The Gift of the Magi
A poor young couple each secretly sells their greatest treasure to buy the other a Christmas gift, only to find their sacrifices have crossed in the most loving irony.
With only a dollar and change saved for Christmas, Della cuts and sells her beautiful long hair to buy a chain for her husband’s prized watch. What she does not know is that Jim has just sold that very watch to buy combs for her hair. Their gifts are now useless, yet their love has never been richer.
What happens
Della Dillingham Young has saved just one dollar and eighty-seven cents to buy a Christmas present for her husband Jim, and she weeps at how little it is. The couple is poor, but each possesses one prized treasure: Jim’s gold watch inherited from his father and grandfather, and Della’s gorgeous, knee-length hair. Determined to give Jim something worthy, Della sells her hair for twenty dollars and uses the money to buy a platinum chain for his watch. When Jim comes home and sees her shorn head, he is stunned. He then reveals his own gift: a set of beautiful combs Della had long admired, now useless without her hair. Della shows him the watch chain, only to learn that Jim sold his watch to buy the combs. Both gifts are now unusable, but the narrator declares that in their foolish sacrifices the couple are the wisest of all, like the Magi who gave the first Christmas gifts.
Timeline the story arc, beat by beat
- 1 One Dollar Eighty-Seven
On Christmas Eve Della counts her tiny savings and cries at how little she has for Jim’s gift.
- 2 Two Treasures
The narrator reveals the couple’s prized possessions: Jim’s heirloom watch and Della’s magnificent hair.
- 3 The Sacrifice
Della sells her hair to Madame Sofronie for twenty dollars to fund a worthy present.
- 4 The Perfect Chain
She finds a simple platinum fob chain fit for Jim’s watch and buys it joyfully.
- 5 Jim’s Return
Jim comes home and stares strangely at Della’s short hair, leaving her anxious.
- 6 The Combs
Jim gives Della the costly tortoiseshell combs she had longed for, now useless without her hair.
- 7 The Double Irony
Della reveals the chain, and Jim admits he sold his watch to buy the combs; the narrator calls them the Magi.
Characters and how they connect
Della
Protagonist
A loving young wife who sacrifices her beautiful hair to afford a Christmas gift for her husband.
Jim
Protagonist
Della’s devoted husband, who sells his cherished watch to buy combs for the hair she has cut.
Madame Sofronie
Minor
The hair-goods dealer who buys Della’s hair for twenty dollars.
The Narrator
Storyteller
A warm, knowing voice who frames the couple’s sacrifice as true wisdom in the spirit of the Magi.
Relationship map
- Dellaloving young wifeJim
- Jimdevoted husbandDella
- Dellasells her hair to herMadame Sofronie
- Jimsells his watch for her giftDella
- The Narratorpraises her as wiseDella
Themes what the story is really about
Selfless Sacrifice
Della and Jim each give up their most prized possession for the other, proving that love means putting the beloved first.
The True Value of Gifts
The story argues that the worth of a gift lies in the love and sacrifice behind it, not its usefulness or price.
Love Over Poverty
Material hardship cannot diminish the couple’s devotion; their poverty only makes their generosity shine brighter.
Wisdom in Foolishness
The narrator insists that the couple’s seemingly foolish sacrifices make them the wisest givers of all.
Symbols & motifs
Della’s Hair
Her cascading hair represents her beauty and her dearest possession, given freely as a token of love.
Jim’s Watch
The gold heirloom stands for family pride and Jim’s identity, surrendered without hesitation for Della.
The Magi
The wise men who brought the first Christmas gifts frame the couple as the truest gift-givers in spirit.
The Combs and Chain
The now-useless gifts symbolize that the act of loving sacrifice outweighs the objects themselves.
Recurring motifs
Counting and Money. Repeated tallies of pennies and dollars stress the couple’s poverty and the cost of their love.
Hair and Beauty. Attention to Della’s hair runs through the story as both her treasure and the price of her gift.
Christmas Giving. The holiday and its gifts thread through the tale, tying private sacrifice to the season’s meaning.
Conflicts
Person vs. Self
Della struggles with her vanity and her love, deciding to sacrifice her cherished hair for Jim’s sake.
Person vs. Society
The couple battles the poverty of their circumstances to express a love their budget cannot easily afford.
Person vs. Situation
Both face the cruel irony that their gifts arrive useless, and must find that their love survives the twist.
Literary devices
- Situational Irony
- Each spouse renders the other’s gift useless, the perfectly matched sacrifices forming the story’s famous twist.
- Foreshadowing
- The early emphasis on Jim’s watch and Della’s hair as their two treasures sets up the double sacrifice.
- Allusion
- The closing reference to the Magi connects the couple’s gifts to the wise men of the Nativity.
- Hyperbole
- Comparisons to the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon exaggerate the couple’s treasures to comic, tender effect.
- Direct Address
- The narrator speaks playfully to the reader, shaping the moral and softening the bittersweet ending.
Important quotes
“One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies.”
“Had the Queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty’s jewels and gifts.”
“I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs.”
“Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.”
The ending turns on a perfectly symmetrical irony. Della sold her hair to buy Jim a chain for his watch, while Jim sold his watch to buy Della combs for her hair. Each gift is now useless: there is no watch for the chain and no long hair for the combs. On the surface their sacrifices seem to cancel out and even seem foolish. But the narrator steps in to reinterpret the moment. By giving away their most precious possessions for each other, Della and Jim have demonstrated the purest form of love. The narrator compares them to the Magi, the wise men who gave the first Christmas gifts, and declares that of all gift-givers these two are the wisest. The point is that the value of their giving lies entirely in the love and sacrifice behind it, not in whether the presents can be used. The useless gifts become proof of a priceless devotion.
Common misreadings
MythThe story has a sad, tragic ending.
ActuallyThough the gifts are useless, the narrator frames the outcome as a triumph of love, calling the couple the wisest of all givers.
MythOnly Della makes a sacrifice.
ActuallyBoth spouses sacrifice equally: Della sells her hair and Jim sells his treasured watch, which creates the matching irony.
MythThe Magi are characters in the story.
ActuallyThe Magi appear only as an allusion in the final lines, a comparison the narrator uses to praise the couple’s giving.
Test yourself
1. What does Della sell to buy Jim’s gift?
Della sells her long, beautiful hair to Madame Sofronie for twenty dollars.
2. What gift does Jim buy for Della?
Jim buys the set of combs Della had admired, sold his watch to afford them.
3. Who does the narrator compare the couple to?
The closing lines call Della and Jim the wisest givers, like the Magi who gave the first gifts.
Della and Jim are a young married couple who are very poor but love each other deeply. For Christmas, Della wants to give Jim something special, so she sells her long, beautiful hair to buy a chain for his treasured gold watch. When Jim comes home, he is shocked, because he sold his watch to buy her a set of pretty combs for her hair. Now neither gift can be used, but the story says that giving up what they loved most for each other makes them the wisest and most loving gift-givers of all, just like the wise men in the Christmas story.
Ask the story
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Compare & connect the story universe
The Story of an Hour
Both pack a powerful emotional reversal into a very short story built around marriage and a sudden turn.
Desiree’s Baby
Each hinges on a final twist that reframes everything the reader thought about the couple’s situation.
A Rose for Emily
Both withhold a key fact until the end, delivering meaning through a closing revelation.
To Build a Fire
Both follow a single tightly focused episode whose outcome turns on a decisive twist of circumstance.
Adaptation. The Gift of the Magi (segment of O. Henry’s Full House) (1952, Film).
Key questions students ask
- What is the irony in The Gift of the Magi?
- What is the main theme of The Gift of the Magi?
- Why does Della sell her hair in The Gift of the Magi?
- Who are the Magi in The Gift of the Magi?
- What gifts do Della and Jim buy each other?
- What is the moral of The Gift of the Magi?
Analysis is original StoryBites commentary. Quotations are from O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi (1905), which is in the public domain.