Charlotte's Web Summary: Plot, Characters and Themes of E. B. White's Book
What Charlotte's Web is about
Charlotte's Web is a children's book by the American author E. B. White, with illustrations by Garth Williams. Harper & Brothers published it on 15 October 1952. It tells the story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte.
The story opens on the farm of the Arable family, who raise and sell animals. A litter of 11 piglets is born overnight, and John Arable sets out to kill the runt. His daughter Fern pleads for the piglet's life. John gives the piglet to her. She names him Wilbur and treats him as a pet, and the two become very close.
Wilbur does not stay small for long. John decides to sell him, which upsets Fern. The pig goes to her uncle by marriage, Homer Zuckerman, so Fern can still visit him from time to time.
From this point the farm animals talk and think like people. In Zuckerman's barn, Wilbur misses Fern. Some of the animals are kind to him. Others are scornful. Then the head ram mentions, almost offhandedly, that Zuckerman is raising Wilbur to be slaughtered and eaten. Wilbur is distraught. A spider whose web hangs in a doorway above his pen comforts him. Her name is Charlotte, and she promises to find a way to save his life.
Her plan is simple and strange. Charlotte reasons that Zuckerman would not kill a famous pig. So she weaves words praising Wilbur into her web. The first is “Some Pig”. Many people believe the web is a miracle, and the barn becomes a tourist attraction. When the excitement fades, she weaves another word. The question that carries the rest of the book is whether this fame can keep Wilbur alive.
The main characters
Wilbur is the runt of the litter. He is lonely when he arrives at the barn and frightened once he learns what lies ahead.
Charlotte is the barn spider who befriends him. She is clever and calm, and she takes on a motherly role towards Wilbur.
Fern Arable is the girl who saves Wilbur first. She often sits listening to the animals' conversations, which worries her mother. Over the course of the book she grows up.
Templeton is a greedy rat who lives under Wilbur's trough. He does not get on well with the other animals, but Charlotte sends him to find new words for the web. He comes back with “Radiant”, torn from a laundry detergent advert.
The goose is motherly and kind to Wilbur. It is her suggestion that leads to the word “Terrific”.
Homer Zuckerman is pleased by his pig's fame. Even so, his plan to slaughter Wilbur stays firm for much of the story.
The themes
Friendship. At the centre of the book is a friendship between two very different animals. Charlotte gains nothing from saving Wilbur. She does it because he is her friend.
Death. The story starts with a farmer about to kill a newborn piglet, and the threat of slaughter hangs over Wilbur for most of the book. White does not keep death off the page. That is one reason the book is so often discussed.
Nature. The plot follows the farm year. Summer passes, the county fair arrives and winter sets in. The natural life cycle of a barn spider turns out to matter a great deal to how things end.
Family. Families appear in more than one form. There are the Arables and Fern's uncle. There is also the family Wilbur finds in the barn, with Charlotte and the goose both acting as mothers to a pig who has been taken from his own litter.
How it ends (spoilers)
Stop here if you want to read the book first.
Wilbur's fame earns him a place at the county fair, and Charlotte and Templeton go with him. Fern goes too, but she now spends her time with Henry Fussy rather than Wilbur. At the fair, Charlotte weaves one last word, “Humble”. Wilbur does not win first prize. The judges give him a special prize instead, and Charlotte realises this means Zuckerman will never slaughter him.
Charlotte has laid an egg sac at the fair. Barn spiders have short lives, and she is already dying. Content that she has saved Wilbur, she chooses not to return to the barn. Her last request is that her egg sac be taken home. She dies alone at the fairground.
Wilbur keeps the egg sac safe through the winter. When the young spiders hatch, most fly away. Three stay. Charlotte's descendants keep Wilbur company for many years, though none of them ever means as much to him as Charlotte did.
Why it still matters
Charlotte's Web is regarded as a classic of children's literature, and it is enjoyed by readers of all ages. That makes it a strong choice for reading aloud, as well as for children reading on their own. In 2000, Publishers Weekly listed it as the best-selling children's paperback of all time.
Writers and teachers also value it for its prose. The passage describing a rope swing on the farm is often cited as an example of rhythm in writing, because the pace of the sentences matches the motion of the swing.
The story has been retold on screen several times. Hanna-Barbera produced an animated film in 1973, and a direct-to-video sequel followed in 2003. A live-action film came out in 2006, along with a video game based on it. In October 2025, a three-episode miniseries from Sesame Workshop and Guru Studio was released on HBO Max.
More: More E. B. White posters