The Giant’s garden mirrors the state of his soul—and, in a broader sense, symbolizes the journey that a person’s soul undertakes in order to find redemption. Before the Giant returns home from his seven-year vacation, his garden reflects only the innocence of the children who play there. Like the biblical Garden of Eden, it remains pristine, tended only by the will of nature—yet far from being overgrown and wild, the garden remains orderly and peaceful. It is beautiful, bountiful, and safe, all for the benefit of the children. When the Giant arrives home, he selfishly drives out the children from his garden, and raises a high wall around the property to keep them out. This also drains the garden of warmth and life, as Spring, Summer, and Autumn follow the children out, leaving only the forces of Winter to occupy the place. The Giant’s cold-hearted nature, which permits no relationships to grow between him and his neighbors, manifests in the actual cold that settles upon the garden, which keeps all the trees and flowers dormant. He cannot enjoy the natural goodness of the garden because he has spurned the natural goodness within himself and within the children.
The children bring springtime back to the garden when they sneak inside the wall, but only while they are present; when the Giant approaches, the children flee in fear, and it immediately becomes Winter again in the garden. Though the Giant has by this time realized the error of his ways (“How selfish I have been!”), he has yet to atone for his selfish behavior. The natural order of seasons only returns permanently when the Giant performs a genuine act of kindness that runs contrary to his earlier selfishness. When he helps the little boy—Christ in disguise—into the tree in the corner of his garden, the tree bursts into blossom all at once. Thenceforth, the Giant enjoys the garden alongside the children, because he deserves it.
Furthermore, by embracing the children as his friends, the Giant also embraces the childlike qualities by which the children themselves merit such blessings from nature—trust, love, openness, and generosity. These are qualities which the Christian Gospels encourage as pathways to heaven. Wilde’s story conforms to this view, as the Christ Child explicitly welcomes the Giant into the garden of Paradise as reward for sharing his earthly garden with the children.
The Giant’s Garden Quotes in The Selfish Giant
The birds sat on top of the trees and sang so sweetly that the children used to stop their games in order to listen to them. “How happy we are here!” they cried to each other.
“My own garden is my own garden,” said the Giant; “any one can understand that, and I will allow nobody to play in it but myself.”
Only in the garden of the Selfish Giant was it still winter. The birds did not care to sing in it as there were no children, and the trees forgot to blossom. Once a beautiful flower put its head out from the grass, but when it saw the notice-board it felt so sorry for the children that it slipped back into the ground again, and went off to sleep.
“I cannot understand why the Spring is so late in coming,” said the Selfish Giant, as he sat at the window and looked out at his cold white garden; “I hope there will be a change in the weather.”
The Autumn gave golden fruit to every garden, but to the Giant’s garden she gave none. “He is too selfish,” she said. So it was always Winter there, and the North Wind, and the Hail, and the Frost, and the Snow danced about through the trees.
“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.
“It is your garden now, little children,” said the Giant, and he took a great axe and knocked down the wall. And when the people were going to market at twelve o'clock they found the Giant playing with the children in the most beautiful garden they had ever seen.
“I have many beautiful flowers,” he said; “but the children are the most beautiful flowers of all.”
[T]he child smiled on the Giant, and said to him, “You let me play once in your garden, to-day you shall come with me to my garden, which is Paradise.”
The Giant’s Garden Symbol Timeline in The Selfish Giant
