The Selfish Giant

The setting where the action of “The Selfish Giant” takes place is the garden of the Giant’s countryside castle. The garden has significant symbolic value, thanks in part to its biblical overtones: In its beauty and peacefulness, the Giant’s garden recalls the Garden of Eden in the Bible, from which God banishes the first humans. However, Wilde flips the biblical narrative on its head in that it is the act of banishing—the Giant’s expulsion of the innocent children—that is sinful and wrong.

The garden is also very much connected to its inhabitants and reflects their morals. When it is full of innocent children, spring prevails, but when only the selfish Giant inhabits the garden, a harsh winter comes. As such, the garden acts as a tool of Divine Providence in Nature, rewarding and punishing those who deserve it. Perhaps most importantly, the setting of the garden symbolizes the prospective reward of eternal life in heaven, as the Christ-like boy directly compares it to paradise at the end of the story. Through this use of setting, Wilde suggests that his readers might obtain a similar reward if they, like