Age In The Movie Howl's Moving Castle

In fantasy literature, Age is often treated as a feature that defines abilities, intentions and importance. Rarely, if ever, is a capable heroine beyond the ripe age of twenty-five, and it may be written within the stars that no male lead shall ever grow older than the age of 32, lest he be a force for fear. This idea, proven further by the lack of aged characters within the literature chosen for our class, is one bred out of a combination of cultural arrogance and an innate fear of growing old.However, it is this fear and rejection of the elderly that makes the movie Howl’s Moving Castle so very interesting, as it could be argued to subvert the genre’s negative predisposition towards age. In fact, one could begin to argue that in the case of Howl’s moving castle age is treated more as a blessing than anything else, and the characters who begin to show age can grow far more than the ones who do not.
When young Sophie is both insecure about her appearance and her abilities.Though it is verbally confirmed a bit later in the beginning of the movie, Sophie’s own pinions of herself are evident almost immediately visibly. All around her are ornate hats and her coworkers, each dressed in bright colors and stripes; Sophie sits …show more content…
While Sophie embraces her age and finds the many upsides to becoming an elderly lady, the Witch of the Waste does not far as well.The Witch of the Waste’s realization that she will become an older woman brings her to horror and her resulting appearance could be because of that. The Witch of the waste is all the things that one fears about getting old; senile, fat, and balding. So little of her true self remains that she is almost immediately redeemed and treated as another, having forgotten about much of the trouble she has caused. It seems that few things from the Witch’s past life remain within her present mind, she instead acts as a relentlessly happy but arguably confused