Charles Emerson Winchester III: Difference between revisions

Template:MASH character Major Charles Emerson Winchester III is a principal character on the television series, M*A*S*H, played by David Ogden Stiers.

Background

Charles Emerson Winchester was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to a very wealthy family of Boston "bluebloods". After completing his secondary studies at Choate, he graduated summa cum laude from Harvard Medical School in Boston, {Class of 1943 {6/20}} and worked at Massachusetts General Hospital. Before he was drafted to join the US Army at the start of the Korean War, he was on track to become Chief of Thoracic Surgery although he shows apparent interest in heart Surgery {6/23}. He has a sister named Honoria (pronounced ah-NOR-ee-uh) with a speech impediment (stuttering) and a brother Timmy who had died when Charles was very young. In 6/6 he has a nephew "Felix"-although it is not made clear if he is a son of Honoria or an unnamed sister.

As presented in the series, he is tall, stocky, and losing his hair.

Initially introduced in Season 6 as "Charles Emerson Winchester", it was not until Season 8 that the suffix "the third" was added to his name.

Joining the 4077th MASH

While Major Frank Burns is AWOL following a trip to Seoul after the marriage of Major Margaret Houlihan to Lieutenant Colonel Donald Penobscot, the staff at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) desperately need a replacement surgeon to fill in. Colonel Sherman T. Potter places a call to Tokyo General Hospital in search of a surgeon. An old friend of Col. Potter, Lt. Colonel Horace Baldwin, is the commanding officer, and in debt to a Major Charles Emerson Winchester from cribbage, volunteers Charles for the position. Colonel Baldwin reassures Charles that the duty will only be 48 hours.

Once Winchester arrives, he finds the conditions repugnant compared to the comfortable Tokyo General. Although his arrogance makes a poor first impression, Winchester proves he is an excellent surgeon when he performs a delicate heart operation on a ventricular aneurysm he is experienced in, but that the other doctors are unfamiliar with. However, he learns that his methodical surgery is unsuited to the gross amount of patients he has to operate on, and the length of his shifts into the early morning, he is forced to learn "meatball surgery". He made an effective transition, though, even criticizing other surgeons if they operated slowly.

Soon after Winchester's arrival, the camp learns that Maj. Burns has been arrested after mistaking another woman for his former lover, Major Houlihan. The camp, but not Winchester, further learns that Maj. Burns has been transferred back to the United States following a psychiatric evaluation. The doctors and Radar toast to Frank, "Good-bye, ferret face." Col. Potter catches Charles just as he is about to leave to return to Tokyo, and informs him that he will be assigned to the 4077th indefinitely. Charles is shocked and at first refuses, but Col. Potter threatens disciplinary action. Charles, very reluctantly, agrees to cooperate and moves into Maj. Burns' former quarters with Pierce and Hunnicutt.

When the first major rush of wounded arrive, Winchester finds himself in over his head once he begins operating, taking three or four times as long to finish his operations as his fellow surgeons: Captain Pierce, Captain Hunnicutt, and Col. Potter in a medical situation where life saving operations must be performed as rapidly as possible. Winchester feels humiliated at any assistance to improve his efficiency and alienates himself from the rest of the camp with his arrogant, self-centered and at times cold persona. He does, however, prove to have a sense of humor and a clever wit which is not above pranks.

Through the rest of the series

Charles at first continually fights his position with the 4077th, especially when he realizes that he lost his candidacy for Chief of Thoracic Surgery at Boston General, but as time passes he more-or-less accepts the situation and settles in with the 4077th. Although initially thought of as tremendously selfish and uncaring, Charles softens somewhat as he acclimates to his new life. This comes in part from a Christmas present arranged by Radar and Fr. Mulcahy – his old tobogganing cap, sent by his mother, which he wears frequently. However, with his ego remaining fully inflated, he still distances himself from the rest of the camp to some degree and regularly retreats to his classical music as a refuge. As time goes on, he seems to maintain his arrogant attitude as a kind of caricature of itself; he is not really quite like that any more but uses it as a kind of character armor to hide his genuine feelings.

Comparison with Burns

Charles engages in acts of generosity and compassion that his predecessor Maj. Burns would never have thought of, much less done. These include the following:

• Convincing a drafted concert pianist, who has given up on the future after losing dexterity in his right hand, that his musical gift does not lie in the stilled hand but rather emanates from within. He finds the wounded man sheet music for pieces to be performed with only the left hand (specifically Piano Concerto for the Left Hand written by Maurice Ravel for Paul Wittgenstein) and restores the wounded man's pride and hope, telling him, "I can play the notes, but I cannot make the music."
• Following his family's tradition by giving the local orphanage a large supply of candy for Christmas, insisting that the orphanage director not tell anyone who donated it. Upon learning that the director sold the candy instead of distributing it among the kids, Charles is at first angry—but the director explains that while the candy would have been enjoyed for a day, the proceeds will feed the children for weeks, and Charles acknowledges that it was "inappropriate" to give children dessert when they had not had any supper. Klinger, overhearing the exchange, saves for Charles the last of the camp's holiday fare—and tells Charles that the source must remain anonymous.
• Befriending a wounded soldier who stutters. When Charles sees him ridiculed by his CO and platoon mates, he takes the CO to one side and thoroughly chastises him. Although the soldier's IQ is above normal, he has always considered himself stupid ("I can't even t-t-talk"), and reads only comic books. Charles encourages him to pursue his natural intelligence, and gives him a treasured, leather-bound copy of Moby-Dick, which the soldier has read in its Classics Illustrated comic book adaptation. At the end of this episode, Charles listens to a taped letter sent by his sister Honoria—revealing that she, too, is a habitual stutterer.

• Another example of Charles Winchester's integrity and humanity appears when Colonel Baldwin visits the 4077th on business. In the episode entitled "No Laughing Matter," Baldwin mistakes Houlihan for a prostitute he requested from Winchester, and when she gets away and goes to Col. Potter, he tells Winchester of his plan to get Margaret in trouble and save both his and Winchester's reputations by telling Potter that she was the initiator of the sexual advances with the hopes of currying favor towards promotion. Winchester refuses to go along with it, but Baldwin promises that if he played along, he would be transferred back to Tokyo General. When the time comes, Baldwin tells Colonel Potter the lie, and when Winchester is called on to corroborate, he reveals the truth, and his bottled-up anger at Baldwin for the transfer comes out. As much as Winchester wanted to go back to Tokyo, and as embarrassing, unethical, and even legally perilous as his act on behalf of Baldwin was, he refused to smear the name of a friend and colleague by bearing false witness against her, especially not for Colonel Baldwin.

• Winchester's on-again, off-again friendship with Margaret is a subject of several episodes, but he is always prepared to jump to her defense when she is threatened. In 8/2 when a Congressional investigator with the HUAC falsely smears her as a "Communist", Winchester chastises the official, who promptly suggests Winchester is a fellow-traveler; to which Winchester states that his family is so conservative that they make the investigator look like a New Dealer.

Relationship with fellow surgeons

While Winchester's faults still cause irritation, Charles eventually makes partial peace with his comrades and they count him as one of their friends.

When Hawkeye was anxiously awaiting word about his father, who had undergone surgery for a life-threatening condition, Charles kept a vigil with him. He reveals to Hawkeye his envy of the close relationship Hawkeye and his father share in stark contrast to that with his own father, stating, "Whereas I have a father, you have a dad," and "My father and I have been ten thousand miles apart in the same room," lessening the distance Hawkeye felt.

In one episode he appears to have a grudging respect for Hawkeye as a surgeon, and in at least two other episodes he has normal friendly conversation with Pierce and or BJ — although in another he expresses his irritation at Pierce for having a big mouth and poking his nose into over people's business {7/20}.

Charles also lent B.J. the money he and wife Peg needed for a land down-payment, when the deadline came abruptly (to be fair, he did try to hold this over B.J. until handed a lesson in humility after a marathon poker game). In 6/6 Winchester privately concedes B.J. seems to be a personable chap — although as a "Boston Brahmin" he can't help sneering at the fact that B.J. was born/raised/lived and has his medical training in California (as opposed to a Harvard-educated M.D. such as himself). (Ironically Stiers is a resident of California.)

He often displayed his fear of war and the question of life after death; in one poignant episode, Winchester found himself at the front line. Questioning a patient who was mortally injured, in a fruitless attempt to discover what might await anyone close to death, Winchester asked what could he see/smell/feel. The patient's only semi-comatose response was that he could smell bread.

Winchester took his nominal second-in-command position far less seriously than Frank Burns ever had; on the rare occasions when Col. Potter was away and he had to take charge, Charles usually let the camp go through its paces, and everyone have what they wanted as long as Charles in turn got what he wanted (usually a personal favor, or simply time alone). The first time he was camp CO, though, he went overboard on ordering creature comforts. In addition, on occasions when Hawkeye was left in charge for varying reasons (once including Winchester's own insistence that he was not up to the task), he did not take offense and indeed very seldom wielded his rank as a tool.

Despite his arrogant persona — at least in the early episodes — Winchester takes his personal standard as a physician very seriously - in 9/14 one time he had to make an inspection of a neighboring Army unit whose standards of cleanliness were so low that he gives it an approval rating of "zero" on the grounds he couldn't give it anything lower.

A running joke is Winchester ego:

• In 7/17 although he acknowledges he has met a physican as good as himself-his monstrous ego has him throwing a temper tantrum at the very idea of anyone-espically a woman-is as good a physican as himself!
• In 7/19 Winchester's ego takes such a blow in the fact of a young, bright, intelligent surgeon with new surgical techniques-that Winchester gets drunk for three days! {Hawkeye and BJ deal deal with new surgical techniques by reading up Medical Journals!}

Four times he nearly has romantic relationships plus 1 date and 1 implied relationship:

• 6/22 he actually flirted with a visting nurse and offered to share a bottle of wine with her;
• 6/23 Hawkeye reads a Love note from Winchester to a woman in Tokyo
• 7/16 Winchester goes out on a date with a MASH Nurse
• 7/25 he was attracted to a "working girl" at Rosie's Bar — but gave it up when he realizes she is not interested in him;
• 8/9 he was "married" while drunk in Tokoyo — it turns out to be a non-existant sham;
• 11/3 he comes very close to making a commitment to an French woman — but he reluctantly gives it up when he realizes his family would never approve of her Left Bank lifestyle.

In 11/10 Only once during the series does Winchester find someone to talk with on Blue-Blood topics: At the end the joke is on Winchester who finds out the person he's talking to — an English officer — is a son of a worker on a English estate.

When Hawkeye was writing his last will and testament while trapped at a Battalion Aid Station, he wrote:

"To Charles Emerson Winchester, though we may have wounded your pride, you never lost your dignity. I therefore bequeath to you the most dignified thing I own: my bathrobe. Purple is the color of royalty."

Sense of humor

In contrast to his normally posh tastes, Charles enjoyed occasional Tom and Jerry cartoons, The Three Stooges shorts (which he regarded as surrealistic), Captain Marvel comics, and canned sardines. In fact, early on, Charles is luxuriating (so to speak) in the Swamp as Hawkeye and Hunnicutt come in; listening to Mozart. Hawkeye lies down on his cot, and finds a rubber snake in it. He turns to Charles and says "Clever! Very clever!" Charles says with dignity, "Please--Mozart." Then he smirks.

Furthermore, he engaged in a few pranks, including one episode where Colonel Flagg visited the camp and Charles planted 'evidence' to lead him on a wild goose chase, wherein Flagg became convinced that conspirators were meeting in the guise of a bridge game. "The 'conspirators' included Hawkeye, Colonel Potter, the Mayor of Uijeongbu, and the Chief of Police, who were not amused at Flagg's accusations. When Hawkeye questioned Charles, Charles demurely stated that he wasn't the type to pull pranks, unless it was good for a laugh. He also once used a practice grenade to clear out the Officer's Club so he, Hawkeye, BJ, Klinger and Soon Lee could get a table. While BJ Hunnicut and Winchester engaged in practical jokes, BJ is simply devious {9/15}; in 7/14 Winchester is a master manipulator.

In 9/6 He was seen as a comic foil example when he began placing huge bets on the Brooklyn Dodgers not blowing their 13-1/2 game lead during the 1951 season — only to lose all his money during the three-game playoff, when Bobby Thomson's home run won the final game. Winchester had revealed in earlier episodes that he didn't care about the Red Sox, and it's strongly implied his snobbery keeps him from being interested in baseball at all except as a financial investment. (Another MASH 4077 timeline error is that this game was held Oct 3, 1951 — yet Winchester arrives at MASH after Potter took command on Sept 19,1952.)

In one of the last season episode 11/8 Hawkeye and BJ try to get a movie The Moon is Blue — apparently they think its a sexy movie because its been banned in Boston. Winchester tries to give them a discreet warning to keep their expectations in check on the grounds Boston would ban Pinocchio (1940 film).

Finale

In the series finale, Goodbye, Farewell and Amen, Winchester encounters a group of five Chinese soldier-musicians, obviously the equivalent of a small unit band, who prove to share his love of music. They surrender to him as prisoners of war and are held at the 4077th. As they are playing traditional music, Winchester furiously confronts them, explaining that he is trying to listen to Mozart on his phonograph. They then begin to play a crude rendition of Mozart's Quintet for Clarinet and Strings. Winchester, delighted at the idea of being able to spend time with anyone who loves classics, begins spending considerable time trying to improve upon their performance ("Dolce!"). However, Charles learns that the musicians have to be transferred in a P.O.W. exchange with the Chinese Red Army along with the rest of the captives at the 4077th. Charles pleads for them to stay, but the military officer coordinating the effort refuses to allow it. The musicians play the piece of Mozart that Charles had taught them as they are driven away.

Charles, coming out after surgery several hours later, triages one final patient from a prisoner truck accident in grave condition. He begins examining the wounds, but then recoils in horror when he sees that the patient is the flute player from the Chinese band. Charles asks the corpsman if any other prisoners had survived, but the corpsman informs Charles that the dying man is "the only one that made it this far." Charles sadly and bitterly remarks "He wasn't a soldier. He was a musician."

Retreating to his tent Charles attempts to find solace in a record of "Quintet for Clarinet and Strings" but after only a few moments of listening to the song he wordlessly yanks the record off the phonograph and smashes it. The armistice to end the Korean War is signed soon after and at the 4077's last supper, Charles announces: "I will be head of Thoracic Surgery at Boston Mercy Hospital, so my life will go on pretty much as I expected—with one exception. For me, music has always been a refuge from this miserable experience... now it will always be a reminder."

Margaret uses her connections to arrange Charles' position at Boston Mercy. At first Charles refuses the help, expressing that he wanted a position based on his own merits. His confession, at the supper, that he will accept the position is a pleasant surprise to Margaret, who he thanks just before leaving.

With the 4077th packing up and the personnel moving out to return home, Charles leaves the camp with Sgt. Rizzo in the last remaining vehicle: a garbage truck. When Rizzo pulls up in the truck, he says "I hope you don't mind riding in a garbage truck, 'cause it's the last vehicle I got.", to which Winchester replies "Not at all. What better way to leave a garbage dump!" It is fitting that Charles leaves his friends with the trademark phrase "Gentlemen." that still shows his class and upbringing.

Related links

• M*A*S*H (TV series)

Quotes

"Know this. You can cut me off from the civilized world. You can incarcerate me with two moronic cellmates. You can torture me with your thrice daily swill, but you cannot break the spirit of a Winchester. My voice shall be heard from this wilderness and I shall be delivered from this fetid and festering sewer!"

"I've groveled! I have endured your insufferable cribbage playing! I have kissed your brass! But I WILL NOT, even for a return to that pearl of the orient Tokyo, lie to protect you while destroying a friend's career!"

"I do one thing, I do it very well and then I move on." {with posh accent}.

"Let me put this as eloquently and succinctly as possible," - he tries to pour tea then discovers a rubber chicken - "Get me the hell out of here!"

"Gentlemen" (said quite often in the series in a posh accent)

"Pierce, you remind me of a dog we once had. He, too, was cheerful in the mornings. So we gave him to some Japanese immigrants. And they ate him."

"I've heard snappier comebacks from a bowl of Rice Krispies."

"Yes--my resignation. I will criticize Pierce, I will ridicule him, I will even humiliate him. But I will not spy on him!" (Said to Colonel Flagg when deciding to refuse to help Flagg gather evidence that Hawkeye is a Communist)

Trivia

There are plot holes in regard to Major Winchester.

• On his dress uniform {6/6} are three Army ribbons-the Korean Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal and National Defense Service Medal. This would indicate Winchester has been in the front lines before, although in his initial appearance we are to understand that he has been at Tokyo General Hospital during the whole of his Korean War Service.

• In an episode where Hawkeye writes his will, he gives his purple bathrobe to Winchester. Most episodes show Hawkeye bathrobe as dark red.

• It may require a bit of suspension of disbelief on the viewer's part to reconcile Winchester's sincere desire to return to Massachusetts General Hospital {7/6} and no other hospital, with the final episode in which he plans to go to Boston Mercy, saying there is no other hospital in Boston. Another suspension of disbelief comes in an episode {8/12} showing Winchester prowling around MASH hunting pheasant with a sporting shotgun and dressed like an ordinary outdoor hunter-despite the fact that MASH 4077 is in the middle of a minefield and is on occasion fired upon and infiltrated by guerrillas.

• Another suspension of disbelief is 6/20 when Winchester remarks he graduated from Harvard Class of 1943 and the irrational Lt. claims he took ROTC in college to avoid the service and was sent to Korea after graduating from Yale Class of 1948:
  • Both Winchester and the Lt would have been subject to the draft during World War II 1941-1945- not Korea.

• In 6/23 Winchester claims he's been at MASH "6 Months" which would make it Sept 1953; this does not jibe with the report of the first Open Heart surgery preformed Sept 2, 1952 nor with Kentucky Derby Day which is held April/May!

• In 7/8 Winchester and Klinger find themselves only 200 yards from MASH; plot hole is that in real life Klinger would have been walking into middle of MASH 4077 minefield!

• In 7/15 Winchester claims he's a Presbyterian; A "true" Boston Blue would have belonged to an "established" Boston Church such as an Episcopalian. {Also this bit of trivia could be a crossover from character of Major Frank Burns-who is also Presbyterian {5/25}}

Winchester's personal interests:

• Winchester's other interests include: Japanese Culture-such as sushi, octapus, sumo wrestling, kabukai theather, Tokoyo;polo ponies; pheasant hunting; "canned pheasant" {which results in Winchester and Houlihan getting food poisioning!}; 12 year old scotch; 18 year old cognac; a case of wine {Which he loses to Black marketers becasue of his ego}; playing the French horn; cribbage and other card playing-such as poker and bridge; yachting and cigars {he keeps a yachting hat and ornate cigar box in his footlocker}; golf; grain speculation -in canadian wheat, and being a member of Harvard's Hasty Pudding Club.

• He has a instinctive fear of dentists and knows Spinoza and a little Latin; he also listens to classical music while taking a bath {7/7} and has 4 bathrobes-two blue {6/22} and {7/6}; one red/blue {7/3}; one burgundy striped {7/7}; he actually sings The Barber of Seville to himself while combing his hair {7/16}.

• In 6/22 when Dupre guessed Winchester is from Yale, Winchester nearly loses his temper. {Dupree is so obnoxious that Winchester is actually glad to have Pierce back.}

External links

• Major Winchester's Unofficial Web Site - Charles Emerson Winchester III's own website
• Finest-Kind.net - M*A*S*H website with character profile
• Best Care Anywhere - M*A*S*H website with character profile