Things I Learned From M*A*S*H, Pt 2
Part Two
Charles Emerson Winchester III
Winchester was often the butt of the joke on M*A*S*H. because it was easy to do. He replaced Major Frank Burns as the anti-Hawkeye, but he and Frank were very different. Whereas Frank was a simple-minded, self-involved inferior surgeon, Charles was an excellent surgeon with a pompous demeanor. Not only that, he often proved himself to be a worthy foe for Hawkeye and B.J. in terms of wit or practical joking. His pomposity, however, may not have run as deep as one might have originally thought and little glimpses into his life chipped away at that mask.
Indeed, his placement at the 4077 began as a reaction to his arrogant bearing. His dominance and subsequent bragging over a simple game of cards with a general took him from a job in the luxurious confines of Tokyo to meatball surgery near the front. The shock of this experience would have been a great deal for anyone to endure, let alone a blue-blood Bostonian. And though he seemed to have clung to that blue blood nature as long as he could, ultimately he showed there was much more to his character.
A few glimpses of his old life showed a humanity that would have belied the image he tried to project:
He still grieved over a brother, Timmy, who died as a child. He was fiercely faithful in corresponding with his sister Honoria (does not rhyme with gonorrhea). However, one episode dealt with the tapes they sent one another and ended with Charles, listening with tears in his eyes as his sister struggled through a major speech impediment to tell him how much their correspondence meant to her.
In other episodes he could be seen reaching out to people in an effort to help them- helping an abandoned baby, trying to help a prostitute turn her life around, becoming personally connected with patients under his care often while outwardly he still projected this boorish exterior.
Nowhere was this more obvious than in an episode wherein Cpl. Klinger found out the identity of someone who had been secretly leaving gifts at a Korean orphanage under cover of night. The benefactor was none other than Charles Emerson Winchester. As Charles pleadingly explained his tradition of helping someone secretly during the Christmas season, any notion of inequality between the kid from the tough streets of Toledo and one of Boston’s elite disappeared. It’s a scene that always leaves a lump in my throat.
The lessons here are probably many- but I always loved that deep down, Charles quietly lived out concern for others without wearing this virtue on his sleeve.
“Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Matthew 6
Charles Emerson Winchester III
Winchester was often the butt of the joke on M*A*S*H. because it was easy to do. He replaced Major Frank Burns as the anti-Hawkeye, but he and Frank were very different. Whereas Frank was a simple-minded, self-involved inferior surgeon, Charles was an excellent surgeon with a pompous demeanor. Not only that, he often proved himself to be a worthy foe for Hawkeye and B.J. in terms of wit or practical joking. His pomposity, however, may not have run as deep as one might have originally thought and little glimpses into his life chipped away at that mask.
Indeed, his placement at the 4077 began as a reaction to his arrogant bearing. His dominance and subsequent bragging over a simple game of cards with a general took him from a job in the luxurious confines of Tokyo to meatball surgery near the front. The shock of this experience would have been a great deal for anyone to endure, let alone a blue-blood Bostonian. And though he seemed to have clung to that blue blood nature as long as he could, ultimately he showed there was much more to his character.
A few glimpses of his old life showed a humanity that would have belied the image he tried to project:
He still grieved over a brother, Timmy, who died as a child. He was fiercely faithful in corresponding with his sister Honoria (does not rhyme with gonorrhea). However, one episode dealt with the tapes they sent one another and ended with Charles, listening with tears in his eyes as his sister struggled through a major speech impediment to tell him how much their correspondence meant to her.
In other episodes he could be seen reaching out to people in an effort to help them- helping an abandoned baby, trying to help a prostitute turn her life around, becoming personally connected with patients under his care often while outwardly he still projected this boorish exterior.
Nowhere was this more obvious than in an episode wherein Cpl. Klinger found out the identity of someone who had been secretly leaving gifts at a Korean orphanage under cover of night. The benefactor was none other than Charles Emerson Winchester. As Charles pleadingly explained his tradition of helping someone secretly during the Christmas season, any notion of inequality between the kid from the tough streets of Toledo and one of Boston’s elite disappeared. It’s a scene that always leaves a lump in my throat.
The lessons here are probably many- but I always loved that deep down, Charles quietly lived out concern for others without wearing this virtue on his sleeve.
“Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Matthew 6
1 Comments:
Hard to believe that a recap of an episode of M*A*S*H can leave me with tears in my eyes.
I was thinking this morning of my secret life as a Christian and how much work I needed in getting my focus off of me....this was just what I needed to read.
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