The Address Summary - by Marga Minco

The Address

Summary

The Narrator comes to see Mrs. Dorling

The story begins with the narrator coming back to her country after the war to see a woman named Mrs. Dorling. The narrator tells the lady that she is the daughter of "Mrs. S" and she has come to take her mother's belongings.

Mrs. Darling reaction to seeing the narrator

The lady is suprised to see the narrator and hides herself behind the door denying knowing anybody by the name of Mrs. S. The narrator, for a moment, believes that she has come to a wrong address but when she notices the lady wearing her mother's cardigan she becomes sure that she has come to the right place .

The narrator Past

The lady closes the door on the narrator. The narrator leaves to go back to the railway station or train station. On her way back, she remembers her past. In the past when the narrator had come home she had found some things missing. On asking, her mother had told her that Mrs. Dorling, an acquaintance of hers, was kind enough to take their valuable things with her. She would keep them safely in her house so that during the war if they had to leave the country, their valuables would be safely kept with her. The narrator got a glimpse of Mrs. Dorling's house. This time a little girl, Mrs. Dorling's daughter opens the door and invites the narrator in. As the narrator moves she informs that her mother has not burnt table cloths, the pewter plates and even silver cutlery was theirs.

Disgusted to see her mother belongings

The narrator feels disgusted to see her things being used and arranged in a tasteless and callous manner. She realizes that those things were important to her as they were associated with her mother and her past life. Now, disconnected from them and being used so callously those things had no value for her. She leaves without meeting Mrs, Dorling or talking her mother's belongings and consoles herself thinking that she now lives in a small rented apartment and has no place to keep the things.

Decide to go back

She decides to go back and forget the address. She had let go of and forgotten many sorrowful things in the past. She feels that compares to that this will be the easiest thing to forget.