Charlotte's Web

Charlotte is a spider who lives in the barn at the Zuckerman farm. She becomes Wilbur’s best friend shortly after he moves in. Charlotte is a matronly, loving, and wise spider who happens to “love blood” (39). She knows that her own life is short and saves Wilbur so that at least he may have more time to enjoy “this lovely world, these precious days” (164). Charlotte has a strong sense for the needs and nature of herself and others, explaining her purpose as a spider is to control the bug population and explaining to Wilbur the reasons why he cannot spin webs. When she meets Wilbur, she demonstrates superb self-awareness in saying her near-sightedness is “good in some ways, not so good in others” (37). Charlotte also knows that she needs to be “sharp and clever” (40) to be able to catch her prey and thus survive, unlike Wilbur who has his food brought to him. She also understands the nature of humans, referring to them as gullible creatures who “keep trotting back and forth across the bridge thinking there is something better on the other side […] rush, rush, rush, every minute” (60). She uses this knowledge to fool them into believing Wilbur is special.

Charlotte is a true friend to Wilbur. She offers to be his friend when nobody else seems interested, and immediately takes him under her wing. She teaches Wilbur about the life of a spider and helps him keep his emotions and anxieties under control, singing Wilbur lullabies to help him sleep at night. Charlotte is a brilliant writer. All she needs is four words, three phrases to convince an entire county that Wilbur is a miracle pig. Charlotte’s greatest show of friendship comes when she figures out how to spin words into her web and eventually save his life. She uses the very last of her energy to spin the word “humble” for Wilbur at the County Fair and dies alone shortly after. Charlotte’s life, although short, was filled with meaning and purpose because of her friendship with Wilbur. Unlike most creatures, Charlotte was “a true friend and a good writer” (184), and one that can never be replaced in Wilbur’s heart. Although nobody ever knows that it was the wit of a spider that saved Wilbur’s life, and not some supernatural miracle, Charlotte dies peacefully knowing she succeeded in saving him.

Templeton is a large rat who lives at the Zuckerman farm. He is true to his nature and prefers to “spend [his] time eating, gnawing, spying, and hiding” (29). Templeton describes himself as a glutton who overindulges in food and collecting, but not someone who particularly enjoys fun. Templeton experiences growth through the seasons as he spends more time with Wilbur and Charlotte and the two of them slowly soften Templeton.

Templeton enjoys pulling pranks. Templeton is clever and knows what will happen but helps Wilbur try to spin a web and enjoys seeing him fail. When Avery attempts to squish Charlotte, Templeton sets a rotten egg underneath him which Avery accidentally explodes. The smell is horrendous, and Templeton once again relishes in the suffering of others. Templeton is a dualistic character because he also tries to help save Charlotte, whom he cares about, although he does not admit it.

Most of the animals at the farm do not trust Templeton, but Charlotte and Wilbur treat him differently. This leads to the small transformations that are eventually seen in Templeton. He starts out exceedingly selfish, callous, and ill-willed, but by the time the County Fair comes in fall, Templeton is more willing to help as part of the farm animal unit. Charlotte asks Templeton to help her retrieve paper advertisements so she can get ideas for words to spell, and Templeton is resistant but complies with bribing. Charlotte asks him to come to the County Fair to help her write one last time, and Templeton again agrees when he is informed that the fair will be littered with all sorts of tasty scraps for him to eat. Templeton does complain that he is “sick of running errands and doing favors” (168) but helps Wilbur one last time by retrieving Charlotte’s egg sac from a high place at the fair so that Wilbur can take it back to the barn with him. Wilbur promises to give Templeton first dibs on his scraps for the rest of his life, feeling that it is owed to him after everything Templeton did for him and Charlotte.

Fern Arable is the girl who saves Wilbur’s life and who acts as Wilbur’s source of friendship before he moves to the farm and meets Charlotte. Fern is eight years old when her father announces that he is off to slaughter the runt piglet that was born the previous night. She charges after him, and in a bold display of bravery, she attempts to take the ax right out of his hands. When her father tells her that a runt pig is quite different from a person, Fern declares, “I see no difference” (3). She calls the decision unjust, believing Wilbur should not have to die so young simply for being small. Mr. Arable has a great deal of understanding and empathy for his children, though, and allows Fern to raise the piglet for the first few weeks of his life.

Fern proves herself to be mature beyond her years in the way she cares for Wilbur. She feeds him, keeps his bed made, and takes him everywhere with her. The two quickly become best friends, and Fern is distraught when she hears that Wilbur is too big to stay with her any longer. Thankfully, Wilbur is given the chance to move to Fern’s Uncle Zuckerman’s farm nearby, and Fern continues visiting Wilbur. She does so almost every day throughout the summer, demonstrating her devotion to Wilbur. Although Fern starts to grow out of her passion for farm animals by the end of the summer and her focus turns to a boy named Henry Fussy, she maintains a special place for Wilbur in her heart. Fern is also the only human who hears the animals talk, and this may be because, as Doctor Dorian explains, “children pay better attention than grownups. If Fern says that the animals in Zuckerman’s barn talk, I’m quite ready to believe her” (110). While Mr. Arable and Doctor Dorian understand Fern, Mrs. Arable does not, and she constantly worries that Fern is becoming strange and making up stories. By the time fall rolls around, Fern is growing up. She is given the chance to go off into the County Fair without her parents for the first time, and even after Wilbur wins his special prize, her focus is on wishing “she were in the topmost [Ferris wheel] car with Henry Fussy at her side” (154). However, Fern demonstrated immense patience and care for Wilbur in his younger days and was ultimately responsible for saving his life the first time it was at stake. Thus, she will always remain an important part of Wilbur’s history.

Mr. Homer Zuckerman is the owner of the Zuckerman farm, Fern and Avery’s uncle, and the man who decides to buy Wilbur from his sister’s family (the Arables) when Wilbur becomes too large for Fern to keep. Mr. Zuckerman is a boastful and confident man who takes pride in his farm and his animals. He takes extremely good care of them, ensuring they each have a more than adequate habitat and food.

Mr. Zuckerman immediately takes to the idea of having a miracle pig when he sees the words “some pig” written in Charlotte’s web. He attributes the description to Wilbur being “as solid as they come” (81) and believes the words in the web are a sign from God to treat the pig with extra comforts and put him in the County Fair in the fall. Mr. Zuckerman takes the news to the town minister, who confirms to him: “There can be no doubt that you have a most unusual pig” (82). Mr. Zuckerman’s wife insists that perhaps it is the spider who is special, not the pig, but Mr. Zuckerman is convinced by the words in the web. In this way, he is a gullible and foolish man, which is exactly what Charlotte predicts him to be.

Mr. Zuckerman relishes in the fame and dignity brought to him by Charlotte and Wilbur. He wears “his good clothes all the time” (84) and entertains countless spectators at his farm who come to witness the miracle. As time goes on, Mr. Zuckerman pampers Wilbur more and more, increasing his feeds and preparing a hay bed for him instead of a manure pile. He treats Lurvy much like a servant, ordering him to keep Wilbur happy at all costs, including neglecting the work in the fields. When the County Fair finally rolls around, Mr. Zuckerman’s pig Wilbur does not win first prize, but he does win a special prize for being “completely out of the ordinary” (157). After Wilbur wins this prize, Mr. Zuckerman decides to keep him alive for the rest of his natural life, and Wilbur lives out his days in the farm that Mr. Zuckerman provides for him.

The goose who lives on the Zuckerman farm acts as a catalyst for many key events in the novel despite being a static character. She is the source of gossip on the farm, spreading word about Wilbur’s escape and his possible slaughter. The goose spends most of her spring tending to her eggs, and then caring for her goslings when they hatch. All the geese repeat everything they say either two or three times: “That’s where you’re wrong, my friend, my friend” (16). The goose stirs up trouble when she notices that Wilbur is bored in his pen. She encourages him to slip through a loose board in the fence and have a taste of freedom. As if to live vicariously through him, she shouts at him to “run-run-run downhill, make for the woods, the woods!” (18) when the Zuckermans come to catch him and put him back in his pen. Wilbur denies this opportunity for freedom in favor of the comfort and safety of farm life, much to the goose’s disappointment.

Later in the summer, the goose lays her eggs and one of them turns out to be a dud. She gives this egg to Templeton, who wants to store it in his collection of strange finds. The egg comes in handy when Fern and Avery come to the farm to play as usual. Avery notices Charlotte’s web in the corner of the barn and takes it upon himself to squash her. The barn raises into a panic, but Templeton places the goose’s egg under Avery’s foot and Avery crushes it. The barn is filled with a horrid smell, and Fern and Avery run out of the barn in a hurry. The goose is also responsible for suggesting the word “terrific” for Charlotte to write in her web.

Doctor Dorian is the county doctor that Mrs. Arable consults when she is worried about Fern spending too much time at the farm and believing the animals talk. Doctor Dorian is drawn with a long, bushy beard, thick black glasses, a doctor’s jacket, and a look of pensiveness. He is a wise man with a calm disposition who quickly works to calm Mrs. Arable’s nerves. When Mrs. Arable goes to see him, they begin discussing the amazing pig and the spider web. Mrs. Arable asks the doctor if he understands the phenomenon of the words within the web, and he answers that he does not claim to, nor does he worry himself about it. He goes on to illustrate that “when the words appeared, everyone said they were a miracle. But nobody pointed out that the web itself is a miracle” (109). Doctor Dorian understands, unlike most of the other adults in the story, that Charlotte’s web spinning is an amazing feat of nature in and of itself. The addition of the words is spectacular, but Doctor Dorian points out that “a young spider knows how to spin a web without any instructions from anybody” (110), and that humans can do no such thing—they need to be taught. Mrs. Arable also asks Doctor Dorian if he thinks animals can talk, and he answers that “it is quite possible that an animal has spoken civilly to me and I didn’t catch the remark because I wasn’t paying attention […] Perhaps if people talked less, animals would talk more” (110). Unlike the other humans, Doctor Dorian is fully open to the possibility that animals may be superior to humans in many ways, including their ability to perform complicated acts innately, as well as their potential for higher level communication. Doctor Dorian assures Mrs. Arable that she does not need to worry about Fern, and Mrs. Arable leaves feeling “greatly relieved” (112).

The old sheep is a farm animal at the Zuckerman farm. She has a gruff appearance and a mean disposition and berates Wilbur often for what she considers a pathetic display of emotions. The sheep’s lambs take after her, calling Wilbur “nothing” (28) and refusing to play with him. The sheep has lived on the Zuckerman farm for a long time and has seen many seasons pass and many animals come and go. In the early days of summer, the sheep goes out of her way to tell Wilbur that she notices he is gaining weight, whilst ironically claiming that she does not “like to spread bad news” (49). This leads her to the ultimate point that “almost all young pigs get murdered by the farmer as soon as the real cold weather sets in” (49) and that Wilbur would be next on the block. This sends Wilbur into an absolute panic and shakes his worldview, since he previously viewed humans as the ones who protected him, fed him, and generally kept him happy. When Wilbur begins to cry, the sheep glares at him as if he is bothering her. The sheep’s negative attitude and warning propels the story forward as it inspires Charlotte to begin spinning words into her web to save Wilbur’s life.

Lurvy is the farmhand on the Zuckerman farmhand on the Zuckerman farm. He is drawn with short hair and patched up clothes. Lurvy is a flat character who follows Mr. Zuckerman’s orders without question. Lurvy is the first human to spot the words in Charlotte’s web on that dewy summer morning, and he immediately “[drops] to his knees and [utters] a short prayer” (78), foreshadowing the commonly held view that the words in the web are some sort of miracle. Lurvy remains a background character through most of the story, but much of what occurs on the farm and for Wilbur could not be done without him.

Mrs. Arable is Fern and Avery’s mother. She is drawn with shorter hair, and always has a look of concern on her face. Mrs. Arable is not the easygoing and lighthearted person that her husband is. Instead, she is a neurotic woman who is always worried that something is wrong with her daughter. Mrs. Arable has several talks with her husband about Fern, including the way Fern spends too much time at the barn and her claims that the animals talk and have disagreements. Mrs. Arable sees it all as fantasy and worries that Fern is becoming lost in her head. It is not until she has her fears quelled by Doctor Dorian that Mrs. Arable finally starts to lighten up about Fern. Ironically, Mrs. Arable’s son Avery admittedly “gets into poison ivy and gets stung by wasps and bees and brings frogs and snakes home and breaks everything he lays his hands on” (112), but Mrs. Arable has no concerns about him. Instead, she only worries for her calm and collected daughter. When Fern starts to mature near the end of the summer and chooses to spend the day at the County Fair with Henry Fussy instead of at the pen with Wilbur, Mrs. Arable is relieved. She does cry a little when she sees that her children are old enough to enjoy the fair without her, but Mr. Arable as the usual voice of reason reminds her, “they’ve got to grow up some time” (133). Mrs. Arable experiences personal growth from the beginning of spring to the fall, as she relinquishes worry over her children and lets them begin to grow up.

Mr. John Arable is Fern and Avery’s father and the man who originally proclaims that Wilbur should be slaughtered because he is a runt. He is quickly revealed to be a very lenient and caring father when he lets his daughter take care of the pig instead of killing it. Mr. Arable is drawn as a tall, lanky man, who has a farmer’s hat, an awkward appearance, and the same large ears as his son, Avery. Mr. Arable also shows his understanding of his children when Mrs. Arable complains that Fern is making up stories of hearing animals talk. Mr. Arable argues that his wife need not worry about Fern, showing that he is open to possibilities and unexplained happenings more than the other adults around him. Mr. Arable is also the one who suggests that Fern and Avery be allowed to “go off by themselves” (131) at the County Fair, much to their mother’s chagrin. Although Mr. Arable is a static character, he acts as the voice of reason amongst the adults.