How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
By the time Howl arrived in the shop, in a black apron to match his suit, he usually found it quite busy. He made it busier still. This was when Sophie began to be sure that the black suit was really the charmed gray-and-scarlet one. Any lady Howl served was sure to go away with at least twice the number of flowers she asked for. Most of the time Howl charmed them into buying ten times as much. (18.5)
We keep talking about how forgivable Howl's sins are, but c'mon—he can be kind of sleazy. His use of the gray-and-scarlet suit—which, as a professional wizard, he must know is enchanted—to draw in girls definitely isn't fair. And while he doesn't seem to be taking particular advantage of this suit's charms, we notice that he hasn't disenchanted it either.
Quote #8
Sophie dragged. Miss Angorian hung on. The guitar gave out horrible, out-of-tune jangles. Sophie jerked it out of Miss Angorian's arms. "Don't be silly," she said. "You've no right to walk into people's castles and take their guitars. I've told you Mr. Sullivan's not here. Now go back to Wales. Go on." And she used the guitar to push Miss Angorian backward through the open door.
Miss Angorian backed into the nothingness until half of her vanished. "You're hard," she said reproachfully.
"Yes, I am!" said Sophie and slammed the door on her. (18.56-58)
Sophie's strong reaction to Miss Angorian here is fascinating because we may know more about why she is being so unsympathetic than Sophie herself does. By this point, we have already begun to suspect that Sophie has fallen hard for Howl. And Miss Angorian's story of woe over the disappeared Ben Sullivan gets exactly no sympathy from Sophie because Howl is really into Miss Angorian. Clearly Sophie is jealous, and her jealousy makes her behave with less sympathy than she normally would.
Quote #9
I don't know how I knew her, because Lettie said she's never seen me when I went to Upper Folding. But I knew all about her—enough so that when the Witch made me tell her about Lettie, I said she kept a hat shop in Market Chipping. So the Witch went there to teach us both a lesson. And you were there. She thought you were Lettie. I was horrified, because I didn't know Lettie had a sister. (19.53)
To us, it makes it worse that Sophie's transformation into an old woman comes about because of a case of mistaken identity. We think that Sophie would probably feel worse if the Witch of the Waste had transformed Lettie as she intended, but still—to know that Sophie got cursed almost by accident makes the Witch's casual cruelty seem even less fair.