The Gift of the Magi Notes Summary Questions Class 10 SSC

This chapter is a touching short story written by O. Henry (William Sydney Porter), an American author famous for his surprise endings. It tells the tale of an impoverished young couple who sacrifice their most prized possessions to buy each other Christmas gifts.

About the author

O. Henry (1862 - 1910), whose real name was William Sydney Porter, was an American short story writer famous for his art and stories with surprise endings.

Summary

Della and Jim are a young, deeply in love married couple living in a modest furnished flat for $8 a week. Despite their strong affection, they are extremely poor, and Jim's weekly income has shrunk from $30 to $20.

With only one dollar and eighty-seven cents saved up for Christmas, Della breaks down because she has hardly any money to buy her beloved Jim a nice present. After crying, she looks into her pier-glass and lets down her beautiful brown hair, which reaches below her knee and is one of their two prized possessions.

Della quickly sells her hair to Madame Sofronie for twenty dollars. With this money and her savings, she scours the stores and happily buys a platinum fob-chain for twenty-one dollars for Jim's gold watch, which was his father's and grandfather's heirloom.

When Della returns home, she curls her short hair and prepares dinner, praying that Jim will still find her pretty. When Jim arrives, he stares at her in stunned silence, unable to process that her hair is gone.

Jim then hands Della her present: a set of beautiful pure tortoise-shell combs with jewelled rims that she had long admired in a Broadway window. Sadly, she no longer has the hair to wear them. In return, Della eagerly shows him the fob-chain, only to learn that Jim had sold his gold watch to buy her the combs. Although their gifts are temporarily useless, O. Henry concludes that they are the wisest of all gift-givers, truly embodying the spirit of the Biblical Magi.

Mind map

Sequence of Events

Characters

Themes and message

Sacrifice and True Love

True love is demonstrated through unselfish sacrifice, where individuals give up their most treasured personal possessions for the happiness of their loved one.

Material Wealth vs. Emotional Wealth

Money and material things matter little compared to the depth of affection and emotional connection shared between partners.

Key points to remember

• Della saved only $1.87 by bargaining hard with tradespeople.
• The couple's two great treasures were Jim's gold watch and Della's long hair.
• Della sold her hair for $20 to purchase a platinum fob-chain.
• Jim sold his gold watch to purchase tortoise-shell combs for Della.
• O. Henry compares them to the Biblical Magi because their acts of giving were filled with true wisdom and love.

Word meanings

Figures of speech and poetic devices

Important questions and answers

Q1. How much did Della save for Christmas? What does it show?

Della saved only one dollar and eighty-seven cents for Christmas. This shows that the couple lived in extreme poverty and struggled financially despite her best efforts to save every penny.

Q2. Why did Della take pride in the beauty of her hair?

Della took immense pride in her hair because it was one of the two great possessions of the Young family in which they both took a mighty pride, falling below her knee and shining like a cascade of brown waters.

Q3. Why and how did Della sell her hair?

Della sold her hair because she had only $1.87 and wanted to buy a worthy Christmas present for Jim. She pulled down her hair, let it fall, and went to Madame Sofronie's shop where she sold it for twenty dollars.

Q4. Why did Jim sell his gold watch?

Jim sold his gold watch to get the money needed to buy the beautiful tortoise-shell combs that Della had long desired and coveted in a Broadway window.

Q5. What did Jim bring out from his coat? Describe the scene.

Jim brought out a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table, telling Della to unwrap it to see why she had him going at first.

Q6. What is the moral of the story?

The moral of the story is that love, self-sacrifice, and generosity are far more valuable than material possessions. Those who give out of pure love, like Della and Jim, are the wisest of all.

Q7. Why are Jim and Della referred to as the magi?

Jim and Della are referred to as the magi because, just like the wise men who brought gifts to the baby Jesus, they unselfishly sacrificed their greatest treasures out of love, demonstrating true wisdom in gift-giving.

Q8. What troubled Della on Christmas Eve?

On Christmas Eve, Della was troubled because she had only one dollar and eighty-seven cents with which to buy a nice Christmas present for her beloved husband, Jim.

Exam tips

• Memorize the key vocabulary words and their exact meanings for matching or fill-in-the-blank questions.
• Understand the concept of situational irony clearly, as it is a major focal point of questions from this chapter.
• Practice framing 'Wh-' questions and adding question tags based on sentences from the text.

FAQs

Who is the author of 'The Gift of the Magi'?

The author is O. Henry, whose real name was William Sydney Porter.

What were Jim and Della's prized possessions?

Jim's prized possession was his gold watch that had belonged to his father and grandfather, and Della's was her long, beautiful brown hair.

Why are Jim and Della considered wise at the end?

They are considered wise because their sacrifices were driven by pure, selfless love for one another, making them true gift-givers comparable to the biblical Magi.

These notes were prepared with AI help from the Balbharati English Kumarbharati textbook (2026-27) and fact-checked against it.