Short Story Analysis
The Gift of the
Magi by O. Henry’s
by Lulu Aundhia A.
The Gift of the
Magi is a short story by O.
Henry. William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910) who better
known as O. Henry was an American short story writer. He is one of famous
writer and his stories are known for their surprise endings. O. Henry’s short
stories are known for their wit, wordplay, warm, characterization, and clear
twist endings. One of his interesting story is The Gift of the Magi that I have already read several weeks ago in
prose class. Therefore, I chose this story as my final exam paper for prose
subject. In this paper, I would like to explain all of the elements in this
short story and those elements are the brief plot, point of view,
characterization, settings, and theme.
Plot (Exposition, Complication, Rising Action,
Climax, Falling Action, Resolution)
In The Gift of the Magi’s story, the exposition happens when the main
character is introduced. This short story tells about the life of young couple
married but living with a little money. In the story, there was a woman named
Della and she has a husband named Jim. In the beginning, she was counting her
money and she realized that it was not enough to buy a present for Jim while in
the next day is Christmas. She was sad and crying that she still did not know
what to do. All she wanted is to buy her husband a present.
After
exposition, the story goes to complication
which we can see the sad woman that she could not buy her Jim a valuable
present. She only had one dollar and eighty seven cents and it was not enough
to buy Jim a chain watch. She had saved pennies for months and all she got only
a little.
Then,
the story goes to rising action. It
happens when Della was in a deep confusion about what she could do. She cried
for a while but then she had an idea but she had to take the risk. The story
told that those two character have their own valuable things. Della had her long
brown hair and Jim had his gold watch. The
James Dillingham Youngs were very proud of two things which they owned. One
thing was Jim’s gold watch. It had once belonged to his father. And, long ago,
it had belonged to his father’s father. The other thing was Della’s hair (Page 2).
Because Della had an extremely long brown hair, she went to any story that
would buy her hair. While she went to the store, she read a sign which said “Mrs. Sofronie. Hair Articles of all Kinds.” (Page 3) Then she met a woman named
Madame Sofronie and asked her if she wanted to buy her long brown hair. Then,
Madame Sofronie is looking at her hair and soon told Della that it was worth
for $20. “Twenty dollars,” said Mrs.
Sofronie, lifting the hair to feel its weight (Page 3). Della agreed and
got the money. She went to the store directly and found the right thing to be
the Christmas present for Jim. It was a platinum chain and she thought it would
be great for Jim’s watch. The chain reflects the Jim’s character that is
simplicity and quietness. Della bought the chain for $21 and got back home with
her last money that is 87 cents.
After
rising action, it lead to the climax
of the story. The climax of the story happens when Jim went back to home from
his work. Then he saw Della’s hair cut off and he was just stand at his place
with an empty feeling. His eyes looked
strangely at Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not
understand. It filled her with fear. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor anything
she had been ready for. He simply looked at her with that strange expression on
his face (Page 4). Della cried and told him that she cut it off and sold it
to buy him a Christmas present.
The
climax goes down to the falling action.
The falling action in this story happens when Jim took out of something from
his coat and he spoke to Della while they would have a dinner. He seemed
alright to know the fact that his Della’s short hair was cut off. Then he asked
Della to open the package that he brought it to Della and it as the thing why
Jim was showing strange expression at the first time when he saw Della. He
hoped Della understand it. The magi
brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them. My meaning will be
explained soon (Page 5). Della opened the package and suddenly she cried.
It was a set of comb with jeweled rims. White
fingers pulled off the paper. And then a cry of joy; and then a change to
tears. For there lay The Combs—the combs that Della had seen in a shop window
and loved for a long time. Beautiful combs, with jewels, perfect for her
beautiful hair (Page 5). It was something that she had dreamed for long
time and now it was hers but her hair was gone. After that, Della gave Jim the chain the she
bought and asked Jim to try it on his watch. Jim instead of doing that, he went
on a couch and smiled.
The
end of this story goes to resolution. The ending of this story can be seen that
they were happy in the end. Jim finally told his wife to put the gifts away for
a while and stated that they were too nice to be just a present. He told Della
that he had sold his gold watch to buy that set of comb for Della. They know
each other’s at the end that their present are the sacrifice of their own
valuable things. They are having dinner together then. “Della,” said he, “let’s put our Christmas gifts away and keep them
a while. They’re too nice to use now. I sold the
watch to get the money to buy the combs. And now I think we should have our
dinner.” (Page 6).
Point of View
The narrator’s
point of view in The Gift of the Magi is a non-participant. It uses the limited
omniscience third person point of view. Because the narrator tells the story by
using the pronoun she, he, and it and names all the characters and other things
in the story. It is called limited omniscience because the narrator only knows
all about the major characters they are Della and Jim. The narrator explained
about the physical appearance of Della and Jim and also the feeling of those
two characters but not for the minor character, Madame Sofronie.
Characterization
In The Gift of the Magi, there are major
characters and minor character. Della and Jim is the major characters. Della is
considered as the main character since she is the one who appears from beginning
till the end of the story. The beginning of the story is telling about the
Della’s confusion to buy Christmas gift for Jim her husband until she
sacrificed her long hair to buy a right present. Meanwhile, Jim can also be the
major character as he is a person who has a relationship with Della as a young
couple. Jim made the interaction with Della that created a good and interesting
flow of the whole story. Besides those two major characters, there is one minor
character. That is Madame Sofronie who played as the woman who buys Della’s
hair for $20. She is minor character buy play an important role for the plot of
the story. She is become the minor character because she only appeared in the
middle of the story.
There are three kinds of characters
in this story those are flat, static, dynamic and stock character. Della is the
dynamic character since her physical appearance changed in the end of the story
because her hair was cut off. In the beginning it described that she had a long
brown hair looked like waterfall but in the middle she cut off her hair to be
sold that make the reason why in the end she had short hair. Della also be a
flat character since her way to interact with other characters through the
whole story tends to be the same from beginning until the end. Next, Jim is a
flat and static character. Because Jim’s way of talking remains the same since
he only appeared in the end of the story. Jim’s existence at the beginning only
told by the narrator’s view. He is static character because his physical
appearance did not change from the beginning until the end. Last, is stock
character which is Madame Sofronie. She is stock character since she act as the
only complement character.
Settings (Place and Time)
Setting is where
the story takes place and when the story happens. In The Gift of the Magi, the
story takes place mostly at the
young couple’s house. Other places are Madame Sofronie’s store and the store
where Della bought a chain for the Jim’s present. When Della was counting her
money at the beginning, it took place at the couple’s house. She had put it aside, one cent and then
another and then another, in her careful buying of meat and other food. Della
counted it three times (Page 1). Next, it took place at Madame Sofronie’s
store when Della decided to cut off her hair and sold it. Up to the second floor Della ran, and stopped to get her breath. Mrs.
Sofronie, large, too white, cold-eyed, looked at her (Page 3). Last it took
place at the store where Della bought chain for Jim’s present. She found it at last. It surely had been
made for Jim and no one else (Page 3).
The next setting
is the time setting. The time
setting is considered to be in a Christmas Eve since it was explained that
Della confused what to buy as Jim’s present on the following day. That was all. She had put it aside, one cent
and then another and then another, in her careful buying of meat and other
food. Della counted it three times. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the
next day would be Christmas (Page 1).
Theme
Theme is the
central idea or ideas explored by a literary work. The Gift of the Magi has the
theme of sacrifice sometimes can be
aimless. Why I choose this as the theme of the story, because the story
told that since Della sacrifice her hair by cutting off them to buy a chain for
Jim’s watch became aimless. In the end, Jim told Della that he had sold his
precious thing that is his gold watch to buy her a set of comb with jewelry. Unfortunately,
Della’s hair was very short in the end and Jim’s watch was gone also, so in
conclusion their sacrifice does not make any good result.
Works Cited
Henry, O. The Gift of the Magi. 1905
Sarashita. 2014. A Critical Analysis of
O’ Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi”. <
https://english.binus.ac.id/2014/11/07/a-critical-analysis-of-o-henrys-the-gift-of-the-magi/>
accessed 21 June
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