Fate often tests us to see if we can simple people, but so proud, to sacrifice something important for the sake of another person? They don’t always cope with this, but it still happens when people are sincere with each other.
Every person has something that is very important to him. After all, fate endowed any person with something beautiful and precious, even if it took away everything else in return.
There was a family living on its own. The couple lived poorly, but happily. They didn't have children, but that's not the point. The husband, Jim, and Della, his wife, were very nice and happy people. Despite any obstacles, they always loved each other and dreamed of bringing each other joy as often as possible. Previously, they were not allowed funds for this. But now, this Christmas, they decided to secretly give gifts to each other. For this, we had to sacrifice the most precious thing that everyone had.
Della cut her hair and with the money she received for her beautiful hair bought her husband the watch chain he had dreamed of. He bought her a comb for the watch he sold. When the holiday arrived, they suddenly discovered that their gifts were simply useless, but this did not stop them from enjoying this evening and the gifts, even if they were a little unnecessary. But, who knows, maybe this is all for the time being? The hair can grow back, and be no less beautiful than it was, and the chain can appear again, how will the money appear? After all, nothing is impossible, just not everyone knows it.
Now, having lost everything beautiful and precious that they had, they pleased each other for a moment, although these things were unnecessary. On the one hand, it looks ridiculous. But, if you look closely, you can see sincere loving friend a friend of the heart who sacrificed everything, albeit small, but very precious for the sake of another.
Read a detailed summary of O. Henry's “The Gift of the Magi”
Della returned home upset. Tomorrow is Christmas, the girl wanted to do good gift to her husband Jim, but she didn't have enough money.
For many months, Della tried to save money for a gift, but their expenses were high, so the accumulated amount was too small. Della lay down on the old couch and burst into tears. A fragile young girl dreamed of giving some rare thing. She wanted this item to be a worthy gift for her precious husband.
Della and her husband rented an apartment; the furnishings of the apartment indicated that they lived in poverty. The girl walked up to the old dressing table and looked in the mirror. She let loose her luxurious long hair. It should be noted that in their married couple there were two valuable treasures. One of them was Jim's gold watch, which previously belonged to his grandfather and then to his father. And the second treasure and pride was Della’s gorgeous hair. They were below the knees and flowed like a chestnut waterfall.
Della looked at her hair again, her eyes filled with tears, and ran out into the street. She saw the right sign and entered the building. There, Della sold her hair.
The girl spent the next hours looking for a gift for her husband. She went around a bunch of stores and finally found a decent one suitable thing. It was a platinum chain for his pocket watch.
Arriving home, the girl began to worry how her husband would take the news that she had cut her hair. Della took the curling iron, and within an hour her head was covered in small curls. The girl examined herself critically; she looked like a boy who ran away from class.
The girl began to wait impatiently for her husband, she made coffee and put the frying pan on the stove.
Della sat down on the edge of the table, clutching the chain in her hand. Soon her husband's footsteps were heard on the stairs. The girl turned pale and, as usual, turned to God with a request to make sure that her Jim did not dislike her.
The young man walked through the door and froze on the threshold. He looked at his wife without taking his eyes off. There was no reproach or surprise in his eyes. Della was scared, she went up to her husband and asked him not to be upset about her hair. She assured him that they would grow back quickly. The girl told Jim that she sold her long, beautiful hair in order to buy him a wonderful gift.
Jim was in a daze, he asked several times about her cropped hair. Della asked him not to be upset and to enjoy the upcoming holiday.
The husband came up and hugged her, then he took a small package from his coat pocket and placed it on the table.
He apologized and said that her hairstyle could not be an obstacle to their love. He asked the girl to unwrap the package so that she could understand why he had such a reaction.
Della quickly unwrapped the package and was delighted, but it was immediately replaced by a different mood, and tears rolled down. The bundle contained tortoiseshell combs with shiny pebbles, which she had dreamed of for so long and had been eyeing for a long time in the store. Her heart sank, she finally became the owner of these wonderful combs, but she no longer had braids, and she could not use them.
She opened her hand, and her gift appeared on her palm - a platinum chain. She began to talk about how long she had been looking for a suitable gift and asked her husband to give her a watch. But it turned out that Jim sold his watch to buy her combs.
The Magi are wise people who introduced the fashion of giving gifts. So, this young married couple are the Magi. The husband and wife did not spare their treasures in order to give joy to each other.
Name: Gifts of the Magi
Genre: Novella
Duration: 8min 35sec
Annotation:
Mr. James Dollingham (Jim) and his wife Della live in a modest apartment. They have only two treasures - the subject of their common pride: Della’s beautiful long hair, flowing almost to her knees, and Jim’s gold watch, which was inherited from his father, and from his father.
On Christmas Eve, Della, who has only one dollar and eighty-seven cents in her pocket, and in despair that she cannot buy a gift for Jim with these pennies, sells her hair for twenty dollars. And she uses it to buy a platinum chain for her husband’s watch. Overjoyed, Della rushes home and prepares a pork chop for the holiday dinner.
At seven o'clock Della sits at the table by the door, waiting for her husband. Jim returns unusually late and immediately freezes at the sight of Della, and she, in turn, only hopes that without her gorgeous curls she is still beautiful for her husband. Della explains to Jim that she sold her hair to buy a gift for him. Jim gives her the gift he bought for her. And it's a set of combs, useless now that her hair is short. Della shows Jim the chain she bought for him, to which Jim reveals that he sold his watch to buy combs for her. Even though they can no longer use the things they gave each other, they realize how far they are willing to go to show their love and how priceless their feelings are.
The story ends with the narrator comparing their sacrificial gifts in the name of love to those given by the Magi in the Bible.
O. Henry - Gifts of the Magi. Listen summary online.
On Christmas Eve, Della counts the money she has three times: one dollar and eighty-seven cents, sixty of which are collected at one cent and bargained with food sellers (grocer, greengrocer, butcher). The girl gets upset, sits down on an old couch and starts crying.
The author shows the setting of the story - a furnished apartment for eight dollars. From the inscription on the door card the reader recognizes the name of the tenant of the premises: "Mr. James Dillingham Young." At one time the latter received thirty dollars a week. Now his income has been reduced to twenty dollars, but this does not sadden him, because every day he comes home, where he is greeted by the tender embrace of his wife, Della.
Having finished crying, the girl tidies herself up, looks out the window and thinks about what special thing she can give her Jim? Suddenly a thought strikes her. Della rushes to the mirror and unties her hair, which is one of the two main treasures in their house, along with Jim’s gold watch, which belonged to his father and grandfather. The girl looks at herself for a while, then picks up her hair, freezes for a minute and two or three tears fall from her eyes.
Della quickly runs downstairs. She sells her hair to Madame Sophronie for twenty dollars. The girl spends two hours looking for a gift for Jim. It becomes a platinum chain for a pocket watch.
At home, Della spends forty minutes curling her remaining hair and preparing dinner. Jim comes in and looks at his wife strangely. Della rushes to him and explains what happened to her hair, asks him not to worry, and promises that it will grow back quickly. Jim comes out of his daze and hugs the girl. He takes out a package from his coat pocket, in which Della finds real tortoiseshell combs - her old dream, displayed in one of the Broadway windows.
Della rejoices wildly, then cries, then consoles herself and Jim with the fact that her hair grows very quickly. She hands her husband the chain and asks him to give her the watch to see how it looks together. Instead of complying with his wife's request, Jim lies down on the couch, smiles and says that the gifts they have received so far are too good for them: he sold his watch to buy Della tortoiseshell combs.
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1) Features of the genre of the work. The work of the American writer O. Henry “The Gift of the Magi” belongs to the short story genre.
2) Theme and problems of the story. All of O. Henry’s work is imbued with attention to the invisible “little” people, whose troubles and joys he so vividly and vividly portrayed in his works. He wants to pay attention to those genuine human values, which can always serve as support and consolation in the most difficult life situations. And then something surprising happens: the most seemingly deplorable endings of his short stories begin to be perceived as happy or, in any case, optimistic.
3) Ideological plan author. In O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi, the husband sells his watch to buy his young wife a set of hair combs. However, she will not be able to use the gift, since she sold her hair in order, in turn, to buy her husband a watch chain. But, alas, the gift will not be useful to him either, since he no longer has a watch. A sad and ridiculous story. And yet, when O. Henry says in the finale that “of all the givers, these two were the wisest,” we cannot but agree with him, for the true wisdom of the heroes, according to the author, is not in the “gifts of the Magi,” but in their love and selfless devotion to each other. The joy and warmth of human communication in the whole gamut of its manifestations - love and participation, self-denial, faithful, selfless friendship - these are the life guidelines that, according to O. Henry, can brighten up human existence and make it meaningful and happy.
How do you understand the meaning of the ending of the story: “But let it be said for the edification of the sages of our days that of all the donors these two were the wisest. Of all those who offer and receive gifts, only those like them are truly wise. Everywhere and everywhere. Are they the Magi? (explaining the meaning of the story's title)
4) Features of the plot of the work. O. Henry gives his touching story about the life of the poor the character of a literary mystery, and the reader does not know what the outcome of events will be.
How do Della and Jim live? (poor)
What two treasures does this young American family have? (Della's beautiful hair and Jim's gold watch)
5) Characteristics of the characters in the story.
The embodiment of the lyrical feeling in the story is female image Dells. The male image - Jim Jung - is the bearer of a certain author's thought: nobility and depth of feelings, loyalty, sincerity. It was precisely the intonation of Della’s speech (“But she immediately, nervously and in a hurry, began to pick them up again. Then, hesitating again, she stood motionless for a minute, and two or three tears fell on the shabby red carpet”), Jim’s description internal state character: identifies and records the most important features of his personality, helps to understand and present him as a person.
How did you dispose of your most valuables Della and Jim? How does this fact characterize the heroes? (Della and Jim sacrificed their most prized possessions to give a gift to their loved one)
6) Artistic Features works. The humor in the story reveals the inferiority of life, emphasizing, exaggerating, hyperbolizing it, making it tangible and concrete in the works. In O. Henry's work, humor is often associated with comic situations, which underlie many plots. They help the writer in debunking certain negative phenomena of reality. Resorting to parody and paradox, O. Henry reveals the unnatural essence of such phenomena and their incompatibility with the normal practice of human behavior. O. Henry's humor is unusually rich in shades, impetuous, whimsical, he keeps the author's speech as if under a current and does not allow the narrative to go along the predicted course. It is impossible to separate irony and humor from O. Henry’s narrative - this is his “element, natural environment his talent. O. Henry has an unsurpassed ability to see the comedy in life situations. It is this organic property that gives rise to such amazingly accurate comparisons: “Jim froze motionless at the door, like a setter smelling a quail,” “the gifts of the Magi.” One more distinctive feature the story is superior lyrical beginning over epic. The lyrical feeling is expressed simply, elegantly: “... I told you below not remarkable history about two stupid kids from an eight-dollar apartment who sacrificed their greatest treasures for each other in the most unfortunate way.”
A truly touching, at the same time sad and happy story of O. Henry “The Gift of the Magi” is one of the most popular and famous among his other stories.
Story Analysis
The title of the story is quite symbolic: the Magi were known for seeing in the sky eastern star, went with gifts to the newly born Jesus Christ. Since then, on Christmas Eve, people give each other gifts.
At first glance, “The Gifts of the Magi” is a story about gifts that spouses gave each other for a holiday, but if you look deeper, this story is about much more significant, one might say, priceless things.
The story “The Gifts of the Magi” is dedicated to pure love, which is not alien to true self-sacrifice.
Jim and Della are a married couple who are forced to live in poverty. Despite this, the husband and wife truly love each other and on Christmas Eve desperately want to give each other good, quality gifts. O. Henry shows that in this family there are two valuable things: Della’s luxurious hair and Jim’s precious watch, which his father gave him.
Della has saved up a tiny, pitiful sum of one dollar and eighty-seven cents, and with these pennies she certainly will not be able to buy a beautiful gift for her husband. Therefore, she decides to sell her thick and beautiful hair, and cuts it so that she can buy her beloved husband a chain for his gold watch.
But when she gives Jim her thoughtful, gorgeous gift, Della realizes that her husband sold his prized watch to buy a tortoiseshell comb for her lovely hair. Jim, too, could not leave his beloved wife without a gift, and no matter how dear the memory of his father is to him, he decides to sell the only valuable thing he has in order to please Della.
Moral values of the main characters
Gifts that spouses purchased for each other can no longer be used by them, but this is not the most important thing. It is important to understand why this happened, because both heroes wanted to do everything possible to ensure that their lover was happy.
And it is with this plot that O. Henry reveals the true value of love, or rather its pricelessness and purity. After all, the point is not what gifts Jim and Della chose, what matters is what they did to please each other.
And their mutual sacrifice, mutual devotion has no monetary or any other price, true love their best gift, and besides her, they don’t need anything. After all, for each other they were not afraid to sell the last thing they had.
The most amazing thing is that O. Henry manages to reveal such a multifaceted and rather complex topic with simple, a short story, and filled with humor and amazing optimism.
His main characters are people who never lose heart, and despite the fact that they seemingly lost a lot by buying unnecessary gifts, they do not despair; on the contrary, Jim and Della did not lose anything important, because the most real and important thing they have there is their priceless love for each other.