11th Std The Address
Short Answer Type Questions
1. How did Mrs Dorling react when the narrator said, I am Mrs S’s daughter”?
Answer:
Mrs Dorling held her hand on the door as if she wanted to prevent it opening any
further. Her face showed no sign of recognition. She kept staring at the narrator without uttering a word.
2. What two reasons did the narrator give to explain that she was mistaken?
Answer:
She thought that perhaps the woman was not Mrs Dorling. She had seen her only once, for a brief interval and that too many years ago. Secondly, it was probable that she had rung the wrong bell.
3. How did the narrator conclude that she was at the right address?
Answer: The woman was wearing the green knitted cardigan of the narrator’s mother. The wooden buttons were rather pale from washing. She saw that the narrator was looking at the cardigan. She half hid herself again behind the door. Her reaction convinced the narrator that she was at the right address.
4. What was the outcome of the conversation between Mrs Dorling and the narrator?
Answer: The conversation was flop as far as the narrator was concerned. Mrs Dorling refused to see her and talk to her in spite of the narrator’s repeated requests.
5. Who had given the narrator the address, when and under what circumstances?
Answer:
The narrator’s mother,Mrs.S had given her the address, years ago during the first half of
the war. The narrator came home for a few days and missed various things in the rooms. Then her mother told her about Mrs Dorling and gave her the address.
6. What did the narrator learn about Mrs Dorling from her mother?
Answer:
Mrs Dorling was an old acquaintance of the narrator’s mother. The latter had not seen her for several years. Then she suddenly turned up and renewed their contact.
Every time she left that place she took something with her—table silver, antique plates, etc.
7. What reason did Mrs Dorling give for taking away the precious belongings of the narrator’s mother?
Answer:
Mrs Dorling suggested to the narrator’s mother that she should store her belongings at a safer place. She wanted to save all her nice things. She explained that they would lose everything if they had to leave the place.
8. What impression do you form of the narrator’s mother on the basis of her conversation with (i) Mrs Dorling and (ii) the narrator?
Answer:
The narrator’s mother was a kind-hearted, generous and liberal lady. She was fond of collecting valuable things. She is more worried about the physical risk to Mrs Dorling than losing them to her. She thought it as an insult to tell her friends to keep those things for ever.
9. Did the narrator feel convinced about the views of her mother regarding Mrs Dorling? How do you know?
Answer:
The narrator did not feel convinced about her mother’s concern for Mrs Dorling.
The latter was keen on removing the precious possessions of the narrator’s mother to her own house. It seems that the narrator did not like Mrs Darling’s excessive interest in her mother’s belongings which is evident from the questions she puts to her mother.
10. What does the narrator remember about Mrs Dorling as she saw her for the first time?
Answer:
Mrs Dorling was not a woman of substance. She was least bothered when the narrator's mother was trying to introduce her to her daughter ,she simply waved and went off, showing her broad back. She wore a brown coat and a shapeless hat. She picked up a heavy suitcase lying under the coat rack and left their house.She lived at number 46, Marconi Street.
11. Why did the narrator wait a long time before going to the address number 46, Marconi Street?
Answer: Initially, after the liberation, she was not at all interested in her mother’s belongings lying stored there. She was also afraid of being confronted with certain things that had belonged to her mother, who was now no more.she also presumed she had to convince them and take them under confidence that she is Mrs. S's daughter who had returned from the war.
12. When did the narrator become curious about her mother’s possessions?
Answer:
The narrator became curious about her mother’s possessions as normalcy returned in the post-liberation period. She knew that those things must still be at the address her mother told her. She felt nostalgic, so wanted to see those possessions , touch them and remember her childhood.
13. “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?
Answer:
The narrator found herself in the midst of things she was familiar with and which she did want to see again. However, she found them in a strange atmosphere where everything was arranged in a tasteless and random way. They ugly furniture and the muggy smell created the feeling that she didn’t know the room and those things.
14. “I just looked at the still life over the tea table,” says the narrator in the story ‘ Address’. What does she mean by ‘the still life? What prompted her to make this remark?
Answer:
By ‘the still life’, the narrator means the things over the tea table such as the table-cloth, tea pot, cups and spoons. The reference to antique box and silver spoons prompted her to make that spontaneous remark.
15. How was the narrator able to recognise her own familiar woollen table-cloth?
Answer:
The narrator first stared at the woollen table-cloth. Then she followed the lines of the pattern. She remembered that somewhere there was a bum mark which had not been repaired. At last she found the bum mark on the table-cloth. This helped her to recognise her own familiar article.
16. “You only notice when something is missing.” What does the speaker exactly mean? What examples does she give?
Answer:
The speaker says that one gets used to touching one’s lovely things in the house. One hardly looks at them regularly any more. It is only when something is missing that it is noticed either because it is to be repaired or it has been lent to someone.
17. How did narrator come to know that the cutlery they ate off every day was silver?
Answer:
Once the narrator’s mother asked her if she would help her polish the silver. The
narrator asked her which silver she meant. Her mother was surprised at her ignorance and replied that it was the spoons, forks and knives, i.e. the cutlery they ate off everyday.
18. Why did the narrator suddenly decide to leave?
Answer:
The narrator had visited 46, Marconi Street for a specific purpose—to see her mother’s belongings and touch them. However, these objects seemed to have lost their charm and value in strange surroundings and on being severed from the life of former times.
Question 19:
How did the narrator reconcile herself to the loss of her mother’s precious belongings?
Answer:
The narrator felt that her mother had only lent them for safe custody and Mrs Dorling was not to keep everything. On seeing these objects, memories of her former life were aroused. She found no room for these precious belongings in her present life. So she reconciled to her fate.
20.What is the main message of the story the address?
Answer. The Address by Marga Minco revolves around the theme of crisis that we as an individual encounter in our daily life. War brings destruction, pain, and loss of lives which impact humans in various ways. However, this story speaks about the narrator and mother's life how they are disrupted due to war.
