How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three. Everyone knows you are the one who will fail first, and worst, if the three of you set out to seek your fortunes.
Sophie Hatter was the eldest of three sisters. She was not even the child of a poor woodcutter, which might have given her some chance of success! (1.1-2)
These first two paragraphs of Howl's Moving Castle tell us a lot about both Ingary and Sophie. First of all, we know that Ingary is going to be a place full of clichés. Second, we find out a lot about Sophie's mindset here. It seems like the third-person narrator is talking when the book tells us that Sophie is "not even the child of a poor woodcutter, which might have given her some chance of success!"—but that exclamation point implies a degree of frustration and annoyance that could come straight from Sophie herself.
Sophie really does feel doomed by her role as older sister, which is consistent with fairytale clichés, but which Sophie's actual experience in the plot of Howl's Moving Castle totally undoes.
Quote #2
[Sophie] was still discontented, alone in the shop next morning, when a very plain young woman customer stormed in, whirling a pleated mushroom bonnet by its ribbons. "Look at this!" the young lady shrieked. "You told me this was the same as the bonnet Jane Farrier was wearing when she met the Count. And you lied. Nothing has happened to me at all!"
"I'm not surprised," Sophie said, before she had caught up with herself. "If you're fool enough to wear that bonnet with a face like that, you wouldn't have the wit to spot the King himself if he came begging—if he hadn't turned to stone just at the sight of you." (2.30-31)
Even before Sophie turns old, she can be deeply snarky—she's just too afraid to let loose with this kind of trash-talking (usually, at least). Why is Sophie willing to be so honest with this woman when she has so much trouble leveling with her stepmother, Fanny? What provokes her to talk so harshly at this specific point in the second chapter? What does this outburst tell us about Sophie's character that we may not know before this point of the book?
Quote #3
"I came because I'm your new cleaning lady, of course."
"Are you indeed?" Howl said, cracking the eggs one-handed and tossing the shells among the logs, where Calcifer seemed to be eating them with a lot of snarling and gobbling. "Who says you are?"
"I do," said Sophie, and she added piously, "I can clean the dirt from this place even if I can't clean you from your wickedness, young man." (4.40-2)
Sophie is really embracing this old lady thing, and here she talks to Howl as though he's a grandson she's scolding. In this case, Sophie allows her appearance to structure her identity and behavior: as an old woman, she feels totally free to say and do whatever she wants. In an odd way, before she turns old Sophie feels that her identity is out of step with her outside appearance as a young woman. Being old feels more true to her in some sense—at least until Howl provides her with a good reason to de-age herself.