The Gift of Magi

The Gift of Magi by O. Henry, Analysis he Gift of Magi was written in 1906 by William Sidney Porter and American writer best now as O. Henry, as part of his second collection of short stories. Nowadays O. Henry is best known for his excessive sentimentalism, sadness, nostalgia and especially for twisted endings. The Gift of Magi is a story of a “Young” couple, not rich, in Christmas Eve, who want to surprise the loved one with the best gift possible for ea other but they are struggling with money. It was written in 3rd person (omniscient) and with the use of simple and informal sentences appears like if the narrator is telling a story to an audience that is in front of him. Another reason to think that is because sometimes during the narration he moves away from Della (main character) to illustrate a broader spectrum of the setting like when he describes a flat where Della and Jim live. This story is one of the O. Henry’s most popular short stories and cannot escape any of the authors best know characteristics since this story is full of love, sacrifice, values and surprise.
Given a brief description of the setting where the author describes the surroundings of their flat as sad and not much alive - Della watches a "gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard" (6) and letting the audience know about the economic situation of the Young’s family, it is not very clear if the setting are intended to contrast with the warm and cozy of their love or if is to describe the moment there were living since Jim’s salary was shrunk.
The physical description of the characters is vague giving only few characteristics like that they are young, Della has a long brown hair and Jim was quiet, tall and skinny. The author describes Della’s hair as something so precious that is capable to inspire envy even in the richest Queen, and he compares Jim’s watch with something that Kings Solomon will like to have the author is making clear that these two things are the couple