Recognizing that corporate charters and bylaws reflect a contract between the corporation and its stockholders, directors, and officers, Delaware courts interpret these governing documents using general principles of contract interpretation, one of which directs the court to read the instrument as a whole. Relatedly, under Delaware's objective theory of contracts, the goal of contract construction is to discern the parties' intent from the perspective of an objective, reasonable third party. Thus, where a literal reading yields a result at odds with what the drafters would have reasonably intended (which itself derives from the commercial context evidenced in plain terms throughout the instrument), literal meaning gives way to a more nuanced "objective" meaning. This article explores the application of this key precept in the interpretation of charters and bylaws.