The Last Lesson

 The narrator is a young school going boy named Franz.

 This morning, he was scared as he was late for school. Also, as their teacher M. Hamel

had announced the previous day that he would test them on the topic of ‘Participles’

and Franz did not know anything about them at all.

 As Franz passes through the town hall on his way to school in a hurry, a blacksmith calls

him that there is no need to hurry. Franz thinks that he is teasing him.

 Out of breath, he arrives at school. There was no noise or confusion on his way to the

entrance which is the case mostly. Frightened and red faced, he enters the classroom;

instead of giving Franz a harsh scolding, M. Hamel gently directs Franz to his seat.

 M. Hamel spoke in grave and gentle tone. He told them an order had come from Berlin

that German would be taught in the school of Alsace and that the new master would

join the next day and that it was his last lesson.

 The narrator felt sorry for not learning. Before this announcement he wasn’t very

interested in learning but now he even started liking M. Hamel.

 M. Hamel showed his concerned that the people of Alsace generally gave no importance

to French. They ignored their own native language.

 He declared that the French language was the most beautiful language in the world. It

appeared as if he wanted to give them all he knew before going away.

 He stood up and tried to speak something but couldn’t then he turned to the blackboard

and wrote as large as he could on the blackboard: “Vive La France!” (Long live France!)

and made a gesture that the class is dismissed.