Sophie Hatter

Sophie Hatter is the main character in the first book called Howl's Moving Castle(Novel). She is a young lady with red gold hair and blue green eyes living in the small town of Market Chipping in the fictional kingdom of Ingary. She is the eldest of three sisters, Lettie Hatter and Martha Hatter. In the land of Ingary, this of course means that she is destined to never find her fortune, and live a very dull life at home. She works in her late father's hat shop as her stepmother, Fanny Hatter's apprentice.

Howl's Moving Castle (book)
In Howl's Moving Castle, Sophie is the eldest of three daughters of Hat maker, Mr Hatter, in the magical kingdom of Ingary, where many fairy-tale tropes are accepted ways of life. When Sophie's father dies, her step-mother Fanny sets her to making the hats in the family hat shop. She turns out to be a great Hat maker.

Sophie's magical talents attract the attention of the Witch of the Waste who mistakes her for her sister Lettie Hatter, and believed Sophie had some information she needed about Howl, and with no answer she turns Sophie into an old woman. Her desire to become young takes her to the moving castle of Wizard Howl. Howl is said to steal souls of the most beautiful girls, which worries Sophie. While in the castle she meets Calcifer a fire demon, and she learns of the contract that keeps him in Howl's house. The demon promises to break the spell on Sophie if she frees him from the contract with Howl. Some times, Calcifer drops Sophie hints to how to break the contract... she often misses them.

When the King decides to appoint Howl to look for his brother Prince Justin, Howl attempts to get out of it by having Sophie pretend to be his mother and petition against the appointment. Howl happens to have his own reasons for avoiding the Witch of the Waste; the witch happens to be one of Howl's many ex-lovers. Sophie soon learns that Howl is not so much a wicked wizard, as opposed to a young man who takes joy in making young girls fall in love with him and then ditching them once they do. Even having first-hand knowledge of Howl's attentions and less than appealing qualities, Sophie ends up falling in love with him, although she is too stubborn to admit it.

Howl tries to avoid falling in love because of the curse the Witch has put on him when he does fall in love, he must return to the Witch. Howl falls in love with Sophie and therefore activates the curse. On the day the curse is said to come true, the Witch tells Sophie that she has kidnapped Miss Angorian, a schoolteacher who Howl has been courting. Thinking that it is Miss Angorian who Howl loves Sophie goes to the Waste to try and save her before Howl hears about it.

When Sophie gets there, the Witch reveals that it was all a trap to get Sophie to come to the Waste, which has proven successful. Realising that the Witch has taken Sophie hostage, Howl rushes out to the Waste to save her and fights the Witch of the Waste, overcoming his reluctance to do so out of love for Sophie, and wins.

However, the Witch's own fire demon, Miss Angorian, tries to take Howl's heart as the Witch's heart was old and weak. Sophie breaks the contract between Calcifer and Howl and returns Howl's heart. By defeating Miss Angorian, Sophie is able to break the curse and free both Wizard Suliman and Prince Justin. Howl and Sophie admit how they feel about each other and agree to live together.

Howl's Moving Castle (Movie)
Sophie's role in the movie is similar to her role in the book, but the events where these roles take place differ more strongly.In the movie, Sophie comes across Howl on her way to see her sister Lettie, but unlike in the book, Howl intervenes the advances of two soldiers. Once he makes the soldiers leave, he warns Sophie he is being followed. The blob like henchmen of the Witch of the Waste oose from the walls and chase after Howl and Sophie. After using his magic to fly up into the air, escaping the henchmen, Howl returns Sophie to safety at her sister's bakery. Later that evening, the Witch of the Waste enters the Sophie's hat shop and presumably curses her with old age out of jealousy of Howl's attention. The next moring, Sophie decides she cannot stay at the hat shop any longer and heads out to the Waste in hopes of finding a way to break her curse.

(To be continued shortly)

Castle in the Air
In Castle in the Air, Sophie and Howl are married and have a son together named Morgan. While she is still pregnant, Howl turns Sophie into a cat to protect her from robbers who have stole the moving castle. Sophie gives birth to Morgan while she's still a cat so he is born a kitten. They meet the main character, Abdullah and a strange soldier. While the soldier takes a liking to Sophie as a cat and names her Midnight, Abdullah hates her and is scared of her strange powers. Once Abdullah reaches Ingary in his quest to find Flower-in-the-Night, he learns who Sophie really is. Wizard Suliman turns her back into a human. The soldier runs away to the moving castle taking Abdullah, the genie and baby Morgan with him. Abdullah and Sophie take a magic carpet to the castle and discover that the djinns have kidnapped all the princesses from around the world including Ingary's Princess Valeria and Flower-in-the-Night. Sophie finds Morgan who has been looked after by the princesses. With the help of the other princesses, Abdullah, Sophie, Flower-in-the-Night and the moody Genie, they manage to trick the robbers with the powers of the genie, Sophie's talking powers and Morgan's crying, and take back the castle. Sophie and Morgan are both reunited with Howl who was the Genie and Calcifer who was the magic carpet.

House of Many Ways
House of Many Ways takes place 3 years after Castle in the Air. Sophie is a sorceress who is invited to help in the search for the kingdom's missing treasury, mainly because she is Howl's wife and one kingdom cannot ask the help of another kingdom's Royal Wizard. So while they asked for Sophie instead, Howl chose to come along as well in the disguise of an adorable young boy named "Twinkle", claiming to be Sophie's nephew. In the end Sophie helps solve the crime from the prince, and Howl discovers the location of the mysterious Elfgift.