Antagonist

Character Role Analysis

The Witch of the Waste

Antagonist

Let's see: the Witch of the Waste curses Sophie to be an old woman; she kidnaps both Prince Justin and the Wizard Suliman and takes their bodies apart to start building the perfect man while somehow keeping them both alive; she turns Percival—who seems to come mostly from the Wizard Suliman—into an enchanted dog; and she tries to steal Howl's head. Yes, we think it's fair to say that the Witch of the Waste is a major bad guy in the book.

Miss Angorian

Antagonist

By the end of the novel, we find out that the Witch of the Waste has mostly turned evil because of her deal with her fire demon, Miss Angorian. Mrs. Pentstemmon tells Sophie that over the years the Witch's "demon has taken control of her" (12.56). So if the Witch of the Waste is crazy and dangerous, it's because Miss Angorian has made her that way.

We don't see Miss Angorian as a villain for most of the novel (though she does come across as kind of suspicious what with her sudden appearances in the moving castle and her unexpected recognition of a magic spell as an alleged high school English teacher from our world). But once we do see how evil she is, it's totally obvious: she has been pulling the Witch's strings all along in an effort to try to steal Howl's heart from Calcifer. Luckily, Sophie is around to put a stop to those shenanigans.