Howl Jenkins/Pendragon is another one of the main characters who grows and changes throughout the film. Though his outer appearance doesn’t seem to change as much as Sophie’s, his inner self does, and this is seen through his various actions and emotions during the different stages in the film. Howl is introduced in the beginning as a handsome, blue-eyed, blonde-haired young man who mysteriously rescues Sophie from the soldiers that were harassing her. He spreads rumours about himself to retain his privacy, and is portrayed as a powerful wizard (through his magical abilities) whose whereabouts or appearance is not really known of. The gradual change in Howl’s personality, character and lifestyle is brought by Sophie and her initiative to clean the whole castle. But after accidentally messing with his potions in the bathroom, Howl’s blonde hair turns in to a reddish-orange, before finally turning back into his ‘natural’ black colour. In this scene, a close up shot of Howl’s face and hair shows how angry and mad he is because his hair is a different colour, and a high angle shot, shows him sulking miserably about the appearance of his hair now. At this point, Howl’s lamenting comment; “there’s no point in living if I can’t be beautiful,” expresses how vain, self-centred and arrogant he has become. The next time we see Howl, he is lying in his bed in his rather cluttered room (also a reflection of his personality), and his hair is still black. From this point on, Howl doesn’t attempt to change his hair colour and starts to accept who he is and his appearance. Hence we can see that he is moving into maturity. Another change or transformation that we see in Howl’s physical self is when he turns himself into an enormous bird-like figure (using his magic), in order to fight in the war. Several long shots show him flying amongst the battle ships and trying to stop them fighting, and a medium shot shows Howl, now an enormous, feathery creature, standing before Sophie, with the only evidence of humanity being his face, which is being slowly taken over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Howl’s constant transformation is bringing him closer and closer to losing himself, and is turning him into a monster. However, In contrast to this, Howl also has a very kind and generous personality, and he has shown this by allowing Michael and Sophie to live in his castle with him, and being very forgiving of their mistakes. His connection and relationship with Calcifer is very strong too, as he gave his heart to Calcifer when Calcifer was a dying falling star. In the final scene, the return of his heart symbolizes that Howl has now fully-matured and no longer needs to rely on Calcifer for his magical abilities. He now has full responsibility over his own magic and actions.