Summary of the Selfish giant
Summary of the Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde summary It is a very touching story about the value of love and sacrifice written in an impressive allegorical form.
The idea of the story has been taken 37 from the teaching of St. Mark, which states that only he whose heart is full of love can enter the kingdom of God.
The story begins with an account of a garden that belonged to a giant. As the giant was away for a few years visiting a friend the children of the city spent their leisure in the garden playing around trees and flowers.
They ran and laughed and filled the garden with such happiness that trees were always laden with flowers whose colors shone reflecting this state of happiness.
The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde
One day the giant returned and he felt uneasy amidst the children. Who ran and made noises in his garden.
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He, therefore, built high walls around the garden and put up a notice forbidding the entry of outsiders. The next day the children saw the notice whereupon they all felt greatly disconcerted.
They had now no space to play in but none had the courage to oppose the giant’s wishes. As the children stopped visiting the garden the trees and plants lost their cheer; the flowers stopped blossoming and the birds stopped chirping.
Silence reigned in the garden and a dreamy atmosphere prevailed there. But this atmosphere was quite favorable to snow, frost, and hailstorm, which made a permanent home there. The giant waited for spring.
The Selfish Giant Oscar Wilde summary
But spring and summer both bypassed this haunted garden. One day the giant heard the music of a small bird. He rightly guessed that last spring had entered the garden.
He came out of his room to find that from a hole in one of the walls a group of children had entered and they were now playing here and there. To give company to the children the birds sang, flowers blossomed and a cool breeze blew there.
As the giant moved forward he heard the cries of a child who was standing under a tree, He wanted to climb the tree, but he was so short that the branches of the tree were inaccessible to him. In a short time in the company of the children, the giant’s spirit lifted and he understood the reason for his garden being under a long spell of winter and show.
Since the children were denied entry spring stopped visiting the garden. Realizing that he had committed a grave mistake he now felt remorseful.
Appreciation of the story The Selfish Giant
He, therefore, came up to help the little child who could not run away from seeing the giant like other children. The giant gently put him up on the branch of the tree where the child enjoyed himself.
Seeing that the giant also played with them for a while. Now the children started visiting the garden again.
With their return, the atmosphere of the garden also changed- birds were now regular visitors and flowers were always in blossom.
The giant took part in the children’s sports or he simply watched their activities with interest. But he was making anxious inquiries about the little child whom he had helped and who had kissed him for the kind gesture.
The children of the locality could not give the address of that child. One day the giant noticed the child standing alone in a corner, When he went near him himself that the child was bleeding his plan.
The giant was angry and wanted to know who dased downed his little friend, The child smiled and said that these wounds were those of love.
He further said that he had come to take him to paradise as he had once allowed him to play in the garden That this child is baby Christ is now easily understood.
By a change in his disposition, the giant not only revived the festive atmosphere of his garden but also made himself eligible for the love of God.
That love alone is the real message of Christianity comes out very forcefully in this story Oscar Wilde has written in a simply elegant language.
The allegory is also easy to understand, spring and winter functioning symbolically to indicate cheerfulness of spirit and suffering respectively. wiki
