In O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi," despite loving her long hair, Della cuts it and sells it. What motivated her to take this step?

Question

Jaqueline · Answer

Her motivation could be her love for her husband, their poverty, or her love for giving. All would be great answers

supie · Answer

This is kind of un-answerable because you didn't post `The Gift of the Magi` 
We can't know what motivated her to cut the hair that she loved unless you looked it up or read the passage yourself. 
All I can say is that the thing that motivated her to do it had to be something that she loved more than her hair. It could also be something that she wanted more than her hair, or something that she cared about more than her hair, or something that she needed more than her hair, just something that was better than her hair in her opinion, she could have loved the person/thing more than her hair, she could have cared about the person/thing more than her hair, she could have wanted the person/thing more than her hair, she could have needed the person/thing more than her hair.  These all can be reasons for her to cut her hair. She obviously didn't `love/care about` it more than anything in the world.