Love in Literature - Free Essay Sample

Introduction

The main or rather, the overall theme in this story is the theme of love. Love is a powerful expression of feelings and affection towards something or someone. Love cannot be explained since it's some sought of mystery. Love is always expressed in beautiful actions that are always meant to tighten the bond and expression. From the story, the theme of love was brought out in several instances. The first instance was when Della went out of her way to sell the most valuable treasure of her life, a very precious jewel that took her a lot of years, time, and resources in making it better each time, her hair, for the sake of her love Jim (Henry 3). The hair was sold to buy Jim an awesome Christmas gift, the precious watch with beautiful chains. This is a critical decision made by Della to express her affection for her husband.

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Life Costing Decision

Earlier on, we see that Della was sacrificing money and saving her Christmas gift to her husband. The second instance, which was also a valuable and life-costing decision, was on Jim’s side. Thus is brought out when he also decides to sell his vulnerable inheritance, the golden watch, to make the love of his life happy during the long-awaited festive season (Henry 6). All these actions also clearly pointed out the importance of Christmas, being a gifting season. Thus they could not just spoil the norm of this season. The other instance of love is seen with the inheritance of the golden watch by Jim. The grandfather first gave it to the father, who later passed it on to Jim's son. Such personal inheritance of valuable treasures was a great indication of love since such things are only given to people we love and are strongly connected with (Henry 2). This indicates a strong affection and bond of love between Jim and his old folks.

The other proof of love is when Della decides to continue loving and remaining with Jim despite his decreased salary and the struggles that come with such a fall, like living in a bad house (Henry 2). She had an option to walk out of the marriage but decided for better or worse to remain with him—a strong and unique type of move that expresses great love for Jim. Della expresses love for Jim by making it her responsibility to cook for Jim, as expressed by the making of the dinner during the night of the Magi's gifts (Henry 6). Several words expressing strong love were also used by them through-out the story taking for instance, when Jim overcomes disappointment of the haircut by telling Della that the haircut could not reduce his love for her (Henry 6).

Actions of Affection

Actions of affection are also reflected when Jim throws his hands over Della, giving her a huge warm hug of comfort. Della was also ever mindful of Jim to the extent that she used to stand strong for him and did not want him to see her cry. So she hid crying and quickly wiped tears off her face for Jim’s sanity and peace of mind (Henry 2). She was also willing to struggle through life to make Jim feel happy and worthy, which is also brought out by her struggling to save for Jim’s gift. These two love birds strongly bring out this theme since they expressed a sign of dying for one another.

Several literacy skills have been used to enhance this story and give it a flow. One of such is irony. The irony is brought out by Jim buying expensive dream combs for his love to beautify her beautiful long hair but ends up disappointed since the wife had already cut off the hair. There is also irony on Della’s side when he bought a watch chain for her husband Jim to use for his golden watch and gets broken-hearted since Jim had sold the watch to buy her the dream combs (Henry 6). Character development is also brought out nicely from the start when the author brings Della's struggles in saving up for her lover’s Christmas gift (Henry 1). It is followed by her getting stressed over the little savings and jeopardizing her treasure because of him and having to sell her hair (Henry 3). She starts running up and down in search of a good gift for the husband and finally presents the husband, which creates the book's whole topic, the gift of the magi. The setting also contributes to the effectiveness of the story.

Conclusion

The house's structure brings out the real struggle of the couple and completes the topic of the story since they are not in a good position financially but still struggle to put the best they could for each other. Juxtaposition is also used in the story when the author describes the mirror of the house to be too slim that one has to move away and act in motion to look at themselves and bringing in the description of Della to be slim and thus mastering the art of the usage of the mirror (Henry 2).

Reference

Henry, O. (2012). The gift of the Magi and other short stories. Courier Corporation.