Sophie meets Michael Fisher, Howl’s apprentice in magic. They agree to secretly figure out what limitations apply to their respective contract and curse.

Calcifer perceives she is under a curse and offers her a bargain: If she breaks the contract he has with Howl, then he will lift her curse. The Witch’s curse prevents Sophie from speaking of her curse to other people unless they already know about it. Inside the castle, Sophie begins speaking to the fire demon Calcifer, who sits in the fireplace. As an old woman, Sophie believes she will be protected from Howl, who is rumored to eat the hearts of young women. On the walk from Market Chipping toward the Waste, Sophie encounters a dog tied up, a farmer, and a scarecrow that she speaks to.Īs night draws near, Sophie sees the Wizard Howl’s notorious castle approaching her and decides to ask it to stop and admit her. It may be her only chance to seek her fortune. She immediately packs food and some belongings and leaves Market Chipping, believing that she must separate herself from her family.

Sophie’s appearance changes into that of an old woman. The woman reveals herself to be the Witch of the Waste, who has come to curse Sophie for, she believes, harboring information and thwarting her plans. One day while working in the hat shop, a grand and affluent woman comes in. Lettie, conversely, wanted to study magic, so the sisters swapped places. At the bakery, Cesari’s, Sophie finds that Lettie and Martha have used a spell to switch appearances it is Martha that works in the bakery now, as she wants to find a husband and start a family. She runs into an attractive young man who offers to walk her to her destination, but Sophie is too afraid to speak with him and runs away. On May Day, she goes out into Market Chipping to visit Lettie. Sophie grows shy, fearful, and lacking in confidence while working in the hat shop. She apprentices for her stepmother Fanny and helps run the family hat shop while her sisters Lettie and Martha are apprenticed to a baker and a witch, respectively. Sophie Hatter, an 18-year-old young woman living in the town of Market Chipping, believes that being the eldest daughter has consigned her to a life of mundanity and boredom. Howl’s Moving Castle takes place in a fantasy kingdom called Ingary.

Howl's moving castle house of many ways