The Last Lesson- Alphonse Daudet- Analysis

The Last Lesson

By- Alphonso Daudet

About the Author	Alphonse Daudet was a French novelist and short-story writer. Formerly, a schoolteacher, he quit it to make a living as a journalist in Paris. He took to writing, his poems collected into a volume called “Les Amoureuses”.
Key Facts:	Full Title: The Last Lesson When Written: 1873 Where Written: Paris When Published: 1873, in the collection of stories Monday Tales Literary Period: 19th century, Naturalism Genre: Short story Setting: A small village in Alsace-Lorraine, France Climax: French will be banned in school! Antagonist: The Prussians Point of View: First person limited
Plot:	1890, the year Prussia conquered two states of France – Alsace and Lorraine. A boy from Alsace is on his way to school. He is unwilling to school and scared of his teacher, Mr. Hamel. The boy’s name is Franz. Very lazy and very illiterate. While passing the Town Hall, Franz sees so many French citizens overcrowded in front of the bulletin board. They are reading the latest order from the Prussians, their enemies. The order said, “No French school will hereafter teach French. All French teachers are hereby ordered to leave the country. Students should attend their schools and learn German as their language. Teachers are already appointed.” Franz is illiterate so he cannot read the order. After halting for a while, Franz runs off to his school. In the school Franz is told of the new order and of his teacher’s leaving the school. Although never interested in learning, Franz for the first time felt like blaming himself. He listened to Mr. Hamel’s last lecture. Wonder! He understood every word, every grammar, every rule. The last class transformed him life and aptitude. He saw how important it is to be literate, how essential it is to love one’s mother tongue and how painful it is to be denied the right to learn one’s mother tongue!
Theme 1: Culture and Language	The story emphasizes the deep link that exists between language and cultural identity, suggesting that language is not only a marker of unique cultural heritage, it also constitutes its very essence.
Theme 2: Patriotism and Resistance	Through the character of M. Hamel, the reader is presented with a figure of resistance who fights his subjugation not by deploying arms, but by deploying patriotic pride. In this way, the story suggests the importance of affirming one’s national identity in the face of foreign oppression.
Theme 3: Education and Knowledge	Franz, the little schoolboy who narrates Daudet’s “Last Lesson,” is a rather negligent pupil. He doesn’t keep up with his lessons, he doesn’t like his teacher, M. Hamel, and he’d prefer to be out roaming the woods of his native region of Alsace-Lorraine, France, rather than in the classroom. Yet the lesson he attends on the day the story is set changes his view of school forever. Franz learns the true value of his education when he realizes that school teaches him more than just proper grammar; it teaches him how to be a committed French citizen.
Characters: Franze M. Hamel Old Hauser Prussian Soldiers Watcher	Franze: The narrator of the story, Franz is a young school boy in the French region of Alsace-Lorraine in the nineteenth century. Franz is a dawdler when it comes to schoolwork, preferring to spend time in the woods or by the local river over going to class. He doesn’t like learning his French grammar lessons and, when the story begins, is terrified that his negligence will be found out by his teacher, the stern M. Hamel. Franz comes to a new appreciation of his education, however, when Prussian authorities who have occupied his home region announce that school will no longer be taught in French, but in German. Upon hearing this news, Franz feels a great sense of remorse and regrets not taking his French education more seriously while he still had the chance. M. Hamel: The school master of a small village school in the French region of Alsace-Lorraine. M. Hamel is stern and intimidating to his pupils, among them the narrator of the story, Franz. He has been teaching at the school for forty years. In his classroom, he carries a ruler which he raps against his table threateningly. On the day the story is set, he is dressed in his best finery: a green coat, a shirt with frills, and a silk cap—clothes reserved for special occasions. Despite his frightening demeanor, M. Hamel also has a gentler side, revealed on the day that he announces to those gathered in his classroom that Prussian authorities have banned the teaching of French in the schools of Alsace-Lorraine. On this day of the last lesson, M. Hamel not only reveals his empathy and kindness, but also his dignity and patriotism, lecturing the gathered crowd on the importance of protecting their language and culture in the face of foreign occupation. Old Hauser: One of the elder villagers who gathers with the children in M. Hamel’s classroom to hear the last lesson. He brings his old primer, an elementary reading textbook, with him to the class, and uses it to help the youngest students read their letters. Like the other villagers and school children, including the story’s narrator Franz, Hauser is devastated at news that the Prussian authorities who have occupied the French region of Alsace-Lorraine, where the village is located, have forbidden the teaching of French in schools. He cries as he helps the young children read and makes everyone else in the classroom want to cry and laugh at once. Prussian Soldiers: Forces of the occupying Prussian power, which has invaded the French region of Alsace-Lorraine and claimed it for Prussia (then consisting of Germany, Poland, and parts of Austria). Franz passes the soldiers doing their drills as he hurries to school on the morning of the last lesson. The end of the lesson is also marked by the trumpet call of the soldiers returning from their exercises. Watcher (a minor character): A blacksmith in a village in the French region of Alsace-Lorraine. As he hurries to school, the narrator, Franz, passes Wachter standing in front of the town hall bulletin-board. Wachter tells him not to go so fast, and Franz thinks the blacksmith is making fun of him.
Symbols: The Bulletin Board The Classroom French The Blackboard	The Bulletin Board: The bulletin-board that hangs outside the town hall represents the oppression of the Prussian occupiers who have invaded the region of Alsace-Lorraine, where the village that is home to the narrator, Franz, is located. Franz tells the reader that over the two years of Prussian occupation, all of the village’s bad news had come from the board. The foreign occupiers communicate their repressive edicts and commands there. The Classroom: The classroom in which the narrator, Franz, gathers with other pupils and villagers to hear M. Hamel’s last lesson represents the power of education. It is there that the blackboard is located; and the blackboard itself, of course, is a symbol of resistance via education, as reflected in the subversive message that M. Hamel inscribes on it at the end of the story, “Vive La France!” French: The French language is a symbol of French cultural identity. Franz’s teacher, M. Hamel, lectures the gathered pupils and villagerson the beauty of the French language, telling them that it is the clearest and most logical in the world. As M. Hamel himself argues, the French language is the key to French identity—so long as the villagers hold onto their language, then they can also hold onto their identity, and thus to their freedom, even in the face of foreign occupation. As such, the language is not only an embodiment of the villagers’ French identity, it is also the key to their liberation. The Blackboard: The blackboard on which M. Hamel writes the words “Vive la France!” (“Long live France!”) at the end of the last lesson represents the power of patriotism and resistance. That the blackboard is located within the classroom itself alludes to the relationship between education and resistance. The blackboard represents resistance through education, and reflects the story’s broader emphasis on language and communication as tools of both liberation and oppression.
Questions	Why was Franz late for school that day? What did Watcher mean by saying Franz would get to his school in plenty of time? Describe the atmosphere of the school on usual days. How did the classroom look different that last day? Whose presence was extraordinary? Why was that class to be the Last Class? How had Franz’ books become ‘old friends for him? Franz related the extraordinary changes in the classroom to the ban on French that had been published on the bulletin board. How? What did M. Hamel mean by, ‘And now you see where we’ve come out!’ What changes had happened in and outside the classroom during the forty years of M. Hamel’s service? How do they speak of his incompetence? How does M. Hamel blame the parents of his students? How is a nation’s language important for its citizens beyond the mere use for communication? The dead reaction to the beetles that flew into the classroom clearly said the children’s resentment to the ban on French. Explain. Why did M. Hamel say that people should safeguard their language among themselves? Why did Franz wonder if the Prussians would make even the pigeons coo in German? How did old Hauser make a comic melodrama out of his presence in the class? How far is a language important for a nation’s freedom? “What would I not have given to be able to say that dreadful rule for participle all through, very loud and clear, and without one mistake?” What did Franz mean by this? “Now those fellows out there will have the right to say to you…” What will the fellows rightly say to the French men? OR  What was the justification of the Prussians for imposing German on the Alsace population? How does the author present a nation’s love for its lost freedom? How was the last class a new lesson for Franz?