The Selfish Giant

“The Selfish Giant” is a children’s short story written by the Victorian author Oscar Wilde. It is part of a collection of five short stories—The Happy Prince, and Other Tales—first published in 1888 and written for the entertainment and moral education of children like Wilde’s two young sons. “The Selfish Giant,” both a fairy tale and an allegory, details the suffering and redemption of a giant who banishes children from playing in his garden. Relying heavily upon Christian symbolism and Victorian ideology, Wilde illustrates the value of selfless love and charity to his young readers. This study guide refers to the version of the story found in the Project Gutenberg edition of The Happy Prince.

The story begins in the garden of a Giant’s castle where children come to play after school. The garden is full of flowers, fruits, trees, and birds, and the children cry, “How happy we are here!” (57).

One day, the Giant returns to his castle after a seven-year visit to his friend, a Cornish ogre, and finds the children playing in his garden. Outraged, the Giant demands to know what the children are doing, and they run away. The Giant resolves that the garden is his alone to enjoy and builds a wall around it, posting a sign saying that “TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED” (58).

Having nowhere else to play, the children try to play in the street but do not like it. After school, they wander by the garden wall and reminisce. In the spring, birds and blossoms come to the country around the castle, but the Giant’s garden remains in winter. Snow and Frost remark that “Spring has forgotten this garden [...] so [they] will live here all the year round” (59-60), and they invite other elements of nature, such as the North Wind and Hail, inside. The Giant hopes for a change in the weather, but neither spring, summer, nor autumn ever come to his garden.

One morning, the Giant hears the song of a linnet bird and, thinking spring has finally come, looks out his window. The Giant sees that children have come into the garden through a hole in the wall and are sitting in his trees, which are now in bloom. Spring has returned to the garden, except for a far corner where the Giant sees a boy crying because he is too small to climb a tree. The tree invites the boy up, but even when it bends its branches to him, the boy cannot reach.

Seeing this sad boy, the Giant recognizes how selfish his banishment of the children was. He decides to put the boy in the tree and knock down the garden wall so his garden can “be the children's playground for ever and ever” (63). Yet when he enters the garden, most of the children run away from him and winter enters again. The Giant takes the little boy by the hand and puts him in the tree, which then blossoms. The boy thanks the Giant with a hug and a kiss.

Seeing that the Giant is kind, the other children run back into the garden, bringing spring with them. The Giant takes an ax and tears down the wall before playing with the children. At the end of the day, the children come to say goodbye, but the smallest boy is missing. The children continue to come to the garden to play with the Giant, but to his grief, his first friend never returns. Years go by and the Giant grows old and unable to play with the children. Instead, he watches them play in his garden and remarks, “I have many beautiful flowers [...] but the children are the most beautiful flowers of all” (65). He learns to love winter because he recognizes that spring and the children will return.

One winter morning when the Giant is near death, he looks out his window to see that the tree by which he first saw the little boy is covered with white blossoms and silver fruits. Under the tree’s now golden branches stands the little boy, whom the Giant rushes to see. When the Giant approaches the boy, he is angered to see the marks of nails on the boy’s hands and feet. The Giant demands to know who dared wound the child so that he can kill the perpetrator, but the child tells him that “these are the wounds of Love” (66). In awe, the Giant asks who the child is and kneels before him. The child smiles at him and says that it is now the Giant’s turn to visit his garden. When the children return to the garden that afternoon, they find the body of the Giant underneath the tree, covered in its white blossoms.“The Selfish Giant” is a children’s short story written by the Victorian author Oscar Wilde. It is part of a collection of five short stories—The Happy Prince, and Other Tales—first published in 1888 and written for the entertainment and moral education of children like Wilde’s two young sons. “The Selfish Giant,” both a fairy tale and an allegory, details the suffering and redemption of a giant who banishes children from playing in his garden. Relying heavily upon Christian symbolism and Victorian ideology, Wilde illustrates the value of selfless love and charity to his young readers. This study guide refers to the version of the story found in the Project Gutenberg edition of The Happy Prince.

The story begins in the garden of a Giant’s castle where children come to play after school. The garden is full of flowers, fruits, trees, and birds, and the children cry, “How happy we are here!” (57).

One day, the Giant returns to his castle after a seven-year visit to his friend, a Cornish ogre, and finds the children playing in his garden. Outraged, the Giant demands to know what the children are doing, and they run away. The Giant resolves that the garden is his alone to enjoy and builds a wall around it, posting a sign saying that “TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED” (58).

Having nowhere else to play, the children try to play in the street but do not like it. After school, they wander by the garden wall and reminisce. In the spring, birds and blossoms come to the country around the castle, but the Giant’s garden remains in winter. Snow and Frost remark that “Spring has forgotten this garden [...] so [they] will live here all the year round” (59-60), and they invite other elements of nature, such as the North Wind and Hail, inside. The Giant hopes for a change in the weather, but neither spring, summer, nor autumn ever come to his garden.

One morning, the Giant hears the song of a linnet bird and, thinking spring has finally come, looks out his window. The Giant sees that children have come into the garden through a hole in the wall and are sitting in his trees, which are now in bloom. Spring has returned to the garden, except for a far corner where the Giant sees a boy crying because he is too small to climb a tree. The tree invites the boy up, but even when it bends its branches to him, the boy cannot reach.

Seeing this sad boy, the Giant recognizes how selfish his banishment of the children was. He decides to put the boy in the tree and knock down the garden wall so his garden can “be the children's playground for ever and ever” (63). Yet when he enters the garden, most of the children run away from him and winter enters again. The Giant takes the little boy by the hand and puts him in the tree, which then blossoms. The boy thanks the Giant with a hug and a kiss.

Seeing that the Giant is kind, the other children run back into the garden, bringing spring with them. The Giant takes an ax and tears down the wall before playing with the children. At the end of the day, the children come to say goodbye, but the smallest boy is missing. The children continue to come to the garden to play with the Giant, but to his grief, his first friend never returns. Years go by and the Giant grows old and unable to play with the children. Instead, he watches them play in his garden and remarks, “I have many beautiful flowers [...] but the children are the most beautiful flowers of all” (65). He learns to love winter because he recognizes that spring and the children will return.

One winter morning when the Giant is near death, he looks out his window to see that the tree by which he first saw the little boy is covered with white blossoms and silver fruits. Under the tree’s now golden branches stands the little boy, whom the Giant rushes to see. When the Giant approaches the boy, he is angered to see the marks of nails on the boy’s hands and feet. The Giant demands to know who dared wound the child so that he can kill the perpetrator, but the child tells him that “these are the wounds of Love” (66). In awe, the Giant asks who the child is and kneels before him. The child smiles at him and says that it is now the Giant’s turn to visit his garden. When the children return to the garden that afternoon, they find the body of the Giant underneath the tree, covered in its white blossoms.