Monday, June 23, 2014

Which type of conflict does Della face in O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi”?

I would say that Della's major conflict is actually of the character vs. character variety. She worries a great deal about what her husband, Jim, will think of her once all her beautiful hair is gone, but she only "faltered for a minute" and lets a few tears fall when she fights with herself about whether or not to actually sell her hair. It does not take her long to make a decision, and, once she does, she acts immediately. However, Della says to herself regarding her husband:

If Jim doesn't kill me [...] before he takes a second look at me, he'll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do?--oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents?

When Jim does walk in, he has an expression on his face "that she could not read, and it terrified her." She fears that he will not think she is pretty anymore now that her hair is gone. His response, looking around the room with a rather vacant expression and "an air of almost idiocy," makes her really nervous that he is angry with her. This conflict is more imagined than it is real, of course. Jim is only shocked—especially because of his gift to Della—and not angry. However, we do not know that right away, and neither does she.


Della desperately wants to buy Jim a nice gift for Christmas; she wants to buy him a nice chain to go with his pocket-watch. But, unfortunately, she doesn't have anywhere near enough money to pay for it. Della and Jim are dirt-poor and neither can afford to buy the gifts that they really want. Della deals with this problem by selling some of her beautiful locks of hair to a fancy wig-maker. This raises enough money to pay for Jim's watch-chain. Unbeknownst to her, however, Jim has decided to deal with his own conflict in a similar fashion. He's sold his pocket-watch to buy Della a gift of some fancy combs. So both Jim and Della, in dealing with their conflicts, have ended up buying each other what turn out to be useless gifts.

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