Irony And Mood In The Gift Of The Magi

Henri Nouwen once said “Each day holds a surprise. But only if we expect it, can we see, hear, or feel it when it comes to us”. Situational irony is an unexpected plot twist. The authors use situational irony in order to surprise the reader. Also, it makes the reader feel many different emotions for the characters in the story. For example, in “The Ransom of Red Chief” O. Henry, the author, uses situational irony to create a feeling of humor. Guy de Maupassant’ the author of “The Necklace” utilizes situational irony to produce sympathy for his main character, Matilda. By reading these two stories it is easy to understand that situational irony creates emotions and surprise in the readers’.

Many authors use irony to posses readers’ attention, and to help convey a theme. For instance in the stories The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe, and The Gift of the Magi by O.Henry the authors use different types of irony to create tension and to make the story more interesting. The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe is about a man who says he’s suffered “A thousand injuries...”(172) and takes revenge on his friend. He does this by lowering him deep into the Catacombs by telling his friend he has bought Amontillado(a medium dry Sherry) and uses reverse psychology to have him keep going. The Gift of the Magi by O.Henry is about a poor deeply in love couple who both ironically give up even their most prized possessions to make one

The effect of irony in O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” is to reveal character traits and to provoke the reader into analyzing them. Situational irony is used to show how loving both Jim and Della are. For example, Della states, “… I had my hair cut off and sold it because I couldn’t have live… without giving you a present,” and Jim later voices, “I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs.” After buying what they thought would be the perfect gift for each other, they found out that, for the time being, the gifts were useless because the combs were for Della’s now cut off hair, and the fob chain was for the the watch that Jim sold for her. This reveals how they loved each other so much that they gave up their most prized possession

This scene demonstrates situational irony when Della receives beautiful expensive combs for her hair which is now too short to be adorned with the combs. In the quote "They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession." she tells us they were really expensive. Since I know that Jim doesn't earn that much money, I can deduce that Jim sold something of his to pay for the combs. Jim had a strange look on his face because he just spent a lot of money to buy combs for his beautiful wife and her long hair, only to find out she cut it for him. So it must have taken a minute for Jim to register this

O. Henry is another author that astutely uses irony to communicate the theme that things are not always as they appear in his story Hearts and Hands. It opens in a relatively unremarkable way, with passengers boarding a train, and singles out a young girl and two newcomers. The girl, Miss Fairchild, begins a conversation with one of them, Mr. Easton. It quickly becomes evident that they were, at some point, friends. This stated by Miss Fairchild herself: “Don’t you ever recognize old friends when you meet them in the West?” (Henry 1). When the girl notices the handcuffs, the glum-faced man, having taken note of the atmosphere between the other two, takes the blame for them. He claims to be going to prison. In the end, it is revealed that Mr. Easton is the

“I trust that everything happens for a reason even when we're not wise enough to see it”. The necklace is by guy de maupassant. Jim and Della were thoughtful towards each other. They put love in front of everything. Della and Jim also sacrificed many things for eachother. If you think Della and Jim weren't wise, you're wrong. The only thing they were was wise towards each other. Jim and Della were thoughtful, sacrificial and loveable people.

In The Gift of the Magi Della and Jim truly loved each other and sold their prized possessions to buy something nice for each other's trophy and in the ironic twist they had no use for each other's gift but in The Necklace Mme. Loisel was ungrateful and borrowed a necklace from her friend to go to a ball and losses the necklace that

In The House of Spirits by Billie August, Clara decides to pass down her personal journal to Blanca in hopes of helping her daughter realize that what’s important in life is to be with her loved ones and to make the best out of every day instead of being fixated on her negative memories. After reading her mother’s writings, Blanca came to the conclusion that she would not let her traumatizing experience as a prisoner define the result of her life. Instead of seeking revenge, she decides to focus on what matters most to her. Alba on the other hand, in “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry, Jim and Della sacrifice their most valuable possessions in order surprise each other with thoughtful gifts. Despite being living in impecunious conditions, the couple were proud of “Jim’s gold watch. It had once belonged to his father. And, long ago, it had belonged to his father’s father. The other thing was Della’s hair,” yet unknowingly to each other, they sell both the watch and the hair in order to afford the perfect gift for their spouse (Henry, 2). However, the gifts exchanged are useless because Della gets rid of her hair to buy Jim a chain for his watch and “[Jim] sold the watch to get money to buy the combs” for Della (Henry, 6). Instead of focusing on the actual gifts, both Jim and Della continue on with their day appreciating the gesture and not the material. In the end, the precious items of each character from the different stories allowed them to look beyond the shallow things in life and enjoy every moment with their loved

The irony is that she was willing to sacrifice something of worth to get him something nice. When cutting her hair, she made his gift useless. He bought her hair combs. Now they are useless. The irony on top of that is that he sold his watch for money to purchase the expensive combs for her. This irony is the twist in the plot.

The irony in this story is the fact that Della cut her hair so that she could afford to buy Jim a fob chain for his watch. She was willing to sacrifice her hair to get him a something rare. When cutting her hair, she made his gift useless. Jim bought Della hair combs to hold up all of her beautiful hair. Now they are useless. The irony is that Jim sold his watch for money to purchase the expensive combs for Della. That is the irony in this story. So this is how it’s tied into the story of the wise men who brought such expensive yet meaningless gifts to show respect, loyalty and admiration to baby Jesus. How could the baby spend gold? It was the effort and the sacrifice that counted. Just like in the story the gift of magi. They both sacrificed

She went home and pondered on how she was going to get Jim this gift. When she came to the conclusion of selling her hair, she went straight to the hair dresser and asked her how much she would buy her hair for. ““Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the mass with a practiced hand. "Give it to me quick," said Della”1. After cutting her hair off, she went and bought the chain for Jim pocket watch.

The irony of the moment hits him. He stares at Della which shows clues of something being not quite right. Della explains she sold her hair for his gift. He continues to be in a daze for a minute before embracing Della. He has realized what has occurred and the reader begins to understand the twist about to occur. Jim finally shows her the gift he has purchased for her, fine combs for her beautiful hair, now gone. She dismisses the fact that her hair is gone and is excited for the gift. She shares her gift for Jim eagerly wanting to see it adorning the watch. The story's twist comes full circle when Jim says I have sold the watch to buy your

Della is thinking about a sacrifice to make in order to receive more money to buy her husband a thoughtful gift just in time for Christmas morning. Henry uses imagery to help the audience visualize and feel Della’s devastating emotions toward being broke, and how she is going to solve her dilemma. The audience can understand and feel how much love Della has for James and just how important it is to make him happy. At this point in the story, Della decided to make a huge sacrifice for James. She rushes out of the house toward Mrs. Sofronie’s Hair Articles store to cut and sell her hair for twenty dollars. Before leaving the house, “...she put it up on her head again, nervously and quickly...a tear or two ran down her face” (Henry 3). The image portrayed from Henry is that Della’s drastic decision will get her the money to buy James the perfect gift even though this upsets her. The audience can feel Della’s agony when she has no other choice but to get rid of her prized possession. She feels that she was giving up her beauty and hopes that James will still accept her. Now that Della has the money, she just needs to find the perfect gift. James also had a prize possession, his golden watch, “...no King had anything so valuable”

Della´s coat and hat are very old. It is winter time and she needs a new coat and hat. By selling her hair Della has twenty dollars and she could buy some new things for herself. But Della does not care about herself she says to Jim “I couldn't live through Christmas without getting you a gift.” ( O. Henry 4)

She only then finds out that he as well gave up his gold watch to get her a suitable present. To contrast with the "inner richness" of Della and Jim's love for each other, O. Henry throws in lots of little details to make their external circumstances about as drab and uninteresting as can be. There's the flat itself, with its malfunctioning mailbox, dead doorbell, old red carpet, and cheap mirror equivalent. There's the scene out the window: a "gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard". There's Della's "old brown jacket" and "old brown hat", and Jim, with his worn overcoat and gloveless hands. This imagery is created between the rich, warm, inner world of love and affection which Della and Jim create, and the gray, ugly, outer world of money and work and miserly, hair-buying business owners. Their love transforms their flat from a particularly drab part of that dreary world into a