KRISHNA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, DEVIPATTINAM.

English Grade 12 Program Project

Proposal
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Student and Faculty Agreements an d

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I am submitting one copy of the attached proposal to the English Graduate Department
for their consideration. I have read and understand the Policies and Procedures Description
for the Grade 12.

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 PROJECT TITLE:

STUDENT NAME:

DATE:

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR GRADE 12.

KRISHNA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL,

DEVIPATTINAM
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

Project Director: GOWRISHANKAR R Date:

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 Acknowledgement

First and foremost, I would like to thank our English Teacher (GOWRISHANKAR.,
M.A.,B.Ed.,MPHIL.,TEFL.,TESOL.,RBT.,) who guided us in doing these projects.
He provided us with invaluable advice and helped us in difficult periods. His
motivation and help contributed tremendously to the successful completion of the
project.

Besides, we would like to thank all the teachers who helped us by giving us advice
and providing the equipment which we needed.

Also I would like to thank my family and friends for their support. Without that
support we couldn’t have succeeded in completing this project.

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Theme of the Lesson

The importance of language and its connection with nationalism are the central
themes of the chapter “The Last Lesson.” The protagonist of the narrative is a little
kid, Franz, whose teacher, M Hamel is compelled to flee his native town in France’s
Alsace region because German settlers are annexing it and making German its official
language. Now the mother tongue, French will not longer be taught in the schools of
Frech districts of Alsace and Lorraine. Even though it is obvious that his students
won’t be able to speak French in the future, the narrator’s French teacher, Monsieur
Hamel, is determined to give them one more lesson in the language. The teacher
emphasizes that language is an integral element of one’s identity and culture and that
its suppression constitutes an act of oppression, as done by the enemy country. The
French villagers reaize that they have been overpowered by the enemy soldiers
because they did not value their country and their mother tongue.

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 Franz (The Narrator)Character Analysis

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.

Franz (The Narrator) Quotes in The Last Lesson

“For a moment I thought of running away and spending the day out of doors. It was
so warm, so bright! The birds were chirping at the edge of the woods; and in the
open field back of the sawmill the Prussian soldiers were drilling. It was all much
more tempting than the rule for participles, but I had strength to resist, and hurried
off to school.”

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 M. Hamel Character Analysis
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 Character Analysis

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.

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 Prussian Soldiers Character Analysis
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.

The Bulletin-Board Symbol Analysis

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. Indeed, on the day the story is set, a crowd is gathered around the board
reading a new notice. Only after arriving in school to M. Hamel’s shocking
announcement that this will be the last lesson in French does Franz realize that this
must have been the new regulation posted on the board by the Prussian authorities.
As such, the board symbolizes the despotism of the Prussian occupiers, who, day by
day, curtail the freedoms of the French villagers. The bulletin-board is contrasted
with the blackboard at the end of the story, an instrument of education that M.
Hamel and his pupils have access to, and which the teacher uses to inscribe and
affirm his and the villagers’ deep sense of patriotism and resistance.

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 The Bulletin-Board Symbol Analysis

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. Indeed, on the day the story is set, a crowd is gathered around the board
reading a new notice. Only after arriving in school to M. Hamel’s shocking
announcement that this will be the last lesson in French does Franz realize that this
must have been the new regulation posted on the board by the Prussian authorities.
As such, the board symbolizes the despotism of the Prussian occupiers, who, day by
day, curtail the freedoms of the French villagers. The bulletin-board is contrasted
with the blackboard at the end of the story, an instrument of education that M.
Hamel and his pupils have access to, and which the teacher uses to inscribe and
affirm his and the villagers’ deep sense of patriotism and resistance.

French Symbol Analysis

The French language is a symbol of French cultural identity. Franz’s teacher, M.

Hamel, lectures the gathered pupils and villagers—who have just received news that
Prussian occupiers have banned the teaching of French in the schools of Alsace-
Lorraine—on 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
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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 Symbol Analysis

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. The words the teacher
writes on the board are words that privilege freedom and autonomy. They are a direct
denial of the claims of the Prussian occupiers, who have invaded the French region
of Alsace-Lorraine, where the story is set, and staked it for their own. That the
teacher writes these words on the blackboard is significant, because this board recalls
and contrasts with the bulletin-board Franz sees at the beginning of the story. While
the bulletin-board represents the oppression of the Prussian occupiers, who post their
restrictive dictates there, the blackboard functions as a space of liberation, one where
M. Hamel—and the villagers—can assert their resistance and patriotism in the face
of foreign invasion.

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Brief Biography of Alphonse Daudet

Born to a silk manufacturer in Nîmes, France, Alphonse Daudet didn’t have the
smoothest of starts. When Daudet was seventeen, his father lost all of his money,
leaving Daudet without any easy educational or employment prospects. Daudet
moved to Paris, where he joined his elder brother, to pursue writing, and published
his first book of poems, Les Amoureuses, in 1858. During his early years in Paris, he
was recruited to act as undersecretary to the Duke de Morny, a powerful minister
under Napoleon III. When the Franco-Prussian war began in 1870, Daudet enlisted in
the army. He continued writing throughout this time, publishing books such as
Letters from My Mill (1869) and The Nabob (1877), as well plays, including The
Last Idol (1862). His novel Fromont the Younger and Risler the Elder (1874) won an
award from the French Academy, and as a result Daudet became an established
fixture in the Paris literary scene. He would not live long, however. The symptoms of
a venereal disease that he had picked up as a young man escalated with age, leading
to an affliction of the spinal cord. He died in 1897, at the age of 57.
Historical Context of The Last Lesson
Daudet came of age during the Second French Empire (1852-1870), headed by
Emperor Napoleon III (nephew to Napoleon I, ruler of the first empire). This was a
time of expansive economic and cultural growth in France, despite the authoritarian
rule under which the society lived, thanks to Napoleon III’s effective dictatorship.
But the prosperity of the Second Empire, as well as Napoleon’s own emperorship,
would come to an end with the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. Prussia, (then
consisting of Germany, Poland, and parts of Austria), a growing military power at the
time, had imperial ambitions to unify all of the independent German states of Europe.
This was resisted by France, which declared war on Prussia in July of 1870. The
Prussians, however, were better prepared and organized, quickly invading parts of
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northeastern France, including Alsace-Lorraine, where Daudet’s “Last Lesson” is set.
The French were decisively defeated in 1871, a loss that led to the end of the Second
Empire and the reign of Napoleon III. The war had a deep effect on Daudet, who
enlisted in the French army to fight the Prussians, and who went on to engage with
and depict aspects of the conflict in writings such as the “Last Lesson.”

Other Books Related to The Last Lesson

Daudet lived and wrote in Paris at a time when many of the literary luminaries of the
age—including Gustave Flaubert (Madame Bovary), Edmond de Goncourt, and
Émile Zola—also resided in the city. He was good friends with many of these writers
and a keen follower of Zola in particular—who coined the term “naturalist” for a
mode of writing that was related to, and evolved out of, the realism predominant in
the period. Daudet exemplified many of the tenets of this school of writing. Like
other naturalists, Daudet’s writing emphasizes an objective and realistic depiction of
society and the people who live within it. His works pay special attention to the
influence of environmental and social conditions on the development of the
individual. “The Last Lesson,” which explores the impact of education on a young
school child, is exemplary in this regard, tracing how a child’s village and school
environment has a lasting effect on his evolution. This emphasis on social milieu and
its impact on the individual mirrors that found in naturalist works such as Les
Rougon-Macquart, the cycle of twenty novels that Zola wrote between 1871-1893,
tracing the influence of environment and heredity on two branches of a family during
the Second French Empire (1852-1870).
Key Facts about The Last Lesson

 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

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  Setting: A small village in Alsace-Lorraine, France

 Climax: French will be banned in school!

 Antagonist: The Prussians

 Point of View: First person limited

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.
Summary of the Chapter

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.
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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.
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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.

How did Franz’s Feelings About M. Hamel and School change?

Franz usually never paid attention in class and was scolded by the teachers because
of it. But something about the last lesson by M. Hamel made him want to listen. He
paid attention to the class like never before and realised how easy the language
seemed to be. He was listening with so much intent, and M. Hamel was putting in an
equal effort because the narrator had never seen him explain anything with such
great patience.

This was followed by a writing activity, which was followed meticulously by every
single person, so much so that the only sound to be heard was the sound of pens
against the paper. Franz had never witnessed such a class in his entire time at school
and was moved by it.

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The narrator noticed the teacher looking at every object in the classroom with so
much focus, and he thought to himself that M.Hamel was memorising everything in
his tiny
Classroom, the gardens, all of it. After forty years of work, he thought about how
hard it would be to move out of a place and felt sad for the poor man.

The next lesson was in history, during which the former mayor was listening to the
class wearing glasses, moved so much that he was crying. The narrator found this
funny and thought of how memorable this last lesson turned out to be.

Finally, M.Hamel wanted to say something to the class after the clock had struck.
However, he choked on his words and wrote boldly on the board “Viva la France”.

Why did M Hamel write ‘Vive La France!‘ on the Blackboard?

He wrote it as a sign of opposition to imposing the teaching of German in the schools

of Alsace instead of French. It was a portrayal of his love for French and French
culture.

The people of Alsace did not give any importance to the language French from the
very beginning of the story, however, unlike others M.Hamel showed his concern.
People of Alsace ignored learning their own native language and paid no heed . It
was not the case only with Franz but many others were also guilty of not learning
French. According to the narrator, the French language was the most beautiful
language in the world and therefore, it should be respected and acknowledged by
everyone.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

I found a study guide that contains a bibliography of Alphonse Daudet’s “The Last
Lesson” on litcharts.com (The Last Lesson Study Guide | Literature Guide | LitCharts),
successcds.com (The Last Lesson Summary Class 12 English Explanation Notes
(successcds.net)) and CBSE text book. You can find more information about the author
and the book there.

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