl’s heart, Howl lets Sophie into his heart when she boards the castle.
Why does the Witch of the Waste take Calcifer?
The Witch of the Waste ends up becoming one of the protagonists after Madame Suliman lures her to the castle to drains her of her magical powers.
This not only restores the Witch to her actual appearance and age (given she’s been using magic to keep herself young, thus why Howl left her) and she sees the error of her ways.
When she finds out that Calcifer is Howl’s heart, she’s blinded by her old greed and grabs Calcifer’s heart. When she finally lets it go and hands it over to Sophie, it’s symbolic of her accepting that she’ll never have Howl’s heart and their love has ended.
What caused the war?
The war in Howl’s Moving Castle takes place between three of the big powers of the realm. Sophie’s home of Ingary, its rivals High Norland and Srangia. The war began because the Crown Prince Justin went missing and was presumed to have been kidnapped by the rival kingdom.
It turns out he was actually cursed and turned into a scarecrow (Turnip-Head). Neither of the powers trusted the other’s word that they had nothing to do with the Prince’s disappearance, and it eventually escalates into all-out war.
This is why, by the end when Madame Suliman sees the Prince in his regal form, she decides to call off the war and the conflict ends.
How does Sophie save Calcifer/Howl at the end?
By this point, when The Witch of the Waste hands over Calcifer to Sophie, true love prevails and as she returns Howl’s heart to his body, Howl returns back to his original state.
Having accepted Howl’s bird form and loving him for who he is (clear parallels to Beauty and the Beast here), the pair live happily ever after on Howl’s Moving Castle, which is now flying rather than on the ground.
This is symbolic of Howl embracing his true form and “flying high in love” rather than aimlessly wandering around on the ground and trying to find purpose.