Here i bring the stylistic analysis of a short story " the gift of Magi ". this file include the perfect details of stylistic analysis with regards to the basic terms used in stylistics. it include the basic introduction with figures and methodology. i hope it will help you.

1. Name : Zain Ul Abideen
Roll no : F16-1341
Semester : 8th
Subject : Stylistics

2. Short Story Analysis:
“The Gift of Magi” of O. Henry
Summary:
It’s a story of a poor couple name Della and Jim. After paying to their rented room and
grocer they did not have enough money left. Della wants to buy a gold chain that will serve as
her Christmas present for Jim’s gold watch. Left with no choice she decided to sell her hair to a
woman who makes wig in exchange for the 20 dollar money that she can use to buy the
present.
When she got home she immediately prepares for their dinner and waits until Jim arrive
looking shock that the hair of Della was cut already. Della on the other hand explained why she
sold her hair, but Jim told her not to worry because nothing would change his love for her. Jim
gave his gift to Della and when she unwrapped it she was surprised to see the set of beautiful
combs she long to have for her hair. Not quite when she also remembers her present to Jim and
give the gold chain to him but she was surprised because Jim sold his watch to buy her those
nice combs present. The author ended the story explaining about the magi.
Stylistic Features
 MainCharacters:
-Della and Jim are the two main characters of the story show a static character because
they did not change much in the course of the story.
Della- Her goal is to make his husband happy by giving him a Christmas present though
they did not have enough money but because of her deep love and sincerity she sold
her hair in exchange for the money that she will use to her present for Jim. “Will you
buy my hair?” She is willing to sacrifice her beautiful hair to be able to buy a nice gift for
her husband. However in her line “Don't you like me now?”, “You won't care, will
you?” shows that she’s also fretful of her physical feature, of what his husband would
say.
Jim - the husband of Della his aim is to make Della happy by giving her a Christmas
present. In his line “I sold the watch to get the money to buy the combs.” Shows how
sincere are his love towards her wife that he sold his biggest possession in life just to
bring the best present for her wife. Based from the conversations and the way Della
worry of the reaction of Jim when her hair was cut shows an authority on Jim’s part.
“You've cut off your hair?” when you first read this line you would thought that Jim was
angry to Della but it is the question he asked when he realize that the comb that he
bought will not be any more useful to Della hence her hair was already cut.

3.  Characterization
-the story feature a direct characterization hence the author directly tell and describe
what the character personality is like.
 NarrationType
- Third person omniscient was use by the author because he knows the thoughts and
feelings of all the characters. He also directly describes the background and happenings
of the story and put up his personal point of view like in the 2nd paragraph.
“There was clearly nothing left to do but flop down on the shabby little
couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that
life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating?”
 Theme of the Story
The story featured the majestic power of love were devotion, sacrifices, the innate
desire of the characters to give to make each other happy, and the sense of gratitude
that they both shared throughout their life together. Relationship and real happiness
was also featured in the story although Della and Jim considered that the essence of gift
giving is there way of expressing their wisdom in loving each other but at the end they
still conclude that sincere feelings of love to each other is the best way of expressing
how grateful they are to have each other than any expensive presents.
 Mainidea of the Story
“ The true essence of love is when you know how to sacrifice to make
the person you love happy ”.
 Elements of narrative Discourse
Texual medium :
This is a short story. Love between husband and wife.
Short Story, Romance
Sociolinguistic code :
The language used in this story is American English and the time setting of the story is century
ago.

4. Setting and Context
Christmas Eve, early twentieth century
Characterization1 :
Actions and Events : she sold her hair in exchange for the money that she will use to her
present for Jim. “Will you buy my hair?”
“You won't care, will you?” shows that she’s also fretful of her physical feature, of what his
husband would say.
“There was clearly nothing left to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl.
Characterization2 :
Point of view :
Third person omniscient was use by the author because he knows the
thoughts and feelings of all the characters. He also directly describes the
background and happenings of the story and put up his personal point of
view like in the 2nd
paragraph.
“There was clearly nothing left to do but flop down on the shabby little
couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that
life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating?”
Textual Structure :
Large scale elements of plot And localize features :
Major Conflict
There is conflict between what they want to give each other and what they are able to give
from a financial perspective; however, there is no actual conflict in the story in terms of discord
or argument.
Climax
The story reaches its climax when the couple realize that neither of them can use the gifts the
other gave, and that their greatest gift is actually each other.
Foreshadowing
There is no specific foreshadowing; it could be seen that the strange expression on Jim's face on
seeing his short-haired wife open the front door foreshadows the fact that he has purchased
hair ornaments for her and has just realized that she will not now be able to wear them.

5. Understatement
The couple are said to have a meagre existence which is an understatement since they really
have no money at all.
Intertextuality :
Allusions
The narrator alludes to the Christmas story by referencing the Magi.
Imagery
The imagery is the typical kind of Christmas imagery. It is our interpretation of a snowy and
busy Christmas and the imagery speaks to our own visions of festivity, snow and celebration of
the season.
Lexical Analysis
The short story “The Gift of the Magi” is composed of two thousand eighty words. The
vocabulary used in the story are simple were readers can easily understand. Descriptive
sentences were used; Punctuation, quotation, and exclamation marks and commas
were drawn on to emphasize thoughts and feelings that fit to the detailed description of
the characters, events and place in the story.
Christmas is the season featured in the story were the two word “present” and
“gift” were commonly used and it simply describes the essence of Christmas which is
gift giving.
Proper nouns were used in the story such as the name Della, Jim, Mr. James
Dillingham Young, King Solomon, Magi, Majesty and others. The author also makes use
of pronouns such as her, him, them and others. On the other hand adjectives were also
used like beautiful hair, tiny curls, white fingers, nice combs and others in which if I
categorize these adjectives, I can say that they are mostly used for the visual and
physical descriptions. And of course verbs and adverbs were also present as the author
describes the feat and the manner of the execution of the actions of events in the story.
Adverbs are frequently used. I believe that their usage also make the story colorful
because to express the quality of actions which identified with the verbs, we need
adverb usage. In this short story these adverbs are used frequently: Gradually, exactly,
certainly, seriously, greatly, fairly, rapidly, brilliantly, nervously, quickly, surely, properly,
and carefully and others.
Grammatical Analysis
There are various types of sentences used such as declarative, imperative,
interrogative and exclamatory sentences are present in the story. Clauses, phrases, and
simple to complex sentences are featured like:

6.  Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles,
with sniffles predominating
 -"If Jim doesn't kill me," she said to herself, "before he takes a second look at me, he'll
say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl
 Three times Della counted it. (simple sentence)
 A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence
of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. (Complex
sentence)
There are also lots of sentences that aren't really sentences, like the opening one:
"One dollar and eighty-seven cents" There's no verb or action in that sentence it just states
a sum of money. Thus we still need more information about what that sum of money
"means" or "does" in order to understand the sentence. We get that information in the next
sentence: "That was all" Although the second sentence has only a verb, it's also technically
not a complete sentence thus its sense just also defends on the previous sentence.
Looking at those first two sentences give us a hint on how the story's style tends to
operate as a whole: lots of short sentences that often depend on other sentences in order
to work. This has a way of weaving together the story across individual sentences and gives
it a flow that would be broken apart by writing in more complete, self-contained sentences.
Of course, as O. Henry is trying to capture that feel of telling a story orally, he also throws in
plenty of addresses to his audience of listeners, like in the line "Which is always a
tremendous task, dear friends – a mammoth task". This further creates the feeling that he
is somewhat talking directly to us.
Author’s message
In the last part of the story the author explain about the “Magi” which he
states:
“The magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men-who brought gifts
to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents.
Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of
exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the
uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed
for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise
of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of

7. all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest.
They are the magi.”
There’s a change of mood in the climax of the story. The author makes readers
impatient with the result and word choice. But also, we can say that thanks to the few words,
readers are thought to learn meaning of sacrificing. This situation is creating a special moment
for the reader.
Conclusion
This is a good story to read with, readers can easily understand because of the simple
vocabulary. The message of the author was greatly expressed and conveyed through his
descriptive details of the events of the story. To love is to sacrifice. In the story valuable
presents were given by Della and Jim as their way of expressing love to each other even if it
takes selling their most valued possessions. On the other hand the author also makes sense in
the climax of the story that I believe a sincere feeling is still more valuable than those earthly
things. Lastly, for me the story also taught us the values of a Magi and one of those is to know
how to sacrifice.