In The Gift of the Magi, Della Dillingham had only one and eighty-seven cents to buy Jim, her husband, a Christmas gift. She had gotten sixty cents by bulldozing merchants for a pennies or two. In addition, Jim's income shrank from $30 a week to $20 a week. This family had two large possessions: Jim's fancy, golden watch and Della's magnificent, long hair. But Della had to sell and sacrifice her tresses for $20 to buy Jim a lovely Christmas present, a platinum fob chain to attach to his watch. Meanwhile, she was afraid of how Jim would act towards her now that she only had little brown curls at the edge of her short, pixie hair. When Jim returned home, he revealed that he had sold his watch to buy Della a comb for her hair. In the end, the narrator compares this couple's sacrifices and gifts with the wiseness of the magi, the ones who brought Christmas to life. However, in broader aspects, one can find that Della and Jim actually aren’t the wisest and most realistic couple to sacrifice their most valuable possessions for an extensional gift.
As much as their sacrificial gifts display their love for each other, Della and Jim’s true love is unstable and unrealistic, especially in a large society supported mainly by money. Stable love needs to be supported not only by love, but also by money, status, or another more genuine factor; otherwise, one might be seen as a naive or unrealistic person. In the Gift of the Magi, the Dillingham couple is shown to possess true love towards each other, ignoring the other’s financial situation, amount of support, and status level (only depending on pure love). Della and Jim are a bit unrealistic and inauthentic to sacrifice such valuable possessions just to strengthen their love. Although it is great and loving to care for and bond more with each other, they shouldn’t put that as their top priority; pure love can also have many disadvantages, such as its unstable and unrealistic condition. In Pride and Prejudice, there are many realistic and genuine love relationships between the characters in the story, like between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy or Charlotte and Colins; but there are also connections similar to the one in the Dillingham household, where a relationship depends purely on love. Realistic and authentic love supported mainly by genuine factors like social status, financial condition, support, etc. is becoming increasingly important, especially within a money-hungry and modern society.
The couple’s gifts to each other weren’t necessarily useful or helpful in any way, as the gifts act as extensions for the valuable possessions they have sacrificed already. In other words, extensional gifts like a comb or a fob chain are useless without a hair to brush and a watch to decorate. Within the short story, the Dillingham household each gives the other purposeless and impractical gifts, as the more important things are long gone. Moreover, Della and Jim can’t keep going on like this every Christmas until they start selling their furniture to give the other a small, decorative item. One shouldn’t sacrifice too much, as if one does, there would be nothing left to give at the end of the year. The Dillingham couple isn’t exceptionally wise to sacrifice valuable possessions for additional gifts that are basically useless without the former; one can’t expect Della’s hair to frantically grow from a pixie haircut to long hair falling at the waist every single Christmas. In addition, the couple is losing the purpose of Christmas itself: Christmas is supposed to be a holiday where people share gifts they can afford and celebrate happily; not crying desperately on a shabby couch because one must cut their own, beloved hair, or sell their only gold watch for a holiday gift. Sacrificing too much can cause disadvantages and consequences that can lead to a negative result, rather than the positive one previously imagined.
Helping with financial situations and the overall family condition is a lot more important than frantically searching through a near-empty wallet to afford a holiday gift. The money gained by selling Jim’s gold watch and Della’s hair could’ve summed up to over twice of Jim’s weekly income, which could help their own, poor household in a desperate situation rather than buying decorative gifts. In the short story, The Gift of the Magi, Della and Jim aren’t the smartest people to put Christmas presents as a higher priority than helping their own household’s financial situation and condition. From a broader perspective, using money wisely for financial growth could have a much better result than using it to buy a decorative fob chain or a hair comb. These gifts could be touching and emotionally positive items in a way, but they aren’t necessarily a need in human life, more like a desire or want. Especially in their bad situation, the Dillingham family shouldn’t spend too much of their money on holiday presents. For example, Santa Claus wouldn’t have given everyone presents if he could afford them, just like how Della and Jim should spend too much money on gifts if they have serious financial problems. One should use money wisely and correctly list their line of priorities from the things of more importance.
The Gift of the Magi narrates a large, but not a positive, coincidence in which Della and Jim Dillingham secretly sell their most valuable possessions, Jim’s gold watch and Della’s beautiful hair, to give the other a Christmas present. However, they coincidentally give each other a fob chain for the watch and a comb for Della’s hair, unaware that they were already sold off. The couple’s pure love for each other in this case isn’t genuinely stable nor realistic, as it depends only on love rather than more authentic factors like finance, status, and support. Moreover, their gifts turn out to be basically useless, as they are only an add-on or extension for one of the sacrificed items. The Dillingham family was also unwise to use all of the money, which summed up to over twice Jim’s weekly income, instead of trying to improve the household’s financial situation and condition.
Comments