Address Unknown

Max is the first person introduced to the audience. He writes from his art gallery in San Francisco, speaking warmly to his friend Martin, who has just left for Germany. One of Max’s key characteristics is his ability to empathize. He relates to his friend’s failure to integrate into American culture, even though this has caused him troubles in arranging their joint business venture. He sympathizes with the potential affair carried out between Martin and his sister, Griselle, and promises to keep this a secret. The only people with whom Max does not seem to sympathize are the older, wealthy people who visit the art gallery. He lacks Martin’s “fine touch in selling,” but he is increasingly able to abandon his scruples and sell bad art to rich people (5). This pains Max a little, suggesting that he is never completely able to violate his tightly held moral code without feeling guilt.

Max’s empathy is challenged over the course of his exchange with Martin. He is desperate to learn from Martin about what is really happening in Germany. After hearing rumors, he asks Martin to tell him about Hitler. Max knows when to recognize the dangers of antisemitism; as a Jewish man, the world has never allowed him to forget that it is prone to “centuries of repetition” (12), in which violence against Jewish people never truly goes away. Even as Max notes Martin’s increasing turn to fascism, he never truly wants to abandon his friend. He sends secret messages, pleading with Martin to change his mind. Nothing he does works, however, and Max is forced to give up his friendship with a man who has been consumed by fascist hatred.

Max is characterized as devoted to his family. He does not stop writing to Martin, in spite of Martin’s antisemitism, because he fears for his sister’s life. The same affair that he agreed to keep secret is one that he hopes will stir some kind of lingering sympathy in his former friend. He writes to Martin “in despair,” asking, pleading, and begging Martin to help Griselle in some way. Max does not want anything for himself; he only wants his sister to be safe. However, Martin betrays him one final time. He writes to Max, describing in uncaring detail how he completely abandoned Griselle and left her to be executed.

This letter triggers a turning point in Max’s behavior. In the remaining letters, the sincere and sympathetic Max is gone. Instead, a false version of Max writes nonsensical letters to Martin, which suggest that Martin is part of a Jewish family and that a secret code may be employed in the letters. Max even changes his name, signing off as Eisenstein, a name he previously mentioned would be “impossible” to use in Nazi Germany due to its Jewish associations. This name is part of Max’s revenge, as well as symbolic of how he has adopted a persona. As Eisenstein, Max has no sympathy. He punishes his former friend by weaponizing the same antisemitism that Martin has embraced. He is successful in plotting Martin’s execution and punishing him.

One of the novella’s key tragedies is that Martin’s betrayal destroys Max’s goodness. It forces him to operate along the same paranoid, hateful rules as the Nazi society that has corrupted Martin.

Of all the secondary characters in Address Unknown, Griselle receives the most characterization. She is not shown directly, but through the letters. While the other people in Martin’s life are mentioned only in passing (because he lacks enough empathy to care for others), Max describes Griselle in loving terms and from a place of fraternal concern. She is an actress who accepts a role in Berlin and refuses to back out of the production, even as Germany is engulfed in a wave of antisemitism.

Max’s letters paint Griselle as proud and unapologetic. She refuses to hide her identity and bow to the Nazi authorities, even though doing so places her in danger. Max knows this. Even as his relationship with Martin deteriorates, he takes it upon himself to communicate with him about Griselle. She “does not realize what a risk she is taking” (17), Max claims, asking Martin to look out for her.

Max’s letters to Martin become increasingly desperate. He is basing his hopes that Martin may help Griselle on the brief romantic affair between the pair alluded to in the early letters. By this time, however, any lingering affection Martin felt toward Griselle has vanished. His response to Max indicates his coldness: Griselle is dead, and he failed to help her in any way. Martin turned her away from his door, calling her “a fool” in his letter to her mourning brother.

Through Griselle, the narrative shows how far the friends have grown apart and how darkly tragic their relationship has become. Max and Martin are foils, or characters that illuminate one another’s traits through contrasting qualities: Max feels love and affection for Griselle; Martin lacks emotion. This depicts their divergence. Anything that once resembled a friendship is completely gone.