Title: What is the complication of this story? - eNotes.com
Headings: What is the complication of this story?
The Gift of the Magi
What is the complication of this story?
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Content: Jim's sacrificing his love to buy his wife a set of combs for her hair resolves the whole complicated problem because it proves conclusively how much he loves her. And he tells her so in words: “Don't make any mistake, Dell,” he said, “about me. I don't think there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less." The sacrifices Della and Jim have made for each other brings them even closer together. Approved by eNotes Editorial Team
Isabell Schimmel
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One definition for "complication" as a literary term is that it is a series of problems or difficulties that make up the main action of a piece of literature. In this story, I think that the complication goes from the seventh paragraph down to the part near to the end where Jim gives Della her present. In that time, we see the main issues in the story -- what will they be able to get each other? How will they pay for those things? Now we know what they have each gotten and how.