Narratological Interpretation Referring to O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi”

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Introduction

Narratology should be viewed as a specific discipline, the purpose of which is to examine different elements in a text as a narrative with a focus on its unique structure. In this context, a literary text becomes perceived as a narrative discourse or the description of a series of events to represent a certain story or a plot through accentuating actions performed by the characters of a story. Thus, the scope and nature of the narratological interpretation can be discussed as limited by different researchers’ visions regarding narrative structures to examine and narrative components to pay attention to (Genette 1980: 2-9). From this perspective, the thematic or textual content of any narrative as the presentation of sequences of different events is usually influenced and formed by narrative structures.

While referring to O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi,” it is possible to state that this work can be viewed as a traditional textual narrative representing its key elements in a clear manner. A closer analysis of the text and its narratological interpretation allows for concluding that this literary work is a typical example of a narrative. The purpose of this paper is to provide the discussion of different approaches to narratological interpretation with reference to theorists’ and researchers’ views and illustrate the details of the analysis referring to O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” as a narrative.

Nature and Scope of Narratological Interpretation and the Idea of a Narrative Discourse

Many researchers tried to define a narrative in the context of narratology to explain the subject of examination and analysis. Thus, a narrative is a recollection of events (a story) that can be narrated in different forms, and there are also various modes of expression (a discourse) (Genette 1980: 5-14). Some narratologists limited the definition of a narrative to representing only past events in these types of literary texts (Cobley 2014: 212-215). The focus on discourse and a story provoked the development of two traditions and directions in narratology: discourse narratology and story narratology (Culler 1981: 170-172). Culler (1981: 186) noted that “Analysis of narrative depends … on the distinction between story and discourse, and this distinction always involves a relation of dependency.” In this context, according to Culler (1981: 186), discourse narratology identifies stylistic and pragmatic features in a narrative text with a focus on the way it is expressed. Story narratology concentrates on examining a plot, themes, and events that “employ” this story. This idea was also actively discussed in the work by White (1981: 2-18). Thus, “emplotment” is an important feature of narratives to be analyzed.

In any way, a narrative is associated with presenting a certain story by a narrator with the help of specific linguistic tools. From this perspective, in narratives, it is important to pay attention to the ways of transferring the text with the plot and meaning to readers with the help of linguistic means. Following the ideas by Barthes (1977, 1966: 109), it is important to identify an act of narrative communication with a focus on the donor of this narrative and the receiver of information. Thus, the forms of textual narratives differ significantly from musical narratives or visual narratives.

One of the main features that allow for distinguishing narratives from other literary forms is the recounting of events in a sequence, and these described events become closely linked to each other. This specific feature of narratives explains the determination of the following components of this discourse: a plot, a viewpoint, time, and a described logical sequence of events. This definition comes from the ideas of different researchers regarding the nature and characteristics of narratives (Barthes 1977, 1966; Culler 1981). Thus, according to Genette (1980: 25), a narrative or a narrative discourse refers “to the succession of events, real or fictitious, that are the subjects of this discourse, and to their several relations of linking, opposition, repetition.” If a logical sequence of events in telling a story is accentuated by a narrator, it is possible to speak about a narrative.

A more developed definition and vision of narratives were formulated by Miller. According to Miller (1990: 75), the key components of a narrative include “an initial situation, a sequence leading to a change of reversal of that situation, and a revelation made possible by the reversal of situation … there must be some use of personification whereby character is created out of signs.” One more required element is “some patterning or repetition of elements surrounding a nuclear figure or complex word” (Miller 1990: 75). The school of Russian Formalists had their own interpretation of levels and components in narratives, identifying the level of a story as representing the argument and characters and the level of discourse, representing tenses and modes (Barthes 1977, 1966: 87). Referring to these definitions and discussions presented by different researchers, it is possible to identify the following essential components of a narrative: the voice, focalization or point of view, situation, plot, and time.

The focus on a voice is important for analyzing a narrative. Genette (1980) proposed the classification based on determining whether a narrator is homodiegetic, autodiegetic, or heterodiegetic. A homodiegetic narrator acts as a character in a story, an autodiegetic narrator is a protagonist of a story, and a heterodiegetic narrator does not act in a story. Other researchers determined only two categories, without distinguishing between homodiegetic and autodiegetic narrators.

Focalization means the perspective or mood for presenting story events. It is another concept that was proposed by Genette (1980). Zero focalization is associated with an omniscient narrator who knows more than all characters. External focalization is associated with representing a story without involving a narrator’s point of view as he or she knows less than a character. Internal focalization is associated with representing events from a character’s perspective. A narrative situation is another important component that explains the situation of narrating a story that determines the features of a final product. The plot component is not determined by many researchers, and they chose to focus on a sequence of events and the idea of action. Finally, time in a narrative can be represented as narrative past and present tenses, order, duration, and frequency identified by Genette (1980), as well as fictional, narrative, and real-time.

In addition to unique components, researchers also distinguished between the features of narratives. These features include narrativity, sequentiality, the presence of a narrator, the recollection of events (Barthes 1977, 1966; Miller 1990). In order to determine whether a text is a narrative, it is important to focus on finding these listed features. Narrativity, in this case, means a particular quality of a narrative to identify it among other texts. According to White (1981: 23), the “value attached to narrativity in the representation of real events arises out of a desire to have real events display the coherence, integrity, fullness, and closure of an image of life that is and can only be imaginary.” Sequentiality, the focus on a narrator, and the approaches to recollecting events were also widely discussed in researchers’ works, but each theorist had a specific interpretation of these notions.

There are also different genres of narratives because they cannot be viewed only as representing when type and category. According to Barthes (1977, 1966), there are numerous types or genres of narratives that need to be taken into account. Thus, “Among the vehicles of narrative are articulated language, whether oral or written, pictures, still or moving, gestures, and an ordered mixture of all those substances” (Barthes 1977, 1966: 237). Furthermore, the “narrative is present in myth, legend, fables, tales, short stories, epic history, tragedy, drama [suspense drama], comedy, pantomime, paintings (in Santa Ursula by Carpaccio, for instance), stained-glass windows, movies, local news, conversation” (Barthes 1977, 1966: 237). This classification is viewed as most complete, and other researchers included its elements in their vision and discussion of narrative genres (Miller 1990). However, Brooks (1984: 4) did not limit a view of a narrative to a specific genre: “narrative, in fact, seems to hold a special place among literary forms – as something more than a conventional ‘genre’ – because of its potential for summary and retransmission.” Thus, it is possible to state that researchers have dissimilar views regarding genres related to narratives.

Having reviewed the ideas of different researchers regarding the concept of narrative, it is important to make certain conclusions on the specific features and components of a narrative as a result of narration. Narratives in their different forms and genres can be found in different situations when texts are narrated, including the pieces of literature, the recollection of events, descriptions, explanations, and conversations. In order to understand whether the discussed text is a narrative, it is necessary to answer the question of whether this text tells a story with sequential events and whether there is a narrator to produce a discourse through the mode of expression. Researchers proposed to distinguish such basic components of narratives as the voice or narration, focalization or a point of view of a narrator, a specific narrative situation, a plot, and a certain time (Cobley 2014; Culler 1981; Genette 1980). Additionally, a narrative is characterized by narrativity, sequentiality, the presence of an obvious or hidden narrator, and the recollection of events in a sequence.

If these components and features of a narrative are recognized, it is possible to speak about a real narrative. It should be further analyzed from the perspectives of discourse narratology and story narratology in order to discuss all its elements and characteristics. From this point of view, the scope of narratology can be discussed with reference to analyzing the key components, genres, and features of a narrative to be further illustrated in this paper with the help of examples from “The Gift of the Magi.”

Narratological Analysis of “The Gift of the Magi” as a Narrative

The discussed theoretical concepts and ideas presented by different researchers in the field of narratology need to be applied to the analysis and interpretation of O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi.” This short story was published in 1905, and it is about Mr. James (Jim) Dillingham Young and his wife Della. The described events happened before Christmas, and both Jim and Della wanted to buy perfect presents for each other, but they have rather limited finances. Realizing that Jim loved his gold watch, Della buys a perfect chain for the watch after selling her long hair. When Jim comes home, he becomes upset seeing Della, who cut her hair, but the real reason for sadness is that he sold his gold watch in order to purchase beautiful combs for Della’s hair and please his wife (O. Henry 2015). It is necessary to analyze this story focusing on the genre, components, and features of a narrative.

“The Gift of the Magi” is a narrative because the textual message of O. Henry as a narrator is transferred to the reader with the help of a plot, a specific sequence of events, a certain viewpoint, and time frames. In this context, this narrative represents the genre of a short story (Barthes 1977, 1966), and it is a recollection of sequential events with the determined “emplotment” (White 1981: 2-18). The donor of this narrative is the author of a short story (O. Henry) and the receiver of information is a reader. According to Genette (1980: 213), much attention should be paid to the voice of the narrator, which should be viewed as “the mode of action” and the “sign of subjectivity in language.” In “The Gift of the Magi,” a narrator is heterodiegetic, so he does not act directly as a character in this story. From this perspective, this text can be analyzed in the context of story narratology with a focus on the representation of events in their sequence and as the narration of this particular narrative by a narrator – a narrative discourse.

The next component to analyze with reference to “The Gift of the Magi” is focalization or mood. This term was developed by Genette (1980: 189) in order to discuss a point of view in narratives. In the short story under analysis, zero focalization is used, and the narrator is omniscient as readers learn about the events in Jim and Della’s life from an outside perspective of a narrator who is not involved in the story.

A narrative situation is another important component of a narrative to discuss. This situation is created with the help of recollecting the events from Jim and Della’s life by the narrator. There are two perspectives of the narration in this literary piece: the narration of the author (O. Henry) to the reader and dialogues between the characters within the story that can be used to create a narrative situation (Genette 1980). However, it is important to note that a narrative situation related to the relations of the author and the reader is complete when dialogues presented in the text lack some important components of a narrative to be discussed in detail in this paper.

The plot is one of the most important components of a narrative. According to Ricoeur, “a story is made out of events to the extent that plot makes events into a story” (qtd. in Brooks 1984: 14). Thus, the plot was determined as the key notion in narratology by many theorists, including Brooks, Genette, Miller, and Ricoeur among others. The events that compose the plot in “The Gift of the Magi” are sequential: the story starts from describing how Della counts her family’s money: “Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty- seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas” (O. Henry 2015: 1). Then, the narrator tells how Della “attended to her cheeks with the powder rag” and “stood by the window” (O. Henry 2015: 2). After that, Della “whirled from the window and stood before the glass” (O. Henry 2015: 2). Thus, a reader can focus on a narrator’s story and follow Della’s actions step by step.

While following a narrator’s story, a reader has an opportunity to learn the whole path made by Della, from deciding to cut her hair to presenting the chain for the watch to Jim and focusing on his reaction. Thus, the plot of “The Gift of the Magi” is centered on narrating the events of one day in Jim and Della’s life: Christmas Eve. The main focus is on describing the events that occurred with Della, and Jim’s actions and thoughts are not presented by the narrator. Recollecting the sequence of events, the narrator describes Della’s day in much detail, with an emphasis on her thoughts, feelings, and dialogues. This aspect can be explained with reference to Brooks (1984: 12): “plots are not simply organizing structures, they are also intentional structures, goal-oriented, and forward-moving.” This idea allows for concluding that it was the narrator’s intention to organize the plot with a focus on Della as the main character to accentuate the woman’s path to buying a present for her husband, as well as all the associated feelings.

Such a component of a narrative as time should also be discussed in detail with a focus on researchers’ ideas and examples from “The Gift of the Magi”. According to Genette (1980), there are the storytime and the narrative time that differ in the fact that the storytime is related to the described events, and the narrative time is related to the act of narration. However, the researcher also notes that it is necessary to determine the real and fictional time to analyze narratives.

The time inside the text of “The Gift of the Magi” is the storytime (fictional) that can be identified with the help of several important phrases. They are the following ones: “One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas,” “Tomorrow would be Christmas Day,” “At 7 o’clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to cook the chops” (O. Henry 2015: 1-3). The narrator emphasizes several times that the next day for the characters will be Christmas Day, and the problem Jim and Della of the story face is the lack of money to purchase products for each other. It is important to note that this situation caused by this specific time of the year motivates the characters to take certain actions and determines the path for events in the story.

The narrative time is associated with the period when the story is narrated, and in this case, it is the time when a reader is reading “The Gift of the Magi”. The real-time in this case should be viewed from two perspectives: the time when the story was written and published (1905-1906) and the time when any reader is reading it. Similar views regarding the concept of time in narratives are also shared by other researchers and theorists who support Genette’s views.

When analyzing “The Gift of the Magi” as a narrative, it is also necessary to focus on such key features of this type of text as narrativity, sequentiality, the presence of a narrator, and the recollection of events. Narrativity is observed in the story through the situation of narrating certain events that are united in a plot. Sequentiality is also present in this text because all the events are described in chronological order (Genette 1980). The narrator is present in “The Gift of the Magi” as the third person omniscient that contributes to describing the situation and conflict in much detail. The realization of these features in the text guarantees the recollection of events to conclude that this story is a narrative.

Conclusion

The narratological analysis of “The Gift of the Magi” indicates that this short story has all the features and components of narratives. The analysis of the text has been conducted with a focus on the narratological interpretation of the complex theory regarding narratives. It should be noted here that there are many diverse views and ideas promoted by researchers on the question of narratives. However, many theorists share similar ideas that have been taken as the basis for the analysis of “The Gift of the Magi” in this paper.

Works Cited

Barthes, Roland. 1977 (1966). “Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative.” In Image – Music – Text, edited and translated by Stephen Heath, 79-124. London: Fontana.

Brooks, Peter. 1984. Reading for the Plot: Design and Intention in Narrative. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cobley, Paul. 2014. Narrative. 2nd ed. New York and London: Routledge.

Culler, Jonathan. 1981. The Pursuit of Signs: Semiotics, Literature, Deconstruction. London: Routledge.

Genette, Gérard. 1980. Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method. Translated by Jane E. Lewin. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Miller, J. Hillis. 1990. “Narrative.” In Critical Terms for Literary Study, edited by Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin, 66–79. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

O. Henry. 2015. The Gift of the Magi. New York: Diversion Books.

White, Hayden.1981. “The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality.” In On Narrative, edited by W. J. T. Mitchell, 1-23. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

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