|
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". He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and came to work 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. He has a sister named Honoria with a speech impediment and a brother Timmy who had died when Charles was a little boy.
Joining the 4077 M*A*S*H
While Major Frank Burns is MIA following a trip to Seoul, the staff at the 4077 Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (M*A*S*H) needs a replacement surgeon to fill in. Colonel Sherman T. Potter places a call to I Corps, who subsequently places a call to Tokyo General Hospital in search of a surgeon. A colonel, in debt to a Major Charles Emerson Winchester, volunteers Charles for the position. The colonel reassures Charles that the duty will only be temporary until Maj. Burns returns.
Once Winchester arrives, he finds the conditions repugnant compared to the comfortable Tokyo General. Winchester is an excellent surgeon, but finds himself in over his head once he begins operating, taking three or fours times as long to finish his operations as his fellow surgeons: Captain Hawkeye Pierce, Captain B.J. Hunnicutt, and Col. Potter in a medical situation where life saving operations must be performed as rapidly as possible. Winchester, his ego fully inflated, refuses any assistance and alienates himself from the rest of the camp with his arrogant, self-centered and at times cold persona.
Soon after Winchester's arrival, the camp learns that Maj. Burns has been arrested after mistaking another woman for his former lover, Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan. The camp, but not Winchester, further learns that Maj. Burns has been transferred back to the United States for a post at a Veterans Hospital and promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.
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 4077 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.
Through the rest of the series
Charles at first continually fights his position with the 4077, especially when he realizes that he lost candidacy for Chief of Thorasic Surgery at Massachusetts General, but as time passes he more-or-less accepts the situation and settles in with the 4077. Although initially thought of as a tremendously selfish and uncaring, Charles softens somewhat as he acclimates to his new life. 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.
This change of attitude shows in acts of generosity that Charles' predecessor Maj. Burns would never think of. This includes such acts as giving a drafted concert pianist, who lost dexterity in his right hand, sheet music for pieces performed with the left hand. Another example is when he gives the local orphanage a supply of candy at Christmas time - but tells the director of the institution not to tell anyone who gave it to him. Initally angry when he learns that the director sold the candy, he realizes that the selling the candy would greatly expand the resources of the orphange. Klinger, having learned of this, gives him the last remnants of the meal and tells him the source of the meal must remain anonymous. In addition, while his faults still cause irritation, he eventually makes partial peace with his comrades and they count him as one of their friends. One example of this is that he kept a vigil with Hawkeye while the latter was anxiously awaiting word of his father, who had gone into surgery for a life-threatning condition.
In the series finale, Goodbye, Farewell and Amen, Winchester meets a group of four Korean refugees who are decent musicians and share his love of music. Winchester brings them back with him to the 4077 and attempts to teach them Mozart's Quintet for Clarinet and Strings. However, Charles learns that the musicians have to be transferred to a prisoner of war camp along with the rest of the captives at the 4077. 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 acccident in grave condition. He begins examining the wounds, but then recoils in horror when he sees that the patient is one of the Korean musicians that had been shipped to the P.O.W. camp. Charles asks the corpsman if any other prisoners had survived, but the corpsman informs Charles that the dying musician is the only one. The armistice to end the Korean War is signed soon after.
In one of the final scenes, Charles announces: "I've just discovered that I will be head of Thoracic Surgery at Boston Mercy Hospital. My life will go on as expected -- with one exception. For me, music had always been a refuge from this miserable experience. Now it will always be a reminder of it".
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.
Related Links
| 
