Personally I like this story very much and I was a real satisfaction to analyze its slightest details. I advice everyone to read this story, about a couple, man and woman, who are so devoted to each other, that they sacrifice their possessions. 

        But, to sum up, I want to say a few words about my attitude (which is really changed) to this story. From the very beginning I mentioned that it is one of my favorite short stories. But after a thorough analysis I understood that I didn’t understand all the things and details. To my subjective opinion, Della is more devoted to Jim than he to her. Why? Because she sacrificed the most valuable girl’s value – her hair, her very long hair for a simple chain for her beloved. Why? Because she lovad him so much. I thought about it and I've got lots of thoughts. However, I want you to read this story and to think of it :)

  

           The author uses such graphical means as capitalization: “ONE DOLLAR AND EIGHTY-SEVEN CENTS. THAT WAS ALL. AND SIXTY CENTS of it was in pennies”. It is used to draw reader’s attention to the main problem of this family – a great lack of money. The usage of the pronoun “one” instead of “her” in the sentence: “Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied” gives an utterance a more general character and emphasises Della’s mood when she had to ask money, what was really hard for her and she found herself in an unpleasant situation. There is also an epithet: “silent imputation of parsimony”. It shows that Della has strong spirit: she is “bulldozing” but at the same time she is gentle. The inversion: “Three times Della counted it” underlines how thrifty and careful she is. Moreover, there is a constant repetition of the phase: “one dollar and eighty-seven cents” which emphasizes Della’s hopelessness. A repetition of adjectives “grey”: “…looked out dully at a grey cat walking a grey fence in a grey backyard” helps to create dull and sad atmosphere. Anticlimax: “life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles” describes the reality of life”. Another epithet: “beggar description” which is the combination on N1+N2, where N1 performs the function of an adjective and describes the flat in which the Dillinghams lived and shows their poverty. The periphrasis: “mortal finger” stands for “person, human being”. It emphasizes that the family feels the pinch. Archaic usage of “thereunto” means “to that”. The author uses metonymy in the case when the surname “Dillingham” substitutes the word “card with the surname”. “Her Jim” is a nominative sentence which increases the dynamism and flow of Della’s thoughts. The usage of article “a” together with a noun with an adjective: “Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him” add emotional stylistic coloring and emphasizes Della’s worrying about the present for her beloved Jim because with the help of it she wanted to show her devoteness to him. This is also a case of inversion: the adverbial modifier is placed at the beginning of the sentence. In the following sentence the case of inversion can also be noticed: “Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length”. It underlines how Della react and her wish to act as quickly as possible.

The author mentions that the couple, James and Della, took “mighty pride” in their possessions. This is a bright case of hyperbole which is used to underline the real value and importance of their belongings for them. There is a case of an allusion from the Bible about Queen of Sheba and King Solomon and their wealth, jewels and gifts which are nothing in comparison with Della’s hair and Jim’s watch. Inversion is used in the following sentences: “Had the Queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out of the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy”. In such a way authors tries to show how proud the Dillinghams where of their possessions.

The story is the 1st and 3rd person narrative. There are also elements of description. The main characters (protagonists) of the story are Jim and Della Dillingham. The secondary character is Madame Sofronie, an owner of a shop. Jim and Della are also named as: James Dillingham Youngs – the compound name for the family as one unity of a husband and wife. Della is described realistically. She behaves as an average woman and she is full of emotions which the author describes with the help of such stylistic device as metaphor:“There was clearly nothing to do but flop down and… howl. So Della did it”. Della has nothing to do but howl – dolefully like a wolf. 

Jim is a quite reserved, calm and restrained man. The case of periphrasis in naming Jim “lord of the flat” emphasizes that it was he who was the only breadwinner in this family; “employment of all the comforting powers” is the periphrasis which means that Della really needed Jim to hug her and comfort, to calm her down. Maybe, she needed him more than he needed her. Madame Sofronie is rather tightlipped. She has “a practised hand” in cutting hair, this is the case of epithet. She is “large, too white, chilly, hardly looked”. The usage of the noun in plural: "Take her hat off and let's have a sight at the looks of it” adds intensification.

Simile is used to describe Della’s greatest possession - her hair: “Della’s beautiful hair fell like a cascade of brown water”. Her hair is a wavy as it is like a cascade, its colour is like brown water.

To emphasize the repeated unit the author uses the anaphora: “On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat”. It used to show that Della was self-assured and she exactly knew and was sure in what she was doing.

     The metaphor: “tripped by on rosy wings” describes Della’s feelings and mood. She was happy and ready to find the best present in the whole world for Jim. The fob that Della buys has “meretricious ornamentation” – epithet, used to describe the beauty of her present, but at the same time it was valuable and simple: “Quietness and value--the description applied to both”. Inversion in the sentence: “Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 78 cents” helps to show how unwilling Della was to give money, how thrifty she was. She would have better bought Jim a new overcoat and gloves – a practical thing, but she was a romantic figure, she valued Jim and she wanted to give him something special. She simply loved him and behaved as a woman in love. The usage of oxymoron “properly anxious” underlines that this fob is also a practical thing.  Inversion: “Grand as the watch was” emphasizes the refinement of it.

The author uses a comparison: “That made her looks like a truant schoolboy.” After having had her hair cut Della can be compared in her appearance to a truant schoolboy: wandering and straying. She doesn’s think about her appearance. She just does her best to make Jim happy. Short hair gave her the look of a boy, not of a woman, her look was deprived of femininity.

With the help of gradation the author describes Della’s looking in the glass: “She looked at her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically”. Probably she hadn’t yet realized what she had done. Della somehow tries to comfort herself.

Della is rather nervous when she is waiting for Jim. She is saying “the little silent prayers” – epithet. Jim’s reaction to the new Della’s style is described with the help of simile: “Jim stepped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail”. He was tired after work and this simile underlines his seriousness and shock. But he didn’t say a word to cheer her. There is an example of repetition of the negative particle “not” to describe Jim’s shock when he saw Della: “It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for”. Here is also anticlimax (nouns “anger – surprise – disapproval – horror”) to describe Della’s relief from Jim’s reaction. The overflow of Della’s emotions is described with the help of oxymoron: she said that her hair grows “awfully fast”. Antithesis is used by the author to describe opposing feelings: “And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! A quick feminine change to hysterical tears and wails”.

Jim’s fatigue has nothing to do with his surprise, it is “the hardest mental labour for him” – the case of epithet. It helps to emphasize Jim’s shock. Della talked to him with “serious sweetness” – oxymoron, used to stress Della’s wish to calm Jim down and at the same time not to irritate him. But Jim remains strict.

Jim’s release from his trance is indicated by repetition of the conjunction “or” in the sentence: “I don't think there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less”. With the help of epithet Della’s vanished hair is described as “coverted adornments”, to emphasize that now when she got those combs she lacked her hair, now it seems even more precious for her than those combs.

“Della leaped up like a little singed cat” is simile which is used to describe Della’s swiftiness. Graphon is used in the sentence: “"Dell," said he, "let's put our Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while” emphasizes Jim’s psychological condition and unstability, he understood the whole trick.

Speeches in this story let us feel a particular relief as they are like bridges from what we think may happen next to what is the way out and solution of a certain unexpected twist or problem. Speeches are direct as they are presented in the form of a dialogue and inner (interior monologue) as they present the characters’ thoughts, ideas, beliefs and views. There are also cases of indirect speech which is transformed by the author.  Also inserts of author’s speech.

From the beginning of the story we meet Della – the very first character of the story “The gift of the Magi“. Della is supposedly a housewife and, in spite of their apartment being quite poor, she does her work quite well. Della is really thrifty and depicted realistically because she understands the harsh reality and saves one or two pennies by “bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied”. This is, by all means, a case of metaphor. Della doesn’t just demanding or asking or even begging, she is “bulldozing” like a powerful vehicle. But, despite this, she is a romantic woman. Della sacrifices her greatest possession to buy a present for the most important person in her life – Jim. The author uses a simile here to describe her hair, it is “like a cascade of brown waters”, it is so wavy and smooth. It doesn’t even matter that she is wearing her “old brown jacket, old brown hat”. Della is still having a “brilliant sparkle in her eyes”. Her exploit is described as “generosity added to love – “a mammoth task” – a case of hyperbole, which is used to show her love to Jim and her ability to take serious decisions. She is really proud of herself. She always wanted to look nice for Jim. Della is rather pious: “she had a habit of saying little silent prayers about the simplest everyday things”.

One more character that we meet in this story is Madame Sofronie. O. Henry provides a bright and complete characterization with only one sentence: "Madame, large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the 'Sofronie. She is blunt: when Della asks whether she would buy her hair, she says, "I buy hair" and brusquely tells Della to take her hat off so she can see it. She offers Della twenty dollars for her hair.

Mr. James Dillingham, Della’s husband, at home called Jim is the only provider for their family. But Della doesn’t view him only like that; she sees him as a person and cares about him very much: “he needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves”. She thinks that he worth the best Christmas present ever and gave him a platinum fob chain to show that she was cognizant of things that were valuable for him. Jim is always punctual – he is never late. He is rather serious and discreet. It is described with the help of simile: “as immovable as a setter”. He is proud of his watch but at the end of the story we see that Della and her beauty are much more precious for him. He is really shocked to see Della with a short haircut that he even doesn’t notice his present.

For me, who loves this story very much for a long time, they are the real Magi, who live  in the real world and at the real time, they are much higher of reality, and there is even something divine in them.

 

The story begins with Della's despondency over the scanty amount of money she’s managed to save over the past few months by pinching pennies. She cherish a faint hope to save enough money to buy her husband Jim a worthy Christmas present. Suddenly Della glare at her reflection in a window, and let her hair fall to its full length below her knee. The author calls it "rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters". Della’s brown hair and Jim’s gold watch, that he inherited from his grandfather, are their most valuable possessions.

Della runs to Mne. Sofronie's hair shop and sells her hair for twenty dollars. She adds a dollar to this sum and buys Jim "a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation - as all good things should do". The chain is described as possessing “quietness and value,” like Jim.

Della returns home to curl her hair with curling irons and make dinner. When Jim comes back home and enters the room, shock roots him to the spot, when he glanced at Della’s hair. Della confessed him that she did it in because she wanted to buy a Christmas present being worthy for him. Jim snaps out of his shock, hugs Della, and throws a package on the table. He explains that neither haircut nor anything could make him love her any less, but that he was surprised because of the present that he bought for her. Della opens the package and finds very expensive tortoiseshell combs for her long hair, which she had long dreamed of. She’s rapturous for a moment before it comes to her that she won't use them anymore and begins crying, and Jim has to comfort her.

Suddenly, Della remembers about her present to Jim, and asks Jim to show his watch so that she could put the new chain on it. Jim sits back on the couch, smiles and says that he sold his watch in order to buy the combs for her.

The narrator finishes by mentioning the story about the magi, who invented the art of giving Christmas presents. He compares Della and Jim to these wise men, and concludes that of all those who give gifts, these two are the wisest.

 

I think that The Gift of the Magi is one of my favorite short stories. I checked Youtube to see if people made any adaptations based on the tale, and I think that I love this the most. Beautifully done!!!

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From the very first line author draws a reader's attention to the place where the main characters live and where the story develops. It is a very cheap and poor flat. The story probably takes place in New York, early 1900's ("For there lay The Combs - the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshipped long in a Broadway window." - author mentions Broadway Street which is in New York; "She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas" - probably early 20th century). O. Henry depicts the flat giving enough details to create an image of its poverty: it's cheap ("A furnished flat at $8 per week"), barely furnished, and has a broken mailbox and a broken doorbell ("In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring".) It's apparently one of the destitute districts in the city (the flat has a backyard, which is a little less urban).The atmosphere rather dull and depressing ("She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard"), thought it is Christmas Eve, but, nevertheless, it shows us the contrast between the real outside world and feelings and emotions which live in the hearts of Jim and Della. Though they live in reduced circumstances, a reader can see that they are happy, because they have each other, Della and Jim are family. And their tiny and miserable flat seems peaceful and homely.

 

William Sydney Porter 

William Sydney Porter, writing as O. Henry, wrote in a dry, humorous style and, as in "The Gift of the Magi," often ironically used coincidences and surprise endings. Released from prison in 1902, Porter went to New York, his home and the setting of most of his fiction for the remainder of his life. Writing prodigiously, he went on to become a revered American writer.



O. Henry is famous for writing short stories with a twist ending, such as The Gift of the Magi, The Last Leaf, and The Ransom of Red Chief. I found his real life even more fascinating than his stories! The internet allowed me to read letters to, from, and about him, hear his voice in a radio interview, and see a picture of him and his family. I hope you will enjoy learning about this great author with a "beautiful soul" and help me solve some of the mysteries I came across.


Interesting Facts

HIS BIRTH DATE IS... INTERESTING

William Sidney Porter (later spelled Sydney) was born in Greensboro, N.C., on September 11, 1862. Although it has nothing to do with the terrorist attack, his birth date certainly caught my eye... He loved New York and many of his stories are set in the City.

HE LIVED IN THE SOUTH, IN THE MID-WEST, IN THE NORTH EAST, AND ABROAD

Born in Greensboro, NC, he then moved to a Texas ranch. After being accused of embezzlement by the bank he worked for, he absconded to New Orleans, LA, and then to Honduras. He came back to Austin, TX, to face trial and take care of his wife, Athol, who was terminally ill. He was sentenced to five years in jail at the federal penitentiary in Columbus, OH. Released after three years for good conduct, he joined his daughter Margaret and in-laws in Pittsburgh, PA. He was offered a contract with New York World newspaper, and moved to New York, NY. He lived a short time in Long Island, NY with his second wife, Sara Coleman.

HE STARTED HIS WRITING CAREER WHILE IN JAIL

In jail, Will Porter worked as a pharmacist. He also started writing under the pseudonym of O. Henry. He sent his stories to a friend in New Orleans, who sent them in turn to magazines in New York. Nobody knew these wonderful stories came from a prisoner! Although he went through a tough time - losing his wife to tuberculosis and being sent to jail shortly after - his stories are far from being dark and depressing. In fact, they are light, humorous, surprising, uplifting.

GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY?

Will was working as a teller at the First National Bank of Austin when an examiner came and found discrepancies in his books, although there has been much debate about his actual guilt. The bank was clearly mismanaged, and from what I read, my conclusion is that he just happened to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

HIS VOCABULARY AND LITERARY KNOWLEDGE COMPARE TO SHAKESPEARE!

Young Will Porter used to carry an unabridged dictionary and read it as a book. He would look up words he didn't know, and was fascinated by words. His vocabulary skills are sometimes compared to Shakespeare's. Yet, he never attended college and left school at fifteen years old to work for his uncle's drugstore...

His stories are filled with witty expressions, seldom used words, and allusions to other pieces of fiction, such as Shakespeare, greek mythology, Arabian Nights, contemporary "dime novels" (cheap paperback novels of the late 1800's), and Kipling, among others.

He uses dialects in such a way we can almost hear his characters talk. His choice of words and metaphors surprise and delight. In Texas, he learned French, German, and Spanish well enough to use some foreign vocabulary when a story calls for it.

HE POPULARIZED THE "TWIST ENDING"

O. Henry was sometimes called the "American De Maupassant." His stories end with a twist of fate, or a revelation of who his characters really are, or an unexpected turn that surprises and delights, draws tears or laughters - or both - from his readers. Yet, his stories are about ordinary people, in ordinary situations. He tells the story of a hobo, or a grafter, or even a shop girl, in their every day life.

HIS STORIES' THEMES ARE UNIVERSAL

His stories reflect universal values, such as unconditional love, self sacrifice, honor, and compassion. They often have a touch of spirituality, without being religious in nature. They are also nonjudgemental, often portraying characters that are usually ignored in our society, in a respectful way.