Gift Of The Magi Text
Gift Of The Magi Text - The Gift of the Wizards' is a short story by the American short story writer O. Henry, whose real name was William Sidney Porter (1862-1910). The stories are characterized by irony, a chatty storytelling style, occasional sentimentality and a surprising twist at the end. All of these have become signature features, and Gift of Wizards embodies them all to some degree.
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Gift Of The Magi Text
But what does this Christmas story mean? You can read The Magician's Gift here before proceeding to the summary and analysis of O. Henry's story below. We discuss some of the main themes of The Gift of the Wizards in a separate post. It's Christmas day.
Jim and Della are a married couple living in a modestly furnished apartment in New York. He had little money. The story begins with Della being upset because she only has one dollar and eighty-seven cents to give her husband a Christmas present. The narrator tells us that a married couple has a property that they are proud of.
For Jim, it was a gold watch that belonged to his father, and before that to his grandfather. Della's prized possession is her beautiful hair. Della goes to the woman who deals in hair products. This woman was willing to buy Della's hair for twenty dollars.
The History Of O. Henry’s ‘The Gift Of The Magi’
With the newly acquired money, Della then bought a platinum watch chain for Jim's gold watch. It costs twenty-one dollars, leaving only eighty-seven cents worldwide. When she got home, she started curling her hair to make it look good. When Jim comes home, he is shocked by his wife's actions, but when he explains why he cut his hair, he hugs her and gives her the gift he bought her: two designer tortoiseshell combs, which she has long admired in the shop window.
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The comb is useless until her hair grows back, but at least she can give Jim a present... But in the end, Jim tells Della that he sold his gold watch to pay for the expensive comb he bought for her. So now, he has two combs but no hair that works, and he has a platinum chain for a gold watch that he no longer owns.
Many of O. Henry's short stories - most of which are only five or six pages long - are marked by ironic twists, and The Gift of the Wizards is a good example of this characteristic feature of his work. In an effort to buy the Christmas present they want, young Jim and Della sacrifice the things they should have: Della's hair comb (sold), and Jim's watch (sold).
As the narrator points out in the last paragraph: The witches, as we know, are wise—unbelievably wise—to bring gifts to the baby in the manger. He discovered the art of Christmas gift giving. Be wise, the gift is always wise, may have the right to exchange in case of duplication.
The Gift Of The Magi Summary
And here I lamely tell the uneventful chronicle of two stupid children in an apartment who unwisely sacrifice for each other the greatest treasure of their house. But or. Henry doesn't invite us to laugh at the stupidity, but to celebrate the sacrifice. Indeed, what makes them not fools, but wisdom, as the narrator says at the end of the story: But at the end of the wise men of our time, they will say that of all those who give gifts, these two are the wisest.
Of all those who give and receive gifts, such as are wisest. Everywhere they are the smartest. They are magicians. So there are two surprising twists at the end of The Magician's Gift: the trademark plot twist that characterizes most of Au's short stories.
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Henry, and a narrative "twist" that reverses our initial reaction - that we might have had a good laugh at the untold events - and makes the moral point that Jim and Della acted wisely, even when it was over. receiving a 'worthless' gift Except.
This is all well and good, but it should be noted that the narrator does not explain why he believes that Jim and Della are the 'smartest' of all the gift givers. Of course, the 'wisdom' here is given by Amgans, the Zoroastrian astrologer, who, in the Gospel of Matthew, visits the baby Jesus and brings gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh: hence the story's title.
Plot Summary
But what makes Jim and Della wise? And why or. Henry didn't tell us? Is it because he wants us to decide for ourselves, or does he think the answer is pretty obvious? The latter seems more likely. Because it's supposed to be the 'moral' of The Wizard's Gift, given the Christmas setting and the fact that Jim and Della clearly love and care for each other despite having no money to give them the finer things in life, namely love.
More important than possessions. And when it comes to Christmas and buying gifts for your loved ones, it's the thought that counts. But there is a little more to "The Gift of the Magicians" than this old hackneyed proverb, which will reduce the story to a sentimental and rather prescriptive fable about "giving is better than receiving" and "love is more important than money."
Both statements are consistent with the story, but what is also relevant is the element of sacrifice made by the two characters, and their reactions to the consequences. So Jim is happy to part with a gold watch that has been passed down through his male line for three generations, while Della is happy to lose her hair (which, despite her protests, takes months to grow back completely) to buy the gift that others want most.
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But with a twist in the story, he realizes that personal sacrifice - transferred to the love of others - is pointless. But he was very happy, not because of the gift-buying gesture, but because of the great expense incurred by the latter. Love, it seems.
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Henry said, it's about giving up what you treasure the most to show the person you love - who you should love even more - the extent of your devotion. In other words, what's interesting about The Gift of the Wizards is that the moral seems to be not just 'it's better to give than to receive' but 'giving and losing is all that matters', because what you receive is impractical.
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The editors will review what you submit and decide whether to change the article. The editors will review what you submit and decide whether to change the article. The Gift of the Magi, a short story by Or. Henry, published in the New York Sunday World in 1905 and later collected in The Four Million (1906).
The story concerns James and Della Dillingham Young, a young couple who, despite their poverty, separately decide to give elegant gifts at Christmas. Della sold her long, beautiful hair to buy a platinum signature chain for Jim's antique gold watch. Meanwhile, Jim pawns his expensive watch to buy a tortoise shell comb for Della's expensive dress.
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