The Eight Themes that O'Henry uses are:

when work by a Russian author was a rarity. Perhaps this is not so much in the context of history of literature as in that of the history of the Russian reader and publisher, granted the possibility of such a history. For some reason, the unawareness of the name O. Henry existed until 1923, although he had died back in 1910 and during the years preceding his death was one of the most popular and beloved authors in America. The Gift of the Magi written by O. Henry is a little drama of mutual self-sacrifice between husband and wife that encapsulates what the world in all its stored-up wisdom knows to be indispensable or ordinary family life. Unselfish love shared, regardless of the attendant difficulties or distractions, is the idea implied again as a major criterion in the treatment of domestic affairs. In The Gift of the Magi O. Henry's style of narration is invariably ironic or playful. His writing is studded with metaphors but only for the purpose of amusement with the unexpectedness of the comparisons made - a surprise of a literary nature: "Her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds."  "Della's beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters."  In the narrative and descriptive passages of The Gift of the Magi, O. Henry enters into a conversation with us, the readers, making no point of arousing in us an illusion of direct contact or of reality but rather forever emphasizing his role as the writer. Therefore, conducting the story not from the standpoint of an impersonal commentator but from that of his own person, he brings in an outside narrator. Given such a system of narration, dialogue stands out with particular relief and takes on a substantial share of the effect of plot and style. The conversations of the characters have a direct connection with the plot and with the role of the character. They are rich in intonations and ambiguous in some special way. The Gift of the Magi is a love story built-in in the most traditional way but some details are added. In this story it is a comic detail which is not directly connected with love but which, at the same time, turns out to be the fundamental detail for the plot. Love plays the simple motivation for creating the intrigue. O. Henry's pervasive tendency to lay bare the construction of the story and subject  the plot to a parody play, the unexpectedness of his ending acquires a special meaning in The Gift of the Magi. By itself, the surprise effect is a common feature of both the novel and the short story. In O. Henry's story this quality of the unexpected constitutes the very heart of the construction and bears a perfectly specific character. The ending of the story The Gift of the Magi is merely a surprise or contrary to expectation, it appears in a sort of a lateral way, as if popping out from around the corner; and it is only then that we, the readers, realize that certain details here and there had hinted the possibility of such an ending. But why is it a masterpiece? Not because it tries to take us into the home of a married couple attempting to exist in our largest city on the husband's income of $20 per week. It is the writers double-surprise technique. This is the surprise of parody, a trick surprise which plays on our literary expectation The Gift of the Magi | Introduction The Gift of the Magi" is one of O. Henry's most famous stories. Included in The Four Million, his first collection of short stories, in 1906, it has been anthologized many times since then. The story contains many of the elements for which O. Henry is widely known, including poor, working-class characters, a humorous tone, realistic detail, and a surprise ending. A major reason given for its enduring appeal is its affirmation of unselfish love. Such love, the story and its title suggest, is like the gifts given by the wise men, called magi, who brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the newborn Jesus. Compare and Contrast Essay :Many short stories have similarities, and differences such as the two short stories. "The Gift  the Magi" by O'Henry, and" The Girls in Their Summer Dresses"by Irwin Shaw are similar because they both are about the lives of a married couple, but different in their problems within their relationships. "The Gift of the Magi" is about a couple named Della and Jim Dillingham. It is Christmas time and Della only has $1.87 to buy Jim her husband a present, but she wants to get him something nice to show her love for him. There's only two things that's sacred to Jim is his grandfather's watch and Della's hair. Della sells her hair for $20 to buy Jim a platinum fob chain, and Jim brought Della a set of beautiful combs, pure tortoise-shell, with jeweled rims. The irony within there relationship is that she know longer needs the combs because she don't have hair and he know longer have the watch so he don't need the fob chain.The Girls in Their Summer Dresses is about a married couple name Michael and Frances Loomis, it takes place in 5th Avenue in Washington Square on a November Sunday morning in NYC. Michael has a problem of looking at other ladies and then telling his wife Frances what he likes about them. Frances gets frustrated and tells Michael that she don't like it when he looks at other women, he tells she is the only one for him and he love her and only he, and that he shares his ups and downs with her. That the only reason he looks at other woman is because he feels is part of his nature. The story is about relationships is stating that relationships are tough because even though Michael's wife told him she don't want him looking at other women he still does, but he knows that he have to sacrifice that to saved his marriage.They are similar because thier both about married couples, where one of the couples make a sacrifice to make the other happy such as Michael gives up looking at other women to make his wife happy in "The Girls in Their Summer Dresses". Della have hair cut to buy her husband a present in "The Gift of The Magi". Their different in the way their story lines are told and the way the problems are solved. I think in both stories it was good that couples made sacrifices because it shows what love is really about. O. Henry said "There are stories in everything. I've got some of my best yarns from park benches, lampposts, and newspaper stands."