Gift Of The Magi Irony

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In the short story “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry tells a story of the life of a poor couple and their struggle during the Christmas holiday. It is about two characters named Jim and Della who sacrifice their most important items to get each other Christmas gifts. Della sells her own beautiful brown long hair. Jim sells his fine watch that had been passed down throughout his family. O. Henry uses many different types of literary devices to state the theme of the story and uses devices such as irony and symbolism to make it apparent. The theme is that the power of love causes one to be selfless in order to bring joy to the life of their true love this makes them the magi. Irony is a technique that involves surprising, interesting, or amusing contradictions or contrasts (Devices 2). For example O.Henry uses verbal irony when he states “There was nothing to do but fall on the bed …show more content…

The sad part is that Della had already cut off her hair and wasn’t able to use the combs any more. The comb symbolises the love the Jim has for Della and that he will give up even the thing that most matters to him, just to make her happy. The chain represents the love that Della has for Jim. These two things were the most important things to them up they wanted to show that they cared for each other. Della is scared when she cuts her hair and isn’t comfortable, but she does it to make Jim happy and be able to get him his gift. Even though Jim sold his watch to get Della her combs he doesn’t regret selling his watch because he just want to make della happy. In the story it’s show that Jim really does have love for her when he says, “ I want you to understand me, Dell, Nothing like a hair cut could make me love you any less”. This shows that Jim will always love Della a lot no matter what are the consequences. Jim got Della to combs to make her happy because those are the one she’s always

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