The Gift of the Magi Plot Analysis

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This Page The Gift of the Magi
by O. Henry
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AdvertisementThe Gift of the Magi Plot Analysis
Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the initial
situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion.
Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice.
Initial Situation
"One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all." (1)
The story's opening sentences confront us right away with the problem: Della
only has $1.87 to buy a Christmas present, and it's Christmas Eve. After the
first paragraph, the narrator gives us a bit more fleshing out of the situation.
Della's in a meager flat, she and her husband Jim are poor, she loves her
husband more than anything else in the whole world. Plus, she positively needs
to buy him the perfect Christmas present. With $1.87. When Della lets down her
hair, we also learn the other most important fact for the story: her hair and
Jim's gold watch are the only prized possessions the couple has. Everything is
now set up for the rest of the story to unfold.
Conflict
Della sells her hair.
The conflict is supposedly the moment where the "problem" in the story appears,
but this story began right from the first with a problem. In "Gift of the Magi"
the point of conflict actually solves the first problem and replaces it with a
second. By selling her hair, Della gets the money to buy Jim a great present,
eliminating the first problem through decisive action.

Shortly thereafter she
finds the perfect present, so neither the money nor the present is the issue any
longer. But now there's a new problem: will Jim be pleased by Della's action and
appreciate her gift, or will he be angry with her for parting with the hair he
loved so much?
Complication
Jim is shocked by Della's short hair.
When Jim arrives, he doesn't seem to react well: he stares at Della and can't
seem to process that her hair is gone. But it doesn't look like he's angry, so
much as simply shocked. Della can't quite understand what kind of reaction he's
having, nor can we. This creates suspense; we want to know what it is he's
actually feeling. We also want to know how he'll react to Della's gift. When Jim
snaps out of his shock, he tells Della (and us) that his reaction will make
sense when Della opens the present he bought her…
Climax
Combs!
When Della opens Jim's present to find the combs, we understand why Jim was so
shocked. It also becomes clear now that he's not angry with Della, and he
assures her he'll love her no matter how she looks. Although the climax doesn't
fully "predict" the ending, it is the first half of the twist. And if we do get
to thinking about where Jim got the money to buy those combs, we might be able
to guess what happens next.
Suspense
Della's Turn
We're still waiting to know how Jim will react to Della's gift, and we might
also be wondering just how he got the money to buy those expensive combs. Della
gives Jim the watch chain, and…
Denouement
So…how about those pork chops?
Presented with his gift, Jim calmly reveals (with a smile) that he sold his
watch to buy Della her combs. So her present is useless too. Well, that does it
for the Christmas presents. Not much left to do but eat those pork chops.
Conclusion
Pretty fly for magi.
In the narrator's final paragraph, which is definitely a "zoom out" of epic
proportions, the narrator tells us that it doesn't really matter that Jim and
Della's presents turned out to be useless. They are the wisest givers of all –
in fact, they're the magi. We leave feeling satisfied and happy.
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