Towards the middle of the story, the Giant's heart melts upon seeing the little boy struggle to make it up into the tree. He talks to himself for a couple of lines, giving the reader a soliloquy that signals an important shift in the character and plot.
“How selfish I have been!” he said; "now I know why the Spring would not come here. I will put that poor little boy on the top of the tree, and then I will knock down the wall, and my garden shall be the children’s playground for ever and ever." He was really very sorry for what he had done.
Up until this point, the narrator, the reader, and the other characters have recognized the Giant's selfishness. He is the only character who has been blind to the negative effect of his selfishness on the other characters, his environment, and himself. This private monologue marks the moment when the Giant realizes that the weather in his garden is dictated by the presence of the children as well as his own disposition. Following the Giant's turn to selflessness, Spring returns for good and the children become happy again.
For the reader, the Giant's soliloquy also signals that the story is not simply a fairytale about the children's victory over the Giant, but rather an allegory about the Giant's salvation by way of the children and by way of Christ. In fairytales, antagonistic characters are usually brought to ruin by their own wicked ways. Wilde goes in a different direction, however—in "The Selfish Giant," the antagonist is converted rather than destroyed. The Giant's soliloquy thus underlines not only the character's desire for redemption but also Wilde's own belief in conversion based on forgiveness.
