InterviewSolution
This section includes InterviewSolutions, each offering curated multiple-choice questions to sharpen your knowledge and support exam preparation. Choose a topic below to get started.
| 1. |
In what respect was the second visit of the narrator to 46, Marconi Street different from the first one? Did she really succeed in her mission? Give a reason for your answer. |
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Answer» The second visit of the narrator to 46, Marconi Street, was different from the first one in one respect. During the first visit, the narrator could not get admittance in the house, whereas during the second one, she was led to the living room, where she could see and touch some of the things she had wanted so eagerly to see. She had visited this place with a specific purpose – to see her mother’s belongings. The touch and sight of familiar things aroused memory of her former life. These objects had now lost their real value for her since they were severed from their own lives and stored in strange circumstances. Thus her mission to see, touch and remember her mother’s belongings was partly successful. She resolved to forget these objects, and their past and move on. This is clear from her decision to forget the address. |
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| 2. |
How did the narrator come to know about Mrs Dorling and the address where she lived? |
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Answer» Years ago, during the first half of the war, the narrator went home for a few days to see her mother. After staying there a couple of days she noticed that something or other about the rooms had changed. She missed various things. Then her mother told her about Mrs Dorling. She was an old acquaintance of her mother. She had suddenly turned up after many years. Now she came regularly and’ took something home with her every time she came. She suggested that she could save her precious belongings by storing them at her place. Mother told her address, Number 46, Marconi Street. The narrator asked her mother if she had agreed with her that she should keep everything. Her mother did not like that. She thought it would be an insult to*”do so. She was worried about the risk Mrs Dorling faced carrying a full suitcase or bag. |
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| 3. |
What impression do you form of the narrator? |
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Answer» The narrator leaves a very favourable impression on us about her emotional and intellectual qualities. We find her an intelligent but devoted daughter. She loves and respects her mother, but does not approve of her soft behaviour towards her acquaintance, Mrs Dorling. She puts a pointed question, which her mother thinks impolite. The narrator has a keen power of observation. She notices during her brief stay at home that various things are missing from the rooms. She has a sharp power of judgment. She once sizes up Mrs Dorling. Her persistent efforts to remind Mrs Dorling of her own identity and the latter’s relations with her mother reveal her indomitable spirit. She visits 46, Marconi Street twice to see, touch and remember her mother’s belongings. She is a realist, who doesn’t like to remain tagged to the past. Her resolution to forget, the address and move on shows her grit and forward-looking nature. She has a progressive personality. |
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| 4. |
“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? |
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Answer» ‘That’ here stands for the address. The words: number 46, Marconi Street, i.e., the address recur throughout the story. The address is important for the narrator at the beginning of the story. However, at the end of the story, she resolves to forget it as she wants to break off with the past and move on with the present into the future. |
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| 5. |
Comment on the significance of the title of the story ‘The Address’. |
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Answer» The title of the story The Address’ is quite apt. It is the spring wheel of the action. In fact the whole action centres round it. The title is quite suggestive and occurs at the beginning, middle and end of the story. Marga Minco focuses the reader’s attention on it by the narrator’s doubt whether she was mistaken and her self assurance that she had reached the correct address. The middle part of the story reveals how she came to know the address. It was her mother who informed her about the place where Mrs Dorling lived and asked her to remember it. The story ends dramatically with the narrator’s resolve to forget the address. The wheel comes full circle. She had remembered the address for so many years and now since the belongings of her mother stored there have lost their usefulness she finds that forgetting this address would be quite easy. |
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| 6. |
Give a brief account of the narrator’s first visit to 46, Marconi Street. What impression do you form of Mrs Dorling from it? |
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Answer» In the post-war period, when things returned to normal, the narrator became curious about her mother’s possessions that were stored at Mrs Dor ling’s house. Since she wanted to see them, she took the train and went to 46, Marconi Street. Mrs Dorling opened the door a chink. The narrator came closer, stood on the step and asked her if she still knew her. Mrs Dorling told her that she didn’t know her. The narrator told her that she was the daughter of Mrs S. Mrs Dorling kept staring at her in silence and gave no sign of recognition. She held her hand on the door as if she wanted to prevent it opening any further. The narrator recognised the green knitted cardigan of her mother that Mrs Dorling was wearing. Mrs Dorling noticed it and half hid herself behind the door. The narrator again asked if she knew her mother. Mrs Dorling asked with surprise if she had come back. She declined to see the narrator or help her. |
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