The Irony In The Gift Of The Magi

It was one week from Della's 30th birthday and Jim didn't have enough money to

Emily’s father, as well as the people of Jefferson, had always pressured Emily to marry. Her father was never able to find a match for her though, and he eventually passed. Emily then met Homer Barron, a contract worker for the town. They begin to see each other more often, and the townspeople are shocked that Emily would lower herself to being with a man of low class. This shows a bit of irony, in that there has always been pressure for Emily to marry, yet when she finally meets a man she loves, people think she is wrong in her decision. Another piece of irony in this relationship, comes after Emily dies. The body of Homer Barron is found in the attic of Emily’s home. Next to the body are signs that Emily had been sleeping next the corpse. It can be assumed that Emily did murder Homer with the arsenic she had purchased earlier in the story. It

This leads to her idea of selling her most prized possession: her hair, to get Jim his present. Meanwhile, Jim decides to sell his most prized possession which was a pocket-watch that was passed down from his grandfather to his father and then to him. He sells that watch and buys Della a set of beautiful tortoise shell combs for her hair. Thus leading to the use of situational irony in which they both receive gifts for something they gave up in order to give the other a gift.

The definition of irony is a contrast between two things. One example is verbal irony. It is a contrast between what someone says and what one means, while dramatic irony is a contrast between what the characters know to be true and what the readers know to be true. Many writers use irony in their short stories to prove a dramatic point, or just to develop a story for upcoming use. These short stories by Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” (140), Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers” (183), and Stephen Crane’s “The Blue Hotel” (229), spin a tale of symbolic irony. Each tell a tale paradoxical twists with sublime contradiction where one is led to believe one side of an event, yet it is dragged down a twisted trail of mental sarcasms coupled with death. It is a known fact that many tales of irony require many major events to twist the order they are written in to create a viewpoint that stride away from the main topic or where the author wants the reader to end up.

Conflict is opposing actions, ideas, and decisions that hold a plot together. Clugston (2014) states “Conflict is the struggle that shapes the plot in a story” (4.1 Plot, para. 4). Conflicts are also encountered in most of the literature we read for pleasure. It can create personal connections and instill deeper meanings to our experiences as we read, especially if we can relate what is read to our personal life.

Strapped for cash and wanting to give her beloved husband the most luxurious gift for Christmas to express her deep passion for him, we are immediately introduced to the initial situation at hand. With only a dollar and some change to spend on Jim, Della is forced into a situation

The effect of irony in O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” is to reveal character traits and to provoke the reader into analyzing them. Situational irony is used to show how loving both Jim and Della are. For example, Della states, “… I had my hair cut off and sold it because I couldn’t have live… without giving you a present,” and Jim later voices, “I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs.” After buying what they thought would be the perfect gift for each other, they found out that, for the time being, the gifts were useless because the combs were for Della’s now cut off hair, and the fob chain was for the the watch that Jim sold for her. This reveals how they loved each other so much that they gave up their most prized possession

O. Henry is known for writing and including irony in his writing. In the story, “The Gift of the Magi” He used irony when Della sold her hair to buy her husband, James a watch chain for his watch to replace his leather watch chain for Christmas, but her husband James sold his watch to give Della some beautiful combs for her hair, but both the hair and the watch were gone. They were both very poor and so they had to earn money quickly so they sold their most prized belongings for gifts for each other. The Irony in the story was that they had both bought new and improved accesories for their most prized possessions but for them to afford them, they sold their own prized possession and so when it was time to receive their gifts, They had already lost what they needed for the gift. Della lost her hair for the gold watch chain and james lost the watch for the turtle shell combs.

Della wants to buy her loved one a nice Christmas gift, but she does not have the money. The author says “Twenty dollars, said Mrs. Sofronie, lifting the hair to feel it’s weight.” At this point of the story, Della who does not have much money, but has beautiful hair, decides to cut it off and sell it. Jim, her husband, does not know she

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

Jim buys combs for Della’s hair, and not having much money he sold his families pocket watch, his most prized possession.

The couple was poor, so they did not have enough money to buy the perfect Christmas gift for their spouse, deciding to sell their beloved possessions to afford the gifts. Della says, “I had my hair cut off and sold it because I couldn’t have lived through Christmas without giving you a present.” (Paragraph 28). Della chose to sell her precious hair to afford a gift for Jim, and that much love brings the reader a sense of joy. It is enjoyable to read about such characters because of their inspirational acts of sacrifice.

In the story The Gift of the Magi and the video sesame street there are many similarities and differences. The story and video are alike because they both have sold something they loved. However they both gave presents to eachother. While the story and video are similar, they have a lot of differences, too. In the story the girl gave her hair away to someone else. And the girl bought a plotinum fob chain to a boy. In the video Berk trade a ruber tuckie for a dish soap so he could put the ruber tuckie in there. Ernie got a surgeni so Berk could put his collection of paper clips in the little box. For example, both the story and characters that are delightful however, in contrast Berk and Ernie gets there objects back, while Della and Jim do

“My purpose is to show that in every human heart there is an innate tendency towards a respectable life; that even those who have fallen to the lowest depths in the social scale would, if they could, get back to the higher life…”(Rollins 7-8 ). O`Henry came up with this philosophy when writing his many different, entertaining stories. “The Gift of the Magi” was initially published in 1906 in O`Henry`s second collection of stories. “The Gift of the Magi” is a perfect story to illustrate how people do anything for the ones they love. The main characters each sell their most valued possession in order to buy the other the perfect Christmas present. They each bought the other something to complement their prized possession. Ironically, they had both sold their prized possession to get the other a gift.However, they bought gifts that were now useless to one another. Themes have some aspect of life, general truth, or moral that is shown throughout the story by the author. The themes in this short story really stand out to the reader. The way in which the two main characters demonstrate their selflessness for each other helps to emphasize the three major themes: poverty, love, and sacrifice.

Situational irony is another element that is present throughout the short story. Della and her husband both buy each other gifts for Christmas at the end of the story. Ironically, Della and her husband bought each other gifts for what they gave up: Della bought her husband a wrist watch strap and Jim sold his watch to buy Della the combs she wanted for her hair. In the short story, Jim is seen grieving about the fact that she had cut her hair off, “I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on,” (O. Henry 121). The ending is situational irony because the reader was expecting that Della would buy her