NCERT Solutions For Class 11 English Core Chapter 8 The Address

In the story, ‘The Address’ illustrates the physical difficulties and emotional suffering of people who are affected by war.War not only causes death and destruction but also kills the feelings of love and empathy. In the story, the narrator's mother has to leave all her valuable things with an acquaintance, Mrs. Mrs. Dorling during the war. She moves away to a distant place with the narrator who is a young child then.  After some years the mother dies and the narrator comes to Mrs. Dorlingwho keeps her mother's valuable possessions. She refuses to recognise the narrator and does not even let her in. She seems to be an opportunist who has been using the valuable possessions of the narrator’s mother on the pretext of keeping them safe. The narrator goes back to her small rented house and after some time visits Mrs. Dorling’s house again. Since Mrs. Dorling is out her daughter ushers her into the house and she gets a chance to her mother’s possessions in a strange atmosphere. It hurts her to see them so and she feels that they have lost their importance as they have been separated from her mother.Thus, the story portrays the suffering of the people at different stages of war which makes the people desolate in physical, emotional and spiritual levels.

The narrator went to 46, Marconi Street to meet Mrs. Dorling as she remembered that her mother handed over all the valuable possessions to her before leaving her hometown during the war. Though there was no written agreement made, she assured that she would keep those things in her safe custody.

When the narrator introduced herself to Mrs. Dorling, she refused to recognise her. She didn’t want to receive the narrator and return the belongings of her dead mother to her. During her second visit, the narrator couldn’t meet Mrs. Dorling as she was not at home. When her daughter opened the door of the house for her she found how the belongings of her mother were kept in a strange manner. They had lost all their emotional value for the narrator.  Moreover, as the narrator lived in a small rented house she had no place to keep all those things. Because of all these reasons she wanted to forget that address.

The girl in the story had to undergo a lot of hardships during the pre-war and post-war times. We can assume that the girl is from a rich family as they have plenty of valuable things. During the pre-war time Mrs. Dorling renewed her contact and started visiting their house. She took away all their valuable possessions at the pretext of saving all their nice things if they had to leave the place. After the war was over, the girl was living all alone in a rented house with a few pieces of furniture. She wanted to ask for the things from Mrs. Dorling that she took from their house. Though she found that Mrs. Dorling was using those things,she lost interest in them,as she felt that they belonged to a connection that no longer existed.Finally, she returned to her rented house without claiming her family’s possessions from Mrs. Dorling.

Yes, the statement of the woman gives the clue about the story that the women knew the narrator and her mother. During The Word War II many Jews fled in fear to distant lands or neighbouring countries. Those who remained at their own places didn’t think that those who had left the country would not come back. Therefore, they started using the things left with them. The woman in the story also was using the things that the narrator’s mom entrusted to her. When the narrator came to see her, she was not ready to return the things she had taken. Because of this reason she refused to talk with the narrator.