Making Sense of Howl’s Moving Castle
Magic, curses, and inner reality
Hayao Miyazaki’s “Howl’s Moving Castle” is a masterpiece on all counts. The animation is superb, the soundtrack delightful, and the characters engaging. However, even if the story is also very beautiful, it may leave some viewers scratching their heads.
This is due to Miyazaki’s way of storytelling. It is true that, if we pay attention, every major plot point is explained throughout the movie. But this is often done in a very subtle way, which may go unnoticed. On the one hand, this may push the viewer to return to the movie several times, apprehending new meanings and enriching their perspective with each new view. Nevertheless, this may also create the illusion that the story is somewhat disjointed.
This is particularly true regarding the way Miyazaki portrays magic in his world. The mechanics of this magic are sometimes confusing. For example, one may be puzzled by a scene where Sophie, a young woman who is cursed to look like an old lady, suddenly and apparently without explanation, returns to her original age, albeit only temporarily.
It was just after viewing the movie three or four times, that I found out a pattern that may help explain this: in “Howl’s Moving Castle”, curses have the ability to show things as they really are.
For clarity purposes, let me highlight: I am talking specifically of the curses, not necessarily magic in general. In this movie, curses show things as they really are. Appearances crumble under the weight of the curses, and the true inner essence of the characters is thus revealed.
As an example, let us consider the Witch of the Waste. Her path runs counter-parallel to the one undertook by Sophie. While Sophie is cursed to look older than her biological age, the Witch uses magic to look younger than her real age. Madame Suleiman, a powerful sorceress, then “curses” the Witch by taking away all her magic powers. The Witch’s true self is exposed: she is just an old lady, pretending to be young.
Another case has to do with the sorcerers who are fighting a war in the background. During the course of the battles, they turn into flying monsters that then proceed to lay waste to defenseless towns in enemy territory. It is said that they cannot return to their human form. By selling their souls to their kings and fighting in the war, the sorcerers have become corrupted. They have lost their humanity and become moral monsters. The curse that irreversibly turns them into actual monsters just reflects their inner transformation.
Howl, another main character, must also resist this monstrous transformation several times in the course of the movie. But this young sorcerer’s greatest dangers lie elsewhere. His evolution also runs counter-parallel to Sophie. Whereas Sophie has self-confidence issues regarding her physical appearance, Howl overestimates the value of his good looks. Shallowly, he believes that his life is only worth living while he can retain his beauty, his youth. When Sophie mistakenly switches his potions, making Howl lose the blond color of his hair, he throws a tantrum and almost melts away with severe depression.
Howl’s curse is connected to this shallow perspective on youth. During his childhood, Howl gives his heart to a fire demon, named Calcifer. He then uses Calcifer’s power to build a Walking Castle, and to move it around the world, always running away from any commitment, either to love or country. The Moving Castle symbolizes Howl’s unwillingness to settle down. His burning and passionate heart moves him from place to place, but it does not seem to matter where. Ultimately, Howl takes refuge inside his Castle, his interior fortress, building walls that no one can penetrate… until Sophie comes along and makes him care for anyone else but himself.
Yet another character is Turnip: a prince that has been cursed by being transformed into a scarecrow. He does not seem to exhibit any personality, but simply follows Sophie around trying to help her so that she will notice him. Granted, Sophie breaks his curse by kissing him. However, it seems like it is only after Sophie falls in love with Howl, that Turnip takes the reins of his royal responsibilities, goes back, and ends the war. He then ceases to be a scarecrow, a mere object, a third-wheel, someone desperately in search of love in the wrong place for the wrong reasons. He transforms into the prince that he was meant to be from the start. In this sense, not only does the curse show his inner self, the lifting of the curse also manifests his positive inner evolution.
Only now are we able to grasp the true meaning of Sophie’s curse. The curse does nothing more than to reveal Sophie as she really is. In the beginning, we see that Sophie, though young, acts as an old lady. She eschews the joyous revelries typical of her young years, preferring to waste her life working in her shop instead. She was already older than her years before the curse took hold of her body. After the curse, her body is simply mirroring the age of her soul.
Since the curse makes Sophie’s inner age manifest, then the lifting of the curse does the same. For Sophie’s inner age also changes throughout the movie. When she falls in love with Howl, she gradually gains vigor and confidence. Her inner age changes, her soul revitalizes itself. And her body rejuvenates in the same measure as her soul does. The more she loves, the younger she becomes. Whenever, after a brave incursion through love, her self-confidence falters, the weight of age returns upon her shoulders.
In the end, Sophie’s curse is also broken. Yet, even though Sophie regains her young appearance, her hair remains gray. Gray hair is a symbol of age, but now this age does not seem to have an impact in her youthfulness. Even if Sophie learned to be youthful again, the marks of the curse remain. How? In the form of the experience and wisdom she acquired. Experience and wisdom are also signs of age, but this time, they are not a hindrance to Sophie’s movements and agility. Quite the contrary: her gray hairs add to her beauty, while not detracting from her newfound youth, gained through love.
For all of this, we can see that “Howl’s Moving Castle” is a masterpiece also at the level of plot and storytelling. Yet, some exegesis is necessary to fully appreciate the depth of its message. I hope to have adequately interpreted master Miyazaki’s intentions. Either way, this approach surely helped me gain many important insights about life, love, and true youth.
