Sophie Hatter

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Sophie Hatter is the heroine of Diana Wynne Jones' novel Howl's Moving Castle, published in 1986 and is also a character in the sequel, Castle in the Air (1990). She was portrayed in 2004 in an animated film adaptation of Howl's Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. She is voiced by Chieko Baisho in the Japanese version and Jean Simmons (old Sophie) and Emily Mortimer (young Sophie) in the English version.

[edit] Howl's Moving Castle

Sophie is the oldest of three daughters living in the magical kingdom of Ingary, where many fairy-tale tropes are accepted ways of life. When Sophie's father dies, her step-mother Fanny sets her to making the hats in the family hat shop. Sophie, being the eldest, is convinced that she'll always fail at everything she does, and accepts her doomed fate.

When the Witch of the Waste gets jealous of her magic talents (which Sophie is completely unaware of), she turns Sophie into an old woman. Sophie becomes more confident as an old woman and changes from being a church mouse of a girl into a stubborn and brave woman. Her desire to return to her true age takes her to the moving castle belonging to Wizard Howl. Howl is said to suck the souls out of young girls and eat the hearts of beautiful ones. No longer seeing this as a threat to her person, Sophie enters the castle and takes the job as his cleaning lady.

While there she meets Calcifer, the fire demon and learns of a contract that binds Howl and the demon together. The demon promises to break the spell on Sophie if she frees him from the contract with Howl. Occasionally, Calcifer drops Sophie hints to how to break the contract, though she often misses them.

When the King's brother, Prince Justin, goes missing whilst in search of Wizard Suliman, the King wishes Howl to find them both and kill the Witch of the Waste. Howl attempts to weasel out of it by having Sophie, pretending to be his mother, petition against the appointment, but to no avail. Howl happens to have his own reasons for avoiding the Witch of the Waste; the witch happens to be one of Howl's many ex-lovers. Sophie soon learns that Howl is not so much a wicked wizard, as opposed to a young man who takes joy in making young girls fall in love with him and then ditching them once they do. Even having first-hand knowledge of Howl's fickle attentions and less-than-appealing qualities, Sophie ends up falling in love with him as well.

Howl can not fall in love because Calcifer has his heart therefore he cannot give it to someone else. However, as part of the curse the Witch has put on him, when he does fall in love, the Witch will find his heart and take it for herself, therefore killing him. Howl falls in love with Sophie (having known she's under a spell) and therefore activates the curse. On the day the curse is said to come true, the Witch tells Sophie that she has kidnapped Miss Angorian, a Welsh schoolteacher who Howl has been courting, and that Howl would have to come and save her. Sophie, thinking that it is Miss Angorian who Howl loves, goes to the Waste to try and save her before Howl hears about it. When Sophie gets there, the Witch reveals that it was a trap to get Sophie to come to the Waste, which has proven successful. Now that the Witch has taken Sophie hostage, Howl rushes out to the Wastes to retrieve her and fights the Witch of the Waste, overcoming his reluctance to do so out of love for Sophie, and wins.

However, the Witch's own fire demon, who is actually Miss Angorian, tries to take Howl's heart to become more powerful. Sophie is able to stop the demon as she turns out to be a witch with life-giving abilities. Using this ability to give Calcifer one thousand more years of life, she breaks the contract between Calcifer and Howl and returns Howl's heart. By defeating the Witch and giving Howl back his heart, Sophie is able to break the curse and free both Wizard Suliman and Prince Justin. She turns back to her original age and she and Howl admit their feelings for one another, interrupted only when Michael announces that Calcifer has returned.

[edit] Castle in the Air

In Castle in the Air, Sophie and Howl are married and have a son together, Morgan. Both Sophie and Morgan have been turned into cats by Howl to protect them from djinn who have stolen the moving castle. They meet the new protagonist, Abdullah (who has lost his true love, Flower-in-the-Night, to a djinn) and a strange soldier. While the soldier takes a liking to Sophie as a cat and names her "Midnight", Abdullah hates her and even becomes terrified of her strange magic.

Once Abdullah reaches Ingary in his quest to find Flower-in-the-Night, he learns who Sophie really is and Wizard Suliman turns her back into herself. However, the soldier runs away to the moving castle, taking Abdullah's genie and Sophie's baby with him. Abdullah and Sophie take a magic carpet to the castle and discover that the djinns have kidnapped all the princesses from around the world including Ingary's princess, Valeria, and Flower-in-the-Night. After finding the two princesses and Morgan, Valeria burst into tears from the stress of being kidnapped, but calms down the moment she sees Sophie.

With the help of the other princesses, Abdullah, Sophie, Flower-in-the-Night and the moody Genie, they manage to trick the djinns and take back the castle. Sophie and Morgan are both reunited with Howl (who was the Genie) and Calcifer (who was the magic carpet).

[edit] Magical talents

Sophie discovers she is a witch and has a very special magical talent. She can talk things into coming to life, or doing what she wants. During the book she manages to:

Howl's Moving Castle

• "You’re as young as a spring leaf," Sophie says. Mayor’s wife buys the hat and looks like a schoolgirl.
• "You have a heart of gold and someone in a high position will fall in love with you," Sophie says. Jane Farrier buys the hat and runs off with the Count of Catterack.
• "You’re going to have to marry money," Sophie says. Fanny wears that hat and she married Mr. Smith, a very rich man.
• She talks life into the scarecrow.
• She talks life into her stick.
• She talks life into the human skull on the bench.
• She charms Howl’s grey and scarlet suit, saying that it will attract many women and probably incur the wrath of an aunt. She accidentally does the same with his blue and silver suit.
• She talks seeds into growing into strange flowers and flowers to stay fresh longer
• Her anger causes some flowers in water to turn into weed-killer.

Castle in the Air

• Changes herself into a larger cat, to scare Abdullah in her cat form.
• Orders for oxygen to allow her to breathe better, when travelling upward to the moving castle.
• Stops sound from passing through the walls, when she and the others are plotting their escape.
• Trebles the sound of Morgan's cries, to startle the djinns.