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The Last Lesson

This summary provides the key details about the story "The Last Lesson" in 3 sentences: The story is narrated by a French boy named Franz who dislikes his French teacher, M. Hamel. He is shocked to learn that it is M. Hamel's last day teaching, as Germany has ordered that only German can now be taught in French schools. The story depicts the sadness of both the teacher and students in saying goodbye to the French language and their mother tongue being taken away.

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Kheerthna G
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216 views2 pages

The Last Lesson

This summary provides the key details about the story "The Last Lesson" in 3 sentences: The story is narrated by a French boy named Franz who dislikes his French teacher, M. Hamel. He is shocked to learn that it is M. Hamel's last day teaching, as Germany has ordered that only German can now be taught in French schools. The story depicts the sadness of both the teacher and students in saying goodbye to the French language and their mother tongue being taken away.

Uploaded by

Kheerthna G
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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THE LAST LESSON

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Alphonse Daudet, (born May 13, 1840, Nîmes, France—died Dec. 16, 1897,
Paris), French short-story writer and novelist. Daudet wrote his first novel at age
14. Unable to finish his schooling after his parents lost all their money, he took
a position in a duke’s household. He later joined the army but fled the terrors of
the Paris Commune of 1871. His health was long undermined by poverty and by
the venereal disease that eventually cost him his life. He is remembered for his
humorous, sentimental portrayals of the life and characters of southern France,
inspired by his experiences at several social levels. His many works include the
story collection Monday Tales (1873), the play L’Arlésienne (1872), the
novels The Nabob (1877) and Sappho (1884), and several volumes of memoirs.
His son, Léon Daudet (1867–1942), edited with Charles Maurras the reactionary
review L’Action Française and was a virulent satirist and polemicist on the
subjects of medicine and psychology as well as public affairs.

SUMMARY
The story is narrated by a French boy, Franz. He is lazy but sensitive and likes
to play. He dislikes studying French and hates his teacher M. Hamel.

After overpowering their districts of Alsace and Lorraine in France, Berlin has
ordered that German language instead of French be taught in the schools there.

It is the last day of their French teacher M. Hamel, who has been there for forty
years. He is full of grief, nostalgia and patriotism. As a mark of respect to his
hard work, the village men also attend his ‘last lesson’. They are sad as they did
not learn their mother tongue, French in their childhood.

Franz is shocked to know that it’s his last lesson, as he does not know French.
Now, suddenly, he gets interested in learning it and understands everything
taught on that day!
He develops an instant liking for the teacher, M. Hamel and respects him for his
sincerity and hard work.
He feels sad at departing from him and is ashamed for not being able to recite
the lesson of participles.
M. Hamel tells them that they all are at fault for not being eager enough to
learn, putting it off to the next day. He blames himself for not teaching them
sincerely.
His patriotism is reflected in his praise for the French language as being the
most beautiful and most logical language in the world. He tells the class to
guard their language as being close to one’s language is the key to escape from
the prison of slavery. It will help them in getting free from the Germans.

They realize the importance of learning their mother tongue and that they have
been defeated by the Germans because of their illiteracy.
Franz feels that it is not possible to take away one’s language from a person as it
is natural to each being, may it be the “coo” to the pigeons or “French” to the
Frenchmen.

MESSAGE
 The story depicts the pathos of the whole situation about how people feel
when they don’t learn their own language. It tells us about the
significance of one’s language in one’s life for the very existence of a
race and how important it is to safeguard it.
 We should not postpone our work for tomorrow obvious to the fact that
life is subject to change.
THEME
‘The Last Lesson’ revolves around the language and its importance to the
citizens of a country. It is the duty of every citizen to safeguard the language of
the country as it is the identity of that country. The lesson depicts how after
defeating France in the war, the Prussians wanted to rule over not only the
territory of France but also over the minds and hearts of the people. The story
reinforces the fact that we value something more when it is lost. The pain and
anguish of the students and the teacher is evident as everyone realizes how
things were taken for granted. The lesson emphasizes the importance of the
mother tongue for everyone and the need to realize the fact that it is our
language which gives us our identity, respect and freedom.

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