The Gift Of The Magi Comparative 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.

Not only do “The Gift of the Magi” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” both show the theme that the best gifts are received through actions, they also both develop the theme through symbolism. In the story, “The Gift of the Magi”, when Della was explaining to James as to why she cut her hair, Della clarifies, “‘Maybe the hairs of my head can be counted,’ she said, ‘but no one could ever count my love for you.’” (O. Henry, 5) This shows that Della’s hair symbolizes her love for James, and how it meant more to her than her most valued possession. By stating, “‘no one could ever count my love for you,’” demonstrates that even though their love cannot be seen, their love was eternal and her love will never succumb to anything else, especially

In "The gift of the Magi" and "Bert and Ernie's Christmas", both show various similarities and differences. The first similarity was they both were short on money and on time, causing them to trade their treasured possessions for money in order to buy a gift for their loved one. One difference in " The gift of the Magi" there status was husband and wife, while in "Bert and Ernie's Christmas" they were just friends. Despite their different relationship status, in both stories they gave up their prized possessions for each other, not knowing they needed their belongings in order for them to properly use the gifts they had received. As an example in "The gift of the Magi" the wife, Della, sacrificed her hair to buy her husband a

Both Guy de Maupassant and O. Henry, the authors of “The Necklace” and “The Gift of the Magi”, are considered two of the best short story writers to have ever lived, and they both use irony to develop a complex theme in their stories. They both deal with young, poor couples who face certain trials, and are surprised by an unexpected, ironic event – although in different ways. In both of these stories, the authors create suspense and humor to create an enjoyable story. In both stories; there are several main themes including wealth, sacrifice, pride, and love; that can be seen in both “The Gift of the Magi” and “The Necklace.” One of the most noticeable pieces in both stories is the amount of wealth, or lack of wealth, that the couples have. The authors set the characters in an uncomfortable, drab environment. This can be seen in “The Gift of the Magi,” in lines 11-13 as, “a furnished flat at $8 per week (…) did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad” (Henry, 11-13), and in “The Necklace” in lines 13-15 as, “shabbiness of her apartment, the dinginess of the walls, the worn out appearance of the chairs, and the ugliness of the draperies” (Maupassant, 13-15). The Youngs are a low working class couple, while the Loisels are part of the middle class before the they lose the necklace. Altogether, it is clear that in

They ended up happy. As for Della and Jim, when she cut her hair and Jim sold his watch, they never came back to them and they were left with their presents. The differences between the Gift of the Magi and Sesame Street are important because they show us how thus situation can happen to different people and how you can end up with a different

“The Gift of the Magi” is a short story by O. Henry that entails the story of Jim and Della, a husband and wife of a struggling middle class family. In said story, Della sells her long beautiful hair for money to buy a nice band for her husband’s watch. After Della presents Jim with his gift, Jim tells Della he no longer has his watch due to the fact he sold it so he would be able to buy a nice set of combs for Della’s long hair that is no more. This story of love and selflessness is complemented by the author’s style of writing. Specifically, O. Henry use of figurative language and imagery in “The Gift of the Magi” emphasizes ideas and enhances the reader’s understanding of the story.

They showed they would do anything for each other no matter what the situation was or what they had to do to get there. “ I sold my watch to get your Combs” (157). Jim sacrifice a lot he sold his grandfather's watch just for Della's gift. In the story the necklace Jim and Della both sacrificial towards each other. Della was sacrificial towards Jim. Della says “please, God, make him still think I am still pretty”(156) Della sacrifice all of her long beautiful hairto get money for Jim christmas gift. Jim and Della sacrificed many valuable things in life for each

In “The Gift of the Magi”, Della’s highest priority is her love for Jim. She couldn’t bear to let Christmas pass without giving her husband, Jim, a present. She has “only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim” (Henry). Because he is so special, she spends many hours thinking of “something just a little bit near to being worth of the honor of being owned by Jim” (Henry). Della decides that she would

So that she could get Jim a Christmas gift. And what about Mathidle’s husband, he gave up the money that he was saving to buy himself a new gun. There is pride found in both stories. Della and Jim in The Gift of Magi, could have simply talked to each other and admit that they just did not have the money to get each other a gift and just made dinner and enjoyed each other. As for

“The Necklace” and “The Gift of the Magi” are both stories with ironic endings. In “The Necklace,” Mathilde is a lady dealing with poverty. She loses a necklace that a friend let her borrow, but she ends up losing it. She has to come up with a way to afford the necklace back. In “The Gift of the Magi,” Della is also dealing with poverty and is upset about not having the money to afford her husband a christmas gift. Mathilde and Della face their challenges with poverty by no communication, fashion, and value.

In terms of personality they are total opposites of each other. Della from The Gift of the Magi is as selfless and adoring wife who treasures her husband and yet Mathilde from The Necklace does not care about anyone’s emotions and wishes except her own. Both of these women complain about their financial position, but Della complains about money only because she want to get a present for Jim. The narrator proves this by saying, “Only one dollar and eighty-seven cents to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim” (Henry 1906). Contrarily, Mathilde takes part in self-indulgence in light of the fact that she can't bear the cost of things for herself: the narrator states this, “She grieved incessantly, feeling that she had been born for all the little niceties and luxuries of living” (Maupassant 1884). After Della sells her hair she obtains twenty dollars to purchase Jim's Present, she is ecstatic and fulfilled because now she can buy a Christmas present for Jim. But, when Monsieur Loisel tells Mathilde that they are invited to a high class party, she demonstrates no gratitude; instead, she whines that she doesn't have anything to wear. Monsieur Loisel selflessly gives the money he had kept aside for his rifle to his wife to spend on the dress. Mathilde communicates no thankfulness; rather, she later cries that she has no jewelry to wear with the dress. It is clear in The Necklace that Mathilde places material

The characters in the stories “Gift of The Magi” and “The Diamond Necklace” have some similarities and differences. In both stories, the characters show similarities when they give up what they want or need the most. On the other hand, the characters show differences because, Della is selfless, whereas Mathilde is selfish. They both learned lessons in these stories. They realized that you don’t need expensive things to be happy.

In this story the gift of Magi, Della the girl is just thinking about what she should get jim for christmas. But she is just so sad because it’s christmas eve and she only has a dollar and 87 cents to buy him a gift. That just shows how much she loves him because she is so sad about how she can’t give jim what he deserves. So she decides to still go out into town and look for a present.

A major theme in the story " The Gift of the Magi" is sacrifice. Della states that her husbands income dropped by 10$. The whole reason Della can't afford a big gift in the beginning is because of their income loss. So therefore she saves money to try and get her husband a great gift for Christmas but she couldn't save much, so then she sells her hair for 20$ to buy her husband a platinum fob chain because in the end she states that she wouldn't be able to live with herself if she didn't get him anything for Christmas. On the other hand, she is nervous to see what her husband will think because of her hair cut. He gets home and has a blank look on his face and Della thinks its because of the way it turned out. He then explains to her that his

Irony flooded "The Gift of the Magi." Della placed emphasis on acquiring a worthy present for Jim by Christmas day, as did Jim. The couple decided to sell their prized possessions in secrecy, just to obtain nice presents for each other. The ironic part comes into play when we find out that Della decided to sell her majestic hair to purchase Jim a new platinum chain for his prized gold watch. Well, Jim sold his prized possession to purchase Bella the comb set she had longed for. Without hair to comb and a watch to be carried by a platinum chain, the gifts were deemed unusable until the future. Without the plot twist, this story would lack necessary substance and irony. Although, the plot twist is important, it solely does not make the entire