If the author of "The Gift of the Magi" had made the reader aware of the gift that Jim had purchased in the beginning of the story, this would be an example of

Dramatic irony occurs when readers know something important that a character does not. If readers learned at the beginning that Jim had bought a gift, while Della remained unaware, that difference in knowledge would create dramatic irony. Situational irony instead involves an unexpected outcome, not simply a reader knowing more than a character.

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