INDEX

1) SUMMARY OF LAST LESSON……………………………. 3

2) ABOUT THE AUTHOR…………………………………….... 6

3) ANALYSIS OF CHARACTER……………………………… 8

4) TITLE JUSTIFICATION……………………………………... 12

5) MESSAGE…………………………………………………….. 13

6) THEME……………………………………………………….... 14

7) VALUES HIGHLIGHTED…………………………………..... 15

8) QUESTIONS………………………………………………….. 16

9) BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………... 19
 ACTION PLAN
To create this project report, I followed a sequence of learning and research
processes to come up with information to consolidate.

1) Understanding the Project: Read guidelines and identify objectives. Come up

with a basic idea of the outset of the Project.

2) Research and Brainstorming: Gather information and generate ideas. Surf the
internet to gather data related to the topic.

3) Project Outline and Planning: Create project structure and outline. Creating
the document, basic format etc.

4) Writing and Drafting: Write introduction, main body, and conclusion. Apply
the information collected in the Research and brainstorming phase in written
form.

5) Editing and Proofreading: Revise content and check for errors. Check for
grammatical and formatting errors in the document.

6) Finalizing and Formatting: Format the document and add visuals, images and
other finishing touches.

7) Review and Submission: Review, meet guidelines, confirm with the teacher
for submission of the project.
 Summary

The narrator was late for school in the morning. He was a little scared for
his French class as he never really cared about it and made efforts to
learn it. Therefore, he felt uneasy that the teacher might ask questions
regarding the same. He spent a little time contemplating whether he
should just call it a day and go on to enjoy the rest of his day. Since he
did not prepare anything, he wanted to skip school but still decided to
attend it. On the way to school, even the most trivial seemed so
interesting to him.

The narrator saw that there was a huge crowd in front of the bulletin
board in the town hall. That bulletin board was the harbinger of the bad
news for the last two years. All the information on lost wars and other
depressing news was put there. He just skipped past it as he did not feel
like listening to anything sad.
The narrator notices that the school was disturbingly silent as compared
to the general state of the school when it starts. Generally one could hear
the recitation of the lessons and hustle-bustle of students in the school.

In fact, he was pretty accustomed to hiding in the noise and reaching his
desk without getting noticed. But now he went in before everybody. He
was quite afraid of the French class and sitting there, before everyone
made him uncomfortable.

M. Hamel, who was strict with the narrator in the past, asked him to sit
down politely. Franz was confused as M. Hamel was in his special set of
informal clothes that he wore on only prize days and inspection days. It
was a pretty green dress, complete with a beautiful black embroidered
cap. The atmosphere was extremely sad and silent. The most astonishing
thing was that the village elders were also sitting on the backbenches of
the class. These benches were usually left empty.

M. Hamel quietly sat on his chair and spoke in a gentle and grave tone,
“My children, this is the last lesson I shall give you.” He informed
everyone that an order had been released from Berlin. German is the only
language that would be taught in the schools of Alsace and Lorraine.

His last lesson in the school and the German teacher will join the school
from the next day. This made the narrator sad, even though he never
really liked M. Hamel because all he could think of was his ruler and him
tapping the ruler aggressively on the tables and forcing students to do his
personal tasks for him, such as putting Franz to work by telling him to
tend to his garden. He started regretting all the times he wished he did
not have to learn French or just decided to slack off and carry on his
ordinary chores like collecting eggs or chasing birds.
He thinks of all the time he could have spent learning and reading his
mother tongue.

The narrator felt guilty and ashamed for not trying to learn his lessons in
French. He never liked his books. He had no interest in studies. He didn’t
like his Grammar and History books. But now he was fascinated by them.
He started to like M. Hamel. The thought that he will not teach him from
tomorrow made him forget about all his rulers.

The village elders, including the former mayor, Mr Hauser and the former
postman, also looked very sad about the class. They seemed to be very
interested and spent a good amount of time focusing on the lesson. It was
clear that they regretted their past actions and wished they had gained
more knowledge when they had the chance.

He forgot how crazy his teacher was. It was his turn to repeat the lesson.
He wanted to read out the lesson and explain the participles nice and
loud but he got confused and mixed up. Usually, this type of mistake
would have made M. Hamel angry but surprisingly this time he did not
even care to notice it.

This made M. Hamel think about how people usually just put off learning
to the next day or the days in the future but now that the last day has
come, there is not much that can be done. M. Hamel spoke about his
concern on how all the French people think of education and learning
their language as a secondary thing after earning money by working at a
mill, etc. He accuses himself of doing the same thing as well.

M.Hamel then changed the topic to talk about the French language itself.
It was the beauty of the language that took over him because his speech
was better than ever and brought everyone in the room to tears, including
the former Mayor and the elders. He spoke about the beauty and ease of
the language itself and continued to a lesson in Grammar.
 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alphonse Daudet was born in Nimes on May 13, 1840. He is considered one of
the most iconic names of French literature, and all his novels have their roots in
his life experiences, from which he would only at times break away for sudden
incursions into the realms of fantasy.

Following the sudden financial ruin of his father in 1857, the young,
impoverished Daudet was forced to seek work in a school at Alès, in the south of
France, where he spent six unhappy months, later described in his
semiautobiographical novel Le Petit Chose (“The Little Thing”). In his
unhappiness, he joined his equally poor brother in Paris and tried to support
himself by writing.
Daudet attended the local literary circles and started a long and troubled
relationship with a model, Marie Riau, described in his novel Sappho (1884),
which is regarded as the author’s most complete, human and beautiful story. In
1860, he met Frederic Mistral, who awakened in him the ardour and enthusiasm
for life in southern France, and a year later, his first literary productions landed
him a job, as a secretary, with the Duke of Moray.

When his health became undermined by poverty and venereal disease, he

travelled to Algeria to recover and wrote captain, le tour de lions (“captain, the
Killer of Lions”). Daudet returned to Paris in 1862, where his first play, La
Derriere Idol (“The Last Idol”), became a great success at the Odeon Theatre. His
social life continued to provide him with material that he used later in Le Nabob
(1877) (“The Nabob”).

In January 1867, Daudet married Julia Allard, a woman of letters, who

encouraged and helped him with his literary work. They had two sons, Léon and
Lucien, and a daughter, Edmo.

During the Franco-German War, Daudet fled from Paris. His novel Les
Adventures prodigiousness de Tartaric de Treason (1872) (“The Prodigious
Adventures of Tartaric de Treason”) was initially not well received, but its hero
was later widely celebrated as a humorous and adventurous caricature. His next
novel, Fremont jejune et Riser acne (1874) (“Fremont the Younger and Riser the
Elder”), won an award from the French Academy, and for a few years, Daudet
enjoyed prosperity and fame.

In his last years, Daudet suffered from an agonizing illness of the spinal cord,
which he painstakingly described in La Dolour (“In the Land of Pain”),
posthumously published in 1930.

He died suddenly in Paris on December 16, 1897.

 ANALYSIS OF CHARACTER

Franz

Franz is a carefree young boy who is more excited by the whistling of the
blackbirds and the drills of the Prussian army than his French lessons. When he is
late, Franz is concerned about the prospect of receiving a scolding and not the
class time he will miss. Indeed, he exacerbates his lateness by taking a longer
route to school and speaking to the people he passes along the way.

Although Franz initially seems to be a frivolous child guided by immature

desires, the schoolmaster’s shocking revelations reveal a deeper layer of Franz’s
character. Although the boy can be careless and lazy, these traits are merely
expressions of his boyishness. Indeed, Franz is a thoughtful child whose only
fault is presuming, like many who live in Alsace, that there will be more time to
learn. Throughout the story, Franz changes significantly. The impending German
occupation forces him to grow up prematurely, becoming as solemn and sober as
the older villagers who sit quietly at the back of the classroom. Circumstances
force him to mature rapidly, and readers watch as he evolves throughout the brief
final lesson. From a young boy who wishes only to play in the meadow, Franz
becomes a serious young man who understands the complex weight of the world
around him.
Franz is a carefree young boy who is more excited by the whistling of the
blackbirds and the drills of the Prussian army than his French lessons. When he is
late, Franz is concerned about the prospect of receiving a scolding and not the
class time he will miss. Indeed, he exacerbates his lateness by taking a longer
route to school and speaking to the people he passes along the way.

Although Franz initially seems to be a frivolous child guided by immature

desires, the schoolmaster’s shocking revelations reveal a deeper layer of Franz’s
character. Although the boy can be careless and lazy, these traits are merely
expressions of his boyishness. Indeed, Franz is a thoughtful child whose only
fault is presuming, like many who live in Alsace, that there will be more time to
learn. Throughout the story, Franz changes significantly. The impending German
occupation forces him to grow up prematurely, becoming as solemn and sober as
the older villagers who sit quietly at the back of the classroom. Circumstances
force him to mature rapidly, and readers watch as he evolves throughout the brief
final lesson. From a young boy who wishes only to play in the meadow, Franz
becomes a serious young man who understands the complex weight of the world
around him.

Monsieur Hamel

Franz’s schoolmaster, Monsieur Hamel, has taught French in the same room at
Franz’s school for forty years. A man of deep national pride, Monsieur Hamel
views his four-decade tenure as a French teacher as a service to the nation. He
has spent his life instructing the youth of Alsace in their language and culture,
tying them to their French heritage, and ensuring that they properly respect their
motherland. German occupation is a massive blow to him, as it is an affront to
his life’s work and all that he finds valuable. The loss of the land is nothing
compared to the loss of the language, a prospect that affects Monsieur Hamel
deeply.

In the final lesson, the once-stern Monsieur Hamel seems a changed man. He
does not lecture or scold as he usually does. Instead, he speaks with earnest
fervour, seeking to ensure that his pupils do not forget the roots he has so
carefully instilled in them. Readers see the care he has for his students and the
French language, which he calls "the most beautiful language in the world." By
the end of the story, Monsieur Hamel is so choked with emotion that he can't get
the words out to say goodbye. All he can do is write "Vive la France" on the
board.
The Blacksmith

Although the blacksmith appears only briefly, his ominous warning to Franz
foreshadows the tragedy ahead. As the blacksmith hangs the public notice
informing the villagers of their forthcoming occupation, he warns Franz that it is
not safe and suggests the boy hurry along to class. The blacksmith is a relatively
unimportant character, but his fearful tone suggests the anxious climate of the
town as it contrasts with Franz’s childish and carefree nature.

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 SOLDIER

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.
 Title Justification

The story ‘The Last Lesson’ highlights the human tendency that there is plenty of
time to do things; hence, the man keeps postponing the lessons of life, oblivious
to the fact that life is subject to change. The people of Alsace always thought
they had plenty of time to learn the lessons; therefore, they did not give much
importance to the school. They preferred their children to work on the farms and
mills instead of having them learn the lessons. Even Franz, the narrator, always
looked for opportunities to skip school and look for birds’ nests or go sliding on
the banks of the river Saar.
However, the unexpected happens and an order is received from Berlin regarding
the compulsory teaching of German in the schools of Alsace and Lorraine. It is
then that the people of Alsace realise that they would be deprived of what they
had not been valuing all this while. The story is aptly titled as it evokes the
consciousness in the reader not to put off things and do what one can do that day.
M. Hamel’s bold ‘Long live France’ on the blackboard becomes substantial
evidence of his sadness, patriotism and finality.
 MESSAGE

The ‘Last Lesson’ by Alphonse Daudet is mainly about the longing to learn the
mother tongue and love for it. It has a sense of patriotism.
In the ‘Last Lesson’ the Prussians rejected the freedom of the people of Lorraine
and Alsace to learn their own mother tongue and started forcing German onto
them. The colonizers took away the basic rights of the people. When the
students could not learn their own language, they sensed a feeling of being
restricted and being forced to not do something that they enjoy doing and find
their solace in. The practice of linguistic chauvinism is highlighted in this story
to draw our attention. It throws light upon the pride one owns in their mother
tongue and considering other languages not equally worthy.

People of Lorraine and Alsace were the victims of linguistic chauvinism. They
were forced to learn German. Franz, a school student who was always reluctant
in his French class and never took it seriously, saw how important it was to learn
his mother tongue. This quality of people displays that humans respect things
more when they see it going. Also, the parents preferred to see their children
working well rather than learning French.

In the later years they realised how much they missed learning French and felt
sorry about it. How Prussians drilled their land is shown by how unfairly they
were treated in their own motherland.
 THEME

The theme of the story ‘The Last Lesson’ is linguistic chauvinism of the proud
conquerors and the pain that is inflicted on the people of a territory by them by
taking away the right to study or speak their own language and thus make them
aliens in their own land of birth. The story has a sub-theme also. It highlights the
attitudes of the students and teachers to learning and teaching. Though the story
is located in a particular village of Alsace district of France which had passed
into Prussian hands it has a universal appeal. It highlights the efforts of the
victors to crush their victims— the vanquished people in all possible manner—
materially spiritually mentally and emotionally. Taking away mother tongue
from the people is the harshest punishment. The proper equation between student
and teacher his focused attention helpful and encouraging attitude and kind
treatment can encourage students to learn better.
 VALUES HIGHLIGHTED

The ‘Last Lesson’ by Alphonse Daudet is mainly about the longing to

learn the mother tongue and love for it. It has a sense of patriotism.

In the ‘Last Lesson’ the Prussians rejected the freedom of the people
of Lorraine and Alsace to learn their own mother tongue and started
forcing German onto them. The colonizers took away the basic rights of
the people. When the students could not learn their own language, they
sensed a feeling of being restricted and being forced to not do something
that they enjoy doing and find their solace in. The practice of linguistic
chauvinism is highlighted in this story to draw our attention. It throws light
upon the pride one owns in their mother tongue and considering other
languages not equally worthy.

People of Lorraine and Alsace were the victims of linguistic chauvinism.

They were forced to learn German. Franz, a school student who was
always reluctant in his French class and never took it seriously, saw how
important it was to learn his mother tongue. This quality of people
displays that humans respect things more when they see it going. Also,
the parents preferred to see their children working well rather than
learning French.
In the later years they realised how much they missed learning French
and felt sorry about it. How Prussians drilled their land is shown by how
unfairly they were treated in their own motherland.
1 . E l a b o r a t e t h e t h e m e o f L i n g u i s t i c C
h a u v i n i s m a n d Procrastination and importance of ime Man
agement

The theme of the story ‘The Last Lesson’ is linguistic chauvinism

of the proud conquerors and the pain that is inflicted on
t h e people of a territory by them by taking away the right to study or
speak their own language and thus make them aliens in their
ownl a n d o f b i r t h . L i n g u i s t i c c h a u v i n i s m i s a t e r m a p p l i e d
t o t h e concept of preference for one language over another. In the
caseo f t h i s s t o r y , t h e m a t i c e x p l o r a t i o n o f l i n g u i s t i c c
h a u v i n i s m references both the passion expressed by the
characters toward the loss of the French language being taught in
school as well
ast h e o p p r e s s i v e i n t r o d u c t i o n o f G e r m a n a s t h e n
ew oficiallanguage of the region in the wake
o f i t s a n n e x a t i o n a s a negotiation for a peaceful end to
the Franco-Prussian War. In the story when the young student
who is the narrator Franz wakes u p , t h e w o r s t t h i n g i n
t h e w o r l d t o h i m i s h a v i n g t o f a c e h i s teacher’s lesson
on participles that he neglected to study for. All he can think all
morning until he arrives at school is his anxiety over failing to
study and the trouble, he’s going to get in because o f i t . B y t h e
end of that very same day, the lesson no longer
matters because the French language is no longer going to be
subject taught in the school. Overnight, the requirement to learn to
French has disappeared, but ironically Franz’s desire to learn it has
exploded. This tells us the importance of Time management t h a t
is don’t put off learnings or doing things until tomorrow
because the opportunity may be taken from you by then.
Collect Data about countries where people have these tendencies

For over centuries outsiders have tried to invade the other countries & in doing
so they have found that the best way of manipulating native people's minds
against their own country is to take away their strongest weapon "“their mother
tongue. Be it the Germans imposing German language on the French after
Prussian war or Indians' Hindi language being chained in shackles by the British,
it has always been "language" bearing the bitter repercussions. In the 1960s,
when New Delhi tried to impose Hindi as the sole official language of the Indian
union, non-Hindi speaking areas vehemently opposed this. Anti-Hindi sentiment
was particularly strong in the Southern state of Tamilnadu,
Where Tamil is spoken. The most chauvinistic attitudes towards culture were
recorded across Eastern Europe with Romania (66percent), Bulgaria (69 percent)
and Russia (also 69 percent) onto. The highest score of any country across
Europe was actuallyrecorded in Greece where 89 percent of people agreed with
the statement. Papua New Guinea is the most linguistically diverse country in the
world, with approximately 840 languages used.
3. How do they give importance to their Mother tongue?

Mother tongue can often be referred to as your first language or native language.
It is the language that you most commonly speak. A person's mother tongue is of
great value and importance. It is the common factor which unites the
countrymen. M Hamel made the villagers realize the importance of the mother
tongue. He spoke about the beauty of their mother tongue – the French language.
According to M. Hamel, even if people are enslaved, their mother tongue can act
like a key to a prison. He believed that French was the most beautiful and logical
language in the world. Later in the story he expressed his dismay that the whole
population of Alsace was responsible for neglecting their mother tongue. He
called upon them to guard it among themselves andnever forget it. Their
language was the key to their unity and liberation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://www.vedantu.com/english/the-last-lesson-summary
https://www.google.com/search?
q=examples+of+linguistic+chauvinism+around+the+world&sourceid=chorme&i
e=UTF-8
https://www.scribd.com/document/582879204/English-Last-Lesson-HHW