How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"It's not fair!" Lettie would shout. "Why should Martha have the best of it just because she was born the youngest? I shall marry a prince, so there!"
To which Martha always retorted that she would end up disgustingly rich without having to marry anybody.
Then Sophie would have to drag them apart and mend their clothes. (1.4-6)
While the topic of this fight between Lettie and Martha—who gets to be the most successful in the family, regardless of fairytale rules and birth order—is a bit unusual, the basic fact of fights between sisters who are pretty close together in age is pretty universal. It's nice to know that families are the same in the fantasy world of Ingary as they are over here in real life.
Quote #2
"You're probably thinking I'm too young to be engaged—I've still got three years of my apprenticeship to run, and Lettie's got even longer—but we promised one another, and we don't mind waiting."
Then Michael was about the right age for Martha, Sophie thought. And she knew by now he was a nice, steady lad with a career as a wizard ahead of him. Bless Martha's heart! (7.59-60)
Sophie has really loosened up a lot during her time as an old woman working as Howl's cleaning lady. Where she might once have despaired of Martha's choice to settle down with a family and dodge her fate as the youngest child to be an adventurer, now she gets that Martha has a right to do what she wants with her life. Now the only thing that Sophie really has left to learn is that Sophie also deserves to do what she wants with her life, since she is really a prisoner of her own assumptions and prejudices.
Quote #3
"I take back my hard words, Sophie," he said, panting. "That thing was alarming. It may have been dragging the castle back all yesterday. It had some of the strongest magic I've met. Whatever was it—all that was left of the last person you cleaned for?"
Sophie gave a weak little cackle of laughter. Her heart was behaving badly again.
Howl realized something was wrong with her. He jumped indoors across his guitar, took hold of her elbow, and sat her in the chair. "Take it easy now!" (8.7-9)
Howl's teasing relationship with Sophie takes a backseat when he is actually worried about her. While Howl is extremely reluctant to admit openly when someone is important to him (and this includes Michael as well as Sophie), he frequently shows his care through his actions. When Calcifer and Howl work together to use magic to soothe Sophie's heart in this scene, we can take that as proof that the wizard and his fire demon both find Sophie to be an important part of their unusual family.