The Irony In The Gift Of The Magi

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The irony in “The Gift of the Magi” served the purpose of helping to convey the story’s theme. In the story, the irony exists in that Della sells her hair to buy Jim a watch chain while Jim sells his watch to buy Della new combs, thus rendering each of their gifts useless. However, instead of being upset that their sacrifices were for nothing, Jim and Della are joyful in that they recognize how much the other sacrificed to do something nice for the other. This helps support the theme that the material items don’t matter as much as the care that was put into them, or, “it’s the thought that counts,” because they may not have been able to use the material gifts they were given but were still joyful and appreciative because they recognized how