The Gift of the Magi
O. Henry
O. Henry is a prolific American short story writer. His tales are filled with realistic details
and characterised by irony, narrative style, occasional sentimentality, and surprise twist
endings. The Gift of the Magi is one of his most celebrated works. It blends humour and
pathos while dealing with the lives of middle-class city people with sympathy and
understanding. It tells the story of a poor young couple who sacrifice their proudest
possessions in order to give each other Christmas presents. Their sacrifice confirms the
strength of the love they have for each other.
The story begins the day before Christmas with a young woman named Della sitting at home
counting her savings. The home she lives in with her husband, Jim, is a cheap, furnished
rental apartment. When they first moved in Jim was earning more money, but the couple has
fallen on hard times and now live in poverty. Della has been saving money over the past few
months by pinching pennies. She is sad and anxious because despite her efforts, she has not
saved one dollar eighty seven cents money. Della flops down on her couch and begins to cry
as she realizes she does not have enough money to buy Jim a Christmas present. She has been
dreaming for a long time to buy Jim a special present with her savings.
After she stops crying, Della freshens her up and looks out the window lost in thought. She
suddenly catches a glimpse of herself in a pier glass on the wall and gets an idea. James
Dillingham Youngs have two possessions in which they both took a mighty pride. One was
Jim’s gold watch that had been his father’s and his grandfather’s. The other was Della’s hair.
She lets down her long brown hair and looks like a cascade of brown waters. Della’s hair,
notable for its beauty, is her prized possession. She puts on her old coat and hat and visits a
shop that buys and sells hair.
The shopkeeper, Madame Sofronie is requested to buy Della’s hair, agrees to cut and buy
Della’s hair. Della spends the rest of the day going around the city looking for the perfect gift
for Jim. She wants to buy him a nice chain for his pride possession a gold watch, something
special and rare. Eventually, she finds the perfect platinum fob chain. It costs all the money
she got from selling her hair, plus most of her savings i.e. 21 dollars. Della goes home feeling
very excited to give Jim his present.
When Della reaches home, she tries to style her new haircut as best she can for forty minutes.
She worries that Jim will be angry as now she seems a truant schoolboy and will no longer
think she is pretty. When Jim sees Della has cut her hair, he gets a peculiar expression on his
face. With a convincing tone, Della goes to him and quickly explains that she sold her hair to
buy him a Christmas present. In response, Jim hugs her and tells her he loves her no matter
what her hair looks like. He then gives her a Christmas present: a set of jeweled tortoiseshell
combs she’d once admired in a shop window.
Della loves the present, but she bursts into tears when she realizes she is unable to use Jim’s
thoughtful gift. As Jim comforts her, she reassures him her hair will grow back quickly. She
then excitedly gives him the platinum watch chain. Jim laughs and reveals he sold his prized
watch to pay for the combs. The narrator concludes the story by praising the couple for their
selfless gifts of love, calling them even wiser than the three wise magi who brought gifts to
the baby Jesus on the first Christmas Eve.
