The Address By Marga Minco

MAIN POINTS: ·

Marga Minco is the narrator. She was a girl of fifteen or seve-:een.

Her family was Jewish and Hitler was planning to kill all the Jews in
Germany, Holland, Austria, etc..

· The war led to exodus of Jewish families towards safer places. They
were forced to abandon their homes and belongings.

· This short story is a touching account of a daughter who goes ir

search of her mothers's belongings after the War, in Holland. XI –
English

· When she finds them, the objects evoke memories of her old life
However she decides to leave them all behind and resolves to move
on

· A lady named Dorling comes to Mrs. S's house to give pre-war info
to Mrs. S.

· The narrator happens to meet Mrs. Dorling on one of her visits to

her house and remembers her taking away a suitcase full of their
belongings.

· Mrs. S tells her daughter that Mrs. Dorling has good intentions of
keeping their belongings safe during the war time. She has offered to
help the narrator's family by carrying their house hold utensils,
furniture and all the other valuables.

· When the war was over and the Jews were feeling safe in these
countries, Marga (the narrator) returned to her house (which was no
more!) and lived in a small hut. She has lost her mother and misses
her dearly.

· One day, Marga thinks of the woman (Mrs. Dorling) who had taken
all her possessions. She recalls her address - 46, Marconi Street and
goes to the address by train.

· Mrs. Dorling opens the door and is surprised to see the narrator.
When the narrator introduces herself she refuses to recognize her.
Perhaps Mrs. Dorling was not expecting that she would ever return
after the war.

· On the other hand, the narrator recognizes the woolen cardigan

which Mrs. Dorling was wearing as it belonged to her mother.

· Marga was terribly pinched, hurt, disappointed and betrayed by the

behavior of Mrs. Dorling. Anyhow, the first visit ends on a sad note. ·
She grew impatient after a while and decided to visit Mrs. Dorling
once again.

· When she rang the bell at house number 46, Mrs. Dorling's daughte-
meets the narrator and offers her a cup of tea. Marga goes inside.

· She recognizes many articles that once belonged to her mother but
were now being used in a distasteful manner by the Dorling family.

· Marga is hurt and disgusted at the shrewdness of Mrs. Dorling. She

loses the desire of taking back her mother's belongings as they evoke
sad memories of the war and painful loss of the mother in her heart.

· She resolves to forget the address and move on in life.

QUESTION ANSWERS
Q.1. Why did the narrator go to Mrs. Dorling's house?

Ans. The narrator went to Mrs. Dorling's house to collect her

valuable belongings which her mother had given to her during war
time. She wanted to renew her past memories.

Q.2. Why was the narrator confident that she had reached the
correct address?

Ans. The narrator remembered the house No. 46. She recognised her
sweater with its buttons. On seeing her cardigan with Mrs. Dorling,
she was confident that she had reached the correct address.

Q.3. How did Mrs. Dorling's daughter treat the narrator?

Ans. Unlike Mrs. Dorling, the daughter invited the narrator inside her
house. She offered her a cup of tea.

Q.4. Why did the narrator decide not to collect her belongings?

Ans. The narrator was disappointed after recognising her belongings

in a stance and dirty environment. She didn't feel comfortable on
seeing all those valuable articles in Mrs. Dorling's house.

Q.5. Why did the narrator's mother ask her to remember the
address by heart?

Ans. The narrator's mother asked her to remember the address by

heart because she gave a number of household valuable articles to
Mrs. Dorling during the war time. She thought that her daughter
would collect all that after the war was over.

Q6.Why did the narrator go to Number 46, Marconi Street?

Ans: This was the address of Mrs. Dorling, the woman who had
carried the valuable items from the narrator’s mother to her home
giving assurance to keep them in her safe custody during war time.
Before dying narrator’s mother gave this address to the narrator. So
the narrator went there to claim the belongings of her mother.

Q7. “I was in a room I knew and did not know”, says the narrator
in the story ‘The Address’. What prompted her to make this
observation?

Ans: The narrator found her in the midst of things she was familiar
with and which she did not want to see again. However, she found
these things in a strange atmosphere where everything was lying in a
tasteless manner. The ugly furniture and the muggy smell created the
feeling as if, she did not know the room.

Q8. “Of all the things I had to forget, that would be the easiest.”
What does the speaker mean by ‘that’? What is its significance in
the story?

Ans: The word “That” here stands for ‘the address’ of Mrs. Dorling
i.e., Number 46 Marconi Street. The story moves around the address
which is also the title of the story. It is significant because, the address
was very important for the narrator in the beginning of the story
although, at the end she resolves to forget it as she wants to break off
with the painful past and move on with the present into the future.
LONG QUESTION ANSWERS

1. The story is divided into pre-War and post-War times. What

hardships do you think the girl underwent during these times?
Ans: The story is based on the pre-War and post-War period. The
family of the girl was rich before the war and they had valuable
possessions in their house. When the war started, Mrs. Dorling
established contact with them and started visiting them again. She
started taking the possessions with her whenever she would visit as
she believed if they would leave the place, such things should not be
wasted. The girl suffered a lot, her mother died and she had to live in
a rented place. She found it really difficult to go back to the place
where her childhood was spent and she wanted her belongings back.
When she went to meet Mrs. Dorling, she noticed how the things
were arranged in a tasteless manner. She could no longer connect to
them and she lost her interest in them and partly she was afraid. The
girl finally decided to leave the house and forget the address.
 
3. Why did the narrator of the story want to forget the address?
Ans: Mrs. Dorling kept the valuable items in her house until the war
was over as she didn’t want them to lose during the war in case they
decided to leave the place. Her mother gave her the address of Mrs.
Dorling ’46, Marconi Street’. She remembered the address and
decided to visit her anyway. She was afraid to visit the place again as
it brought back many past memories. When she saw all the
possessions, they were arranged in a tasteless manner and she lost
interest in them. She could not connect with the things and thought
that she would not stay at the house any longer, she would destroy the
good memories she had with those items. She finally decided to forget
the address and not to go back to that place.
 
4. ‘The Address’ is a story of human predicament that follows
war. Comment.
Ans: The war always brings a lot of suffering to human beings. It
brings them both destruction and death. ‘The Address’ is based on the
same theme. During the war, all the belongings were taken by Mrs.
Dorling who promised to keep them safe. The mother of the
protagonist died and all the possessions were left with the
acquaintance. Years later the girl decided to visit the house whose
address was given by her mother years ago. The woman showed no
sympathy to her and took the time to even recognize her. She thought
everyone in her family had died. The girl wanted to take back her
belongings. She didn’t allow the girl to enter the house. She seemed
like a woman who didn’t have any human emotions. So, the war
leaves the world desolated and it cannot be healed.

5. Who is Mrs. Dorling? Do you justify her behaviour in the

story?

Ans: Mrs. Dorling is an acquaintance of Mrs. S, the narrator’s mother.

In the story Mrs. Dorling exploits Mrs. S’s fears and insecurity during
the war. She insists Mrs. S and took away all her valuable things after
giving assurance that she would keep them safe until the war was
over. In fact, Mrs. Dorling had no intentions of returning the
valuables as she was sure that Mrs. S and her family would not
survive the war. So when the narrator, Mrs. S’s daughter, went to
Mrs. Dorling’s house to claim those articles to which her mother’s
precious memories were associated, she even pretended not to
recognize her. In stead of returning those articles to the narrator, she
shamelessly used them which actually belonged to the narrator’s
mother and also behaved rudely to the narrator. So, in the context of
the above Mrs. Dorling’s behaviour can not be justified.

6. Why did the narrator of the story “The Address” feel that she
had rung the wrong bell? How was she then assured that she was
at the right place?

Ans: When the narrator rung the door bell, a woman appeared half-
hidden by the door. She refused to recognize the narrator even though
she was told that the narrator was Mrs. S’s daughter. This made the
narrator think that she had rung the wrong bell.

But the woman remarked ‘Have you come back? I thought that no one
had come back.’ indicated her recognizing the narrator. Also when the
narrator saw the lady wearing her mother’s knitted green cardigan, the
narrator got assured that the lady was Mrs. Dorling and she was at the
right place.

7. Comment on the significance of the title of the story ‘The

Address’.  OR,  Justify the title of the short story “The Address”.

Answer: Marga Minco very aptly titled the story ‘The Address’. The
narrator and her mother were victims of war. They had to flee from
their house leaving all their nice belongings with Mrs. Dorling after
getting an assurance from her for the safe custody of those things
during the war. The narrator’s mother had told the address of Mrs.
Dorling 46, Marconi Street to her daughter before she died during the
war. When the war was over the narrator came back and went to Mrs.
Dorling’s address in search of those ‘nice things’ with which the fond
memories of her mother were associated. But when the narrator
reached there, she found all those things were lying in a very tasteless
manner. Mrs. Dorling even pretends not to recognize her nor did she
show any intention of returning those articles which she was using
shamelessly.

Sadly then the narrator feels this address has no meaning at all as the
precious memories of the true owner were no longer cherished at their
new address. The narrator in the end resolves to forget 46, Marconi
Street forever. Hence, the title The Address is quite appropriate and
bears a definite meaning for the story.