Introduction

Charlotte's Web is a book of children's literature by American author E. B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams. It was published on October 15, 1952, by Harper & Brothers. The novel tells the story of a livestock pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages in her web praising Wilbur, such as "Some Pig", "Terrific", "Radiant", and "Humble", to persuade the farmer to let him live.

Charlotte's Web is considered a classic of children's literature, enjoyed by readers of all ages.[1] The description of the experience of swinging on a rope swing at the farm is an often-cited example of rhythm in writing, as the pace of the sentences reflects the motion of the swing. In 2000, Publishers Weekly listed the book as the best-selling children's paperback of all time.[2]

Charlotte's Web was adapted into an animated feature film by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Sagittarius Productions in 1973. Paramount released a direct-to-video sequel, Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure, in the US in 2003. Universal Home Entertainment Productions released the film internationally.[3] A live-action feature film version of E. B. White's original story was released in 2006. A video game based on this adaptation was also released in 2006.

Plot summary

The Arable family, led by patriarch John, are a farm family who raise and sell animals. One day, John attempts to slaughter the runt of a litter of piglets, but his daughter Fern pleads for the pig's life, so John gives her the pig. Naming him Wilbur, Fern treats him as a pet and the two become incredibly close. Eventually, Wilbur is no longer small and so John decides to sell the pig, to Fern's dismay. However, Wilbur is given to Fern's maternal uncle, Homer Zuckerman, allowing Fern to periodically visit.

From here on, the various farm animals are depicted as anthropomorphic. In Zuckerman's barnyard, Wilbur yearns for Fern and is met with varying reactions from the other animals, with some such as the motherly goose showing him compassion and others such as the head ram showing him scorn. One day, the ram offhandedly tells him that Zuckerman is raising him for slaughter and consumption, leaving Wilbur distraught. As he mourns his fate, a barn spider whose web sits in a doorway overlooking Wilbur's enclosure, named Charlotte, suddenly comforts him. Charlotte promises to find a way to save his life, and takes on a motherly role for Wilbur. Meanwhile, Fern can sense the animals' anthropomorphism and often listens in on their conversations, to the concern of her mother.

As the summer passes, Charlotte comes up with a plan to save Wilbur. Reasoning that Zuckerman would not kill a famous pig, Charlotte weaves words and short phrases in praise of Wilbur into her web, the first phrase being "Some Pig". This turns Wilbur, and the barn as a whole, into tourist attractions, because many people believe the web to be a miracle. After the excitement dies down, the phrase gets destroyed, so on the suggestion of the goose, Charlotte weaves the word "Terrific" into her web, beginning the cycle anew. Although Zuckerman is pleased with Wilbur's fame, his plan to slaughter Wilbur stays firm. In another effort to maintain the public's interest in Wilbur, Charlotte tells Templeton, a gluttonous rat that lives in Wilbur's pen and holds a contentious relationship with the other animals, to get another word for the web. He goes to the dump and finds a laundry detergent ad with the word "Radiant", which she then weaves into her web.

As a result of this latest round of fame, Zuckerman enters Wilbur into the county fair, and Charlotte and Templeton accompany him. The Arable family also go to the fair, but Fern, despite still cherishing Wilbur, has shown to have matured, and instead spends much of the fair with her childhood sweetheart, Henry Fussy. Charlotte weaves another word brought by Templeton, "Humble", into the web she forms at Wilbur's fair stable. Wilbur fails to win the first-place ribbon, but is awarded a special prize by the judges. Charlotte, who has laid a sac of eggs at the fair, hears the presentation of the award over the public address system and realizes that the prize means Zuckerman will cherish Wilbur for as long as the pig lives and will never slaughter him for his meat. However, Charlotte, being a barn spider with a naturally short lifespan, is already dying of natural causes by the time the award is announced. Knowing that she has saved Wilbur, and satisfied with the outcome of her life, she decides not to return to the barn with Wilbur and Templeton. She gives them her final request to have her egg sac taken back to the barn, and then dies alone at the fairgrounds.

Wilbur waits out the winter, during which Charlotte's children hatch. Most leave the barn to Wilbur's dismay, but three choose to remain. Future descendants of Charlotte keep Wilbur company for many years, though he always holds Charlotte in more esteem than them all.

Characters

Wilbur is a rambunctious pig, the runt of his litter. He is often strongly emotional.
Charlotte A. Cavatica, or simply Charlotte, is a spider who befriends Wilbur. In some passages, she is the heroine of the story.[4]
John Arable is Wilbur's first owner.
Fern Arable, John's daughter, who adopts Wilbur when he's a piglet, and later visits him. She is the only human in the story capable of understanding animal conversation.
Lurvy, the hired man at Zuckerman's farm, who is the first to read the message in Charlotte's web.
Templeton is a rat who helps Charlotte and Wilbur only when offered food. He serves as a somewhat caustic, self-serving comic relief to the plot.
Avery Arable is Fern's elder brother and John's son. Like Templeton, he is a source of comic relief.
Homer Zuckerman is Fern's uncle who keeps Wilbur in his barn. He has a wife named Edith and an assistant named Lurvy.
Other animals in Zuckerman's barn, with whom Wilbur converses, include a disdainful lamb, a talkative goose, and an intelligent "old sheep".
Henry Fussy is a boy of Fern's age, of whom Fern becomes fond.
Dr. Dorian is the family physician/psychologist consulted by Fern's mother and something of a wise old man character.
Uncle is a large pig whom Charlotte disdains for coarse manners but is recognized as Wilbur's rival at the fair.
Charlotte's children are the 514 children of Charlotte the spider. Although they were born at the barn, all but three of them (Joy, Aranea, and Nellie) go their own ways by ballooning.

Themes

Death

Death is a major theme seen throughout Charlotte's Web and is brought forth by that of the spider, Charlotte. According to Norton D. Kinghorn, Charlotte's web acts as a barrier that separates two worlds. These worlds are that of life and death.[5] Scholar Amy Ratelle says that through Charlotte's continual killing and eating of flies throughout the novel, White makes the concept of death normal for Wilbur and for the readers.[6] Neither Wilbur nor the rat Templeton sees death as a part of his life; Templeton sees it only as something that will happen at some time in the distant future, while Wilbur views it as the end of everything.[7]

Wilbur constantly has death on his mind at night when he is worrying over whether or not he will be slaughtered.[8] Even though Wilbur is able to escape his death, Charlotte, the spider who takes care of Wilbur, is not able to escape her own. Charlotte passes away, but, according to Trudelle H. Thomas, "even in the face of death, life continues and ultimate goodness wins out".[9] Jordan Anne Deveraux explains that E.B. White discusses a few realities of death. From the novel, readers learn that death can be delayed but that no one can avoid it forever.[10]

Change

For Norton D. Kinghorn, Charlotte's web also acts as a signifier of change. The change Kinghorn refers to is that of both the human world and the farm/barn world. For both of these worlds, change is something that cannot be avoided.[5] Along with the changing of the seasons throughout the novel, the characters also go through their own changes. Jordan Anne Deveraux also explains that Wilbur and Fern each go through their changes to transition from childhood closer to adulthood throughout the novel.[10] This is evidenced by Wilbur accepting death and Fern giving up her dolls. Wilbur grows throughout the novel, allowing him to become the caretaker of Charlotte's children just as she was a caretaker for him, as is explained by scholar Sue Misheff.[11] But rather than accept the changes that are forced upon them, according to Sophie Mills, the characters aim to go beyond the limits of change.[8] In a different way, Wilbur goes through a change when he switches locations. Amy Ratelle explains that when he moves from Fern's house to Homer Zuckerman's farm, Wilbur goes from being a loved pet to a farm animal.

Innocence

Fern, the little girl in the novel, goes from being a child to being more of an adult. As she experiences this change, Kinghorn notes that it can also be considered a fall from innocence.[5] Wilbur also starts out young and innocent at the beginning of the novel. A comparison is drawn between the innocence and youth of Fern and Wilbur. Sophie Mills states that the two characters can identify with one another.[8] Both Wilbur and Fern are, at first, horrified by the realization that life must end; however, by the end of the novel, both characters learn to accept that, eventually, everything must die.[10] According to Matthew Scully, the novel presents the difference in the worldview of adults versus the worldview of children. Children, such as Fern, believe killing another for food is wrong, while adults have been gradually conditioned to believe that it is natural.[12]

History

Charlotte's Web was published three years after White began writing it.[13] White's editor Ursula Nordstrom said that one day in 1952, E. B. White arrived at her office and handed her a new manuscript, the only copy of Charlotte's Web then in existence, which she read soon after and enjoyed.[14] Charlotte's Web was released on October 15, 1952.[15][16][17]

In light of White's Death of a Pig, published in 1948,[18] which gives an account of his own failure to save a sick pig (bought for butchering), Charlotte's Web can be seen as White's attempt "to save his pig in retrospect".[19] White's overall motivation for the book has not been revealed, and he once wrote: "I haven't told why I wrote the book, but I haven't told you why I sneeze, either. A book is a sneeze."[20]

When White met the spider who originally inspired Charlotte, he called her Charlotte Epeira (after Epeira sclopetaria, the Grey Cross spider, now known as Larinioides sclopetarius), before discovering that the more modern name for that genus was Aranea.[21] In the novel, Charlotte gives her full name as "Charlotte A. Cavatica", revealing her as a barn spider, an orb-weaver with the scientific name Araneus cavaticus.

The arachnid anatomical terms (mentioned in the beginning of chapter nine) and other information that White used, came mostly from American Spiders by Willis J. Gertsch and The Spider Book by John Henry Comstock, both of which combine a sense of poetry with scientific fact.[22] White incorporated details from Comstock's accounts of baby spiders, most notably the "flight" of the young spiders on silken parachutes.[22] White sent Gertsch's book to illustrator Garth Williams.[23] Williams's initial drawings depicted a spider with a woman's face, and White suggested that he simply draw a realistic spider instead.[24]

White originally opened the novel with an introduction of Wilbur and the barnyard (which later became the third chapter) but decided to begin the novel by introducing Fern and her family on the first page.[23] White's publishers were at one point concerned with the book's ending and tried to get White to change it.[25]

Charlotte's Web has become White's most famous book, but White treasured his privacy and that of the farmyard and barn that helped inspire the novel, which have been kept off limits to the public according to his wishes.[26]

Reception

Charlotte's Web was generally well-reviewed when it was released. In The New York Times, Eudora Welty wrote: "As a piece of work it is just about perfect, and just about magical in the way it is done."[27]

Aside from its paperback sales, Charlotte's Web is 78th on the all-time bestselling hardback book list. According to publicity for the 2006 film adaptation (see below), the book has sold more than 45 million copies and been translated into 23 languages. It was a Newbery Honor book for 1953, losing to Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark for the medal.[28][29]

In 1970, White won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, a major prize in the field of children's literature, for Charlotte's Web, along with his first children's book, Stuart Little (1945).[30]

Seth Lerer, in his book Children's Literature, finds that Charlotte represents female authorship and creativity, and compares her to other female characters in children's literature such as Jo March in Little Women and Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden.[31] Nancy Larrick brings to attention the "startling note of realism" in the opening line, "Where's Papa going with that ax?"[32]

Illustrator Henry Cole expressed his deep childhood appreciation of the characters and story, and calls Garth Williams's illustrations full of "sensitivity, warmth, humor, and intelligence".[33] Illustrator Diana Cain Bluthenthal states that Williams's illustrations inspired and influenced her.[34]

An unabridged audio book read by White himself reappeared decades after it had originally been recorded.[35] Newsweek writes that White reads the story "without artifice and with a mellow charm", and that "White also has a plangency that will make you weep, so don't listen (at least, not to the sad parts) while driving".[35] Joe Berk, president of Pathway Sound, had recorded Charlotte's Web with White in White's neighbor's house in Maine (which Berk describes as an especially memorable experience) and released the book in LP.[36] From Michael Sims: "The producer later said that it took him 17 takes to read the death scene of Charlotte. And finally, they would walk outside, and E.B. White would go, this is ridiculous, a grown man crying over the death of an imaginary insect. And then, he would go in and start crying again when he got to that moment."[37] Bantam released Charlotte's Web alongside Stuart Little on CD in 1991, digitally remastered, having acquired the two of them for rather a large amount.[36]

In 2005, a school teacher in California conceived of a project for her class in which they would send out hundreds of drawings of spiders (each representing Charlotte's child Aranea going out into the world so that she can return and tell Wilbur of what she has seen) with accompanying letters; they ended up visiting a large number of parks, monuments, and museums, and were hosted by and/or prompted responses from celebrities and politicians such as John Travolta and then-First Lady Laura Bush.[38]

In 2003, Charlotte's Web was listed at number 170 on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's 200 "best-loved novels".[39] A 2004 study found that Charlotte's Web was a common read-aloud book for third-graders in schools in San Diego County, California.[40] Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association listed the book as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children."[41] It was one of the "Top 100 Chapter Books" of all time in a 2012 poll by School Library Journal.[42]

In 2010, the New York Public Library reported that Charlotte's Web was the sixth most borrowed book in the library's history.[43]

Its awards and nominations include:

John Newbery Honor Book (1953)[44]
Horn Book Fanfare (1952)[45]
Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal (1970) (awarded to White for his children's books: Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little)
Massachusetts Children's Book Award (1984)[46]

Adaptations

Film

The book was adapted into an animated feature of the same name in 1973[47] by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Sagittarius Productions with a score by the Sherman Brothers. In 2003, a direct-to-video sequel to that film, Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure, was released by Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures.

Paramount Pictures, with Walden Media, Kerner Entertainment Company, and Nickelodeon Movies, produced a live-action adaptation, starring Dakota Fanning as Fern and Julia Roberts as the voice of Charlotte, which was released on December 15, 2006.

Upcoming television miniseries

On March 8, 2022, it was announced that Sesame Workshop was working on an animated miniseries based on the book.[48] It was in production for a few months, and was slated to premiere in 2024 on Cartoon Network and HBO Max.[49] On November 3, 2022, it was reported that the miniseries would not be moving forward.[50] However, Canadian animation studio Guru Studio claimed the miniseries is still in production.[51]

Stage

A musical production was created with music and lyrics by Charles Strouse.[52]

Tricycle Productions (Montreal, Canada) produced a touring version of Charlotte's Web in 1996 with arrangements of Strouse's score by Canadian composer Derek Aasland.

Video game

A video game of the 2006 film was developed by Backbone Entertainment and published by THQ and Sega, and released on December 12, 2006, for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and PC.[53] A separate game also based on the film was released a year later for the PlayStation 2 developed by Blast! Entertainment.