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Critical Review “The Gift of Magi” and “The Necklace”

Short stories, "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Necklace", by O. Henry and Guy de Maupassant, have many similarities and differences. These stories deal with love, greed, and envy. “The Necklace” shows that some things one wants may not be the things that one needs and “The Gift of Magi” by O. Henry shows that some people will give up their most prized possessions for the one they love.
One main difference between these two stories is that in “The Gift of Magi” the couple are selfless, but in “The Necklace” Mathilde is selfish. She is known as social-climbing and vain woman who is unsatisfied with her life. She lives with a low-ranking husband and she ends up with debt because she lost a necklace she borrowed that ended up as just imitation. However, in “The Gift of Magi”, the two just want to make each other happy. They sacrifice some of their treasured belongings just to give each other gifts. In essence, they’re trying to make each other happy and Mathilde is only trying to please herself.
A major similarity is the pride. Both couples could have saved themselves an immense amount of sacrifice and grief if they weren’t so prideful. The Youngs, are not capable of buying each other gifts but will not admit it. They don’t take a second to think before giving away sentimental items for gifts. The Loisels, on the other hand, have a larger amount of issues related to this. From the beginning Mathilde was described as a very prideful woman. This pride dominates her life, making her miserable when she has to save for years instead of just telling Mme. Forestier she lost the necklace. In neither case did they consider acting differently. It seem this might be because both couples were to absorbed in the external world, if though it may not have been as obvious in “The Gift of Magi”.
In both of these stories

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