Examples Of Irony In The Gift Of The Magi

The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry is a Christmas story that gives the reader a glance into the life of a young couple. Each romanticizes something very important to them and both want to get each other grand gifts. The only issue is that they do not have much money. They each go to great lengths to get something special for their significant other. O. Henry uses irony, the contrast between expectation and reality, to show the reader that objects are not as important as people. O. Henry portrays his touching yet pitiful mood through using some of the following examples of irony. “When the name was placed there, Mr. James Dillingham Young was being paid $30 a week. Now, when he was being paid only $20 a week…”(Henry 2). The author uses this …show more content…
It is ironic that Mr. James Dillingham Young has such a prestigious sounding name but is not wealthy. “‘Della,’ said he, ‘let’s put our Christmas gifts away and keep them a while. They’re too nice to use now. I sold the watch to get the money to buy the combs. And now I think we should have our dinner,’”(6). To give background information, Della had sold her long hair to buy Jim a chain for his watch. Jim had also sold his watch to buy combs for Della’s hair. Henry uses this to have the reader feel pitiful for the couple. It it ironic that they both sold the most important things to them to buy gifts for their significant other that would now be useless. This sort of irony could be considered situational irony because the reader expect something to happen but something completely different happens. “And here I have told you the story of two children who were not wise. Each sold the most valuable thing