SHORT STORIES, LONG SHADOWS · B2/C1 · 50 min

The Selfish Giant

Oscar Wilde's tale of a giant who walls the world out — and the winter that will not leave until he lets love back in.

Need an easier version? Read this story at A2/B1 level →

Today: you'll read one of Oscar Wilde's best-loved fairy tales — a story about a garden, a locked gate, and a change of heart — and you'll master the two structures English uses to describe how things once were and how they changed: used to and would.
Warm up — before we open the gate. A few questions to talk through out loud. There are no right answers — just tell me what you think.
Talk it through:
  • Is there a place from your childhood — a garden, a park, a street — that you loved to play in? What made it special?
  • Have you ever known someone who kept people at a distance and slowly grew warmer? What changed them?
  • Fairy tales often teach a lesson. Do you think a story can genuinely change how someone behaves?

Now — the words for today's story

Each new word is hidden in a sentence. Read it aloud and say what you think the bold word means from the rest of the sentence — then reveal it and see how close you were.

1. He built a high stone wall right around the garden and set a heavy gate in it, so that no one could get inside without his permission.
a wall (n) — a solid upright structure of stone or brick that encloses or divides a space and keeps people out.
2. When they saw the angry notice on the gate, the children realised they were no longer welcome; they had trespassed without knowing it.
to trespass (v) — to enter someone's land or property without their permission.
3. The old man had grown so selfish that he thought only of himself, keeping every good thing for his own use and sharing none of it.
selfish (adj) — caring only about your own needs and pleasures, with no thought for others.
4. Spring came to the whole country, but inside those walls the frost stayed silver on the grass and the cold never once loosened its grip.
frost (n) — a thin white layer of ice that forms on surfaces when it is very cold.
5. The peach trees were heavy with pink blossom, and the whole orchard seemed to breathe out the sweet smell of early spring.
blossom (n) — the flowers on a fruit tree or bush, especially in spring.
6. His heart began to melt at the sight of the little children; the hard, cold thing inside him softened and seemed to run away like ice in the sun.
to melt (v) — to turn from solid to liquid through warmth; figuratively, for a hard feeling to soften.
7. When at last he saw what his coldness had done to the children, he was filled with remorse and longed to undo the harm.
remorse (n) — a deep, painful regret for something wrong that you have done.
8. Though he had treated them badly, the children showed no anger; they simply forgave him and ran back into his arms.
to forgive (v) — to stop feeling angry with someone for a wrong they have done to you.
9. He had done nothing to earn their kindness, yet it was given anyway — an act of pure grace, free and unasked for.
grace (n) — kindness or mercy that is freely given and not earned or deserved.
10. He lingered by the gate long after the others had gone home, reluctant to leave the warmth of the garden behind him.
to linger (v) — to stay in a place longer than necessary, as if unwilling to leave.

Now use them — out loud

Talk it through before we read:
  • Using wall, frost, blossom and melt, predict: what do you think the garden in this story stands for?
  • Which of these words point to coldness and shutting out, and which point to warmth and welcome? Sort them out loud and say why.

The story, in three parts

Read each part. After it, there's a quick comprehension check (try the questions from memory first), then one thing to discuss.

Part 1 — The wall and the endless winter

Every afternoon, as they came home from school, the children used to play in the Giant's garden. It was a lovely, wide garden with soft green grass. Here and there, beautiful flowers stood up like stars, and there were twelve peach trees that broke into pink and pearl blossom in spring and bore rich fruit in autumn. The birds sat on the trees and sang so sweetly that the children would stop their games to hear them. "How happy we are here!" they said to each other.

One day the Giant came back. He had been away for seven years, visiting a friend, and now he had returned. When he saw the children playing in his garden, he was angry. "My own garden is my own garden," he said. "I will allow nobody to play in it but myself." So he built a high wall all round it, and put up a notice: TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED. He was a very selfish Giant.

The poor children now had nowhere to play. 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 Snow covered up the grass, the Frost painted all the trees silver, and the North Wind came, wrapped in furs, and roared all day about the garden. "Spring has forgotten this garden," they cried, "so we will live here all the year round." The Snow and the Frost were delighted. "This is a delightful spot," they said. "We must ask the Hail on a visit." And so, in the Giant's garden, it was always winter.

Quick check — answer from memory, then reveal:

1. What did the children used to do in the garden, and why did the Giant stop them?

2. What happened to the garden after the Giant built his wall?

1. They used to play there every afternoon after school; the Giant returned, decided the garden was his alone, and walled it off because he was selfish.

2. Spring came everywhere else, but inside the wall it stayed winter forever — snow, frost, north wind and hail moved in and would not leave.

Discuss:
  • The winter arrives the moment the Giant shuts the children out. What is Wilde suggesting by tying the season so closely to the Giant's heart?

Part 2 — Spring slips through the gate

One morning the Giant was lying awake in bed when he heard some lovely music. It was only a little linnet singing outside his window, but it had been so long since he had heard a bird sing in his garden that it seemed to him the most beautiful music in the world. Then the Hail stopped dancing over his head, and the North Wind stopped roaring, and a delicious scent came to him through the open window. "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 blossom, and were waving their arms gently above the children's heads. The birds were flying about and singing with delight, and the flowers were looking up through the green grass and laughing.

It was a lovely scene — only in one far corner it was still winter. It was the coldest corner, and in it stood 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 covered with frost and snow, and the North Wind was blowing and roaring above it. When the Giant looked out and saw this, his own heart melted. "How selfish I have been!" he said. "Now I know why the Spring would not come here."

Quick check — answer from memory, then reveal:

1. How did spring finally return to the garden?

2. Why was one corner still frozen, and what did the sight of it do to the Giant?

1. The children crept in through a small hole in the wall and climbed the trees; the trees burst into blossom to welcome them, and spring came with them.

2. In that corner a tiny boy could not reach the branches and stood crying in the snow; seeing him, the Giant's heart melted and he understood his own selfishness.

Discuss:
  • The children come back not through the gate but through a hole in the wall the Giant built. Why might Wilde have chosen that detail?

Part 3 — The knocked-down wall and the last visitor

The Giant crept softly downstairs, opened the front door quite gently, and went out into the garden. But when the children saw him they were so frightened that they 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, took him gently in his hand, and put him up into the tree. At once the tree broke into blossom, and the birds came and sang in it, and the little boy stretched out his two arms and put them round the Giant's neck, and kissed him.

The other children, when they saw that the Giant was not wicked any more, 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. All day long the children played, and in the evening they came to the Giant to say goodbye. "But where is your little companion," he asked, "the boy I put into the tree?" The Giant loved him best because he had kissed him. "We don't know," answered the children; "he has gone away." And though he searched for the boy through all the years that followed, the Giant never found him.

Many years went by, 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. One winter morning he looked out and saw a marvellous sight. In the farthest corner the tree was covered with lovely white blossoms — and underneath it stood the little boy he had loved. The Giant ran out, and drew near, and saw that on the child's hands and feet were the prints of two nails. "Who has dared to wound you?" cried the Giant. "These are the wounds of Love," said the child. And a strange awe fell on the Giant, and he knelt before the little child. That afternoon, when the children ran in, they found the Giant lying dead under the tree, all covered with white blossoms.

Quick check — answer from memory, then reveal:

1. What did the Giant do to the wall, and how did the garden change?

2. Who was the little boy, and how does the story end?

1. He lifted the crying boy into the tree, and when the children saw he was kind he took an axe and knocked the wall down, giving the garden back to them; spring returned for good.

2. The boy — whose hands and feet bore the prints of nails, "the wounds of Love" — returns years later to the old Giant; the Giant kneels before him, and is found that afternoon lying dead beneath the blossoming tree.

Discuss:
  • The Giant's death is described as peaceful, even beautiful — "covered with white blossoms." Why do you think Wilde ends a children's tale this way?

Grammar — used to / would

This whole story lives on a contrast between how things once were and how they changed. English has two neat structures for painting a past that is no longer true: used to and would. Master them and you can conjure a lost world in a single sentence — exactly what Wilde does.

The two structures, side by side:
• used to + base verb — a past habit or a past state that is no longer true: "The children used to play in the garden." "There used to be a hole in the wall."
• would + base verb — a repeated past action (a habit), often nostalgic and story-like: "The birds would sing, and the children would stop their games to hear them."
The key difference:
• used to works for both actions (things you did) and states (things that were true): "He used to be selfish." ✓
• would works only for repeated actions, not for states. We do not say "He would be selfish" to mean it was generally true. For a state, use used to or the past simple.
• So: with verbs like be, have, know, like, believe (states), prefer used to. With action verbs that repeated (play, sing, run, visit), either works.

1. Which is possible — used to, would, or both?

Read each sentence and decide. If only one fits, say which; if both fit, say so.

1. Every afternoon the children play in the Giant's garden. (repeated action)

2. Before the Giant returned, the garden full of flowers and birdsong. (a state — "be")

3. The birds sit in the peach trees and sing all morning. (repeated action)

1. used to play or would play (repeated action — both fit)

2. used to be (a state — only "used to"; "would be" is wrong here)

3. used to sit or would sit (repeated action — both fit)

2. Fix the form

Each sentence uses the structure but the wrong form of the verb after it. Write the corrected verb.

1. The children used to (played) in the garden after school.

2. In spring, the trees would (breaking) into blossom.

3. There used to (been) a high wall around the garden.

1. play (used to + base verb)

2. break (would + base verb)

3. be (used to + base verb: "used to be")

3. Paint the lost garden — complete the paragraph

Fill each gap with used to or would (choose carefully — some gaps allow only used to). Read it aloud once you're done.

Long ago, the garden be the happiest place in the whole town. Every afternoon the children climb the trees, and the birds sing above them. There be no wall then, and the gate was always open.

used to be (state — only "used to") · used to / would climb (repeated action) · used to / would sing (repeated action) · used to be (state — only "used to")

Notice: for be you must use "used to"; for the repeated actions (climb, sing) either works.

Hold on to both — you'll need them in the Speak tab, where you'll describe how the garden once was and how everything changed.

Going deeper

Wilde wrote this in 1888 for his own two young sons, and yet it has never really been a story just for children. Under the simple fairy-tale surface — the wall, the winter, the change of heart — sits one of the gentlest studies of selfishness and its cure in the English language.

The garden as a heart. Read the seasons as weather inside the Giant, not just outside him. While he shuts others out, it is winter — cold, still, closed. The moment he lets them back in, spring returns. The garden never really was about the garden.
A word on the ending. The child with "the prints of two nails" and "the wounds of Love" is Wilde's quiet Christian image — grace arriving unearned, and the Giant welcomed at the last into a garden Wilde calls Paradise. You don't have to share the faith to feel the shape of it: someone who once shut love out is, in the end, met by love anyway. We'll talk about it as a story, with respect for what it meant to Wilde and to readers who hold it dear.
Dig into it — out loud:
  • Why does the Giant's cruelty punish him more than anyone? Whose winter is the coldest — the children's, or his own?
  • The turning point is not a punishment but the sight of one small crying child. What does it say about how people actually change?
  • The wall is knocked down with an axe — the same strength once used to shut people out is used to let them in. What's Wilde suggesting about power?
  • The final image gives the Giant grace he did nothing to earn. Is unearned forgiveness a comfort, or does it trouble you? Would you have forgiven him?

Speak

This is the heart of the lesson — do all of it out loud. The timer is there to keep you going: fill the time with detail rather than rushing through it.

Useful language: describe how things once were with used to ("the children used to play there") and would ("the birds would sing every morning"). For opinions, reach for: "What's striking is…", "You could argue that…", "It's no accident that…", "On one level… but on another…".
Time remaining: 4:00
Task A · Retell the story (4 minutes)

Tell the story of the Selfish Giant in your own words, as if to someone who has never heard it. Move through the arc: the garden the children used to play in → the Giant's return and the wall → the endless winter → spring slipping in through the hole → the crying child and the melting heart → the wall knocked down → the mysterious child at the end.

Describe the "before" world using used to and would ("the children used to play there", "the birds would sing"), and work in at least five key words (wall, trespass, selfish, frost, blossom, melt, remorse, forgive, grace, linger).

Task B · Selfishness and second chances (4 minutes)

The Giant shuts everyone out, then is forgiven completely and freely at the end. Do people who behave selfishly deserve that kind of second chance? Build an argument: when is forgiveness the right response, and is there a point beyond which someone has forfeited it? Use examples you know, real or imagined.

Task C · A place that changed (4 minutes)

Describe a place that changed — for better or worse — and how it once was. Lean on the grammar: what the place used to be like, what people would do there, and what is different now.

Stuck for an idea? Pick one of these and run with it:

  • A park, garden or playground from your childhood — what it used to be like, and what became of it.
  • A neighbourhood or town that has changed a lot — the shops, the streets, the people who would gather there.
  • A tradition or gathering your family used to keep, and why it stopped or changed.
  • A public space that was once open to everyone and is now closed off — or the reverse.
  • A person (real or fictional) who used to keep others at a distance and slowly opened up.
  • A building or landmark that used to stand somewhere you know, and what replaced it.

To finish — the bigger questions

  1. The Giant is punished by his own coldness before anyone else punishes him. Is that how selfishness usually works in real life?
  2. The story says the strong should protect the small — the Giant lifts the child who cannot reach. Where do you see, or fail to see, that principle at work today?
  3. Wilde wraps a serious idea inside a gentle children's story. Does dressing a hard truth as a fairy tale make it easier to hear, or does it soften it too much?
  4. Before you go — from memory: give one sentence with used to (a past state) and one with would (a repeated past action), and explain why would would not work in the first one.