Biblical Allusions In The Gift Of The Magi

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Recommended: Characterization of the gift of the magi

The Gift of the Magi deals with love, sacrifice, as well with wealth. It teaches people the importance of these qualities. In this story, Della, the wife of Jim, is facing Christmas with one dollar and eighty seven cents. She and Jim are struggling to be able to buy each other Christmas gifts, but in the end, they realize that Christmas is more than just about getting a present. King Solomon, the Queen of Sheba, and the Magi are the three biblical allusions in this story. They support the theme, that sacrifice is the ultimate generosity. One biblical allusion that is used in the book is to the Queen of Sheba. The Queen is someone who is gorgeous, and rich. She is a “Queen of her own right a royal woman used to get her own way and confidently …show more content…

Jim is also trying to buy Della a Christmas gift, so what he does is sell his watch which is his most prized possession. The way that Henry described the watch in the book would bring envy to King Solomon: “Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in his basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy” (Henry 151). This line explains that the watch Jim got would have made King Solomon jealous. The reason being was of how much it was worth by the treasures compared to the items that Solomon owned. Which is another reference to King Solomon because he is wise, wealthy, and powerful. So he sells his watch, and the gift he buys for Della are the combs she had been wanting. King Solomon got used by Henry because he had a relationship with the Queen of Sheba and they gave gifts of wealth to each …show more content…

Of all who give and receive gifts such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the Magi” (Henry 155). They were like the wise men because they learned to sacrifice something that had value in their lives to buy each other Christmas gifts. The Magi is the last allusion that Henry uses to compare Jim and Della to the Magi. “The Magi also referred to as the (Three) Wise Men or (Three) Kings, were, in the Gospel of Matthew and Christian tradition, a group of distinguished foreigners who visited Jesus after his birth, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh” ( Wikipedia). Jim and Della do the same they present very expensive gifts as a way to show each other that they love one another. Henry uses the Magi to show the lengths Jim and Della went through to relate the journey the wise men took in order to deliver the gift to find Christ and present him the gifts. He uses the Christmas story in the Bible because it is a story mostly everybody knows

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