Page 160 - DENG202_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_III

Unit 12: A Lickpenny Lover by O Henry

In the introduction to The World of O Henry: Roads of Destiny and Other Stories (Hodder & Notes
Stoughton, 1973),William Trevor writes that when Porter was in the Ohio State Penitentiary
“there was a prison guard named Orrin Henry, whom William Sydney Porter . . .
immortalised as O Henry”.
The writer and scholar Guy Davenport offers another explanation: “The pseudonym that
he began to write under in prison is constructed from the first two letters of Ohio and the
second and last two of penitentiary.”

Source: http://englishpapers.org/samples/essay-about-ohenry.html
12.2 Analysis of O Henry’s Writing Style

Authors of short stories use elements of style to make their stories interesting. There are many
elements of style used by authors. Irony and theme are often used in short stories. This is clearly
shown in O Henry’s short stories such as: “The Gift of the Magi,” “The Lickpenny Lover,”
“The Midsummer Knights Dream,” “The Cop and the Anthem” and “Ships.” The short stories of
O Henry use the element of theme to bring about ironic endings.
In “The Gift of the Magi”, there are elements of theme throughout the entire story. One example
of theme in the story is that poverty affected both the main characters Jim and Della. Jim and
Della both lived in a poor neighbourhood with very little money. They both wanted to get each
other a very meaningful Christmas present. Another element of theme in this story is that Jim
and Della realize how much they love each other. Eugene Garcia fines that “In this trite little tale
of mutual self-sacrifice between husband and wife, O Henry crystallized dramatically what the
world in all its stored up wisdom knows to be of fundamental value in ordinary family life”(short
story criticisms 192). The theme of this story should always be kept in mind that love is more
important than money.
Another example of an element of style is irony. Each person selling something valuable to
them shows irony in “The Gift of the Magi”. Della had only saved up one dollar and eighty-seven
cents to get Jim a Christmas present. Since she did not have enough money she went to a store
and sold her hair. Jim at the same time went to a store to sell his watch for money for Della. They
both got each other gifts with the money they had gotten from selling their items. The gifts that
they sold each had something to do with what they had gotten each other. Della had gotten Jim
a medallion for his watch, while Jim had gotten Della beautiful combs for her hair. Arthur Voss
finds that it is ironic in “O Henry’s famous story of the young married couple, each of whom
sells a treasured possession to obtain money to buy a Christmas present for the other”.
The ironic conclusion of the story is that both Della and Jim were unable to use the gifts they had
gotten each other.
The short story “A Lickpenny Lover” had a similar theme to “The Gift of the Magi.” The
reoccurring theme in “A Lickpenny Lover” was that money was not everything. Masie is a
young shop girl who is attractive and hardworking. Irving Carter a millionaire asks Masie on a
date. He had tried to impress her with his money. Instead, Masie did not think of Carter as a
different person because of the money he had. She still saw him as a regular man who asked her
on a date. Masie saw Carter as a wealthy man who did not like to use his money. Masie on the
other hand did not like him more instead, she liked him less for not being more generous with it.

Irony had played a big role in the story “A Lickpenny Lover.” One example of irony that occurs
often was the misunderstanding of honest love. Garcia stated that in the story “Maize is incapable
of knowing honest love from dishonest, and she is in consequence one of his least interesting
women” (short story criticisms 193). When Masie was asked by Carter to get married, she did
not take him seriously. Garcia thought that “Masie even with her eyes open, rejects, her wealthy
suitor because she thinks that his promise to take her to faraway places only means that he

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