54 pages • 1 hour read
Castle in the Air
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Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “In Which Abdullah Buys a Carpet”
Abdullah runs a small carpet stall in the city of Zanzib. His father bequeathed most of his fortune to his first wife’s relatives because he was disappointed in him for reasons relating to a lost prophecy. He inherited his father’s good looks and his mother’s tendency to daydream. He has a detailed, ongoing daydream in which he is secretly a prince: He was kidnapped by a fierce bandit but then ran away, and his apparent father actually found him in the desert. Abdullah imagines that he was destined at birth to marry a beautiful princess, picturing her in incredible palace gardens.
One day a stranger offers to sell Abdullah a magic carpet. His rudeness irritates Abdullah, who nonetheless maintains his impeccable manners and flowery speech, as expected in the market. The stranger demonstrates that the carpet can fly and lets Abdullah try it out, hovering two feet up inside his booth. Abdullah uses many of his reserves to buy it. However, he knows a common trick is to train a horse or dog to escape and return to its original owner, so he ties it up tightly.
His neighbor Jamal runs a fried food stall and has a one-eyed dog. Sometimes he watches Abdullah’s booth for him. Some boys try to steal from him, spilling all his stock. Abdullah gives him some coins to help out. Abdullah daydreams about selling the carpet to the Sultan for a high price. He unties it, deciding it will be safer at night to sleep on it so it can’t fly away.
Chapter 2 Summary: “In Which Abdullah Is Mistaken for a Young Lady”
Abdullah wakes in a beautiful garden, exactly like the one in his daydream. A girl approaches. She looks similar to the princess he imagined. He finds her so beautiful that he decides to adjust his daydream to look like her instead. She asks if he is a servant, and he says he’s a prince from a far-off land, explaining his daydream backstory. She thinks he is a woman, as he looks nothing like her father, who is the only man she has ever seen. She reveals that she is only allowed in her garden at night, to protect her skin, and is not allowed in public, because her father is afraid that a man might kidnap her. Abdullah notices that she is clever and compassionate.
She introduces herself as Flower-in-the-Night. She reveals her father has betrothed her to the prince of Ochinstan, which she is worried about as she doesn’t know if she’ll like him. Abdullah promises to return tomorrow and bring pictures of lots of different men, so she can see that they all look different. That way she’ll believe that he’s a man and will have a standard against which to judge her intended spouse. She agrees, and leaves. Abdullah wanders back and finds the carpet, which he falls asleep on.
Abdullah wakes in his stall, finding it depressing after the beautiful garden. Jamal makes them breakfast. Abdullah realizes his nightcap has vanished. He remembers taking it off in the garden and realizes it wasn’t a dream after all.
Chapter 3 Summary: “In Which Flower-in-the-Night Discovers Several Important Facts”
Abdullah commissions sketches of many different men to take with him that evening. However, when he tests the carpet again, it won’t move. He thinks there must be a secret code-word that the stranger didn’t tell him. He goes through the whole dictionary, but it doesn’t respond. He worries that the code-word is invented or foreign and that he said it in his sleep by chance. That evening, he piles the carpet with pictures and tells it that if he says the word in the night, it should return to the garden.
He wakes in the garden with Flower-in-the-Night. She examines the portraits and decides she likes Abdullah the best, as he looks the kindest and humblest. She plans to tell her father she will marry Abdullah instead. Abdullah says this won’t work, as although he is secretly a prince, he sells carpets for a living, so her father won’t approve. She points out that her father isn’t the one who would marry him. She resolves to leave with him.
Abdullah explains that though he has a magic carpet, he has only managed to activate it in his sleep. She approaches the problem logically. Based on his memory of the sale demonstration, she theorizes that the carpet will keep obeying the speaker until it either returns to the ground, or to its starting point. He tests this by directing it back to his stall. He realizes his mistake as the carpet whisks him away.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Which Concerns Marriage and Prophecy”
Hakim, one of Abdullah’s father’s first wife’s relatives, visits Abdullah. As usual, he is rude and critical. He tells Abdullah to come by later, as the prophecy made at Abdullah’s birth has been found hidden in an incense box.
Abdullah shares his breakfast with Jamal’s dog and pays Jamal to guard his stall. He spends the day selling most of his stock at a profit, ready to elope with Flower-in-the-Night. He dresses up and fills his pockets with money. He visits his father’s first wife’s relatives, who show him the prophecy. It says that Abdullah won’t follow his father’s trade, but will be raised above all others in the land. The relatives reveal that they plan for him to marry Hakim’s two nieces, to keep any good fortune in the family. The Justice is present, ready to marry them. Abdullah is horrified, as he finds the two women very unattractive. He wonders if they could be companions for Flower-in-the-Night, but rejects this idea because of his derogatory view of them.
Abdullah pretends that when he was a child, his father made him swear a vow not to marry until after he was raised above all others in the land as prophesied. The family is relieved, thinking the marriage will happen later. The Justice says he must check the records, as all formal vows are logged.
Chapters 1-4 Analysis
This section introduces Abdullah as a classic fairytale or folk story protagonist, who is launched on the classic fairytale quest of setting out to seek one’s fortunes and marry a princess. Abdullah’s daydreams show that his desires are directly mapped onto this quest. They are introduced immediately and feature prominently in this section: He daydreams constantly while running the stall, and at first, he thinks that he dreams the garden and Flower-in-the-Night, as they match his imaginings so closely. These dreams are almost more real to him than the real world. This launches the theme of Navigating the Lines between Fiction and Reality, as the lines are blurred for Abdullah. Diana Wynne Jones thus situates the narrative in a dreamlike, fairytale world to create ambiguity about the truth of what is happening.
Within the first few chapters, Abdullah acquires everything he needs to pursue these dreams actively in the real world, with the plot developing rapidly to introduce a number of familiar tropes. He gets a magic carpet, meets a beautiful princess, and they resolve to run away together. The section ends with him selling everything in preparation, launching him out of his old life completely and into the world of the quest. This again fits with the fairytale genre by rapidly throwing the protagonist into a life-changing adventure surrounded by classic fairytale tropes.
Wynne Jones creates a setting in which anything is possible and magic is real: For example, magic carpets are a rare but accepted fact of life, as Abdullah knows the practical necessity of tying them up to stop them from escaping. Abdullah easily meets and converses with the princess of his dreams, despite being an ordinary carpet salesman. The section firmly establishes a fairytale setting and shows that these leaps of fortune are possible, setting up the premise of his rags-to-riches quest to marry a princess.
However, this section also incorporates hints at the conflicts that Abdullah will face. He knows Flower-in-the-Night’s father will disapprove of him, introducing jeopardy. He has wooed her on the false premise that he is a prince, so he will have to prove himself. The carpet varies from the typical trope in which it is an inanimate mode of transport: It is not always cooperative and seems to carry Abdullah to the garden of its own accord. Abdullah instinctively mistrusts the stranger who sold it to him.
Abdullah’s apprehensions foreshadow the true nature of the carpet and the seller, who each have their own motivations, introducing the theme of Personal Agency Versus Fate. There is unease around these plot elements, which typically serve the protagonist, creating tension between the concept of the fairytale hero for whom these events naturally unfold, and the reality that everyone and everything is pursuing their own goals independently. Abdullah is the main character, but only in this version of the tale, as even the magic carpet has its own story. Wynne Jones challenges whether Abdullah is destined for a happy ending or whether it is his own responses to events that will determine how they unfold.
Wynne Jones also establishes that both Abdullah—the protagonist—and his love interest—Flower-in-the-Night—have a strong desire to choose their own fate despite other forces seeking to dictate their future. Abdullah commits fully to pursuing his adventure as he sells his whole livelihood, and he only decides to learn the prophecy once he has already made this decision. Similarly, Flower-in-the-Night decides to commit to Abdullah not because of the prophecy about her, but because he looks kind. Both also choose each other despite their families trying to force them into other marriages. These factors establish the fact that, in order to pursue their own choices, they will have to contend with bigger forces—whether the theoretical idea of fate or the practical coercion of their families.
This section also shows that The Importance of Learning from Experience will be a crucial part of these characters’ adventures, and highlights their capacity to learn and grow. Abdullah has already learned from his time in the market. He is wary of the merchant selling the carpet and knows to lie on the carpet at night so it can’t fly away and trick him out of his purchase. However, he struggles to work out how the carpet operates. Flower-in-the-Night has had a much more sheltered life: She has never ventured outside her father’s grounds, nor met a man before. However, she shows her capacity to learn fast as she responds to Abdullah’s story about the carpet using observation and logic, successfully working out an element of its nature. Wynne Jones uses these characters’ learning to challenge the idea that the prophecies predetermine everything. Instead, Abdullah and Flower-in-the-Night adapt to events as they unfold, interacting proactively even when surrounded by unknown forces.
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