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Jemilat Audu
English 115
Kimberly Lewis
November 23, 2015
A Narcissist with a heart.
In the novel Howls Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, the concept of narcissism as a
personality trait is shown through the character Howl. In the book, a young girl whose name is
Sophie Hatter abandons her home and shop after the death of her father, her sisters dispersed
throughout the village by her step mother and undergoing a curse from a witch who turned her
into an old woman. After undergoing a long, tiring journey she finds herself going to a castle
known to belong to an evil wizard named Howl who apparently eats the souls of young girls.
Through this we are introduced to Michael and Howl who we get to know him to be somewhat
of a narcissist due to the way he portrays himself. A narcissist is someone who is extremely
selfish, with a grandiose view of their own talents and a need for admiration and being a
narcissist is a feature of mental disorders according to psychoanalysis. In this essay, using this
novel, Freud's theory on narcissism and Lacans mirror stage, I will identify and explain why
wizard howl who sometimes has narcissistic tendencies should not be considered a classic
narcissist.
One of the many concerns of a narcissist is self-obsession. These individuals spend so
much time worrying about their physical appearance and how they physically look to others.
Throughout the book, Howls conceited manners was one of the many narcissistic tendencies he
embodied. In Freuds On Narcissism, he wrote of the narcissistic character type in the
following manner: the subjects main interest is self-preservation; he is independent and not

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open to intimidation. His egoalso manifests itself in readiness for activity (13). Individuals
that have this attribute spend so much time protecting themselves from harm and in doing so take
a long time preparing themselves and their appearance for their daily activities. Howl is the
perfect example of the subject Freud describes because he spends hours tending to his physical
appearance. Howl went straight to the bathroomand was gone for a long, long time (Jones
79). Howl spends so long in the bathroom daily getting ready for his daily activities. This is a
boost to his ego in so many ways because each day he goes out he is trying to win the heart of a
young lady and in doing so he spends many hours on just his appearance. Howl owns a lot of
products that he uses to further enhance his beauty and make him eye appealing to the people
around him. They were jars, boxes, tubes, and hundreds of tattered brown packets and paper
bags It had SKIN scrawled on it, and she put it back hurriedly. Another jar said EYES in the
same scrawl (67). Not only does howl spend hours tending to his looks he also has a lot of
product that helps in doing so. Sophie uncovers these products when she goes to clean the
bathroom. In there she finds hundreds of products that he uses on his skin, eyes, hair, etc. which
explains why he spends hours in the bathroom. Howl goes through this routine daily not only for
his ego but to gain admiration and attention from others.
Another worry for narcissist is the constant need for attention and admiration from others.
This has to do with the way they want others to see them not necessarily in the physical way.
According to Salman Akhtar and Anderson Thomson these individualsconstantly seek to be
the object of admiring attention as a means to undo feelings of inferiority (13). In Howls case,
he receives his admiration or attention from the way people are scared of him or view him. He is
very obsessed with keeping the identity he has formed outside of his home that he decided to use
Sophie to keep that facade up. He lifted his fork, with a melting hunk of cream and cake on it,

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and pointed it set Sophie. You can blacken my name to the king (Jones 146). Howl had decided
to send Sophie to the king to blacken his name because he was not willing to find the kings
brother. He thought the king had forgotten that he is wicked and not to be trusted which was the
type of identity he had worked on creating for himself. This shows his narcissistic side because
he is so focused on himself that he uses Sophie for his own benefit. Not only is he concerned
about the way he looks to people outside his home, he is also concerned about those in his home.
Howls not wicked, Michael said. Yes I am, Howl contradicted him (75). This was the
instance where Howl was first introduced to Sophie and he wanted to keep the facade that he has
put on for people outside his home to Sophie as well because that's how he gets attention from
others. He also seeks the attention from the girls he chases over. Hes only interested until the
girl falls in love with him. Then he can't be bothered with her (112). Howl spends so much time
and effort chasing over girls to gain their attention and admiration towards him. As soon as this
girl become obsessed with him, he finds no need for them because as someone who only cares
about himself, he has gained what he wanted. His need for attention causes him to obsessively
focus on how people see him. However, Howl has his moments where he doesnt appear
narcissistic.
Throughout the book there are many instances where Howl portrays the behavior of a
narcissist, but over time they are other situations that make one to believe that he is not a classic
narcissist person. A classic narcissist cares about no one but themselves though Howl does not
fully have that behavior. He cared for Michael enough to let him stay in his castle when he had
no way to go. I slept on his doorstep for a couple of nights until Howl opened the door one
morning on his way to buy bread and i fell inside. He didnt tell me I could stay. He just didn't
tell me to go (173). This shows that even though Howl tries to seem like a heartless guy, he

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cares about others. Not only did he let Michael stay he also taught him the act of wizardry. He
also cared about Sophie by letting her stay in his castle even when she would get him very mad.
Without her knowledge he worried about her health and safety and made sure she was
comfortable. Sophie Havent you noticed that your aches and pains have been better lately?
(370). Sophie being an old woman is in constant pain and has body aches due to the constant
cleaning she does so Howl took care of the pain she is dealing with without being asked to which
in turns shows how compassionate and caring he is of others. Howl also show a great deal of
care for his family back in Wales. He shows how much he really does care when the Witch of the
Waste found his family and he immediately charged at her in order to protect his family. Howl
burst out onto the lawn. He had not bothered to alter his clothes. He did not bother to do any
magic. He just charged straight at the Witch (390,391). Howl cares for his family so much that
he abandons the worries of a narcissist when he went to rescue them. He did not care in no way
shape or form how he looked in front of them or the witch in this particular instance, he spent no
time altering his clothes or using magic, all he cared about was getting the witch away from his
family. Howl strays from his narcissistic tendencies in many situations but through the
transformation he experiences he falls back into that path. Thus, causing Howl to go through a
mirror stage.
Lacans theory of the mirror stage is described as the identification of one's image after
undergoing some type of change internally or externally. Lacan furthermore describes this
concept as the transformation that takes place in the subject when he assumes an image-whose
predestination to this phase-effect is sufficiently indicated by the use, in analytic theory, of the
ancient term imago (503). The imago is an unconscious idealized mental image of someone that
influences a person's behavior. This concept fits the narcissistic personality of an individual, in

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this case Howl. Howl has a somewhat unconscious mental image of what he wants to look like
and if a change happens to that image outwardly his behavior will be altered. Howl undergoes a
mirror stage when he decides to change his look but since the ideal image he has in his head was
not achieved when he dyed his hair, it dramatically altered his behavior. After Howl had spent
hours in the bathroom trying to achieve this new look, he rushes out pointing at his hair and
shrieking Look. Survey. Inspect. My hair is ruined! I look like a pan of bacon and eggs! (Jones
115). After Sophie and Michael took a look and noticed he hair was now red and both say that he
looked nice that somehow changed his behavior altogether because that was not what he had
intended to do. The ideal look he had strived so hard to keep, spending hours and hours tending
to his looks has now been ruined so he became somewhat depressed by the situation. Howl was
still sitting on the stool. He sat in an attitude of utter despair. And he was covered all over in
thick green slime (118). The mirror stage Howl experienced was a physical form, where he
assumes a new image that he did not think will be sufficient enough to please the eyes of others
and gain him attention and admiration from the females he chases over, this in turn altered his
behavior causing him to have a fit, as Sophie calls it.
Throughout the novel, Howl is written as a character who seems very obsessed with his
appearances that he tries to avoid any instance where he does not look his complete best. Howl
experiences another mirror stage which shows that he is not the textbook definition of a
narcissist. Howl unconsciously became comfortable around Sophie that he did not care about his
image in front of her. When he fell ill, he had always call for Michael when he was in need of
assistance but he had send Michael on an errand so he called for Sophie instead. When he did so,
he was not bothered to alter how he looked that when Sophie walked into his room He was
lying propped on dirty gray pillows, looking quite poorly (279). Howl had never been bothered

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to clean the mess in his room but he spends so much time obsessively cleaning himself and
looking his best even when around Sophie and in his castle but in this very instance he couldn't
be bothered to clean himself up a little. The idea of the imago is brought up again later on when
he emotionally opens up to Sophie about love which influenced his behavior. He had also had the
image of looking tough and unbothered by anything that surrounded or showing such emotions
more or less that when he opened up about constantly trying to fall in love, his mood changes
and he becomes very sad. The water running out of Howls eyes was definitely tears now
(281). If Howl was a complete narcissist, he wouldn't have opened up this way and ruined the
image he had worked so hard in building, this shows that even though he has many narcissistic
tendencies, Howl was not a narcissist.
Howl Jenkins is not a classic narcissist, even though he exhibited many qualities of one.
He was caring, sensitive and a good man. As the book progresses over time one sees how he
strays from the narcissistic path through his daily and transformative experiences. With the help
of Sophie and Michael one can see the not so narcissistic side of howl and how he cares for the
people around him. To conclude, he is not a textbook definition of a narcissist.

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Works Cited
Akhtar, Salman, Thomson, Anderson. Overview: Narcissistic personality Disorder.
Janderson.com. 1, Jan. 1982. Web. 13, Nov. 2015.
Jones, Diana Wynne. Howls Moving Castle. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1986.
Book.
Lacan, Jacques. The Mirror Stage as formative of the function of the I as revealed in
psychoanalytic experience. Cultural Theory and Popular culture: A reader. Ed. John
Storey. England: Pearson Education Limited, 2006. EBook.

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