Class Roll No.

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ENGLISH MATERIAL

"The Gift of the Magi"

"The Gift of the Magi" is a short story, written by O. Henry (a pen name for William Sydney Porter),
about a young married couple and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts
for each other with very little money. As a sentimental story with a moral lesson about gift-giving, it
has been a popular one for adaptation, especially for presentation at Christmas time. The plot and its
"twist ending" are well-known, and the ending is generally considered an example of comic irony.
The story was initially published in The New York Sunday World under the title "Gifts of the Magi"
on December 10, 1905. It was first published in book form in the O. Henry Anthology The Four
Million in April 1906.

Mr. James Dillingham Young ("Jim") and his wife, Della, are a couple living in a modest apartment.
They have only two possessions between them in which they take pride: Della's beautiful long,
flowing hair, almost touching to her knees, and Jim's shiny gold watch, which had belonged to his
father and grandfather.

On Christmas Eve, with only $1.87 in hand, and desperate to find a gift for Jim, Della sells her hair
for $20 to a nearby hairdresser named Madame Sofronie, and eventually finds a platinum pocket
watch fob chain for Jim's watch for $21. Satisfied with the perfect gift for Jim, Della runs home and
begins to prepare pork chops for dinner.

At 7 o'clock, Della sits at a table near the door, waiting for Jim to come home. Unusually late, Jim
walks in and immediately stops short at the sight of Della, who had previously prayed that she was
still pretty to Jim. Della then admits to Jim that she sold her hair to buy him his present. Jim gives
Della her present – an assortment of expensive hair accessories (referred to as “The Combs”),
useless now that her hair is short. Della then shows Jim the chain she bought for him, to which Jim
says he sold his watch to get the money to buy her combs. Although Jim and Della are now left with
gifts that neither one can use, they realize how far they are willing to go to show their love for each
other, and how priceless their love really is.

The story ends with the narrator comparing the pair's mutually sacrificial gifts of love with those of
the Biblical Magi.

The magi, as you know, were wise men – wonderfully wise men – who brought gifts to the new-born
King of the Jews in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise,
their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of
duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children
in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a
last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest.
Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the
Magi .
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At a Glance

Despite her impoverished status, Della Young is determined to give her husband a Christmas gift.

Della Young decides to sell her beautiful hair to buy a watch fob for her husband’s beloved watch.

When Jim comes home, he is saddened and surprised to see Della’s beautiful hair missing. He offers
her his gift: bejeweled combs that she no longer needs.

Della offers her gift to Jim. He looks at her and admits that he has sold his watch to buy her the
combs.

The two are overcome with love as they realize they have sacrificed their most prized possessions
for one another.

STORY
Della Young is a devoted young married woman. Christmas Eve finds her in possession of a meager
one dollar and eighty-seven cents, the sum total of her savings, with which she wants to buy a gift
for her husband, Jim. A recent cut in the family income, from an ample thirty dollars a week to a
stingy twenty dollars a week, has turned Della’s frugality into parsimony. Although she lives in an
eight-dollar-a-week flat and her general surroundings, even by the greatest stretch of the
imagination, do not meet the standards of genteel poverty, Della determines that she cannot live
through Christmas without giving Jim a tangible reminder of the season.

Distraught, she clutches the one dollar and eighty-seven cents in her hand as she moves
discontentedly about her tiny home. Suddenly, catching a glance of herself in the cheap pier glass
mirror, a maneuver possible only for the slender and agile viewer, the perfect solution suggests itself.
Whirling about with happiness, she lets down her long, beautiful hair. It is like brown sable and falls
in caressing folds to below her knees. After a moment’s self-admiration, and another half-moment’s
reservation, during which time a tear streaks down her face, she resolutely puts on her old hat and
jacket and leaves the flat.

Della’s quick steps take her to the shop of Madame Sofronie, an establishment that trades in hair
goods of all kinds. Entering quickly, lest her nerve desert her, she offers to sell her hair. Madame
Sofronie surveys the luxuriant tresses, unceremoniously slices them off, and hands Della twenty
dollars. For the next two hours, Della feels herself in paradise, temporarily luxuriating in the
knowledge that she can buy anything she wants. She decides on a watch fob for Jim’s beautiful old
watch. If there are two treasures in the world of which James and Della Dillingham Young are
inordinately and justly proud, they are her hair (lately and gladly sacrificed) and Jim’s revered gold
watch, handed down to him by his grandfather.

She finally sees exactly what she wants, a platinum watch fob that costs twenty-one dollars. She
excitedly anticipates Jim’s reaction when he sees a proper chain for his watch. Until now, he has
been using an old leather strap, which, despite the watch’s elegance, has forced him to look at the
time surreptitiously.
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Arriving back at the flat, breathless but triumphant, Della remembers her newly bobbed appearance.
She reaches for the curling irons and soon a mass of close-cropped curls adorns her shorn head. She
stares at herself anxiously in the mirror, hoping that her husband will still love her. As is her usual
custom, she prepares dinner for the always punctual Jim and sits down to await his arrival. The
precious gift is tightly clutched in her hand. She mutters an imprecation to God so that Jim will think
she is still pretty.

At precisely seven o’clock, she hears Jim’s familiar step on the stairs, his key in the door. He is a
careworn young man, only twenty-two and already burdened with many responsibilities. He opens
the door, sees Della, and an indiscernible look, neither sorrow nor surprise, overtakes him. His face
can only be described as bearing a mask of melancholy disbelief. Even though Della rushes to assure
him that her hair grows fast and that she will soon be back to normal, Jim cannot seem to be
persuaded that her beautiful hair is really gone. Della implores him to understand that she simply
could not have lived through Christmas without buying him a gift; she begs him, for her sake, as
well as the season’s, to be happy.

Jim, as if waking from a trance, embraces her and readily tells her that there is nothing a shampoo or
haircut could do to Della that would alter his love for her. In the excitement he has forgotten to give
her gift, and now he offers her a paper-wrapped package. Tearing at it eagerly, Della finds a set of
combs, tortoise shell, bejewelled combs that she has so often admired in a shop on Broadway, combs
whose color combines perfectly with her own vanished tresses. Her immense joy turns to tears but
quickly returns when she remembers just how fast her hair grows.

Jim has not yet seen his beautiful present. She holds it out to him, and the precious metal catches all
the nuances of light in the room. It is indeed a beautiful specimen of a watch chain, and Della insists
on attaching it to Jim’s watch. Jim looks at her with infinite love and patience and suggests that they
both put away their presents—for a while. Jim has sold his watch in order to buy the combs for Della
even as she has sold her hair to buy the watch chain for Jim.

Like the Magi, those wise men who invented the tradition of Christmas giving, both Della and Jim
have unwisely sacrificed the greatest treasures of their house for each other. However, of all those
who give gifts, these two are inevitably the wisest.

SUMMARY

How It All Goes Down

The story opens with $1.87. That's all Della Dillingham Young has to buy a present for her beloved
husband, Jim. And the next day is Christmas. Faced with such a situation, Della promptly bursts into
tears on the couch, which gives the narrator the opportunity to tell us a bit more about the situation
of Jim and Della. The short of it is they live in a shabby flat and they're poor. But they love each
other.

Once Della's recovered herself, she goes to a mirror to let down her hair and examine it. Della's
beautiful, brown, knee-length hair is one of the two great treasures of the poor couple. The other is
Jim's gold watch. Her hair examined, Della puts it back up, sheds a tear, and bundles up to head out
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into the cold. She leaves the flat and walks to Madame Sofronie's hair goods shop, where she sells
her hair for twenty bucks. Now she has $21.87 cents.

With her new funds, Della is able to find Jim the perfect present: an elegant platinum watch chain
for his watch. It's $21, and she buys it. Excited by her gift, Della returns home and tries to make her
now-short hair presentable (with a curling iron). She's not convinced Jim will approve, but she did
what she had to do to get him a good present. When she finishes with her hair, she gets to work
preparing coffee and dinner.

Jim arrives at 7pm to find Della waiting by the door and stares fixedly at her, not able to understand
that Della's hair is gone. Della can't understand quite what his reaction means.

After a little while, Jim snaps out of it and gives Della her present, explaining that his reaction will
make sense when she opens it. Della opens it and cries out in joy, only to burst into tears
immediately afterward. Jim has given her the set of fancy combs she's wanted for ages, only now she
has no hair for them. Jim nurses Della out of her sobs. Once she's recovered she gives Jim his
present, holding out the watch chain. Jim smiles, falling back on the couch. He sold his watch to buy
Della's combs, he explains. He recommends they put away their presents and have dinner. As they
do so, the narrator brings the story to a close by pronouncing that Della and Jim are the wisest of
everyone who gives gifts. They are the magi.

SUMMARY
This lesson covers O. Henry's famous short story, ''The Gift of the Magi''. We'll cover
the story's plot, analyze some of its major themes, and finish with a brief quiz.
Plot Summary
The Gift of the Magi is a well-known short story by American short story writer O.
Henry, the pen name of William Sydney Porter. The story first appeared in The New
York Sunday World on December 10, 1905 and was later published in O. Henry's
collection The Four Million on April 10, 1906.

The story tells of a young married couple, James, known as Jim, and Della
Dillingham. The couple has very little money and lives in a modest apartment.
Between them, they have only two possessions that they consider their treasures: Jim's
gold pocket watch that belonged to his father and his grandfather, and Della's lustrous,
long hair that falls almost to her knees.

It's Christmas Eve, and Della finds herself running out of time to buy Jim a Christmas
present. After paying all of the bills, all Della has left is $1.87 to put toward Jim's
Christmas present. Desperate to find him the perfect gift, out she goes into the cold
December day, looking in shop windows for something she can afford.

She wants to buy Jim a chain for his pocket watch, but they're all out of her price
range. Rushing home, Della pulls down her beautiful hair and stands in front of the
mirror, admiring it and thinking. After a sudden inspiration, she rushes out again and
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has her hair cut to sell. Della receives $20.00 for selling her hair, just enough to buy
the platinum chain she saw in a shop window for $21.00.

When Jim comes home from work, he stares at Della, trying to figure out what's
different about her. She admits that she sold her hair to buy his present. Before she
can give it to him, however, Jim casually pulls a package out of his overcoat pocket
and hands it to her. Inside, Della finds a pair of costly decorative hair combs that she'd
long admired, but are now completely useless since she's cut off her hair. Hiding her
tears, she jumps up and holds out her gift for Jim: the watch chain. Jim shrugs, flops
down onto the old sofa, puts his hands behind his head and tells Della flatly that he
sold his watch to buy her combs.

The story ends with a comparison of Jim and Della's gifts to the gifts that the Magi, or
three wise men, gave to Baby Jesus in the manger in the biblical story of Christmas.
The narrator concludes that Jim and Della are far wiser than the Magi because their
gifts are gifts of love, and those who give out of love and self-sacrifice are truly wise
because they know the value of self-giving love.

Theme and Moral

The Gift of the Magi is a classic example of irony in literature. Irony is a literary
technique in which an expectation of what is supposed to occur differs greatly from
the actual outcome. In this case, Jim and Della sacrifice their most treasured
possessions so that the other can fully enjoy his or her gift. Jim sells his watch to buy
Della's combs, expecting her to be able to use them. Della sells her hair to buy Jim a
chain for his watch. Neither expects the other to have made that sacrifice.

The irony here works both on a practical and on a deeper, more sentimental level.
Both Della and Jim buy each other a gift that ultimately seems financially foolish.
Being poor, they can't afford to waste money on things they can't use. However, what
they get is something they don't expect: a more intangible gift that reminds them how
much they love each other and are willing to sacrifice to make each other happy.

The story's setting at Christmas time makes it a popular story for the holiday season.
Its major theme is the difference between wisdom and foolishness, or having or not
having, a sense of judgment and understanding.

Both Jim and Della behave impulsively, sacrificing their greatest treasures without
thinking about the consequences and focusing instead on making one another happy.
From an entirely practical perspective, this doesn't make much sense because they
can't enjoy the gifts that are supposed to make them happy.
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Jim and Della are thinking about the present moment and the material possessions that
give us pleasure. What they foolishly don't realize, however, is that they've given each
other a greater gift: their sacrificial love. The lesson they ultimately learn is that their
love for each other is worth more than all of the material possessions money can buy.
O. Henry makes a somewhat humorous though a meaningful comparison between the
Magi in the Bible and Jim and Della at the end of the story:

The Magi, as you know, were wise men -- wonderfully wise men -- who brought gifts
to the newborn babe in the manger. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones,
possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have
lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat… who
most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a
last word to the wise of these days, let it be said that of all who give gifts, these two
were the wisest.

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