"After their audience with the king they set out. And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was. They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh." -- Matthew 2:9-11
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| Source: Amazon.com |
About
the Author
William Sydney Porter was born on September 11, 1862, in Greensboro, North Carolina. He studied for a short time before clerking in an uncle's pharmacy. At the age of 20, Porter moved to Texas, first working as a rancher and later as a bank teller. In 1887, he married and began to write freelance sketches. A few years later he founded the Rolling Stone, a humorous weekly. When this failed, he became a reporter and columnist on the Houston Post.
In 1896, Porter was charged for embezzling bank funds, however, it was a result of technical mismanagement. He fled to a reporting job in New Orleans, and then to Honduras. When he received news of his wife's illness, he returned to Texas. After her death, Porter was imprisoned in Columbus, Ohio for three years.
In 1902, he was released from prison and moved to New York City, the setting for many of his literary works and where he lived for the rest of his life. Writing under the pen name O. Henry, he plotted many short stories, but never published novel-length narratives. He wrote in a dry, humorous style, and frequently used coincidences and surprise endings to underline ironies. Even after his death on June 5, 1910, O. Henry's shorts stories have been collected over the years and remain sources of literary entertainment.
Summary
of the Short Story
Della Dillingham Young has $1.87 to buy a gift for her beloved husband, Jim. With tomorrow being Christmas Day, Della cries on the couch. The narrator tells the reader that the couple are poor and live in a flat with a malfunctioning mailbox, a dead doorbell, a worn red carpet, and a cheap mirror. Outside the window is a "gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard." However, Jim and Della truly love each other.
Once Della has recovered herself, she goes to the mirror to let down her hair and examine it. The couple has two prized possessions. The first is Della's beautiful, brown, knee-length hair described to be so gorgeous that it would make the Queen of Sheba envious. The second is Jim's gold pocket watch, a family heirloom that would have been the envy of King Solomon. Upon examining her hair, Della ties it up, sheds a tear, and puts on her "old brown jacket" and "old brown hat" to head out into the cold weather. She goes to a hair goods shop run by the stingy Madame Sofronie to whom she sells her hair for twenty dollars.
Now with $21.87, Della finds Jim the perfect present: an elegant platinum fob chain for his watch. As it costs only $21.00, she buys it. Excited by her gift, Della returns home and tries to curl her now-short hair. She is convinced Jim will disapprove of it, but she did what she had to do to get him a good Christmas gift. When she fixes her hair, she prepares coffee and dinner.
At 7 o'clock, Jim comes home in his worn overcoat and with his gloveless hands. He finds Della waiting by the door and stares fixedly at her, unable to understand that her hair is gone. Della cannot quite understand what his reaction means.
After a little while, Jim snaps out of it and gives Della her present, explaining that his reaction will make sense when she opens it. Della opens it and cries out in joy, only to burst into tears immediately afterward. Jim has given her the set of fancy combs she has wanted for a long time, only now her hair is too short for her to use them. Jim comforts Della out of her sobs. Once she has recovered, she gives him the fob chain. Jim smiles, and falling back on the couch, reveals that he sold his watch to buy Della's combs. He recommends they put away their presents and have dinner. As they do so, the narrator ends the story by proclaiming Della and Jim to be as wise as the magi who brought gifts to Jesus and invented the art of giving Christmas presents. "They are the magi."
Love🧑🏻❤️👩🏽
The text is the story of a poor, young couple whose love for each other is the most important thing in their lives. So great is their love that they sacrifice their most valuable possessions to buy Christmas gifts for each other. The warm home they make together contrasts with the drabness of their poverty and the dreary world outside. Their love is boundless, although Della worries about how her sacrifice will affect her husband because of how it affects her looks. Regardless, the reader is taught that one only needs love to be happy (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008).
💇🏽♀️🔗Sacrifice⌚🪮
Jim and Della give up their most precious possessions to buy Christmas gifts for each other. The short story is all about sacrifice. Della goes through the process of sacrificing, only to discover that her husband has done the same thing. The narrator assures the reader that in their willingness to give up all they have, they have proven themselves the wisest of all gift-givers (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008).
Wealth💵
In many ways, O. Henry's Christmas story is about what it means for something to be valuable. Does the value of an object lie in how much it costs? Or are there other things more valuable than money? The couple are very poor and yet it is their love for each other that makes them very rich. It is that love which motivates them to give up the only things of monetary (or personal) value they have to buy presents for each other. Their poverty enables them to appreciate what really matters (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008).
Symbols
Biblical Imagery⛪
There are three Biblical allusions in the short story.
The first two relate to Jim's and Della's prized possessions. Della's hair is said to make the Queen of Sheba green with envy and Jim's watch would have made King Solomon envious. Both monarchs were famous figures in the Old Testament. In the last paragraph, the narrator compares Jim and Della to the wise men or magi who, per the New Testament, delivered gifts to Jesus on the first Christmas Day.
All three Biblical figures are royal and rich. The Queen of Sheba and King Solomon were both powerful monarchs well-known for their wealth and grandness. The magi, meanwhile, brought Jesus three expensive gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The comparison of Jim's and Della's possessions to those of the Biblical figures brings out how precious those two items are to their owners; to Jim and Della they are treasures which they give away. By mentioning the two monarchs and the magi, O. Henry contrasts their riches and Jim and Della's poverty.
The short story wants the reader to think about what it means to be truly rich. Because they love each other, Jim and Della are as rich as Solomon, the Queen of Sheba, and the magi. In the concluding paragraph, the narrator claims the couple to be just as wise as the magi.
The Biblical imagery also makes the story like a parable. By invoking the Bible, O. Henry makes The Gift of the Magi nostalgic and moralistic (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008).
Drabness🏚️
To contrast with the internal richness of Della and Jim's love for each other, O. Henry throws into details to make their external circumstances about as drab and meagre as can be.
There is the shabby apartment, the cold weather, and the couple's worn clothes. All this imagery creates a contrast 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 home (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008).
The True Meaning of Christmas👼🏿👼🏾👼🏽👼🏻👼🏼
O. Henry first published The Gift of the Magi in The New York Sunday World on December 10, 1905. It has since been adapted into and parodied in films, television programmes, songs, and plays. Both the plot and twist-ending are well-known and the story itself has been used to teach about dramatic irony. Regardless which adaptation or parody someone is familiar with, The Gift of the Magi shows what Christmas is all about.
December 25th marks the most wonderful time of the year, but people must remember and live up to the very special lesson Linus Van Pelt told to Charlie Brown. Love is the most precious thing people should give each other, and to do that, they must not save it all for Christmas Day.
References
- Biography.com Editors. (2014, April 3). William Sydney Porter Biography. Biography. http://www.biography.com/people/william-sydney-porter-9542046
- Dion, C. (2015, October 30). Don't Save It All for Christmas Day [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdRncshZ4V
- Henry, O. (1905). Gift of the Magi, The. The New York Sunday World.
- Melendez, B. (Director). (1965). Charlie Brown Christmas, A [Film]. Melendez Productions.
- Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, November 11). The Gift of the Magi. Shmoop. http://www.shmoop.com/gift-of-the-magi/
- Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, November 11). The Gift of the Magi Summary. Shmoop. http://www.shmoop.com/gift-of-the-magi/summary.html
- Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, November 11). The Gift of the Magi Analysis. Shmoop. http://www.shmoop.com/gift-of-the-magi/symbolism-imagery.html
- Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, November 11). The Gift of the Magi Themes. Shmoop. http://www.shmoop.com/gift-of-the-magi/themes.html
