57 pages • 1 hour read
Fiona DavisThe Address
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Resilience of Women
Content Warning: The section discusses suicidal ideation, alcohol and substance use disorders, pregnancy loss, abuse, and involuntary hospitalization.
The experiences of most of the text’s female characters highlight how resilient women must become in a world controlled by men. Before the text’s beginning, the earl, who Sara’s mother worked for, took advantage of her, and she lost her job and quality of life as a result. As the narration describes,
Perhaps she lived a different life in her imagination, one where his lordship made her his countess after getting her with child, instead of the reality, where she toiled day in and day out until her shaking made even holding a teacup untenable (15).
The fact that the text never gives Sara’s mother a name is symbolic of the universality of her experience: Her exploitation by a man is not unique but, rather, all too common in the text. Her namelessness is also a symbol of her dispensability to her community and how universal her experience of female perseverance is.
Both Sara and Bailey are also subject to the decisions made by men in their lives, compelled to contend with—and overcome—their consequences. Railroaded by Mr. Douglas, who suggests that her womanhood makes her easily tempted and naturally dishonest and lies about her returning to England to avoid scandal, Sara is unjustly incarcerated. She endures physical and mental abuse in the psychiatric hospital, even helping other inmates survive the horrific conditions. Despite his knowledge of her pregnancy, Theodore—who claims to love her—allows her to remain in the psychiatric hospital to protect his reputation. Sara perseveres, retaining her humanity despite unspeakable losses, and befriends Nellie, who ultimately engineers her release. Further, after Minnie kills Theodore, Sara takes the blame for the crime to protect Christopher. She tells Minnie, “It’s better that Christopher is raised by you. I wouldn’t have been able to give him everything you have. Such a chance at a grand life” (349). Thus, Sara develops resilience to protect her son.
Jack’s and Christopher’s choices to maintain a grudge against the Camdens taint Bailey’s life so much that, after Peggy’s death, it is too easy for her to turn to drugs and alcohol to numb her pain. Neither man attempts to learn the truth of the Camden family’s past, leaving Bailey to feel disconnected from Jack due to his emotional withholding and unmoored by her lack of connection to anyone else. As the text explains, “The hunger of discovering the truth about her birthright gnawed at her, in a way that put her other addictions to shame” (270). Thus, she must uncover the truth herself, having just completed rehab for alcohol use disorder, while trying to maintain her fragile sobriety. Her success in both is a testament to her resilience.
In the end, even the fact that the DNA tests can be run only on the male line represents the erasure of women’s identities and lives, a lack of control they must cope with by depending on men, who may or may not comply. Male social dominance, whether in the 1880s or the 1980s, means that women must become resourceful and resilient, even compromising their integrity or giving up their freedoms.
The Inescapability of the Past
Try as they might to avoid reminders of a painful past, the novel’s female characters learn that they must face their histories to function successfully in the present. Sara must return to Blackwell’s Island and speak to Daisy to learn the facts behind her own experiences so she can make informed decisions; Bailey must face the pain of her upbringing, including learning the reason for her grandfather’s grudge against the Camdens—which heavily influenced her life—so she can maintain her sobriety and achieve a sense of peace and belonging.
Sara realizes that she will only be able to face her future if she returns to the most painful period of her past; she cannot avoid it or she will never “close out that chapter in her life for once and for all” (332). Bizarre dreams and intrusive thoughts assault her for weeks after she begins to question Theodore, and returning to Blackwell’s Island is “the only way of reclaiming her own past” and removing the power it has over her by learning the truth (332). In doing so, she learns that Theodore knew of her pregnancy, knew she’d been sent to the psychiatric hospital, and knew she gave birth to their son; then he proceeded to lie to her about Christopher once she was released. Had Sara not learned the truth, she would have been plagued with nagging questions about Theodore’s honesty, Daisy’s conviction, and even Christopher’s origins. She would not have escaped the sad facts of her past; they would have plagued her until she faced them.
Likewise, Bailey must grapple with her own and her family’s past to maintain her sobriety and embrace opportunities for her future. Jack tried to keep their family past at a distance, and it stunted him and Bailey emotionally. She tells him, “I learned all about dry drunks in rehab. They’re withholding, negative, defensive. That’s you. So don’t think that you’re any better than me or Granddad. Or that you’ve escaped the past” (302). She realizes that the hard truths of the past must be faced, or they will impact the present in unhealthy ways. When her mother died, Bailey became an addict while attempting to blunt her pain, and to overcome her use disorder, she must deal with the pain of this loss, or she will continue to relapse. As she tells Renzo, “[T]here’s only so much running [one] can do” because the effects of the past are inescapable (198). She learns that Minnie Camden wanted to set up an annuity for Christopher once he was 21, but she died before she could establish it. Realizing that Christopher was considered a member of the family, she realizes her grandfather’s pain was unnecessary. This means her father’s pain was too and that “poisonous” emotional inheritance—Jack’s attempt to protect himself and his family—was for nothing.
Both Sara’s and Bailey’s experiences highlight the fact that the past will affect the present whether one faces it or not. Only facing it head-on can provide any relief from the pain one feels, because total avoidance is impossible.
The Fragile Nature of Trust and Betrayal
Many of the novel’s characters learn that they cannot safely put their trust in anyone and that even those who seem to be trustworthy are capable of betrayal.
Theo, Mr. Douglas, Daisy, and even Minnie betray Sara’s trust, though the women deceive for different reasons than the men; Theo and Mr. Douglas deceive to protect themselves while Daisy and Minnie deceive to protect others. Sara trusts Theo when he tells her he loves her, but if he did, he wouldn’t let her be hospitalized for a crime she didn’t commit. He allows this to happen because he wants to avoid any scandal associated with her pregnancy. While being questioned by the judge, Sara thinks, “Perhaps she’d misjudged Mr. Douglas. Indeed, he laid a hand on her shoulder, like a father might” (182), but even this trust is betrayed by her realization that the psychiatric hospital is as bad as any jail, perhaps worse. Sara trusts Daisy, too, and Daisy betrays her trust as well, telling Theo about Sara’s pregnancy and allowing Sara to take the blame—at least initially—for the theft of the emerald necklace. However, Daisy deceives Sara not out of malice but in an attempt to keep her shattered family together, after Daisy’s father abandoned her mother. Thus, Sara realizes that “[m]en betrayed, women endured” (337).
Daisy tries to “endure” the position she’s put in by her mother, who was trying to endure her circumstances. Likewise, Minnie suspects that Christopher is Sara’s son, but she keeps it from Sara because she fears for Lula and Luther’s safety. Theo is violent with Luther and leaves Lula alone in a room with an open window. Minnie endures a marriage that makes her physically sick for her children. Further, Bailey learns that she cannot trust Melinda, despite her “cousin’s” constant claims that she sees Bailey as family. Melinda turns on Bailey when she becomes a threat to Melinda’s inheritance and even becomes hostile, calling Bailey a “bitch” when Jack’s DNA matches Theodore’s. Bailey’s trust in Melinda is betrayed when Melinda shows her true priorities.
Dakota resident, Kenneth Worley, also experiences a betrayal of trust, contextualizing it within a wider pattern. He suggests that the wealthy often “us[e] their assets to control their loved ones” (227), and he was eventually betrayed by his partner’s accusations of theft. His “half shrug” indicates his acceptance of this reality and acknowledges how commonplace it is. He speaks of the Dakota’s illusion, how it appears “gilded” in beauty and apparent virtue. However, its gilded façade hides the manipulations and schemes of the entitled people within, those who fail to recognize the humanity of others, especially those in the lower classes. Theo’s theft of the Rutherfords’ knife is a prime example. No one would suspect Theo, a man with lots of money and social standing, to steal, and he easily shifts the blame to a servant when Sara mentions the theft. Thus, Theo seems trustworthy but betrays the trust others place in him time and again, like so many other characters in the novel.
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By Fiona Davis
