Historical period recreated : A long time ago, on christmas.
Weather conditions : Cold as it was christmas eve so they were in winter.
Place : Takes place in New York City in a flat.
Time elapsed in this story : During Christmas time.
Main characters : Della and Jim.
Secondary Character : Madame Sofronie.
features: Inner and physical traits :
Inner characteristics of Della: She is happy to have Jim in her life, she is willing to sacrifice her hair to buy something worthy of Jim, She is a good person wanting to make Jim happy and in the end she is insecure about herself with the haircut as she don’t know if Jim still considered her pretty.
Physical traits of Della : She is beautiful with a hair that falls about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters and she is slender.
Inner characteristics of Jim : He was dumbfounded when he saw Della with the haircut because he couldn’t believe it , he is a serious person, he is willing to sacrifice his watch to buy a gift for Della so he is a caring person , he is in love with her.
Physical characteristics of Jim : He is thin, has 22 years so is young and is described as the lord of the flat.
What's surprising about this story's ending? : That Della sacrificed her hair for a christmas gift for Jim and without expecting , Jim sacrificed his watch to buy the christmas gift for Della being the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for the other the greatest treasures of their house.
Theme : Love and generosity
Voice : The narrator is third person, omniscient. The story seems to follow only Della, giving the view of what she is thinking and doing.
Mood : The mood was sad.
Tone : The story produces a tone of love and sadness since she couldn’t buy a gift for Jim for christmas.
Irony : Jim and Della sacrifice their most treasured possessions so that the other can fully enjoy his or her gift. Jim sells his watch to buy Della's combs, expecting her to be able to use them. Della sells her hair to buy Jim a chain for his watch. Neither expects the other to have made that sacrifice.
Conflict : As Jim and Della didn’t have enough money to buy a gift for christmas eve they had to sacrifice something very important for them .
Man vs man : The fact that at the end of the story Jim didn’t totally agree with the haircut of Della asking her many times about it making her more insecure of herself.
Man vs society : Della and Jim’s struggle to survive in poverty.
Man vs self : She must make decisions and try to overcome the sadness and worry that she feels.
Climax : The climax of the story is marked by Jim presenting Della her gift, revealing that both had to sell their most valued items to buy the present and at the end the gift they got was no longer useful because of it.
Resolution (Real one and change it in a few words) : Della was restless about what Jim might think of the haircut but she waited until he arrived at the flat. When Jim was entering to the room he saw the new appearance of Della and he couldn’t believe it, she was so different that he didn’t recognize the person in front of him so he called the police afraid, when she noticed his panic attack she got closer to him and started to explain all but was so late when they finished to talk because the police arrived and despite Jim's efforts he couldn't do anything. Christmas eve is over for him , now he has to do everything in his power to rescue her from jail .
What is the significance of the title? : Is like an allusion to the gifts brought by the three wise men after the birth of Jesus,the gifts that Jim and Della gave one another have a deeper meaning relating to the magnitude of their love for one another.
