1. Unit at a glance
- Contains only the short story “The Address” by Marga Minco (no poem).
- Narrated in first person by a young woman who returns after the War to reclaim her mother’s possessions.
- Central situation: the daughter visits Mrs Dorling at Number 46, Marconi Street, to see the stored belongings.
- Key tension: objects that once held personal value now feel alien in a stranger’s house.
- Resolution: the narrator chooses to forget the address and move on.
- Common theme: the emotional aftermath of war, memory, and the decision to let go of the past.
2. Prose
Summary
A daughter, returning after the War, goes to Mrs Dorling’s house to retrieve her mother’s belongings that had been taken for safekeeping. On her second visit she sees the familiar objects arranged in an unfamiliar setting. Overwhelmed, she realises she no longer wants them and resolves to forget the address.
Setting
Post-War Holland; the story moves between the narrator’s wartime memory of her home and Mrs Dorling’s house at Number 46, Marconi Street.
Main characters
- Narrator: the daughter who seeks her mother’s things but ultimately decides to leave them behind.
- Mother: a woman who, during the War, allowed Mrs Dorling to take her belongings for safekeeping.
- Mrs Dorling: an old acquaintance who collected the narrator’s mother’s silver, vases and furniture and stored them in her own home.
- Mrs Dorling’s daughter: a fifteen-year-old girl who lets the narrator in and shows her the objects.
Sequence of key events
- Narrator rings the bell at Number 46; Mrs Dorling denies knowing her at first, then reluctantly admits her.
- Flashback: mother explains that Mrs Dorling has been taking silver, plates and vases to save them.
- Narrator recalls being given the address “Marconi Street, Number 46”.
- First visit fails; she returns a second time.
- Inside the house she recognises the woollen table-cloth with the burn mark, the white tea-pot with the gold border and the pewter plate with the apple.
- She talks with the daughter, hears the spoons and forks jingling, then leaves abruptly.
- Walking away, she decides the objects have lost their value and resolves to forget the address.
3. Poem
No poem is present in this unit.
4. Themes and messages
The writer shows that after war, familiar objects can become painful reminders rather than sources of comfort. The narrator’s final thought—“I resolved to forget the address”—illustrates the need to release the past in order to live in the present.
5. Literary devices
- Irony: “Have you come back?” said the woman. “I thought that no one had come back.”
- Imagery: “the woollen table-cloth… Somewhere on the edge there should be a burn mark that had never been repaired.”
- Contrast: the same objects that once belonged to the narrator’s home now look “tasteless” and oppressive in Mrs Dorling’s room.
- Symbolism: the jingling spoons and forks at the end represent the final, unwanted connection with the past.
6. Vocabulary
- chink: narrow opening
- musty: stale, damp smell
- reprovingly: with mild disapproval
- Hanukkah candle-holder: ceremonial Jewish lamp (explained in text)
- severed: cut off, separated
- black-out paper: wartime window covering
7. Exam pitfalls
- Confusing the two visits: the first is unsuccessful; the second allows her to see the objects.
- Assuming the mother survived the War (the text only shows she is absent after the War).
- Writing that the narrator takes the things home—she leaves without them.
- Forgetting that the story ends with her deliberate decision to forget the address, not with anger or confrontation.