How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
[The dog-man] sauntered beside them so friskily that Sophie was sure he thought Howl was done for. He was so pleased with life that when they turned onto the street where Howl's house was and there happened to be a stray cat crossing the road, the dog-man uttered a joyful bark and galloped after it. He chased it with a dash and a skitter straight to the castle doorstep, where it turned and glared.
"Geroff!" it mewed. "This is all I needed!" (16.35-36)
We know that the dog-man really seems to have it in for Howl early on—in fact, when Sophie first comes to Mrs. Fairfax's house to see Howl hitting on Lettie, she observes that the dog-man seems to want nothing more than to bite Howl. We thought that it was because of jealousy, since the dog-man has said that he loves Lettie—did you think the same thing?—but by the end of the book, when the dog-man has been transformed into Percival, we realize that his goals have been a little more complex all along.
Quote #8
"That's how I came to meet the Witch. She objected to [the garden at the edge of the Waste]."
"Why?" said Sophie.
The castle was waiting for them. "She likes to think of herself as a flower," Howl said, opening the door. "A solitary orchid, blooming in the Waste. Pathetic, really."
It's interesting to think of the Witch of the Waste as having an identity beyond Evil Villainness. Obviously she is an evil villainness as well, but she thinks of herself in sentimental terms just the way a lot of other characters do, without fully acknowledging her own moral horribleness. Her image of herself is full of self-pity and loneliness, which makes us feel a bit bad for her… even though it is, as Howl says, "Pathetic, really."
Quote #9
"I am very tired," [the Witch] said. "You people keep spoiling my plans. First Wizard Suliman would not come near the Waste, so that I had to threaten Princess Valeria in order to make the King order him out here. Then, when he came, he grew trees. Then the King would not let Prince Justin follow Suliman for months, and when he did follow, the silly fool went up north somewhere for some reason, and I had to use all my arts to get him here. Howl has caused me even more trouble. He got away once. I've had to use a curse to bring him in, and while I was finding out enough about him to lay the curse, you got into what was left of Suliman's brain and caused me more trouble. And now when I bring you here, you wave your stick and argue. I have worked very hard for this moment, and I am not to be argued with." She turned away and wandered off into the murk. (21.30)
Here is the real problem with the Witch's personality in a nutshell: she has an incredible ego. She really seems to believe that the rest of the world owes it to her to fall in with her plans. The fact that she is complaining that Prince Justin and the Wizard Suliman made it hard for her to take them apart and reassemble them in different bodies is a sign of how deeply self-centered she is.