The Gift Of The Magi Theme And Moral
The Gift Of The Magi Theme And Moral - The Magician's Gift" is a short story by O. Henry, an American short story writer whose real name was William Sidney Porter (1862-1910). His stories are characterized by irony, a conversational style of storytelling, casual sentimentality and surprising endings. All of these have become signature features, and The Gift of the Wizards embodies them all to some extent.
The Gift Of The Magi Theme And Moral
So what does this Christmas story mean? You can read The Magician's Gift here before jumping to O. Henry's story summary and analysis below. We discuss some of the major themes of "The Gift of the Wizards" in a separate post. It's Christmas Eve. Jim and Della are a married couple living in a modestly furnished apartment in New York.
They have little money. The story begins with Della lamenting that she only has one dollar and eighty-seven cents to spend on a Christmas present for her husband. The narrator tells us that each of the married couple owns a property of which they are very proud.
For Jim, it's 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 a woman who deals in hair products. This woman agrees to buy Della's hair for twenty dollars. With her newfound money, Della goes to buy a platinum chain for Jim's gold watch.
The Story - Gift Of The Magi
This costs him twenty-one dollars, leaving him with only eighty-seven cents in the whole world. When he gets home, he starts curling what's left of his hair to make it look pretty. When Jim arrives home, he is surprised by the woman's actions, but when she explains why she cut herself, he hugs her and gives her the gift he bought her: two bejeweled tortoiseshell combs that he had long admired in a shop window.
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Her combs are useless until her hair grows back, but at least she can give Jim her gift... But one last time, Jim tells Della that he sold his gold watch to pay for the expensive combs he bought her. It now has two combs but no bristles to use and has a platinum gold watch chain which is no longer there.
Many of O. Henry's short stories - most of them only five or six pages long - are distinguished by their ironic turns, and "The Magician's Gift" is a good example of this characteristic of his work. In their quest to get each other the Christmas present of their dreams, young Jim and Della sacrifice what their gifts were supposed to complement: combs for Della's (sold) hair and a chain for Jim's (sold) watch.
As the narrator notes in the final passage: The wizards, as you know, were wise men who brought gifts to the child in the manger—wonderful wise men. They invented the art of Christmas giving. Being wise, their gifts were certainly wise gifts and probably carried the privilege of exchange in case of repetition.
Moral Of The Gift Of The Magi Story
And here I told you the impeccable chronicle of two idiotic children in an apartment who mindlessly sacrificed the greatest treasures of their home for each other. But Fr. Henry urges us not to laugh at their stupidity, but to celebrate their sacrifices. Indeed, what motivated them was wisdom, not folly, the narrator notes in the closing words of the story: But let us say the last word to the wise men of these days, that of all those who gave gifts, these two were the wisest.
Givers and receivers are the wisest of all. They are the wisest everywhere. They are wizards. So, in a sense, there are two surprises at the end of The Wizard's Gift: the trademark plot that characterizes most of O. Henry's short stories, and the narrator's "twist" that undermines our initial response.
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– which may be a good-natured laugh at the unfortunate turn of events just recounted – and makes the moral point that Jim and Della act wisely, even though they end up with "useless" gifts from each other. This is all well and good, but it should be noted that the narrator does not explain why Jim and Della believe that they are the "wisest" of all gift givers.
Of course, the word "wise" here is suggested by the magicians, the Zoroastrian astrologers, who visit the infant Jesus of Matthew's Gospel and bring him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh: hence the title of the story. But what makes Jim and Della wise? So why doesn't O. Henry tell us?
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Was it because he wanted us to make up our own minds, or did he assume the answer was pretty self-explanatory? The latter seems more likely. It's certainly love, given the "spiritual" Christmas setting of The Wizard's Gift and the fact that Jim and Della clearly love and heal each other despite not having the money to pay for the finer things in life.
more important than having. And when it comes to Christmas and buying gifts for loved ones, it's the thought that really counts. But "The Gift of the Wizards" has more to it than this old adage, which would make the story sentimental and more twee about "being better than buying" and "love is more important than money."
Both of these statements are related to the story, but what is also relevant is the element of sacrifice the two characters make and their reaction to realizing the consequences. So Jim is happy to buy a gold watch that has been passed down through three generations of men, while Della is happy to lose her hair (which, despite her protests, will take months to fully regrow) to buy the other's most coveted gift.
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But as the story turns, they realize that their personal sacrifices for the love of the other have been wasted. But they are happy about it, not because of the gesture of receiving the gift, but because of the great cost it had for the other person.
Something Went Wrong
Love, it seems, O. Henry, is giving up the things you value most in order to show your lover - that he should love more - the extent of your devotion. In other words, what's remarkable about The Wizard's Gift is that its moral seems to be "it's important to give and lose," rather than simply "it's better to give than to receive," because what they get is of no practical importance.
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The best childhood memories are the holidays we spent with our family. Whether it's spending a day out with the family over Christmas or opening presents at Christmas, everyone has a fond memory of the holidays. What almost everyone has in common when they remember the holidays are classic holiday stories.
These stories are a fun way to spend time with your family. Christmas stories like "The Tale of the Wizard's Gift" are among the classic Christmas stories that depict the holiday spirit and the love of family. The story follows a touching story with a moral lesson about gift-giving as a young husband and wife face the task of buying each other secret Christmas gifts.
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