Gift Of The Magi Compare And Contrast Essay

In "The Gift of Magi," Della and Jim sacrifice their prized possessions for each other and for love. Irony is represented in this story when Della and Jim both get each other gifts that mean a lot to each other. However, what they did not realize is that when Della cut her hair to to buy Jim a chain for his watch, she was unaware that Jim was going to sell his watch to buy her combs for her hair. The irony of their gift exchange is monumental as their unconditional love for one another took over for their own personal possession. Jim exclaims, “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. But if you'll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first." The magi which are described as wise men also signifies irony because Della and Jim's presents were more than wise. They represented that a gift does not need to be expensive to have value. A gift can be more meaningful just by the thought.

In “The Necklace”, Mathilde Loisel is a woman who cannot tolerate her lower-class status, believing “herself born for every delicacy and luxury”(82). Mathilde’s vain materialistic goals, make her bitter and unhappy. The main point of irony in the story is the fact that Mathilde borrows the necklace and looses it. The necklace was very expensive, or so she thought, so she ended up in poverty

The story was written by O’Henry in 1906. The story was centered around a seemingly poor couple who did not have enough money to buy each other the gifts that their significant other deserved. The story took place during Christmas. The Gift of the Magi is like a classic wisdom story in the bible. O’Henrys choice of title depicts symbolism between the three magi that brought gold, frankincense, and mur, to the baby Jesus and the gifts that Jim and Della had given to each other which mainly consisted of selfless love, Della’s hair and Jims pocket watch. This itself ties into the theme of his story. These gifts all entail the act

Now consider the role of Mathilde Loisel in “The Necklace”. She constantly grieves about her simple life and fantasizes about extravagant life style with rich people and food surrounding her. Her husband is a simple man and is satisfied with his life. He appreciates her for the food which is cooked and never complains. Being in the Ministry of Education their lifestyle is modest. Mathilde is not satisfied on the other hand even when her husband proudly announces that they have been invited at a formal party held by the Ministry of Education. The irony in the story is more or less the same with regard to the female characters. Mathilde cries and gets her prize in the form of a dress but she is never satisfied. She wants jewelry as well. The necklace that she borrows from Madame Forestier teaches her a lesson of life. Since she is not familiar with the real jewelry she picks the cheapest one from her collection and wears it to the party why she loses it. Upon not finding the jewelry her husband takes the pain of selling everything out just to purchase an identical necklace worth 40,000 francs which leaves them poverty stricken for the next ten years during which her husband does three jobs and

In The Gift of the Magi, by O. Henry (1906), Della is one of two main characters, the other being her beloved husband, Jim. On Christmas Eve, Della has saved very little for a present for Jim when she decides to sell her most prized possession, her long beautiful hair, for more money. After doing this, and buying the perfect gift,

The comparison O. Henry makes between the story of Jim and Della and that of the Magi is rather relevant as the Magi were the ones who are credited with being the origins of the “giving nature” of the Christmas season. In this story, we see a man and a woman so blinded by love that they are willing to make ultimate sacrifices for the happiness of the other. Similar to the Magi, Della and Tim put each other before themselves and through their generosity and considerable lengths they both went to achieve that generosity is something more admirable than any materialistic gift they could ever offer each other, thus making the uselessness of their gifts irrelevant.

To understand the differences and similarities between the Gift of the Magi and the sesame street version of it, it is necessary to look at the main concepts of both stories. The Gift of the Magi is a classic story, adapted into many T.V shows and movies in modern day. The original story is about a young married couple in New York city during the 1900's that sell their most prized possessions to buy something for their significant other. The item that they buy for each other though is for the other's most prized item, therefor, they can't use their gift because they don't have their prized possession anymore. The main concept of the sesame street version is two friends that live together, that trade their favorite item belonging to

Additionally, they both bought new things, made compromises and they all gave up valuable things. In “The Gift of the Magi” says, “Della”, said he, “let’s put our Christmas gifts away and keep keep them a while. They’re too nice to use now. I sold the watch to buy the combs. And now I think we should have our dinner”

Della from The Gift of the Magi and Mathilde from The Necklace are two characters whose only striking similarity is a shared monetary conflict, although the ways in which they acquired this conflict are completely different. In other words, both characters don't have enough money to fulfill their desires, but Della is inspired by selflessness while Mathilde is inspired by selfishness. For example, Della isn't concerned about buying herself anything, she's only troubled with getting her husband something "a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned” by him. On the other hand, Mathilde is almost the exact opposite of Della when she disregards her husband's hard work and “grieved incessantly" over her lack of money and material

Stories of love and sacrifice abound in literature. Perhaps one of the most well known stories among teens and adults is the tale of a poor, young couple struggling to find the perfect Christmas gifts for each other using their very limited means. They each manage to get what they think is the perfect gift for the other, but only accomplish this by selling a prized possession which effectively makes the new gifts impractical. This bittersweet narrative, “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry, illustrates the moral idea that a person, motivated by nothing but love for another, can possess a willingness to give in a self-denying way which necessitates that the reader consider that wealth be measured by something more than having money

In the story of The Necklace, Mathilde was very unhappy of the way she lived. She didn’t like what she wore, where she lived, everything. Her husband had brought home an invitation to a ball. It was a very special party. She was unhappy about it because she didn’t have anything nice to wear, she had asked her husband for 400 francs he had gave them.

Madame Loisel is provided with a necklace from Madame Foresteir for the event, since she does not own any jewelry. Wearing the necklace exemplifies that Madame Loisel is disguising her true wealth status, so that she appears to be an upper class person. Furthermore, tangible and extortionate items make her feel happy. When she takes hold of the “superb diamond necklace, her heart started beating with an overwhelming desire. Her hands trembled as she picked it up….She

For instance, Della and her husband had a mutual love and respect for each other; where Mathilde was only in love with the person she wanted to be. During the gift exchange between Della and her husband, they found selling their most prized possession, the purchase of their Christmas gifts was rendered useless since Della no longer had her hair and Jim his watch. However, when Mathilde lost the necklace, both her and her husband spent ten years to pay off the debt. Additionally, Mathilde lost her beauty, “Madame Loisel looked old now. She had become like all other strong, hard, coarse women of poor households. He hair was badly done, her skirts were awry, her hands were red.” The authors in the stories demonstrated the negative effects for seeking items which one could not afford through an ironic twist. However, the irony was predictable in both

In both short stories,”The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry and “Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, the two women are very different. Della,from “The Gift of the Magi”, was a generous women who cared for her husband dearly and would do anything for him. Mathilde, from “Necklace”, was a woman who would sit back and watch her husband do anything for her. In these two stories both women take on a situation, but the handle them in two very different ways. Both Della and Mathilde are similar in financial ways, but they handle them differently.

In the beginning of the short stories “The Gift of the Magi” and “The Necklace” the two female characters were polar opposites but, after the conflicts of the stories they turned out to be quite similar.