Examples Of Irony In The Story The Gift Of Magi

Henry uses the language feature of irony to convey the key idea of love and sacrifice has no boundaries. This is shown when Della sells her hair to buy a fob chain for Jim’s gold watch. While Jim sells his gold watch to buy special combs for Della’s hair. Then ended up finding out that their gifts were no use anymore. As they had sold their possession that was needed for the gifts. This is shown through the quote “let’s put our Christmas presents away and keep ‘em a while. They’re too nice to use just at present.” Which shows us that their gifts have no use for them at the time, because they had to go out of their way and sacrifice their loved possession. Della’s hair was too short to use her special combs from Jim. While Jim had no watch to hang on his fob chain given by Della. Despite their presents to each other that were no use at the time, it was the thought that counts. It really shows how Jim and Della adored each other, that they were able to notice the little things about one another. With Della and Jim, their love was more valuable than her hair and his gold watch. Through hardships in their lives, they still maintained a healthy relationship even though they were poor. Della and Jim realised that their love was a one of a kind love, where they valued each other more than their own

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is filled with irony from the first page to the last. Irony plays a big part in this play because most of it is based off lies. People were accusing people of things that they both knew they were innocent of just because they didn't like them. Irony is all around us when reading this play. Elizabeth trying to lie for John, John forgetting the tenth commandment, and Danforth saying innocent men shouldn't fear are just to name a few. People living in Salem, Massachusetts during 1692 were forced to lie if they wanted to live and die if they chose to tell the truth.

The author uses such irony in the “Gift of The Magi” to create eagerness and astonishment at an unexpected ending. The paradox between the readers expects and what really happens at the close of the story is considered Situational Irony. One expects that Della’s sacrifice of her precious hair to buy a gold chain for Jim’s watch will bring her great joy at seeing her husband’ pleasure at seeing his Christmas gift but the opposite happened. Jim also sold his item to see the same expression in Della’s face. Another type of irony would be foolishness. The Dillingham’s are young and poor yet infested by the culture of abundance felt during this time period. Jim’s dearest possession is a gold pocket watch which had “belonged to his father and his father’s father” (Paragraph 9) before him. The watch is considered his pride and joy yet he did not have a chain further illustrating this couple’s poverty. On the other end of the spectrum is Della’s hair which O’ Henry compares to “more beautiful than any queen’s jewels and gifts” (Paragraph 10). When Della decides to sell her hair to Madame Sofronie, she then buys Jim “a gold watch chain, very simply made”, paragraph 21. This can be considered foolish because Christmas necessarily does not mean everyone gets presents but more of showing appreciation and compassion for the ones you love and others alike. Verbal Irony can be best defined as when someone says one thing but really means another. This type of irony can come in the form of sarcasm, overstatements or understatements. In “The Gift of the Magi,” Henry uses verbal irony after revealing that the Dillingham Youngs only had $1.87 for gifts: “There was nothing to do but fall on the bed and cry. So Della did it” (Paragraph 2).” This passage is ironic as it shows Della feeling sorry for herself and her

Making a sacrifice for another human being is one of the most powerful indications of love. Love and sacrifice go hand in hand and where one is found the other is not far. In the short story “The Gift of the Magi” by author O. Henry, the author uses allusion and his voiced opinion to convey irony to show the true value of sacrifice and love in gift giving.

“Life is full of sniffles sob and smiles. With sniffles predominating.” That’s just one of many quotes from O. Henry’s short story Gift of the magi featuring a young couple trying to buy each other a good Christmas present with little money. O. Henry uses direct characterization, irony, and the character’s action to develop the theme. Happiness is found on the inside not through material things.

We see irony throughout the story. We see this whenever Della runs to the hair articles shop to see how much Mrs. Sofronie would buy her hair for. Mrs. Sofronie said “Twenty dollars.” Della responded by saying, “Give it to me quick.” Della was proud of her hair and you could consider it to be her prized possession. She cut the thing she loved the most about herself because she was determined to find a gift for Jim. She wanted to give Jim a gift that would enjoy and be pleased with. At last, she found the gift for him, she thought that “It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. The gift was a gold watch chain for Jim’s prized possession, the gold watch that his father gave him. The watch chain’s value “was in its rich and pure material. Because it was so plain and simple, you knew that it was very valuable. All goods things are like this.” Della knew in her mind that “It was good enough for the watch.” Later, Della held the watch chain in her hand waiting on Jim to come in. When he walked into the house, he was shocked to see that Della’s hair was gone. Later, he said “I want you to understand me, Dell, nothing like a haircut could make me love you any less. But if you’ll open that, you may know what I felt when I came in.” He threw something tied in paper on the table. Della pulled off the paper and cried tears of joy. It was a comb with jewels that Della saw in a shop window and loved for a long

In The Gift of the Magi there are lots of examples of irony presented to the reader. The author presents a case of this on page one forty-two. The example states “ For there lay The Combs –the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshiped for long in a Broadway window” (Porter). The irony here is that the character Della has cut and sold her hair in order to buy her husband, Jim, a new chain for his watch. Irony then strikes again seconds later. On the same page it soon states “I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs.” (page 142). The irony here is that he has sold the watch, but Della spent the money she made from selling her hair to buy a chain for his watch. This is a case of Dramatic Irony because we know about it but

(“The Gift of the Magi” 68). The irony in “The Gift of the Magi” shows humor. There are various ironic twists and plots in this story. Della wants to sell her hair even though she loves and possess . She does this so she will have enough money to buy Jim a watch.

Dramatic irony has a significant purpose in the play Macbeth, by setting an ominous tone. This form of irony is when the reader knows more than some of the characters in a story. Appearances can be deceiving, things are not always as they seem. Macbeth was forced by prophecy to kill King Duncan, though it was a hellish sin. After the witches had told Macbeth about his future, he had thoughts of murdering that was not there before. He was quoted to be in a daze, later in the play, his daze is shaken when he kills Duncan. Before this Lady macbeth had known of this plan, she proceeded to talk to Banquo on King Duncan and happy with his reign. “By the name of most hostess, and shut

he said, with an air almost of idiocy”(Henry 31). Jim, the boy, had bought her a hair comb and he goes on to find out that she had cut her hair for a present to buy him. This is true irony in the story for the readers to really get an understanding of what is going on. Another very similar act of irony in the story is when it says, “Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it”(Henry 41). If one would have read this story, it would have gone to tell you that Jim had sold his watch to buy Della the hair comb. This is a classic case of dramatic irony, to put the suspense in the reader's mind and put more emotion into the story.Throughout the story irony is used to show emotion and to affect the reader, but O. Henry wanted to really get to the reader and that is where symbolism comes into

The significance of a character's words or actions may stay a secret to others in the story, but to the reader, these quotes and doings have a unique purpose and meaning. The author of a plot uses various kinds of this narrative term called “irony.” The three different kinds of irony are verbal, situational, and dramatic. Verbal shows a play on words; situational shows when the expectation of an event does not end up as expected; dramatic shows when the reader has knowledge of an upcoming event but the characters do not. In two short stories, The Gift of the Magi, by O. Henry, and Cask of Amontillado, by Edgar Allen Poe, the authors use irony in similar and different ways to enhance the plot. First, one example of irony used in the In The Gift of the Magi is when O. Henry explains why the Queen of Sheba would be jealous of Della and her luscious hair. This is ironic because Della is poor and low in society while the Queen of Sheba was full of riches and enjoyed many goods that Della could not afford. Irony in this situation is known by the reader and the characters. In contrast, in Cask of Amontillado, the reader knows there will be a murder, while some characters do not. Also, another use of irony in The Gift of the Magi is when the author uses situational irony while describing, “… two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house” (O. Henry 207). In explanation, he is showing that

In the short story “The Gift of the Magi” I found that the irony in the story was situational. In the story there are two characters Jim and Della. Jim and Della sacrificed their most coveted items to get each other Christmas gifts which they did not know they would have done that for each other. Della cut her hair for $20 dollars, her hair was one of the two coveted possessions the couple had, as Madame Sofronie cut Della's hair agile she remembers Jim, which Jim had no idea she would do give up her hair for him. After she cut her hair she ran to the store and ransacked it for Jim's gift. Towards the end of the story Della finds out that Jim sold his watch which is a something that was important to him, he sacrificed his watch to buy her combs

In the story “The Gift of the Magi” is all about love. Della was so sad that she couldn’t afford a gift for her husband Jim. When Della was trying to find a way to get money to buy Jim a Christmas present she thought about selling her hair. When she sold her hair she found the perfect gift for Jim for Christmas. Della found a chain for Jim's pocket watch that has been passed down from his grandfather to his dad now Jim has the pocket watch. Jim was also worried about not having enough money to get Della a gift for Christmas. Jim was out walking around trying to find something that he could get Della for Christmas but he couldn’t find anything cheap enough for him to buy he for Christmas. Jim knew that she wanted the combs for the store she would always stare at. Jim had to sell his pocket watch to get Della a present for Christmas. After he sold his pocket watch he went to the store and got Della the combs she always

When Della had the idea to sell her hair for money to buy Jim’s chain, she didn’t know that he would sell his watch to buy combs for her hair. She took it upon herself to buy him a valuable gift to show Jim her love for him, and how much she cared for him, enough to sell her most prized possession. In the story Della states,“ Be good to me, because I sold it for you. Maybe the hairs of my head could be counted,” she said, “but no one could ever count my love for you.”This quote proves how although she sacrificed her hair,

Jim also struggled with finding a gift for Della and had to make one of his own sacrifices. For example, “Della,” said he, “Let’s put our Christmas presents away and keep’em a while. They’re too nice to use just as a present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on.”(Pg 292) Della had sold the her hair for money. While Jim bought combes for Della’s hair. SO now Jim was shocked to see that Della had cut her hair off just for him. This is a logical appeal because Jim sacrificed his belongings too for Della. He needed to sell his grandfather’s golden watch for Della’s gift. But also he did it because he loved her in the end. O. Henry uses a positive connotation with the words “Everywhere they were the wisest” and