CHARLOTTE’S WEB
A Study Guide for Teachers and Students
Artwork for Study Guide by Emily Grosland
Based on the novel by E.B. White
Adapted for the stage by Joseph Robinette
SYNOPSIS
A new litter of piglets is born on Arable’s farm, but one of them, the runt, is doomed to
end his life as soon as it begins, because he is so small and useless. Fern, Farmer
Arable’s daughter, realizes how unfair it is to kill the innocent pig just for being born
small, and she convinces her father to let her keep the pig, whom she names Wilbur, as a
pet. Wilbur thrives on the farm for several weeks, but eventually must be moved to the
neighboring farm, Zuckerman’s farm, because Arable does not have the resources to
keep the pig. Although Wilbur is sad to leave Fern, he adjusts easily to life at
Zuckerman’s farm. Not only does Fern visit him every day, he makes friends with the
other creatures in the barnyard, especially a kind and intelligent spider named
Charlotte.
Wilbur leads a happy life, but a dark cloud looms overhead--when Wilbur is big enough,
Farmer Zuckerman plans to turn Wilbur into ham! Charlotte makes it her mission to
save Wilbur’s life. To impress the Farmer, Charlotte weaves words into her web,
describing Wilbur’s wonderful and worthy qualities, and soon the web is attracting
attention from the newspaper and from people all over the county--the farm is mobbed
every day with visitors! Farmer Zuckerman decides to enter Wilbur in the County Fair,
and promises that if he wins the Blue Ribbon, Wilbur will never be turned into ham!
Meanwhile, Charlotte is exhausted from the work of weaving her intricate webs, but
despite her fatigue, decides to go to the fair with Wilbur. There, she weaves one more
word for Wilbur in her web, and then, sets to work on her biggest project yet--making an
egg sac holding over 500 eggs that will hatch into baby spiders. As she works, Wilbur
suspensefully waits to see if he has won the top prize. Another pig takes home the Blue
Ribbon, but Wilbur receives a special prize for being such a terrific and radiant pig!
Charlotte, however, does not live to see her friend’s triumph, or to see her eggs hatch.
She passes away quietly in the night. To express his gratitude for Charlotte’s friendship
and her help in saving his life, Wilbur vows to watch over Charlotte’s children. When
they hatch, most of the newborn spiders fly away on strings of silk, but three of them
decide to remain in the barn, much to Wilbur’s delight. To honor Charlotte, he hangs
his medal on the nail in the doorway where Charlotte’s web used to be, and never forgets
his friend.
GENERAL DISCUSSION
1. When he is born, Wilbur is considered the “runt” of the litter. What does the word
“runt” mean? How does he eventually overcome this status?
2. Early in the story, when Fern learns that her father plans to kill the piglet for being a
runt, she uses the term “injustice” to describe his plan. What is “injustice”? Are there
other examples of injustice in the story?
3. Discuss the following themes as they relate to the play Charlotte’s Web: heroism,
friendship, fairness, overcoming adversity, determination, courage. If you have read the
book, compare and contrast the ways the book and the play address these themes.
4. Charlotte uses adjectives to highlight Wilbur’s good qualities in her web. She writes
“Some Pig”, “Radiant”, “Teriffic”, and “Humble”. What are some other positive
adjectives that you would use to describe Wilbur?
5. Wilbur’s two best friends are Charlotte and Fern. Both of them love Wilbur very
much and both of them save his life at some point. What are some other similarites and
differences between Wilbur’s friendship with Fern and his friendship with Charlotte?
DRAMATIC ARTS
1. The play Charlotte’s Web features several actors who play animal characters. How is
playing an animal different from playing a human character? What sorts of things
might an actor do to prepare for the role of an animal?
2. In the theatre, the set pieces (or scenery) for a play are made by a scenic designer. It
is the scenic designer’s job to design and build scenery for plays, and in so doing,
skillfully re-create large settings (such as barnyards) to fit in the much smaller space of a
stage.
a. Before seeing the play, imagine that you are a scenic designer and you have
been assigned to design the scenery for Charlotte’s Web, which is set in a barnyard.
Draw a picture of a barnyard set design and use your imagination! Be creative with the
layout, colors, textures, size, and types of materials for the set.
3. There are many characters in the play Charlotte’s Web but just a few actors. Most of
these actors play multiple roles in the play. Between scenes, they often must do a
“quick-change”, which is a very fast costume change that must be done in a short time
between two scenes or two parts of a scene. What are the challenges for an actor playing
multiple roles in a play? What are the challenges for the audience? If you were an actor
do you think playing multiple roles in one play would be fun?
LITERATURE
1. Before seeing the play, read the novel Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White with the class.
Discuss things that may be different about the play. Then, after seeing the play,
compare what you saw onstage to your experience of reading the book. Did the play
leave anything out that you thought should be included?
2. E.B. White is also famous for the novel Stuart Little which is about a talking mouse
who is adopted by a human family. Read this book with the class as well, and compare
and contrast it with Charlotte’s Web. Do you think that Stuart Little would make a good
stage play?
CREATIVE WRITING
1. Charlotte’s Web ends with Wilbur back on the farm, along with the other animals and
three of Charlotte’s baby spiders. But what do you think happens next? Do the young
spiders grow to be great artists like their mother? Does Wilbur find himself in another
sticky situation in which he needs his friends’ help to get through? Write a short followup story to Charlotte’s Web. Be creative with the plot, characters, and setting, while
being true to the story that you saw onstage or read in the book.
2. Wilbur and Charlotte’s magnificent webs attract lots of media attention, and a
reporter comes to Zuckerman’s farm to cover the events for the local newspaper.
Imagine that you are the reporter. Write an article for the newspaper in which you
interview Homer Zuckerman and describe the miraculous happenings on his farm.
Remember that as the reporter, you do not know that the animals can talk, nor do you
know the real reason why everything is happening--keep these things in mind as you
write!
SCIENCE
1. Charlotte is a spider whose full name is Charlotte A. Cavatica. The “A. Cavatica” part
of her name refers to the type of spider she is--Aranea Cavatica (or Araneus Cavaticus)
which is an actual species of spider. The system that scientists use to classify organisms
using names like this is called “taxonomy”. The taxonomic names come from Latin and
ancient Greek.
a. Look up the scientific names of the other barnyard animals, as well as humans.
What would your last name be if you went by your scientific name, like Charlotte does?
b. Have each student do a brief research project on one of the animals from
Zuckerman’s farm, or on another type of animal that may be found on a typical farm but
did not appear in the story. Students may start by finding out the scientific name for the
animal, then compile information such as life span, what it eats, where it lives, habits,
physical traits, etc. Rather than finding a picture from the Internet or magazine to
accompany their findings, have them draw one based on the facts that they find.
2. Wilbur is happy to have Charlotte as a friend, but at first he thinks she is “brutal and
bloodthirsty” because she eats by trapping bugs in her web and sucking their blood.
Charlotte explains to Wilbur that she has to do it because that’s the way she’s made.
Research the life cycles of a number of different species of spiders. The class could be
broken into groups with each group assigned a type of spider. Have them find pictures
from magazines and the Internet and present their findings to the class.
3. Charlotte’s Web is set on two neighboring farms: Arable’s farm and Zuckerman’s
farm. Discuss farms and farm life with the class. What other well-known stories are set
on farms?
a. What does a farmer do for a living? What is a farmer’s day-to-day routine?
Would you want to live the life of a farmer?
b.
List and discuss the different types of farms--dairy farm, poultry farm,
vegetable farm, etc. What kind of farm do you think Wilbur lives on?
c. Discuss the steps involved in farming crops--soil preparation, planting,
irrigation, etc., as well as the weather patterns that may affect the success of a crop. The
class could be divided into groups and make colorful diagrams on posterboard showing
the processes of growing crops such as wheat, corn, cotton, etc.
HISTORY
1. E.B. White’s original novel Charlotte’s Web was written in 1952. What was going on
in the world and in the US at this time? How might these events be reflected in White’s
story or affected his writing in some way?
2. Fern’s brother, Avery, walks onstage carrying a wooden toy at one point in the play.
Find some pictures from the Internet of old-fashioned toys. How were the toys of the
1950’s different from the toys that you play with today? How are they similar? Do you
think these old-fashioned types of toys would be more fun, less fun, or just as fun to play
with today?
ADDITIONAL--WRITE TO CTC!
After watching the play, write about it. Tell what you liked or disliked about the story,
the characters, costumes, set, or anything else you observed. Support your thoughts
with examples and reasons. (Teacher’s comments are appreciated!)
Mail to:
CTC, P.O. Box 2007
Sunnyvale, CA 94087
READING SUGGESTIONS
 Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. Illustrated by Garth Williams. HarperTrophy
(December 14, 2004)