THE SELFISH GIANT

 THE SELFISH GAINT

Oscar Wilde

• Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish wit, poet, novelist, and playwright. Wilde was born of professional and literary parents. His father, Sir William Wilde, was an ear and eye surgeon. His mother was a revolutionary poet and an authority on Celtic myth and folklore. 
• Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. He is best known for his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and his comic masterpieces Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).  
• 'The Selfish Giant' is a short fantasy story for children written by Oscar Wilde. It was first published in the anthology The Happy Prince and Other Tales in 1888. This story is about a giant who learned an important lesson about love and sharing and holds different meanings for people of different age. 
• The moral of the story is Happiness through true love and selflessness.

Characters:

1. Giant
2. Cornish Ogre
3. Children
4. Linnet (bird)

SYNOPSIS

• The story is about a giant who is said to be very selfish.
• He had a very beautiful garden where the children played when he was away for seven years.
• One summer’s afternoon the giant returned to his garden from a seven-year visit to his friend, a Cornish ogre. Furious at finding the children trespassing, he chases them out and proceeds to build a wall around his garden. He erects a sign reading: “TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED.” The children are very sad, as playing on the road is a poor substitute.
• By his selfishness, a very high wall was built around his garden so that the children could not go inside to play.
• When spring comes, life begins to blossom everywhere except the giant's garden, where it remains winter. A single flower blooms but sinks back into the earth when it reads the sign on the gate. The Snow and the Frost decide to stay in the garden and invite the North Wind and Hail to join them. Seasons pass but it stays winter in the giant's garden. All the garden started to cover with the snow and the frost.
• Then one morning the giant awoke to a strange sound:
• The giant hears a linnet singing outside his window and is astonished to find the spring weather has finally come to his garden. He sees the cause-some children have snuck through a hole in his wall and are playing in his garden. He sees a small boy crying because he cannot reach the lowest branches. This corner of the garden is still covered in snow. The giant is moved by pity, realising how selfish he has been. He enters the garden, the children flee and winter returns. In this corner of the garden the birds were singing, and the garden was beautiful again.
• He went to work on the wall and pulled it down. 
• That evening, the garden was filled with the sound of happy children playing. The giant lay back, finally contented. “It is your garden now, little children.” The children return to play and the garden turns to spring once more.
• Over the years, the giant grows old and watches the children play from his armchair. One day he sees the small boy under the same tree, which has turned beautiful and white. The giant approaches and sees the boy has wounds on his hands and feet. He asks the boy who injured him, so that the giant may avenge him, but the child says they are the wounds of love, and as the giant allowed him to play in his garden, so would the boy take the giant to his garden in Paradise. Later, the other children find the giant lying dead under the tree, covered in white blossom, on the ground.
• The little boy had taken him to paradise and the giant finally figured out that he should not be selfish after all. 

SUMMARY:

The story starts with the children playing in the garden of the Giant every afternoon after coming from school. The garden was lovely, large, with soft grass, and fruit trees. The trees bore rich fruits and birds sang sweetly sitting on them.

One day after seven years the giant came back. He was staying with his friend, the Cornish Ogre. The children were scared to see him. He saw the children playing and said that he would not allow anyone to play here as it was his own garden. The Giant, being selfish, did not let the children play in his garden. He drove them out, built a high wall around his garden, and put up a board that read 'Trespassers will be prosecuted.’

The children became sad as they had no other place to play. They would wander around the high walls of the garden and remember the beautiful garden inside them. The spring season came and there were blossoms and little birds all around. But it was winter in the giant’s garden and there were frost and snow. In the absence of children birds also did not sing. Once a flower bloomed out of the grass but after seeing the notice board, it also went back to sleep. Then came the North Wind and the hailstorm. Due to the giant’s selfishness, autumn’s golden fruits also did not come to his garden.

Then one morning, the giant heard sweet and lovely music. It was a linnet singing outside his window. The hail and the North Wind stopped and he could feel the spring. He saw that the children came into his garden through a little hole. The children were sitting on the branches of trees and the trees were blossoming. He also saw the birds flying and hear them chirping. The flowers had also come up.

But, to his surprise, in one corner there was still winter. He saw that a young boy was standing and he was not able to reach the branches of trees. The tree lowered its branches but still, he could not climb. At this scene, his heart melted. He realised that he was really very selfish. He decided to put that boy on the top of the tree, pull down the walls, and allow children to play here forever. But when the children saw him, they ran away and the garden became winter again. However, that little boy did not run as he was weeping. The giant put him on the top of the tree and the tree blossomed at once. He kissed the giant.

The other children realising that the giant is not wicked came back. The spring came back with them. The giant used to play with the children ever afternoon but that little boy was nowhere to be seen. As the years went by, he grew very weak. One winter morning, he saw a lovely tree with white blossoms in a corner. The branches of the tree were golden and the little boy stood under it.

The boy was wounded which made the giant very angry. He told the boy that he will slay the man who has harmed him. The boy told him that these were the wounds of love. The boy smiled and asked the giant to come to his garden. Later, the children found the giant dead under the tree covered with white blossoms.

Source: https://florestadelavolpe.artstation.com/projects/Vx6gP?album_id=746652