The grey spider is the novel's moral center and its most fully realized character. Charlotte is not good in spite of being a predator; she is good in full possession of what she is. She eats flies and she saves Wilbur and neither fact diminishes the other. Her intelligence is practical and elegant — she identifies a problem, constructs a solution out of language, and executes it with craftsmanship. Her unselfishness is never performed or sentimental: she doesn't announce that she is sacrificing herself; she simply does the work. The novel honors her by making her death as plain as her life.