Clearly conflict is one of the major ingredients in this
excellent short story, which is normally used to teach irony in schools. The major
source of external conflict that Della faces is against
poverty:
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... Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy
hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare
and sterling - something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honour of being
owned by Jim.
Della thus
faces a conflict of how she is going to buy the present she wants to buy for her
husband, whom she loves so much.
The internal conflict that
Della faces is when she wants to sell her hair to gain the money to be able to buy the
present for Jim. Note how the text describes this internal
battle:
So now
Della's beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown
waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then she
did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still
while a tear of two splashed on the worn red
carpet.
The tears of course
are evidence of the cost of this conflict, as she chooses to sacrifice her one
possession in which she took "mighty pride" for the sake of her husband, so that she can
buy him the present that she wants for Christmas.
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