The main human character in Charlotte's Web is eight-year-old Fern Arable. She is the girl that rescues Wilbur from being killed by her father for being nothing more than the runt of the litter. Mr. Arable's full name is John Arable. He seems cold and heartless at first since we first meet him carrying an ax to kill a pig. Mrs. Arable's first name is never given to the readers and she is just referred to as Mrs. Arable or mother throughout the text. She is a constant worrier, but her worries are far too focused on Fern. We never hear her having much of any concern about her son. Fern's older brother is Avery Arable, and he is two years older than Fern. He may be older than Fern, but he is definitely not the more mature sibling. He is a messy, wild, and very rambunctious child, and keeping him clean is essentially an impossible task.

In Charlotte's Web, Fern Arable's parents are named Mr. John Arable and Mrs. Arable. John Arable is a farmer who plans on killing Wilbur, a young pig. However, Mr. Arable has a soft heart and spares Wilbur for Fern's sake. But later, John Arable sells Wilbur to Mr. Zuckerman.

Mrs. Arable does not share her daughter's sense of kinship with animals, and she worries about her daughter when she hears that Fern has been speaking with Charlotte, Templeton, and the other animals at Mr. Zuckerman's farm. Mrs. Arable consults Dr. Dorian about Fern's tendency to spend her whole day in the barn, speaking with animals, as Mrs. Arable thinks Fern's behavior is odd. She doesn't understand how words have appeared in the spider's web, and she doesn't trust what she doesn't understand. Mrs. Arable is a person with a limited imagination who is threatened by anything unusual. Mr. Arable, on the other hand, is more sympathetic towards his daughter and believes that she simply has a healthy imagination as many children do.

Mr. John Arable and Mrs. Arable.