Often, works of literature that associate with a particular holiday only grasp the attention of the reader during the season of the holiday. From time to time, an author writes an extraordinary story that impacts the reader long after the holiday passes. William Sydney Porter, known to his beloved readers as O’Henry, wrote such a masterpiece in 1905, “The Gift of the Magi.” Set during the Christmas season of a young couple, the author utilizes personal experiences in poverty to provide an adequate adversary in the couple’s quest to find an impeccable gift for each other. “The Gift of the Magi” offers an empathetic tale and likeable characters, and more imperatively, a powerful message of sacrificial love. O’Henry spins the tale with much …show more content…
Expressly, Della’s infatuation for her husband motivates her actions, her chief desire “to buy him a gift worthy of his nobility” (Howes 1). Therefore, Della makes a drastic decision and sells her most prized possession-her lengthy hair, described as being so beautiful it would make the Queen of Sheba green with envy. Short haired and nervous, Della prepares her gift, a twenty-dollar watch chain, hoping Jim will focus on the gift instead of her. On the contrary, Jim does not bother with the gift, but informs Della that her outward appearance does not influence his adoration for her. He also reveals his gift; an exquisite set of combs, the funds for such coming from selling a seemingly priceless heirloom, Jim’s watch. In addition to the irony of the situation, the author adds more by calling Jim and Della the Magi, the wisest of all gift-givers. The Magi, the wise men who gave to baby Jesus, could not give “the ability to reduce love to monetary figures.” (Bellman 2). Unlike Jim and Della’s gifts, the Magi’s gifts do not bear the title of irreplaceable, as they do not contain an ounce of the love and sacrifice the combs or chain posses. Though the combs and chains temporarily have no use, the delightful adoration they bring places them on the highest pedestal and proves the message of the tale. O'Henry illustrates the theme with considerable irony, earnestly convincing readers that the young couple, though unwise, hold the title of the
When Della bought the chain for Jim, she did not know he would sell his treasured possession, too. They both told what happened and were happy to put it in the past. The sacrifices they both made is more valuable than the gifts
(Verbal Irony) “‘They want romance but, I’m not prepared to behave like that publicly, at least not when I haven’t truly connected with someone. Still, I need to give them something’” (Eadlyn says to Kile) (Cass 110). This quote display’s that the, two kids (Kile and Eadlyn), have been friends forever and the audience did not think that they would ever come together and show this affection to each other. This shows a quality plot because, it makes the story. That means that this scene in The Heir is a huge part in the rest of the book. (Verbal Irony) “If it was, perhaps it’s not what you thought it would be and now, you’re in a situation you don’t particularly like” (Cass 210). This quote displays that, Ean just opened her up like a book. This shows a quality plot because, it’s a part that no one expected. It makes the reader want to read more. Irony is, the expression of one’s meaning by using language (action or a situation) that signifies the opposite. Kiera Cass uses irony to make the book more interesting by using it in the most random places so the boring parts become some of the best parts. In The Heir, irony is used to show a quality
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
In the short story The Gift of the Magi, foreshadowing plays a huge role along with irony. Foreshadowing is when you are able to predict what will happen based on the information the author is giving you. Irony is the difference between Anticipations and effects, and appearance and reality. Irony comes in three ways which are verbal, dramatic, and verbal. In the short story the type of irony that was used was dramatic and a little bit of verbal irony.
The story was written by O’Henry in 1906. The story was centered around a seemingly poor couple who did not have enough money to buy each other the gifts that their significant other deserved. The story took place during Christmas. The Gift of the Magi is like a classic wisdom story in the bible. O’Henrys choice of title depicts symbolism between the three magi that brought gold, frankincense, and mur, to the baby Jesus and the gifts that Jim and Della had given to each other which mainly consisted of selfless love, Della’s hair and Jims pocket watch. This itself ties into the theme of his story. These gifts all entail the act
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.
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
The irony in this story is the fact that Della cut her hair so that she could afford to buy Jim a fob chain for his watch. She was willing to sacrifice her hair to get him a something rare. When cutting her hair, she made his gift useless. Jim bought Della hair combs to hold up all of her beautiful hair. Now they are useless. The irony is that Jim sold his watch for money to purchase the expensive combs for Della. That is the irony in this story. So this is how it’s tied into the story of the wise men who brought such expensive yet meaningless gifts to show respect, loyalty and admiration to baby Jesus. How could the baby spend gold? It was the effort and the sacrifice that counted. Just like in the story the gift of magi. They both sacrificed
Jim sold his family’s watch to buy Della the hair combs for her hair. This shows how he will do anything to please Della. All this comes to show how symbolism and irony work together to form the
In the short story “The Gift of the Magi” I found that the irony in the story was situational. In the story there are two characters Jim and Della. Jim and Della sacrificed their most coveted items to get each other Christmas gifts which they did not know they would have done that for each other. Della cut her hair for $20 dollars, her hair was one of the two coveted possessions the couple had, as Madame Sofronie cut Della's hair agile she remembers Jim, which Jim had no idea she would do give up her hair for him. After she cut her hair she ran to the store and ransacked it for Jim's gift. Towards the end of the story Della finds out that Jim sold his watch which is a something that was important to him, he sacrificed his watch to buy her combs
In The House of Spirits by Billie August, Clara decides to pass down her personal journal to Blanca in hopes of helping her daughter realize that what’s important in life is to be with her loved ones and to make the best out of every day instead of being fixated on her negative memories. After reading her mother’s writings, Blanca came to the conclusion that she would not let her traumatizing experience as a prisoner define the result of her life. Instead of seeking revenge, she decides to focus on what matters most to her. Alba on the other hand, in “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry, Jim and Della sacrifice their most valuable possessions in order surprise each other with thoughtful gifts. Despite being living in impecunious conditions, the couple were proud of “Jim’s gold watch. It had once belonged to his father. And, long ago, it had belonged to his father’s father. The other thing was Della’s hair,” yet unknowingly to each other, they sell both the watch and the hair in order to afford the perfect gift for their spouse (Henry, 2). However, the gifts exchanged are useless because Della gets rid of her hair to buy Jim a chain for his watch and “[Jim] sold the watch to get money to buy the combs” for Della (Henry, 6). Instead of focusing on the actual gifts, both Jim and Della continue on with their day appreciating the gesture and not the material. In the end, the precious items of each character from the different stories allowed them to look beyond the shallow things in life and enjoy every moment with their loved
The comparison O. Henry makes between the story of Jim and Della and that of the Magi is rather relevant as the Magi were the ones who are credited with being the origins of the “giving nature” of the Christmas season. In this story, we see a man and a woman so blinded by love that they are willing to make ultimate sacrifices for the happiness of the other. Similar to the Magi, Della and Tim put each other before themselves and through their generosity and considerable lengths they both went to achieve that generosity is something more admirable than any materialistic gift they could ever offer each other, thus making the uselessness of their gifts irrelevant.
Stories of love and sacrifice abound in literature. Perhaps one of the most well known stories among teens and adults is the tale of a poor, young couple struggling to find the perfect Christmas gifts for each other using their very limited means. They each manage to get what they think is the perfect gift for the other, but only accomplish this by selling a prized possession which effectively makes the new gifts impractical. This bittersweet narrative, “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry, illustrates the moral idea that a person, motivated by nothing but love for another, can possess a willingness to give in a self-denying way which necessitates that the reader consider that wealth be measured by something more than having money
In the story Gift of the Magi the author uses conflict to help the reader understand the theme of the story. The author uses the theme love is shown through selfless acts by illustrating how the two main characters Della and Jim both sold their valuable items to buy each other a gift. In the story It is Christmas time and Della has no money to buy her husband Jim a gift. She only has a dollar and eighty seven cents, but one thing Della does have is her beautiful long hair. Della knows Jim vaules his watch that his dad gave him.
In this story the gift of Magi, Della the girl is just thinking about what she should get jim for christmas. But she is just so sad because it’s christmas eve and she only has a dollar and 87 cents to buy him a gift. That just shows how much she loves him because she is so sad about how she can’t give jim what he deserves. So she decides to still go out into town and look for a present.