Comparative Essay: The Gift Of Magi And The Necklace

Although both stories have many similarities they can differ in important ways. 

In the necklace Matilde was focused more on her looks, while Della and Jim were concerned about getting a gift for each other. In the necklace the story revolves around dishonesty while there is no dishonesty in The Gift of The Magi. The Main characters in both stories are young beautiful women with poor husbands as well as being in supportive relationships.

In both short stories Matilde and Della are young beautiful women with poor husbands who struggle to meet their needs. The narrator in The Necklace states “The girl was one of those pretty and charming young creatures who sometimes are born, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no expectations, so she let herself get married to a little clerk of the Ministry of Public instruction”. In this passage it is stated that Matilde let herself get married to a poor man and feels like she deserves more. Della from the Gift of The Magi is also married to a poor man and struggles to find the money to buy a gift for him “Tomorrow would be Christmas day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months with this result”. Della doesn't have any money to buy Jim a Christmas gift even with saving up her money for months.

  Even though the characters struggle to buy luxuries they are in supportive relationships which help the characters throughout the story. Matildes husband decides to buy her a dress for the ball “He grew a little pale, because he was laying aside just that amount to buy a gun and treat himself to a little shooting next summer on the plain of Nanterre, with several friends who went to shoot larks there of a sunday. But he said very well. I will give you four hundred francs”. Her husband was planning on buying himself a gun, but instead decides to get matilde a dress. In the Gift of the Magi Della couldn't afford to buy Jim a gift so she sells her hair to get a chain for his pocket watch. “Don't make any mistake, Dell, he said, about me. I don't think there's anything in this world that could make me like my girl any less”. Jim says that there's nothing that could make him love della any less.

Although both stories have their differences The Gift of The Magi and The Necklace have many similarities such as the main characters both being in supportive relationships and being young beautiful women with poor husbands. In addition, the ending of both stories contain irony for example, in The Gift of the Magi Della opens the gift from Jim, a set of tortoise shell combs, and briefly forgets that her hair isn't long enough to wear them. Irony in The necklace occurs when Matilde finally earns enough money to replace her friends necklace only to learn that it was fake when she gives it to Mrs. Loisel.