The Last Lesson Interpretation
Interpretation. «The last lesson»
I would like to start my interpretation with a few words about the author.
Alphonse Daudet (13 May 1840 – 16 December 1897) french short-story writer and novelist. Daudet wrote his first novel at age 14. Unable to finish his schooling after his parents lost all their money, he took a position in a duke's household. He later joined the army but fled the terrors of the Paris Commune of 1871. His many works include the story collection Monday Tales (1873), the play L'Arlsienne (1872), the novels The Nabob (1877) and Sappho (1884), and several volumes of memoirs.
The story was written in the days of the Franco-Prussian war in which France was defeated by Prussia. The French districts of Alsace-Lorraine have passed into Prussian hands. The main characters are M. Hamel is the teacher of French and a boy, Franz. Little Franz is the narrator of the story. One day he was late for school and he didn’t want to be there. But finally he decided to go to school. On his way to school, Franz passes through the town square. He saw the crowd has gathered round the bulletin board. He did not stop there. On arriving at school, he noted an unusual silence, the last benches were occupied by the village elders, M. Hamel was dressed nicely. The teacher made a announcement that this would be their last lesson in French. The new teacher comes tomorrow. Franz decided to pay attention to the lesson since school had become very important for him. M. Hamel in his last address told about the importance of French. He dismisses the class and asks his students to go.
The story ‘The Last Lesson’ highlights the human tendency that there is plenty of time to do things; hence, 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 school. They preferred their children to work on the farms and
I would like to start my interpretation with a few words about the author.
Alphonse Daudet (13 May 1840 – 16 December 1897) french short-story writer and novelist. Daudet wrote his first novel at age 14. Unable to finish his schooling after his parents lost all their money, he took a position in a duke's household. He later joined the army but fled the terrors of the Paris Commune of 1871. His many works include the story collection Monday Tales (1873), the play L'Arlsienne (1872), the novels The Nabob (1877) and Sappho (1884), and several volumes of memoirs.
The story was written in the days of the Franco-Prussian war in which France was defeated by Prussia. The French districts of Alsace-Lorraine have passed into Prussian hands. The main characters are M. Hamel is the teacher of French and a boy, Franz. Little Franz is the narrator of the story. One day he was late for school and he didn’t want to be there. But finally he decided to go to school. On his way to school, Franz passes through the town square. He saw the crowd has gathered round the bulletin board. He did not stop there. On arriving at school, he noted an unusual silence, the last benches were occupied by the village elders, M. Hamel was dressed nicely. The teacher made a announcement that this would be their last lesson in French. The new teacher comes tomorrow. Franz decided to pay attention to the lesson since school had become very important for him. M. Hamel in his last address told about the importance of French. He dismisses the class and asks his students to go.
The story ‘The Last Lesson’ highlights the human tendency that there is plenty of time to do things; hence, 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 school. They preferred their children to work on the farms and