The Gift of the Magi

“The Gift of the Magi” is told primarily from the perspective of a third-person limited narrator. The story follows Della throughout the day, and her thoughts are revealed to us in a way that Jim’s are not. While Della and Jim are the only characters in the story, at times the narrator’s intrusive voice makes it seem there’s a third character. Instead of simply narrating the events as they unfold in the story, the narrator occasionally speaks directly to the reader. The first time the narrator intrudes is at the beginning of the story. Della is crying on the bed because she can’t afford to buy Jim a Christmas present. The narrator takes that moment to describe the small apartment: “While the lady of the home is slowly growing quieter, we can look at the home. Furnished rooms at a cost of $8 a week. There is little more to say about it” (1). The narrator intrudes again when Jim and Della kiss. The narrator states: “Jim put his arms around his Della. For ten seconds let us look in another direction” (5). The intrusive narrator also speaks at the end of the story and shares with us the main lesson we should learn:

And here I have told you the story of two children who were not wise. Each sold the most valuable thing he owned in order to buy a gift for the other. But let me speak a last word to the wise of these days: Of all who give gifts, these two were the most wise. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are the most wise. Everywhere they are the wise ones. They are the magi (6).

Dramatic irony, a literary device whereby the reader understands a character’s actions more fully than the character, is at the heart of “The Gift of the Magi.” Della and Jim each have a prized possession. For Della, it’s her long, luxurious hair. For Jim, it’s his grandfather’s gold watch. At the start of the story, Della and Jim don’t have money to buy each other the gifts they want to buy. The story follows Della through her day as she cuts her hair to buy Jim a gold chain for his watch. Jim doesn’t know what the reader does about Della’s choice, and so he buys her a present she cannot use. When Jim gets home, he is shocked. Initially, Della thinks it’s just the change in her appearance that surprises him. However, he reaches into his pocket and throws a package onto the table. Della unwraps it to find a beautiful set of hair combs that she’d seen in a store window but knew she could never afford. Ironically, she had cut her hair to buy Jim’s gift, making Jim’s gift useless. She then hands Jim the gold chain that she bought with the money made from selling her hair. He reveals that he sold his watch to buy the combs for Della. Both Jim and Della sold their prized possessions to buy a gift that enhanced the other’s prized possessions, making their sacrifices pointless.