So Della Sacrifice

Jim and Della perform an act of selfless love by their willingness to give something that held great value to them in order to get special presents for each other on Christmas. They do all of this out of love for the other. However, you will see that these gives prove to end up having no use in the end but that is not the main point. The main point is that although this ironic situation occurs, they both find joy in the thought that they would do this for each other. This love that they have for each other is far greater value than any gift that could be given. Jim doesn’t overreact or get angry with this conclusion.

There was no greater sacrifice that would have been offered apart from what the two did. Della’s endless love for Jim is particularly portrayed when she not only swallows her pride to shamelessly haggle and humiliate herself in grocery purchases, but further shaves her hair and sacrifices her good looks to secure Jim a present that would show her great love for Jim. As a falling action, when the truths all unfold, the couple realizes that both of their gifts are currently worthless due to their “foolish sacrifice”. Consequently, Jim suggests that they should put away their Christmas gifts and save them for later use. The Gift of the Magi bears simple yet effective use of paradoxical coincidences to produce a striking and unexpected irony for the ending. Though the presents Jim and Della had made effort to buy each other are now of no use at all, their self-sacrifice for the sake of love become even more convincing and admirable. In the denouement, the couple remains in loves and has learnt an important but devastating lesson that love should not be measured by the amount of money spent on the gifts to each other. They are as wise as the Magi in the art of gift giving, who once followed a guiding star to Israel to pay homage to the newborn Jesus, bringing with them gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Clara took her most prized item, her precious necklace that had been passed down to her by her mother, to a pawn shop to sell it. Her father had bought it for her mother in Vietnam, and gave it to her when he got back from the war. The necklace had given her $200, even though the chain on it was broken, and by the end of November, she had saved enough money that when she added it to the money from the necklace, she had enough for the quilt.

In The Gift of the Magi Della and Jim truly loved each other and sold their prized possessions to buy something nice for each other's trophy and in the ironic twist they had no use for each other's gift but in The Necklace Mme. Loisel was ungrateful and borrowed a necklace from her friend to go to a ball and losses the necklace that

Both Mathilde and Della are youthful, pretty married women with loving husbands. In terms of personality they are total opposites of each other. Della from The Gift of the Magi is as selfless and adoring wife who treasures her husband and yet Mathilde from The Necklace does not care about anyone’s emotions and wishes except her own. Both of these women complain about their financial position, but Della complains about money only because she want to get a present for Jim. The narrator proves this by saying, “Only one dollar and eighty-seven cents to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim” (Henry 1906). Contrarily, Mathilde takes part in self-indulgence in light of the fact that she can't bear the cost of things for herself: the narrator states this,

Love is a defining force for Della and Jim too, overshadowing the poor condition of their finances. Jim and Della do not have much. They would most certainly be considered to be in the lower class, living in a little $8 a week flat in the city and going from a sufficient income of $30 a week to a less than adequate $20 a week with Jim in need of a new overcoat and pair of gloves (Henry). Henry articulates how their love for each other transforms their drab house and surroundings and gray circumstances into a warm and inviting refuge called home. “One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all Della had,” not nearly enough to get a gift worthy of her beloved Jim (Henry). She desires nothing but to please him and considers him worthy of something

Whereas the exposition of The Gift of the Magi, Della is portrayed as someone who is a wonderful, poor and adores her husband. The inciting incident occurs when Della is counting money and realizing that she doesn’t have enough money to get a present for her Jim. She counts $1.87 exact. The rising action happens when, Della decides to sell her hair to the wig shop so she can afford the perfect gift for Jim. Della earns $20 by selling her hair the only thing she had pride in that she owned. At last she was finally able to purchase a platinum chain for Jim’s watch. During the climax, Jim looks at Della weirdly, pulls out the package and tosses it on the table. Della opens the package to find out that they were combs for her hair that she just

A major theme in the story " The Gift of the Magi" is sacrifice. Della states that her husbands income dropped by 10$. The whole reason Della can't afford a big gift in the beginning is because of their income loss. So therefore she saves money to try and get her husband a great gift for Christmas but she couldn't save much, so then she sells her hair for 20$ to buy her husband a platinum fob chain because in the end she states that she wouldn't be able to live with herself if she didn't get him anything for Christmas. On the other hand, she is nervous to see what her husband will think because of her hair cut. He gets home and has a blank look on his face and Della thinks its because of the way it turned out. He then explains to her that his

Irony flooded "The Gift of the Magi." Della placed emphasis on acquiring a worthy present for Jim by Christmas day, as did Jim. The couple decided to sell their prized possessions in secrecy, just to obtain nice presents for each other. The ironic part comes into play when we find out that Della decided to sell her majestic hair to purchase Jim a new platinum chain for his prized gold watch. Well, Jim sold his prized possession to purchase Bella the comb set she had longed for. Without hair to comb and a watch to be carried by a platinum chain, the gifts were deemed unusable until the future. Without the plot twist, this story would lack necessary substance and irony. Although, the plot twist is important, it solely does not make the entire

We see irony throughout the story. We see this whenever Della runs to the hair articles shop to see how much Mrs. Sofronie would buy her hair for. Mrs. Sofronie said “Twenty dollars.” Della responded by saying, “Give it to me quick.” Della was proud of her hair and you could consider it to be her prized possession. She cut the thing she loved the most about herself because she was determined to find a gift for Jim. She wanted to give Jim a gift that would enjoy and be pleased with. At last, she found the gift for him, she thought that “It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. The gift was a gold watch chain for Jim’s prized possession, the gold watch that his father gave him. The watch chain’s value “was in its rich and pure material. Because it was so plain and simple, you knew that it was very valuable. All goods things are like this.” Della knew in her mind that “It was good enough for the watch.” Later, Della held the watch chain in her hand waiting on Jim to come in. When he walked into the house, he was shocked to see that Della’s hair was gone. Later, he said “I want you to understand me, Dell, nothing like a haircut could make me love you any less. But if you’ll open that, you may know what I felt when I came in.” He threw something tied in paper on the table. Della pulled off the paper and cried tears of joy. It was a comb with jewels that Della saw in a shop window and loved for a long

In both “The Gift of the Magi” and “The Necklace,” Della’s and Mathilde’s wants and desires leads them to different outcomes. Della, in “The Gift of the Magi,” is a poor woman who, although isn’t unhappy for herself, needs money to buy her husband a Christmas gift, a chain for his watch. She then decides to sell her hair, which is her most precious possession, “Had the Queen Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out...just to depreciate Her Majesty’s jewels and gifts…” Due to her willing sacrifice for her husband, what ended up happening is that her husband ended up selling his watch to buy some jewels for Della’s hair, if she didn’t sell her hair to buy him a gift in the first place. Mathilde from

They both have a strong love for a specific item they possess. “It is the day before Christmas and Della saved up money for the year and had a total of $1.87” ( “ The Gift of the Magi”2). Through connecting the conflict to the story it brings irony to the conclusion in O. Henry’s “ The Gift of the Magi”, conflict shows readers

Many people would consider the story, “The Gift of Magi”, an act of foolishness, but there is more to the tale than unreasonable foolishness. The sacrifices the main characters, Jim and Della Dillingham Young, made for each other were what many people would call an act of true love and generosity. They had no money for Christmas, although they did have something of substance to trade. Della had her long, beautiful hair and Jim had his pocket watch. They “sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house” (161). Jim and Della gave all they had for each other. According to O. Henry, they could be considered Magi. The Dillingham Young’s did not stop to consider how they would be affected. They thought of each other’s happiness before their own. Instead, they sell their “greatest treasures” to buy the other a gift for Christmas. The story of “The Gift of the Magi” shows the underlying meaning to be truly wealthy and to sacrifice everything for it. Wealth is more than money to countless people. Love and happiness is the key to wealth. Jim and Della may not have money but they are indeed wealthy. Love is more important than any possession or gift anyone can contain. O. Henry illustrated that within “The Gift of the Magi”. He showed that love and happiness is the true wealth of life by using literary elements like symbolism, the type of narrator, and irony.

The author of “The Gift of the Magi” represents this through, “and here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house” (177). Mr. and Mrs. Dillingham Young made foolish decisions because they both did not thing about the consequences of giving up their gifts would be. Henry displays the tone as humorous when he says, “they’re too nice to use just at present. I sold my watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on” (179). This is humorous because Jim just moves right along asking Della about dinner and does not give her a chance to respond. This is significant to sacrifice because he loves her so much that he was willing to sacrifice anything for her. The tone is romantic because they care strongly for each other and wanted to please the other one with a great gift that will represent their love for one another. The author presents the romance through the quote, “isn’t dandy Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled” (176). At the end of the text, after both characters exchanged presents they have the opportunity for disappointment, yet the couple realizes that the gifts are temporary whereas the love and sacrifices the two shares is eternal. Henry also suggests the romantic tone with the

Jim made the greater sacrifice because he was determined. Jim's determination played a great role in proving that his sacrifice is greater than Della's. Jim states in the story, "I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs" (354). This quote goes to show that Jim would have done anything to purchase something that Della would love. Jim also says that "They were expensive combs" (354). Although the combs were expensive, Jim was willing to do whatever he had to do to to make sure Della would receive that gift by Christmas. His determination led to him purchasing the nice, expensive gift