READING ACTIVITY
Oscar Wilde's classic children's tale is about
how a selfish giant's life is transformed by the arrival of a special child who
teaches him about love and friendship.
It was
a large lovely garden, with soft green grass. Here and there over the grass
stood beautiful flowers like stars, and there were twelve peach-trees that in
the spring-time broke out into delicate blossoms of pink and pearl, and in the
autumn bore rich fruit. The birds sat on 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.
One day the Giant came back. He had been to visit his
friend the Cornish ogre, and had stayed with him for seven years. After the
seven years were over he had said all that he had to say, for his conversation
was limited, and he determined to return to his own castle. When he arrived he
saw the children playing in the garden.
“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.” So
he built a high wall all round it, and put up a notice-board.
TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED
He was a very selfish Giant.
The poor children had now nowhere to play. They tried
to play on the road, but the road was very dusty and full of hard stones, and
they did not like it. They used to wander round the high wall when their
lessons were over, and talk about the beautiful garden inside. “How happy we
were there,” they said to each other.
Then the Spring came, and all over the country there
were little blossoms and little birds. Only in the garden of the Selfish Giant
it was 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 was so sorry for the
children that it slipped back into the ground again, and went off to sleep. The
only people who were pleased were the Snow and the Frost. “Spring has forgotten
this garden,” they cried, “so we will live here all the year round.” The Snow
covered up the grass with her great white cloak, and the Frost painted all the
trees silver. Then they invited the North Wind to stay with them, and he came.
He was wrapped in furs, and he roared all day about the garden, and blew the
chimney-pots down. “This is a delightful spot,” he said, “we must ask the Hail
on a visit.” So the Hail came. Every day for three hours he rattled on the roof
of the castle till he broke most of the slates, and then he ran round and round
the garden as fast as he could go. He was dressed in grey, and his breath was
like ice.
“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.”
But the Spring never came, nor the Summer. 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.
One morning the Giant was lying awake in bed when he
heard some lovely music. It sounded so sweet to his ears that he thought it
must be the King’s musicians passing by. It was really only a little linnet
singing outside his window, but it was so long since he had heard a bird sing
in his garden that it seemed to him to be the most beautiful music in the
world. Then the Hail stopped dancing over his head, and the North Wind ceased
roaring, and a delicious perfume came to him through the open casement. “I
believe the Spring has come at last,” said the Giant; and he jumped out of bed
and looked out.
What did he see?
He saw a most wonderful sight. Through a little hole
in the wall the children had crept in, and they were sitting in the branches of
the trees. In every tree that he could see there was a little child. And the
trees were so glad to have the children back again that they had covered
themselves with blossoms, and were waving their arms gently above the
children’s heads. The birds were flying about and twittering with delight, and
the flowers were looking up through the green grass and laughing. It was a
lovely scene, only in one corner it was still winter. It was the farthest
corner of the garden, and in it was standing a little boy. He was so small that
he could not reach up to the branches of the tree, and he was wandering all
round it, crying bitterly. The poor tree was still quite covered with frost and
snow, and the North Wind was blowing and roaring above it. “Climb up! little
boy,” said the Tree, and it bent its branches down as low as it could; but the
boy was too tiny.
And the Giant’s heart melted as he looked out. “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.
So he crept downstairs and opened the front door quite
softly, and went out into the garden. But when the children saw him they were
so frightened that they all ran away, and the garden became winter again. Only
the little boy did not run, for his eyes were so full of tears that he did not
see the Giant coming. And the Giant stole up behind him and took him gently in
his hand, and put him up into the tree. And the tree broke at once into
blossom, and the birds came and sang on it, and the little boy stretched out
his two arms and flung them round the Giant’s neck, and kissed him. And the other
children, when they saw that the Giant was not wicked any longer, came running
back, and with them came the Spring. “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.
All day long they played, and in the evening they came
to the Giant to bid him good-bye.
“But where is your little companion?” he said: “the
boy I put into the tree.”
“We don’t know,” answered the children; “he has gone
away.”
“You must tell him to be sure and come here
to-morrow,” said the Giant. But the children said that they did not know where
he lived, and had never seen him before; and the Giant felt very sad.
Every afternoon, when school was over, the children
came and played with the Giant. But the little boy whom the Giant loved was
never seen again. The Giant was very kind to all the children, yet he longed
for his first little friend, and often spoke of him. “How I would like to see
him!” he used to say.
Years went over, and the Giant grew very old and
feeble. He could not play about any more, so he sat in a huge armchair, and
watched the children at their games, and admired his garden. “I have many
beautiful flowers,” he said; “but the children are the most beautiful flowers
of all.”
One winter morning he looked out of his window as he
was dressing. He did not hate the Winter now, for he knew that it was merely
the Spring asleep, and that the flowers were resting.
Suddenly he rubbed his eyes in wonder, and looked and
looked. It certainly was a marvelous sight. In the farthest corner of the
garden was a tree quite covered with lovely white blossoms. Its branches were
all golden, and silver fruit hung down from them, and underneath it stood the
little boy he had loved.
Downstairs ran the Giant in great joy, and out into
the garden. He hastened across the grass, and came near to the child. And when
he came quite close his face grew red with anger, and he said, “Who hath dared
to wound thee?” For on the palms of the child’s hands were the prints of two
nails, and the prints of two nails were on the little feet.
“Who hath dared to wound thee?” cried the Giant; “tell
me, that I may take my big sword and slay him.”
“Nay!” answered the child; “but these are the wounds
of Love.”
“Who art thou?” said the Giant, and a strange awe fell
on him, and he knelt before the little child.
And the 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.”
And when the children ran in that afternoon, they
found the Giant lying dead under the tree, all covered with white blossoms.
ANSWER THE
FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:
- Where did the children go every afternoon? Why?
- What happened one day? Where had the Giant been for seven years?
- Why did the Giant decide to build a wall around his garden? What did the children do then?
- What happened in the Giant’s garden when the Spring came? Who was pleased with the desolate winter garden? What were the names of the four Winter characters?
- Was the Giant happy? What did he hope for?
- What did the children do one morning? What did the Giant see when he looked out of his window?
- What did he see in the farthest corner of the garden?
- Why did the Giant’s heart melt? What did he do in the end?
- What did the children do the whole day? Why was the giant sad in the evening?
- What did the children use to do every afternoon? What was the Giant’s strongest desire?
- Why did he admire his garden then? Did he hate the Winter?
- What happened in the garden one winter morning when the Giant was very old and feeble? What did he do in great joy?
- Why did the Giant get angry? Who was the little boy?
- In this tale the hero dies. Is it a happy or unhappy ending? What is the moral of the tale?
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