Chapter 3 — The Selfish Giant

Chapter 3 of NCERT Class 8 English (It So Happened), "The Selfish Giant" by Oscar Wilde, is a fairy tale about a Giant whose selfishness keeps his beautiful garden locked from the children who used to play in it, causing an unending winter. When his heart melts at the sight of a tiny boy who cannot climb a tree, he tears down the wall, restores spring, and gives the garden to the children forever. Years later the same mysterious boy returns and takes the aged, dying Giant to paradise.

The Giant returns from a seven-year visit to his friend, a Cornish ogre, to find children playing in his large, lovely garden of green grass, peach-trees, and singing birds. He drives them out, builds a high wall, and posts a notice-board warning trespassers. Spring, Summer, and Autumn refuse to visit the walled garden, which is gripped by permanent winter — Snow, Frost, North Wind, and Hail take up residence. One morning the Giant hears a linnet sing and discovers the children have crept back through a hole, bringing spring with them. Moved by a tiny weeping boy who cannot reach the tree branches, the Giant lifts him up, knocks down the wall, and declares the garden the children's playground forever. The little boy disappears and is never seen again until years later, when he reappears bearing nail-wounds he calls "wounds of Love" and invites the old, feeble Giant to come to his garden — paradise. The children find the Giant lying dead under a tree covered with white blossoms.

1. 01The Giant's garden had soft green grass, flowers like stars, twelve peach-trees, and birds whose song stopped children mid-game.
2. 02After seven years away with a Cornish ogre, the Giant returned, drove the children out, built a high wall, and put up a notice saying 'Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted'.
3. 03Spring, Summer, and Autumn abandoned the walled garden; Snow, Frost, North Wind, and Hail lived there year-round, making it always winter.
4. 04Hearing a linnet sing and seeing the children back in the trees, the Giant realised his selfishness and knocked down the wall, declaring the garden the children's playground forever.
5. 05A tiny boy who could not reach the branches stood weeping in the one corner still gripped by winter; the Giant placed him in the tree, which instantly broke into blossom.
6. 06The little boy kissed the Giant and then disappeared; the Giant longed for him for years, calling the children 'the most beautiful flowers of all'.
7. 07In old age the Giant found the boy again bearing nail-wounds he called 'wounds of Love'; the boy invited the Giant to paradise, and the Giant was found dead under white blossoms.