Redemption Theme Analysis

The theme of redemption occupies a special and distinct place in “The Selfish Giant.” The redemptive arc of the Giant’s character is what drives the plot forward—but more than this, redemption of the soul is a core promise of Christianity, and Wilde’s fairy tale communicates this promise in clear and decidedly Christian terms. At the end of the story, the first child the Giant befriended, the little boy, is revealed to be the Christ Child, identifiable by the wounds of his Crucifixion. He offers the Giant eternal life in Paradise as reward for overcoming his selfishness and letting the children play in his garden. Thus the Giant’s spirit moves on to a happy afterlife, following Jesus Christ. Christianity teaches that anyone who repents of their sins can earn eternal reward in heaven, and “The Selfish Giant” illustrates precisely this idea through the titular Giant.

For a person to be redeemed, they must first be a sinner; redemption comes in the acknowledgment of sin, followed by genuine contrition for it. Wilde sets up the Giant as an example of this very process: the character goes from selfishness to kindness, with recognition of his selfishness as the crucial middle step between these points. First Wilde establishes that the Giant’s sin is selfishness. The title, “The Selfish Giant,” is already straightforward enough, but it is only the first of many explicit signposts. After the Giant builds his wall, declaring, “My own garden is my own garden,” the narrator simply states outright: “He was a very selfish Giant.” Later he is called “the Selfish Giant” in the body of the text, and the personified Autumn says of him, “He is too selfish.” Over and over, in the style of most fables with morals, the singular point of the Giant’s selfishness is pressed. Then, when the Giant realizes the error of his ways, he identifies his sin and the reason behind his suffering: “‘How selfish I have been!’ he said: ‘Now I know why Spring would not come here.’” As the narrator remarks, “He was really very sorry for what he had done.” This sequence of thoughts closely follows the Catholic concept of contrition. In Catholic theology, a truly repentant person first feels recognition, then guilt, then contrition—a feeling which is not just remorse for one’s sins, but also abhorrence for the sin. In the Catholic sacrament of Penance, the contrite person then performs some action which makes up for the sins they have committed, and redeems their soul. True to this, the Giant’s next thought is to undo the bad effects of his selfishness: “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.”

The redemption of the Giant’s soul takes an even more explicitly Christian tone at the story’s end, when the Christ Child welcomes him into heaven. This scene references two major points of Catholic doctrine, both of them having to do with the redemption of souls. The appearance of Jesus Christ before the Giant is likely a reference to Catholic teachings on the Second Coming. The Catholic Church teaches that at the end of the world, Christ will return in the flesh, and bring all the dead back to life, to live in a heaven that is physical as well spiritual. Although the Giant’s body dies and remains dead, the physical presence of Christ before the dying seems to recall the Catholic doctrine.

More importantly, the tree in the Giant’s garden is a stand-in for the cross, a Christian symbol of universal redemption. “Tree” is often used as a poetic term for the cross or crucifix, and the appearance of the Christ Child beside the Giant’s tree leaves little doubt that this is Wilde’s intent here. Nearly all Christian denominations view Christ’s self-sacrifice upon the cross as a redemptive act on the behalf of all people. They teach that this act freed all people from the certainty of death, and granted them the chance to enter heaven by rejecting sin. The tree in the Giant’s garden takes on all this symbolic meaning when context—the boy Christ, the wounds on his hands and feet, the tree’s gold bark and silver fruit like the adornments of Catholic crucifixes—identifies it as the cross. The once-selfish Giant’s redemption is completed in front of a symbol for humankind’s supreme redemption.