What Love is Truly About
When two people truly love one another, there is nothing they wouldn't do for each other. This concept is shown in the short story, “The Gift of the Magi”, by O. Henry. In the story, both Della and her husband make sacrifices to try to please each other. The author helps get the theme across, of how love is more important than material objects, by using multiple literary terminologies including, foreshadowing, man vs. self conflict, and situational irony.
The first term used by the author is foreshadowing. This is used to give hints about what's to come in the story. An example of this being used is when the narrator says, “There were two possessions of the James Dillingham Young in which they both took mighty pride. …show more content…
Henry used to get the theme across in the story, was situational irony. That is when there is an event that readers would expect one thing to happen, but a completely opposite thing happens. This term is used in "The Gift of the Magi", when the husband and wife switched the gifts that they bought for each other. At that time, the husband realised what had happened and cleared up the situation. “I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now I suppose you put the chops on” (354). By “put the chops on”, the author meant that Della chopped off all her hair. And now she could not use the gift she received On a different note, the husband received a beautiful pocket watch chain from Della, and could not use it because he sold the watch. This is an example of situational irony, because it is the opposite from what the readers would expect to happen. It would be expected that if both people sacrificed their prized possessions, that they would be able to use the gifts they received from one another. They would both give up anything to make their spouse happy. This shows how much they both love each other. It also shows that love is more important than material objects because they both gave up an important object, trying to please each
When two people truly love one another, there is nothing they wouldn't do for each other. This concept is shown in the short story, “The Gift of the Magi”, by O. Henry. In the story, both Della and her husband make sacrifices to try to please each other. The author helps get the theme across, of how love is more important than material objects, by using multiple literary terminologies including, foreshadowing, man vs. self conflict, and situational irony.
The first term used by the author is foreshadowing. This is used to give hints about what's to come in the story. An example of this being used is when the narrator says, “There were two possessions of the James Dillingham Young in which they both took mighty pride. …show more content…
Henry used to get the theme across in the story, was situational irony. That is when there is an event that readers would expect one thing to happen, but a completely opposite thing happens. This term is used in "The Gift of the Magi", when the husband and wife switched the gifts that they bought for each other. At that time, the husband realised what had happened and cleared up the situation. “I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now I suppose you put the chops on” (354). By “put the chops on”, the author meant that Della chopped off all her hair. And now she could not use the gift she received On a different note, the husband received a beautiful pocket watch chain from Della, and could not use it because he sold the watch. This is an example of situational irony, because it is the opposite from what the readers would expect to happen. It would be expected that if both people sacrificed their prized possessions, that they would be able to use the gifts they received from one another. They would both give up anything to make their spouse happy. This shows how much they both love each other. It also shows that love is more important than material objects because they both gave up an important object, trying to please each