Situational Irony In The Gift Of The Magi By O. Henry

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In the story “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry, situational irony is used, there are clues about the surprise ending, a lesson is learned, and the story would look very different without the situational irony. First, O. Henry uses situational irony, which is when the end result is not what was intended. In the story, Della and Jim both give up their prized possessions to buy the other a gift for Christmas. Unfortunately, the gifts they bought for each other went with the prized possession they gave up. Della gave up her hair and received brushes, while Jim gave up his watch and received a fob chain. Since each were now not able to use their new gifts as intended, situational irony was used. Even though the ending was unexpected, there was …show more content…

The lesson O. Henry express is not to put so much value on material items, but in the actions done for love. The entire story resolved around Della giving up her prized possession to get Jim a Christmas gift; however, the gift she buys becomes useless. Jim also buys Della a gift that becomes useless as well. This leads to Jim saying, “‘let's put our Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while. They're too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on.’” This shows that Jim cares more about his relationship with Della than gifts he could have received. Without the situational irony, the main characters would still be caught up in buying materialistic items, instead of understanding that sacrifices made for love are more important. In addition, the character’s lives might have been different without the situational irony. If the couple wasn’t poor there would have been no need to make those sacrifices, as they did and the gifts would have been perfect. On the other hand, the couple could have agreed to not get anything this year since money was tight. O. Henry’s use of situational irony created the story and lessons within that would not have been possible without

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