Title The Gift of Magi

Author O. Henry
Born September 11, 1862, Greensboro, North Carolina, U.S.—died
June 5, 1910, New York, New York, American short-story writer
whose tales romanticized the commonplace—in particular the
life of ordinary people in New York City. His stories expressed the
effect of coincidence on character through humor, grim or ironic,
and often had surprise endings, a device that became identified
with his name and cost him critical favor when its vogue had
passed.

In February 1896 he was indicted for embezzlement of bank

funds. Friends aided his flight to Honduras. News of his wife’s
fatal illness, however, took him back to Austin,
and lenient authorities did not press his case until after her
death. When convicted, Porter received the lightest sentence
possible, and in 1898 he entered the penitentiary at Columbus,
Author’s Ohio; his sentence of five years was shortened to three years and
Background three months for good behavior. As night druggist in the prison
hospital, he could write to earn money for support of his
daughter Margaret. His stories of adventure in the southwest U.S.
and Central America were immediately popular with magazine
readers, and when he emerged from prison W.S. Porter had
become O. Henry.

His first book, Cabbages and Kings (1904) depicted fantastic

characters against exotic Honduran backgrounds. Both The Four
Million (1906) and The Trimmed Lamp (1907) explored the lives
of the multitude of New York in their daily routines and
searching’s for romance and adventure, and the former contained
the widely popular story “The Gift of the Magi.” Heart of the
West (1907) presented accurate and fascinating tales of the
Texas range.

Then in rapid succession came The Voice of the City (1908), The
Gentle Grafter (1908), Roads of
Destiny (1909), Options (1909), Strictly Business (1910)
and Whirligigs (1910). Whirligigs contains perhaps Porter’s
funniest story, “The Ransom of Red Chief.”
 This article explains and presents the story Gift of the magi
summary and analysis. The author is O. Henry. The period of this
story Gift of the magi Summary is 1900 just before Christmas. Most
of the actions are in the cheap apartment of Della and her husband
Jim. Della was having only a dollar and eighty-seven cents as saving
Five Sentence
for buying a Christmas present for Jim. As it was not enough
Summary of the Story
money, she decided to sell her long and beautiful hair for twenty
dollars. Then she bought a watch chain for the watch of her
husband. Similarly, Jim had purchased tortoiseshell combs with
jeweled rims for Della. Jim managed money for the gift by selling
his watch. These gifts tie into this story of the wise men, or the
Magi, who brought the gifts to the new-born baby Jesus.

Vocabulary Development

Imputation- the attribution to a source or cause.

Parsimony- extreme stinginess.
Imply- express or state indirectly.
Vocabulary Shabby- showing signs of wear and tear.
Development Instigate- provoke or stir up.
(Definition in the Predominate- be larger, quantity, power, status, or importance.
context of the short Subside- wear off or die down.
story) Vestibule- a large entrance or reception room or area.
Coax- influence persuade by gentle and persistent urging.
Bearing- characteristic way of holding one’s body.
Fling- throw with force or recklessness.
Prosperity- the condition of having good fortune.
Modest- marked by simplicity; having humble opinion of yourself.
Unassuming- not arrogant.
Calculated- carefully throughout in advance.

Figurative Language Dramatic irony

and/or other Example:
Literary Devices - Both Della and Jim make sacrifices to purchase gifts for each
other. However, these sacrifices—Jim selling his watch, Della
selling her hair—make the gifts useless to their recipient. The
dramatic irony is used to teach the audience the theme of the
story: love is the truest gift one can give.
Imagery
Example:
To convey the hair's uniqueness and value: Had the queen of
Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her
hair hang out the window someday to dry just to depreciate Her
Majesty's jewels and gifts.

Allusion
Example:
The “magi” referred to here, and in the title, are the “Three Wise
Men” that play a part in the nativity story in the Bible. In the story,
the magi travel hundreds of miles to be there when Jesus is born.
The magi each brought a different gift: gold, frankincense, and
myrrh.

Symbol
Example:
Gold, a metal, is a symbol of earthly kingship; frankincense, an
incense, is a symbol of godliness; and myrrh, an embalming oil, is
a symbol of death. Thus, the gifts were given in recognition of
Jesus's importance within the Christian story. In "The Gift of the
Magi," the magi symbolize wisdom.

Personification
Example:
"It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that
word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad." It's a humorous
way of saying their apartment is poor--the word "beggar" is
watching out for the police who pick up beggars off the street.
Thus, the word "beggar" is personified.

Simile
Examples:
1.Curls that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy.
2.He’ll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl.
3.As immovable as a setter at the scent of quail.
4.It was like him. Quietness and value the description applied to
both.
ELEMENTS
SETTING
The action takes place in New York City in a very modest
apartment and in a hair shop down the street from the
apartment. Although the author does not mention New York
PLACE by name, he does refer to Coney Island, the city's most
famous amusement park, located in the borough of
Brooklyn. O. Henry lived in New York when he wrote and
published the "The Gift of the Magi.
Takes place in a furnished flat in New York City, the day
TIME before Christmas. The time of this story is important
because it explains why Della and Jim need a present for
each other.
The mood varies over the course of "The Gift of the Magi,"
from tragic to lighthearted, and from anxious to affectionate.
MOOD/ATMOSPHERE At the beginning of the story, as Della considers her limited
options for buying Jim a present, the mood is somber: Della
finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the
powder rag.

CHARACTERS (Identify: Protagonist or Antagonist; Major or Minor; Characteristics;

Round, Flat, Dynamic, Static)
Della Dillingham Young (Protagonist)
A young housewife who struggles to afford a Christmas
present for her husband, Jim. The story’s protagonist, Della
is kind-hearted but impulsive. She loves her husband
deeply, and prides herself on her long, beautiful hair.

James Dillingham Young (Protagonist)

A young husband struggling to support his wife, Della. Jim is
caring and good-natured and truly loves his wife. He is the
proud owner of a valuable pocket watch that has been
passed down through his family.

Madame Sofronie (Flat to Round Character)

A shopkeeper who buys and sells hair. Madame Sofronie is
cold and detached in her business dealings.
PLOT

Plot Technique (Identify: Suspense, Foreshadowing, Flashback, Surprise Ending):

Suspense- The tone of suspense increases as Della gets home and attempts to fix her hair
as she flies back and forth between excitement over presenting Jim his gift and worry
that he will react negatively. Della goes so far as to worry that Jim will kill her, leaving the
question of just how exactly Jim will react up in the air. The suspense builds to a
crescendo as every moment of Jim’s arrival home is documented from the detail that he is
never late, to the noise of his step on the stair, to the little prayer Della says to herself
hoping Jim still finds her pretty. Even once he arrives, his reaction is not immediately
clear, and Della anxiously perseverates on her inability to read his expression. The
suspense continues as Jim’s shock over her haircut is too unreadable to indicate
displeasure or some other emotion. The dramatic irony builds as Jim presents Della with
the combs as he is still unaware that she has purchased him a watch chain. It concludes
with the twist revelation that Jim has rendered both gifts useless by selling his watch to
buy the combs. However, the twist revelation is paradoxically predictable, as it is
apparent throughout the story that events will conclude this way.

Foreshadowing-occurs when Della begins looking in the mirror at herself. The narrator
describes her hair as beautiful as a queen? s jewels. The narrator also describes that Della
and Jim had only two possessions they were proud of, Della's hair and Jim's watch.

Surprise Ending- When Jim tells Della that he sold his watch to raise enough money to
buy her a Christmas present, an expensive set of tortoise-shell combs for her long hair.
This is especially important because it resolves Della's main problem. She wants Jim to
love her. After she takes the radical step of selling her hair to raise money to buy him a
platinum watch fob, she is afraid she might lose his love.

POINT OF VIEW (Check which is applicable and identify the specifics)

First person POV (singular Omniscient third-person point of view. This means that a
or plural) narrator is relaying the information of the story to the
reader and can describe what is happening in both Jim's and
Della's minds and hearts.
External The Gift of the Magi is character against society. Della and
Character vs. Society Jim are poor. As the story opens, we learn that Della has
scrimped and saved for months and has only been able to
save $1.87 with which to buy a Christmas gift for Jim.

Value
"Gift of the Magi" revolves around a young
couple, Della, and Jim, who lack a lot in the way of material
possessions and external amusements. The beginning of the
story focuses on their poverty—the shabby couch, the lack
of mirror, the eight-dollar flat, the broken doorbell. Despite
this, the narrator adds that Jim always arrives home to be
THEME/S “greatly hugged. Which is all very good.”

Love
Della’s main concern is that the money she’s saved by
pinching pennies isn’t enough to buy Jim a worthy
Christmas present. For her, the main obstacle that poverty
poses to her happiness is its limitation of her expression of
love. After the twist ending, Jim sits back on the couch and
smiles, even after it’s revealed that both their gifts are now useless.
 Sacrifice
At the beginning of the story, Della and Jim have only two
prized possessions—Della’s hair and Jim’s watch. To
overcome their poverty and to give a good Christmas
present to the other, each sacrifices the item that they value
the most. The sacrifices turn out to have been made rather
TONES uselessly, since the gifts they buy can’t be used.

“Sad, Serious, Happy and Loving”

Throughout the story the tone is sad and serious because
Della cannot purchase a present for Jim. But a reader nears
the end, the tones changes to happy and loving because
Della and Jim both realize the other loves them very much.

Critical Analysis and Critique

Images of Poverty
The story of Della and James opens with Della’s meticulous counting of her saving of
change that amounts to “One dollar and eighty-seven cents.” The painful stories behind
every one of those coins suggest that she is constantly compelled by her poverty to
quarrel with the vendors in the market for the sake of a penny or two. Her passionate
conflicts with them over the balance money of one for two pennies are not events she is
happy to remember, but poverty conjures them up for her in her daily life to make her
lose her decent deportment in public.

Confusion of Pleasure, Possession, and Individuality Caused by Poverty

O. Henry presents two possessions Jim and Della are proud of, as they are conscious of
their uniqueness and value. The allusion to “the queen of Sheba” he makes while
describing the beauty Della’s hair adds to her personality, and that to “King Solomon”
while describing the richness Jim’s pocket watch adds to his personality while wearing it
imply their conscious appreciation of these possessions. According to O. Henry, they feel
extra-royal when they think about these treasures as part of their personalities.

Capitalist Exploitation of the Poor Victimized by their own Poverty

Pressurized by a conflict of values developed in society and financial threats posed by
poverty in satisfying them, Della makes up her mind to perform the hardest sacrifice she
would ever dream of doing. That is to sell her beautiful hair that “fell about her rippling
and shining like a cascade of brown waters.” The difficulty she feels in parting it even for
the sake of her most beloved person in the world emerges from her emotional condition
now she decides to do so. “Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or
two splashed on the worn red carpet.”

Tokens of Love Leading to Nothing but Disappointment

In very ironical terms, O. Henry portrays the physical and psychological numbness Jim
contracts in reaction to the change of Della’s look, and the terror it causes in her. “It was
 not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she
had been prepared for.” This sarcastically reveals that, however much lovers claim that
they know and understand each other, in this type of situation, they easily get
overwhelmed by the feelings that incoherently originate within them. Della’s terror is
a product of this mental behavior particular to the average human being.

Insights/Reflections from the Story

The story teaches us the valuable lesson of loving and caring for others. In the story, both
Jim and Della sold their most loved possessions to buy something beautiful for each
other. The story is a great way to teach kids to be loving and kind to their families. The
story also depicts that gifts or materialistic presents are not the only things that can give
happiness, the true sense of happiness comes from sharing and devotion toward each
other.

https://www.vedantu.com/stories/the-gift-of-the-magi#:~:text=Moral%20of%20the
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magi/
https://www.academia.edu/6566652/
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