Made By:-

Sehaj, Saubhagya,
Priyam and Gaurav
12-A1
 About The Author :-
ALPHONSE DAUDET
• Alphonse Daudet (13 May 1840 – 16 December 1897)
was a French novelist.

• Daudet was a monarchist and a fervent opponent of the

French Republic. Daudet was also anti-Jewish.

• Major works, and works in English translation:

1. Les Amoureuses (1858; poems, first published work).
2. The Last Lesson (Excerpt from Contes du Lundi)
3. Jack (1876; English)
SETTING
 Plot
1. One day. An order from Berlin stating to ban
French teaching and usage in Alsace and
Lorraine was put up on the bulletin board.

2. Franz is a school going boy who takes learning

his mother tongue(French) very lightly.

3. He gets surprised on reaching his school as it

seemed to be unlike usual days, which he refers
to seem like a quiet Sunday morning. There he
learns about the order and realizes his mistakes
that he had committed in the past.

4. Franz can do nothing now except to regret. Like Franz, there were many people
in that town who used take French lightly and now realised the value
of their mother tongue.

5. But ironically, the elimination of their source of unification stopped their

practice of procrastinaton.

6. Thus, the story ends with a hope of change until children like Franz do not
forget their mother tongue and its importance.
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(Procrastination)
 MAIN
CHARACTERS
 Franz
• Franz is the story's protagonist and narrator.
• He is a young student at a school in Alsace.
• Franz often skips school and doesn't prepare for
lessons.
• One day he learns that the French language will no
longer be taught in school after an order sent down
from Berlin to the occupying Prussian forces.
• Franz regrets that he didn't pay better attention to
his lessons when he had the chance.
 Monsieur Hamel
• M. Hamel is Franz’s teacher and schoolmaster.
• While Hamel usually intimidates his students with an iron
ruler that he slaps on their desks.
• M. Hamel is a very strict teacher by nature. He often
makes his students to do his household chores like
watering the plants , etc.
• But Hamel is gentle, somber, and reflective , i.e, opposite
of his usual behaviour ,on the last day of his French
lesson.
• At the end of the day, he writes "Vive la France!" on the
chalkboard before sending the students away.
 Analysis
The Last Lesson is an intensely poignant story
about what it means to speak a certain language
and how closely one’s language is linked to one’s
identity.

The story demonstrates how the linguistic

chauvinism of one race can lead to the
enslavement of another and what we as
individuals can do to overcome such a challenge.

Themes of war, identity, linguistic chauvinism,

uncertainty and displacement are replete in the
story.
Because the story is narrated from the
perspective of a little boy instead of an adult
figure, the story becomes all the powerful in
showing the magnitude of the damage that has
been done through neglecting one’s language.

This is because a child narrator like Franz

represents the future of France and the French
language.

However, everything hasn’t been lost just yet. As

long as the memory of the Last Lesson is fresh in
Franz’s mind, the language still has a future and
the great detail with which he remembers the
Last Lesson is a sign of hope.
THANK YOU !