Christian Charity Theme Analysis

“The Selfish Giant” is a lesson in Christian charity, as the titular Giant learns how to let go of his self-interest and love others. The Christian concept of “charity” is distinct from the common modern sense of the word, which has to do with money or aid for the disadvantaged. Christian charity, or caritas in Latin, refers to a perfectly unselfish kind of love. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines Charity as “the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for His own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God,” but Wilde presents the Giant’s selfish ways as the complete opposite of this kind of charity. At the beginning of the story, the Giant returns to his castle after a seven-year absence and is furious to find that a children have been playing in his garden. In his extreme selfishness, the Giant goes to great lengths to keep the children out—but having done so, he grows miserable. He only knows happiness once he has learned to love the children as his neighbors, and only through this unselfish love does he earn entry into Paradise. Through the Giant’s reformation, Wilde argues that there is not only a reward to charity, but a moral imperative to practice it. He underscores this point by framing the matter in Christian terms, as a conflict between wealthy and poor, adult and child, neighbor and neighbor.

The children are uniquely positioned to be the subjects of charity, in the Catholic sense of the word. Through them, Wilde very deliberately constructs the narrative framework for a parable about specifically this kind of charity. First of all, these children are quite literally the Giant’s neighbors: they attend school near his castle, and they play in his garden every day after lessons. The word “neighbor” occupies a very important place in Christian thought. It refers not just to people living in close proximity to oneself, but to people potentially impacted by one’s actions, who are therefore owed kindness and love. In creating this fable about Christian love, writing on a level that even young children can comprehend, Wilde makes a point to present the Giant’s “spiritual neighbors” as his literal, actual neighbors. He leaves no ambiguity about the matter.

The second indication that the children are subjects of Christian charity has to do simply with the fact that these are children with whom the Giant is dealing. This is a reference on Wilde’s part to the famous biblical passage, Matthew 19:14: “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” In the Gospels of the New Testament, Jesus Christ points to children—and one’s behavior towards children—as a moral example. The way a person treats children, the weakest and most innocent members of a community, is indicative of that person’s moral character, and kindness to children allows someone to learn the childlike qualities that allow them to enter heaven: openness, kindness, trust, and generosity. By having the Giant interact only with children, Wilde brings this Christian argument to the forefront of the story.

This culminates in the revelation that the little boy who once tried to climb the Giant’s tree is actually the Christ Child, Jesus himself in the form of a child. The “wounds of Love” on his hands and feet, evidently left by nails, identify him as such. For the Giant’s kindness, the Christ Child welcomes him into Paradise. This ending underscores the value of charity in an eternal, spiritual sense. Of all the children who visited his garden, the Giant is said to have “loved him [Christ] the best,” and longed to see him again. This precisely mirrors how the virtue of Charity is outlined in Catholic theology: supreme love of God which then prompts love for one’s neighbor. It is love for Christ which leads the Giant to love all the other children, and this in turn merits his eternal reward.

Bearing this in mind, Wilde’s reader can easily see how the Giant is written to reflect the Christian virtue of charity—first as a negative example, the very opposite of charity, and then as a positive example. True to the story’s title, the character begins as “a very selfish Giant,” keeping the neighborhood children out of his garden simply because it is his. The Giant’s sole justification for walling off his garden is that, as he puts it, “My own garden is my own garden […] and I will allow nobody to play in it but myself.” He thinks only of his rights as the owner of the property, failing to consider the just application of those rights. The sign he places on the wall, “TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED,” speaks to this—as it is simply preposterous that anyone would prosecute a child.

The sight of the children returned to his garden—and specifically the sight of one miserable child in the corner, the boy revealed to be Christ in the end—is what changes the Giant’s stubborn, selfish ways. He is moved to a perfectly unselfish act of kindness, helping the boy climb a tree, and this one act cascades into other acts of charity towards his young neighbors. The Giant breaks down the wall, opens his garden to the children, and cherishes their company for years afterward. In other words, love of Jesus Christ begins the Giant’s new life of charity to those around him, just as described in the Catholic Catechism.

The story is a very short and simple one, spanning only a few pages in any edition, yet this is because Wilde was molding it as closely as he could to the theological definition of charity. His aim was to communicate this Christian lesson in a clear, earnest, straightforward manner, such that anyone of any age could grasp it.