How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Paragraph)
Quote #1
Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. (1)
To get money for Jim's present, Della has already had to make sacrifices: she's had to embarrass herself in front of various people by being a penny-pincher. All to get a measly $1.87.
Quote #2
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. (6)
Again, we see that Della has already been sacrificing. She's been carefully saving whatever money she can get, and probably depriving herself of various smaller expenditures to do so.
Quote #3
Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. Her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length. (8)
This sudden "whirl" of Della's seems to be the moment in the story at which she first comes up with the idea of selling her hair. That's why she goes to the mirror – to have a look at it one last time. We wonder if she's ever contemplated this possibility before. She seems more excited by the possibility of giving Jim a gift than sad at the thought of losing her hair.
Quote #4
And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet. (10)
Della's not unaffected by her plan. She's nervous about it, and she sheds a couple of tears. In spite of her love for Jim, losing her hair isn't easy for her, since she's so fond of it. This is really the only indication in the story we get of that. Is she still considering what to do at this point, or has she already made up her mind?
Quote #5
On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door and down the stairs to the street. (11)
Again we get an indication (with her whirling, and sparkling eyes) that Della is more excited at the thought of sacrificing her hair than down in the dumps about it. This is also the point in the text where it's clear that Della's made the decision to go through with the plan.
Quote #6
Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically (21)
Della's not only lost the single valuable thing she had to sell, and the thing of which she was most proud. She's actually affected her own looks, and potentially made herself unattractive to Jim. Does that make her sacrifice perhaps a greater one than Jim's?
Quote #7
"If Jim doesn't kill me," she said to herself, "before he takes a second look at me, he'll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do--oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty- seven cents?" (22)
What seems to be hard for Della about the sacrifice she made is not that she misses her hair, but that she's worried about how she'll appear to Jim. Even in this regard, her thoughts are primarily on him.
Quote #8
"Dell," said he, "let's put our Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while. They're too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on." (44)
Jim reveals here that he's made the same sacrifice as Della. Just like her, he doesn't seem to be terribly troubled by the sacrifice itself, nor even at its unexpected results. He just appears calm and happy.
Quote #9
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. (45)
The narrator weighs in here with his final pronouncement on Jim and Della's sacrifice. He first calls it foolish. Why? Perhaps it's "foolish" because we often call things "foolish" which are against our own self-interest, and Jim and Della's actions were certainly that. Perhaps also it was foolish to give up something so special and personal – the watch was a family heirloom, the hair was a part of Della herself (they were "the treasures of the house") – to buy something more generic (neither of the things they bought had any intrinsic connection to Jim or Della).
Quote #10
But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. (45)
Now the narrator seemingly contradicts himself and calls their act "wise." Why does he say this? To give "wisely" could mean that you get the point of giving. This raises the question: what's the purpose of giving? Is it to please the other person? To show love? Or is the meaning of giving determined by how much of a sacrifice it is?