Gift of the Magi Character Analysis

Noah Johnson

Dr. Powell

ENC 1102

12 March 2014

“The Gift of the Magi” Character Analysis

“The Gift of the Magi” begins with the mistress of the home counting her meager amount of savings on Christmas Eve. She has been saving every superfluous penny that has evaded being spent towards the necessities of shelter, food, and water. Months of saving have boiled down to a loose pile of change that sluggishly and painfully adds up to a not-so-grand grand total of one dollar and eighty-seven cents. There was so much scraping and saving that never really accumulated into what could be considered much of a monetary triumph.

Our mistress, Mrs. James Dillingham Young, cannot bare the thought of her beloved Jim not getting a Christmas present that she believes he has worked hard for and deserves without question. Our mistress, “Della”, now turns to a last chance drastic measure in order to combat what she considers a most unfortunate situation at hand. Known as having long beautiful hair that even the most powerful and beautiful queens through the ages would envy, Della plans to sell her opulent hair for Christmas present money. Upon entering the hair goods store, Della does not even negotiate the initial price offer for her hair and cuts it off immediately without hesitation or question. Her forfeited hair barely yields enough money to buy Jim an extravagant platinum chain for his sole heirloom and prized possession: the pocket watch that was worn by both his father and his grandfather. Soon after returning home with the lavish platinum watch chain but without her splendid hair that once hung past her knees, Della rediscovers how much the two Young lovers care about each other. Della has sold her elegant hair for his platinum watch chain, and Jim has sold his long-cherished watch for the ornamental hair combs that Della always had her eyes on when it came time to practice window-shopping. The Young’s love is strong like the ocean and intangible like the wind.

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