The novel follows the story of Sophie Hatter, eldest of three siblings, and thus most likely to fail should she and her younger sisters set out to seek their fortunes. After a chance encounter with a witch in her hat shop, Sophie is transformed into an old woman, and in her journey to find a reversal for the curse, she finds a cantankerous fire demon named Calcifer, an eager apprentice named Micheal, an intimidating hopping scarecrow, a dog that’s not quite who he seems, and, of course, the titular Wizard Howl. Items for one time wear or indoor use like shoe covers, boots tops, costume shoes, etccan not be returned. Howl’s Moving Castle is the rare story that centers around a girl’s imaginative abilities without succumbing to mere whimsy. Sophie’s imagination is powerful, even when used unconsciously. Yet discovering her magic isn’t just about finding her power—it’s a perspective shift. She’d been so convinced of her path as the eldest daughter that she limited her own possibilities. But rather than falling into despair, this transformation frees Sophie from the expectations she’d mapped onto her life—there are no stories about old ladies seeking their fortune, so she’s free. She tells herself in the mirror, “This is much more like you really are.”

The book is a fun, breezy ride, half fantasy adventure, half domestic farce; the intimately described moving castle becomes a cozy home for both the reader and Sophie. Staying on the pretext of acting as Howl’s much-needed cleaning lady, Sophie is unapologetically concerned with the feminized domestic, always scrubbing and darning and sweeping, exploring her talents in horticulture and sewing. Howl’s dramatizes a fundamental tension of childhood, between the cultural expectations produced by the media kids consume (much of which is explicitly meant to be instructive) and the futures and desires in their own minds. While many children’s books follow protagonists who are readers themselves, this suspicion of stories feels rare for the genre. Sophie looks to stories to tell her what her life will be, and she buys into it entirely, to her detriment. The next morning, Howl tells Sophie that he's been summoned to the Royal Palace so he can defend the country in a war. He also tells her that he's a coward and all he does is hide. He then tells Sophie to go the Palace as his mother to convince Madame Suliman that he's too cowardly to show his face. Sophie goes to Kingsbury, along with a ring that Howl gives her, and on her way to the castle, she meets up with the Witch of the Waste. Sophie is a reserved, plain-looking young woman. She is far too mature and serious for her age, much to the chagrin of her sister Lettie and stepmother Honey. Tired of wizard Howl's indolence, she initiates cleaning his castle. She develops feelings for the poor, cowardly wizard. She also serves as a maternal figure to Markl and a friend to Calcifer and Turnip Head. Despite her misgivings, she ends up tolerating the Witch of the Waste after she is turned feeble by the royal sorceress Madame Suliman. Calcifer (fire demon) Sophie and Calcifer are relatively good friends as he is the first one to know about her curse.She pleads with the Witch to give her Calcifer, and when she does, Sophie pushes him into Howl's chest. Calcifer flies out, once more a star, and flies away. The remains of the castle break apart once Calcifer leaves, and they shot down a hill towards a cliff, but are saved by Turnip Head, who loses his pole in the process. Sophie kisses

House of Many Ways takes place three years after Castle in the Air. Sophie is a sorceress who is invited to help in the search for the kingdom's missing treasury, mainly because she is Howl's wife and one kingdom cannot ask the help of another kingdom's Royal Wizard. So while they asked for Sophie instead, Howl chose to come along as well in the disguise of an adorable young boy named "Twinkle", claiming to be Sophie's nephew. In the end Sophie helps solve the crime from the prince, and Howl discovers the location of the mysterious Elfgift. By integrating key elements from the story into your own looks, you, too, can add some of Jones’ fantasy and whimsy into your every day life! (Dashing wizard companion not included.) Also, because Sophie’s job is to decorate hats, we decided to include one in every look. Once Upon a TimeAt the beginning of “Howl’s Moving Castle,” Sophie Hatter is first seen wearing a sun hat with a red ribbon, a pink brochette and a pastel green dress with a white collar. After Sophie is cursed, she continues to wear the same hat with her hair in a braid alongside a blue dress, designed similarly to the green, and a long-skirted yellow dress by the very end of the film. Sophie’s dress is reminiscent of a day dress from the 1890s that takes from older Victorian wrappers . In the film, she actually mentions that right after she is cursed into a much older version of herself, her clothing “finally suits her,” indicating she dresses rather “old” for her age. With a later Edwardian period as the setting, it would make sense for Sophie to describe a Victorian wrapper-like dress as old-fashioned. At the beginning of the story, Sophie’s character is shy and quiet, believing herself to be ugly. Unlike her mother and her sisters, Sophie tends to dress more reservedly in clothes that do not resemble the popular fashion of the time. Her clothing reflects the view she has of herself as having a place only in relation to the people around her instead of having a distinct place of her own. Her dresses throughout the film are all quite similar to one another as iterations of the same dress, the only significant difference being in color. The selected range of garment design was intentional so that Sophie’s dress essentially became part of her character. When her dress became a solidified piece of her character design, the garment did not have the ability to further influence how she developed, but rather she herself determined the worth and level of importance of the dress. The dress being seemingly plain as well allowed it to accompany Sophie’s journey into her character development. The dress’s design worked alongside Sophie’s personality and her growth as a character. The article “Fashion Analysis in Hayao Miyazaki’s Films” by Darlyn Granja describes how it goes from being a simple dress to “a symbolic piece that is shaped and personalized by Sophie and her character development, rather than the dress shaping Sophie.” The gown itself did not provide beauty for Sophie. Instead, her growing self-assurance resonated in her clothing.

This reminds me of how Sophie herself changes through her interactions with others in the novel. Her spats with Howl teach her that she is opinionated, not demure; her conniving with the fire demon reveals her intelligence and magical ability; her misapprehensions of her sisters shows her that just because she’s the oldest doesn’t mean she knows everything. In the novels, however, Sophie accidentally uses her own powers to perpetuate her own curse, partly because she prefers being old. Supervising animator Takeshi Inamura handled many of the initial character sketches, "At first, I drew her as if she were merely an older version of Sophie, but then she didn't resemble 'Sophie' at all. So I thought it might be better to draw the aged Sophie as representing Sophie's personality. The drawings became more 'Sophie-like' once I managed to convey Sophie's personality as an old lady. [1]

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The film is markedly different from the novel in many ways, including in the motivations and attitudes of some of the main characters, as well as the dramatic ending. However, despite these changes, and the fact that the author had no input in the use of her story, Diana Wynne Jones absolutely loved the studio’s take on it, and called the film “fantastic.” She was especially fond of the castle, which she never imagined really having feet, and confessed to having several models of it around her home, as well as many of Calcifer the fire demon, one of which sat in her fireplace. How to Add Sophie to Your Wardrobe This product includes patterns only for the top. For skirt we include a full construction tutorial, as it's too big for printing usage; The fictional girl I actually related to was preternaturally cranky and loved to complain. She wore the same gray dress every day. She was shy with strangers, irritable with loved ones. She got mad, snooped in everyone’s business, but also worried about everyone constantly. She was anxious about everything from her future to her family’s well-being. Oh, and she was an 18-year-old in a 90-year-old’s body.