White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper.And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quickfeminine change to hysterical tears and wails, necessitatingthe immediate employment of all the comforting powers of thelord of the flat.
For there lay The Combs—the set of combs, side andback, that Della had worshipped long in a Broadway window.Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jeweledrims—just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair.They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart hadsimply craved and yearned over them without the least hopeof possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses thatshould have adorned the coveted adornments were gone. I would say this passage illustrates the main conflict in the story about making a major sacrifice such as selling one's gorgeous hair to buy a much sought after Xmas gift for her husband.
The excerpt that best represents the central conflict of “The Gift of the Magi” is:
“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.”
In the short story “The Gift of the Magi” written by O. Henry, Jim and Della, a poor young couple, wanted to buy each other a great Christmas gift. Della saved little money by selling her hair to buy Jim a chain for his watch, not realizing that Jim sold that watch to buy her a comb for her hair because he loved her hair so much.
