Analysing "The Selfish Giant" of Oscar Wilde

1. THE SELFISH GIANT
~ OSCAR WILDE~

2. Prepared by : Group 1
•PhamVan Phi
•NguyenThi Thu Giang
•PhungThi Tho
•NguyenThi Hai Yen
•NguyenThuy Oanh

3. OUTLINE
I. CONTENT & SUMMARY
II.TRANSLATION
III. ANALYSIS
1. SOME QUESTIONS
2. THE GIANT’S SPYCHOLOGY
3.THE CHILDREN ‘S SPYCHOLOGYAND
RHETOGICAL ELEMENTS
4. CONCLUSION

4. OUTLINE
I. CONTENT & SUMMARY
II.TRANSLATION
III. ANALYSIS
1. SOME QUESTIONS
2. THE GIANT’S SPYCHOLOGY
3.THE CHILDREN ‘S SPYCHOLOGYAND
RHETOGICAL ELEMENTS
4. CONCLUSION

5. I. CONTENT
• One of the most beautiful stories written by Oscar Wilde
• First published in 1888 with other stories “The Nightingale
and the Rose”, “The Devoted Friend” , “The Remarkable
Rocket” and “The Happy Prince” ....
• It is a short story with the elements of fairy tales and
fantasy.

7. The story is about a
giant who is said to
be very selfish

8. He had a very
beautiful garden
where the
children played
when he was
away during 7
years.

9. One summer’s afternoon the giant returned to his
garden and saw the children playing in.
and bellowed at them to get out

10. By his selfishness, a very high wall was
built around his garden so that the children
could not go inside to play

11. All garden was covered
by the Snow and the
Frost
As spring turned into
summer outside the wall,
within the giant’s garden it
remained winter. No
flowers, no bird song and
... no children.

12. Then one morning the giant awoke
to a strange sound:
The sound of birdsong.

13. He followed the sound to a far corner of the
garden, where he found some children playing
happily.
In this corner of the
garden, just this
corner, the birds
were singing, and
the garden was
beautiful again.

14. He went to work on the wall. Within hours, he
had knocked it down

15. That evening, the garden was filled with the
sound of happy children playing. The giant lay
back, finally contented. “It is your garden now,
little children,”

16. Then , the next day, the children found him
dead covered in blossoms on the ground

17. The little boy had taken him to paradise and
the Giant finally figured out that he should
not be selfish after all.

18. OUTLINE
I. CONTENT & SUMMARY
II.TRANSLATION
III. ANALYSIS
1. SOME QUESTIONS
2. THE GIANT’S SPYCHOLOGY
3.THE CHILDREN ‘S SPYCHOLOGYAND
RHETOGICAL ELEMENTS
4. CONCLUSION

19. OUTLINE
I. CONTENT & SUMMARY
II.TRANSLATION
III. ANALYSIS
1. SOME GENERAL QUESTIONS
2. THE GIANT’S SPYCHOLOGY
3.THE CHILDREN ‘S SPYCHOLOGYAND
RHETOGICAL ELEMENTS
4. CONCLUSION

20. OUTLINE
I. CONTENT & SUMMARY
II.TRANSLATION
III. ANALYSIS
1. SOME GENERAL QUESTIONS
2. THE GIANT’S SPYCHOLOGY
3.THE CHILDREN ‘S SPYCHOLOGYAND
RHETOGICAL ELEMENTS
4. CONCLUSION

21. a.At the beginning of the story : He is a very
selfish man
‘My own garden is my own garden,’ said the Giant;
‘any one can understand that, and I will allow nobody
to play in but myself’.
 ”My own garden” is a sentence represent that the
garden is his own and he does not allow anyone plays
in his garden is an application of his selfishness.

22. - ‘’TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED’’.
- Forbid the poor children play in his garden is the
second proof of his selfishness
- It is addressed to whom plays in his garden; they
will be prosecuted by The Giant. It is very scream, but
it is made intentionally in order to frighten the children.

23. “He was a selfish giant”
 This is the author’s statement in order to make
sure the readers that the major character of this short
story is really selfish.
‘He is too selfish,’ she said .
 This sentence was said by the Autumn.She wants
to give The Giant a lesson because of his selfishness.

24. b.After meeting the children.
-And the Giant’s heart melted as he looked out, ’How
selfish I have been’, he said.
This situation made him realize that he was very selfish
person.
- ‘Now, I will know why the spring would not come here. I
will put that poor boy on the top of the tree, and then I will
knock down the wall and my garden shall be the
children’s playground forever and ever’.
He realized that he was a selfish person, so he would
put the poor boy on the tree’s branch, and also made his
garden as the playground of children forever

25. - He was really very sorry for what he had done.
 He was very disappointed of chasing away the
poor children from his garden, putting up the notice
board written ‘Trespassers Will Prosecuted’, and
others.
- ‘It is your garden now, little children’, said the Giant.
His heart was melted, so he becomes to be kind
person

26. -‘I have many beautiful flowers,’ he said; ‘but the
children are the most beautiful flowers of all’.
 It means that the Giant very loved the children. He
had preferred the children than flowers in his garden.

27. OUTLINE
I. CONTENT & SUMMARY
II.TRANSLATION
III. ANALYSIS
1. SOME QUESTIONS
2. THE GIANT’S SPYCHOLOGY
3.THE CHILDREN ‘S SPYCHOLOGYAND
RHETOGICAL ELEMENTS
4. CONCLUSION

28. 3.1 Children ‘s spychology
a. At the beginning of the story
- Children playing in the garden after school
- Children were playing hide, seek and heard a great voice boom
out
- Children peered out of their hiding places to see a very angry
giant. Children ran away
 They enjoy to garden, but very afraid of giant.

29. b. After the giant knocked down the walls and turned it into
children's playground
- When they saw that the Giant was not wicked any
longer, they running back
- All day long they played, and in the evening they came
to the Giant to bid him good-bye.
 The children loved The Giant more.

30. 3.2. A little boy:Two time of meeting between a little boy and the
Giant
a. At the first meeting
- The Giant went out into the garden the children saw him they
were scare and run away. Only the little boy didn’t run.
- The Giant put him up into the tree. after that little boy stretched
out his and kissed him
The Spring came back: the tree broke at once into blossom, the
birds came and sang on it.
 This gesture touched the Giant’s heart.

31. b. At the second meeting
One winter morning, the giant was happy the boy came back when he
reached the little boy, the boy's face was red with anger. But the child
smiled gently 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 researcher thinks that paradise as the price of the Giant’s
kindness. He did his best effort for the regret of his selfishness, so God
appreciated him by giving him paradise and the children as the
mediators.

32. RHETOGICAL ELEMENTS
 Frequent use of depiction:
“ It was a large lovely garden, with soft green
grass.................that the children used to stop their games in
order to listen to them.”
Effect: Make the garden appear with the marvelous
beauty

33. RHETOGICAL ELEMENTS
 Use of the impersonal element:
“The only people who were pleased were the Snow and
the Frost...........He was dressed in grey,and his breath was
like ice.”
Effect : Make the garden release with the silence.The
readers found it painfully sad. “Spring has forgotten this
garden, so we will live here all the year round”

34. OUTLINE
I. CONTENT & SUMMARY
II.TRANSLATION
III. ANALYSIS
1. SOME QUESTIONS
2. THE GIANT’S SPYCHOLOGY
3.THE CHILDREN ‘S SPYCHOLOGYAND
RHETOGICAL ELEMENTS
4. CONCLUSION

35. The story seems to have a sad ending,
because the giant dies and the children , who
loved him, find him lying dead and covered
with flowers in the garden. The part where the
giant dies also confirms that he goes to a
better place.
The Boy takes him to Paradise.That is his
reward for his selfless love.

36. Oscar Wilde has showed us the way to
happiness through true love and selflessness.
At last the Giant became happy and his soul
was taken to Paradise.
We can also find love and after death we
can get to a better place as the Giant had this
reward at the end of the story.

37. It is a quit touching and moral story.
-Yes, it is true after reading the story one
would be really happy.
-The language of the story is quite easy and
sentence structure is also classified in simple
language.